Stiffnecked People, Forgiving God

We saw last week how the golden calf functioned as an unholy cow, as an anti-Tabernacle in Israel's life. We also saw that the negative implies the positive, that the teaching of anti-Christ can tell us some helpful things about the true Christ. Well, tonight we move from the base of the mountain to the top of the mountain. There we see God's response to Israel's rebellion. Let's just say that it's extremely negative. He wants to destroy Israel, He describes Israel in seven different negative ways, and He even offers Moses the chance to be a new Abraham, almost a second Adam who can refound the people of God (though not the whole human race). But Moses intercedes as mediator, and God relents from His stated purpose, suspending the punishment of cutting off Israel altogether, for the sake of His promises to the patriarchs. What we'll see in this text is that Israel's sin provoked God to want to destroy them, but Moses' intercession brought God to suspend His stated purpose and spare their lives.