John Calvin Commentary Exodus 32:9

"And Jehovah said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:" — Exodus 32:9 (ASV)

I have seen this people, and behold. This was, indeed, the sharpest and sorest trial of Moses' faith, when God seemed to contradict Himself and to depart from His covenant. If ever, after being long oppressed by excessive calamities, we are not only wearied by the delay but also agitated with various doubts, which eventually tempt us to despair, as if God had disappointed us with deceptive promises, the contest is severe and terrible. But when God seems at first sight to throw discredit upon His own words, we need unusual fortitude and firmness to sustain this assault.

For since faith is founded on the Word, when that Word appears to be at issue with itself, how in such conflicting circumstances could pious minds be sustained unless they were supported by the incomparable power of the Spirit? Yet in the mind of Abraham there was such strength of faith that he came forth as a conqueror from this kind of temptation. He had heard from God’s own mouth, In Isaac shall thy seed be called; he was afterwards commanded to slay him and reduce his body to ashes. Yet, because he was persuaded that God was able to raise him up seed even from the dead, he obeyed the command (Hebrews 11:17–19).

The same thing is recorded here of Moses, before whom God set a kind of contradiction in His Word when He declared that He intended to destroy the people to whom He had promised the land of Canaan. Nevertheless, we see how successfully Moses strove, since, trusting in the eternal and inviolable covenant of God, he did not cease to cherish a good hope.

If anyone should still ask whether it was right for him to despise or count for nothing what was said to him in the second place regarding the utter destruction of the people, I reply that the victory of his faith did not consist in subtle arguments. Rather, having embraced God’s covenant with both arms, as they say, he was so fortified by his confidence that he had no room for objections. In fact, pious minds that rest on firm assurance, although unable to free themselves from every perplexity that arises, still do not waver but keep a tight grasp on what the Spirit of God has once sealed to them. And if sometimes it happens that they begin to doubt or vacillate, nevertheless they come back to their foundation and break through every obstacle, so as never to desist from calling upon God.

Meanwhile, it is certain that while God was trying Moses' faith, He also quickened his mind to be more earnest in prayer, even as Moses himself was led in that direction by the secret influence of the Spirit.

Nor is there any reason for slanderous tongues to impugn God here, as if He pretended to men what He had not decreed within Himself. For it is no proof that He is variable or deceitful if, when speaking of men’s sins and pointing out what they deserve, He does not lay open His incomprehensible counsel. Here He presents Himself in the character of Judge: He pronounces sentence of condemnation against the criminals; He postpones their pardon to a fitting season. Hence we gather that His secret judgments are a great deep, while at the same time His will is declared to us in His word as far as suffices for our edification in faith and piety.

And this is more clearly expressed by the context, for He asks of Moses to let Him alone. Now, what does this mean? Is it not that, unless He should obtain a truce from a human being, He will not be able to execute His vengeance freely?—adopting, that is to say, by this mode of expression, the character of another, He declares His high estimation of His servant, to whose prayers He pays such deference as to say that they are a hindrance to Him. Thus it is said in Psalm 106:23, that Moses stood in the breach, to turn away the wrath of God. From this we plainly perceive the wonderful goodness of God, who not only hears the prayers of His people when they humbly call upon Him but allows them, in a manner, to be intercessors with Him.

He assigns as the reason He should be implacable, that He well knew the desperate and incurable wickedness of the people. For by stiff-necked, indomitable obstinacy is metaphorically expressed; and the analogy is taken from stubborn oxen that cannot be brought to submit to the yoke. Now, where such hardness and obstinacy exist, there is no room for pardon.

It is indeed an expression that must not be taken literally—that God had learned by experience that they were a stiff-necked people. For we know that God often assumes human feelings, because unless He should thus come down to us, our minds could never attain to His loftiness. In essence, the character of the people was desperate, since they had already manifested their inflexible perverseness by many proofs.

Yet, lest Moses grieve at the loss of his noble leadership, a compensation was promised him—a trial by which it appeared that he did not regard his own private interests or advantages.