Exodus 32:11-14 Changing God's Mind
Moses Changes God's Mind
Torah: Exodus 30:11-34:35
Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16 - 36:38 | Shabbat Parah
The section I am commenting on is Exodus 32:11-14 Starts 8 lines up from the break
ויחל משה את־פני יהוה אלהיו ויאמר למה יהוה יחרה אפך בעמך אשר הוצאת מארץ מצרים בכח גדול וביד חזקה
But Moses implored the LORD his God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand.
למה יאמרו מצרים לאמר ברעה הוציאם להרג אתם בהרים ולכלתם מעל פני האדמה שוב מחרון אפך והנחם על־הרעה לעמך
Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that He delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’ Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people.
זכר לאברהם ליצחק ולישראל עבדיך אשר נשבעת להם בך ותדבר אלהם ארבה את־זרעכם ככוכבי השמים וכל־הארץ הזאת אשר אמרתי אתן לזרעכם ונחלו לעלם
Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, how You swore to them by Your Self and said to them: I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.”
וינחם יהוה על־הרעה אשר דבר לעשות לעמו (פ)
And the LORD renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon His people.
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Comments:
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent; לנחם
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Numbers 23:19
The people are only 3 months from the parting of the Red Sea and the exodus from Egypt. They have heard God, and seen displays of power. Just days before this passage, Moses had just taken seventy elders up the mountain and it says the SAW GOD sitting on a pavement of sapphire. They pledged to follow God.
Moses is up the mountain receiving the law for 40 days when God tells him that “your people that you brought” have gone back on their promise and made a calf of gold, and have turned into idol worshippers. God says - I am going to wipe them out and start over.
A masterclass in changing the mind of God.
The three key points are that we should...
POUR OUT your heart FOR OTHERS - it says Moses grieved and to the point of being ill ויחל משה OUT OF LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE. Maybe this works best when we pray for others, not for ourselves. Which is why we need each other.
REMIND GOD OF HIS PROMISE
זכר נשבעת
He tells God- “REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE! Moses reviews the promise of god to Abraham Isaac and Jacob. To make them like the stars of heaven and give them the land. HOW DO YOU TELL GOD TO REMEMBER HIS PROMISES - you have to memorize and know them!
TELL GOD WHAT HE SHOULD DO.
Do make a whole maudlin expose and try to dramatize the situation and talk yourself AND Him out of answering.
שוב… You should turn back
ינחם - you should have compassion, and repent
God CHANGES His Mind, ינחם יהוה turns his purpose towards us.
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There is another key, one that would be easy to miss though it is SO OBVIOUS.
This scripture is about GOD’S PEOPLE, not just any of God’s people, His People ISREAL, the Jewish people AND about the LAND He promised them, ISRAEL. God’s promise is true because He was true to Israel about his promise to the Jewish people to give the Land of Israel to them and their descendants. No, that doesn’t make the politics of the modern Middle East any simpler. But it makes your faith simpler. God is either serious when He promises something forever or He isn’t. God is a Zionist. (God made me a Zionist, not my upbringing, not my being born Jewish). This is amplified in the Haftorah reading:
But you, O mountains of Israel, you will put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they will soon come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be cultivated and sown. I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities will be inhabited and the waste places will be rebuilt. I will multiply on you man and beast; and they will increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited as you were formerly and will treat you better than at the first. Thus you will know that I am the LORD. Yes, I will cause men—My people Israel—to walk on you and possess you, so that you will become their inheritance and never again bereave them of children.’ Ezekiel 36:8-12
Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Ezekiel 36:23-25
You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:28
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