Exodus 32:17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”
So….Moses talks God out of destroying the rebellious Israelites, then pitches a temper tantrum because the Israelites are misbehaving? That confuses me. Moses knew exactly what they had been up to (v 7-8). He knew it before he counseled God to turn from His anger, so why does he react the way that he does?
Exodus 32:18 Moses replied: “It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.”
Commentary says that it is fitting that Moses breaks the stone tablets because the Israelites, by their behavior, have broken the covenant those tablets represent. It goes on to say that making the people drink the gold dust of the idol is fitting for many reasons, but I still struggle with the rationale of Moses’s anger.
Exodus 32:19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.
Precious Savior, I, too, have struggled with anger over the years. It’s an easy default reaction because I know how to handle anger much better than I know how to handle fear or doubt or grief. Is Moses’s reaction similar? He defaults to an emotion he understands? Is there more here? Help me to understand. Help me, Jesus. Amen.
Exodus 32:20 And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
Have a blessed day.