Key Verses: Exodus 32

Key Questions


1. What is more devastating—the loss of the land or the loss of God’s presence? How does this speak to what we truly value in our spiritual lives?
2. Why does Moses ask to see God’s glory—and why does God only reveal God’s “back”? What does this reveal about the limits of human understanding and God’s self-disclosure?
3. What does it say about God that God chooses to rewrite the covenant rather than cancel it? How do we experience “rewriting” moments in our relationship with God?
4. Why is God so emphatic about avoiding assimilation into Canaanite religious life? How do we balance openness and distinctiveness in our faith communities today?
5. Why does Moses’ face shine after meeting with God? How does Paul use this imagery in 2 Corinthians 3?

Theological Insights


“While the core of this incident starkly portrays human weakness and sin, our gaze must not rest solely on shame. Notice where God is in the story. How does he respond to the people and to His designated leader, Moses? Yahweh’s response should give hope to all whose recall all too clearly their personal golden calves.” Jon L. Dybdahl, Exodus (The Abundant Life Amplifier), 244.

“When Moses the tablets and presents himself before God, God passes before him and proclaims the name of Yahweh. As a virtual exegesis of this name, God proclaims a summary statement regarding the nature of this God with whom Moses and Israel now have to do on the far side of apostasy… [when Moses returns] What receives special attention is not Moses’ instruction of the people… but the shining appearance of his face (the verb can also be translated ‘horned,’ leading to many renderings of a horned Moses, e.g., Michelangelo; Chagall)… [this] shows that Moses is not simply a speaker of the word of God; in some sense he embodies that word. The people thus do not only hear that word being spoken, they see it standing before them… The embodiment of the word conveys that which is concrete, tangible, with distinct implications for the life of those who hear that word. The human response can never simply be to believe or speak; it must also mean to do, to reembody the word in the world… Moses’ shining face anticipates the filling of the tabernacle with the divine glory in 40:34-38, foreshadowing that glory in both its radiance and its veiledness.” Fretheim, Exodus, 301, 310-312.


“At the burning bush, seeking to know God’s name, Moses asked to know God’s nature or essence. He was no doubt motivated partly by a need to learn whether God’s powers were adequate to the mission He proposed for him, as well as by his anticipated need to inform the people Who it was Who had sent him to them. But Moses was, I believe, primarily motivated by an intellectual desire to learn the truth about the divine, knowledge sought for its own sake. Here, although Moses’s philosophical interest is clearly still present, he feels strongly his political responsibility for the Israelite people… He now wants to know not the Lord’s essence but His ways in the world… whether, and on what basis, He is capable of forgiveness.” Kass, Founding God’s Nation, 555.