NOTES for Exo 32:1-35
Today we read that the person who stands before God and the person who stands in the world before other people are often two completely different people. Moses, contemplating God, is imbued with His majesty and His mercy. The people have proved unfaithful, but Moses is speaking with the One who is stronger than any sin, with the One who judges according to mercy rather than justice. And, addressing the merciful and holy God, Moses asks Him to spare the people. In this state of spirit, having obtained forgiveness for the idolatrous people, he descends and immediately changes. A brutal reprisal, the destruction of the tablets—this is how his anger expresses itself. The situation is familiar. How often we read with indignation about brutal reprisals by believers against unbelievers, against those who believe differently, or against those who express their faith differently. Before us are the actions of people unable to contain God's mercy within themselves. We are even ready to ask for mercy for sinners, but are not ready to forgive those whom, from our point of view, that mercy does not belong to.