Why Understanding Moses Is Essential to Understanding the New Testament

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:07 — 7.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Richard Agee discusses the events in Exodus 32, focusing on the people’s creation of a golden calf while Moses was delayed. He explains the symbolism of the calf as a representation of power and strength, and the significance of the Hebrew word “stiff neck” meaning obstinance. Agee delves into the breaking of the tablets by Moses and the subsequent punishment of the people. He also touches on the role of Aaron and the Levites, emphasizing their actions as prophetic. The conversation concludes with Moses’ plea to God to lead the people to the Promised Land and his request to see God’s glory.

---

Moses Delayed, People Disconnected

In this study of Exodus 32–33, the Hallel Fellowship congregation wrestles with what happened when the people of Israel thought Moses was gone for good. The text says that the people saw that Moses was “delayed” (Exodus 32:1). Richard points out that in Hebrew the sense is more like “disconnected.” The people do not just think Moses is running late; they feel cut off from him, abandoned in the wilderness.

For forty days and nights Moses is on the mountain with God (Exodus 24:18), but Israel does not know the timeline. From their perspective, the man who led them out of Egypt has vanished. They have to decide: will they wait in faith, or will they create something they can see and control?

They know that a great Power brought them out of Egypt with signs and wonders, but they have never seen that Power directly. So they do what people in the ancient Near East know how to do: they create an image that, to their minds, represents that unseen Power.

The image they choose is a calf, or young bull. In Egypt, the bull is a familiar symbol of deity and strength. Richard notes that the very first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, א (aleph), originally has the pictograph of an ox or bull, symbolizing “strength” and “power.” So the choice of a calf as their image is not random. They want something strong, something that says “power,” something visible to guide them when Moses appears to be absent (Exodus 32:1).

From a Messianic Jewish perspective, one recognizes in this episode a recurring human pattern: when God feels distant, people reach for something tangible—a leader, a symbol, a system—to take His place. Israel’s story here becomes a mirror.

Stiff-Necked Israel and the Refusal to Bow

God calls Israel a “stiff-necked” people (Exodus 32:9; 33:3, 5). Richard unpacks this phrase. In Hebrew the idea is קְשֵׁה־עֹרֶף (qesheh-ʻoref, “stiff-necked”), someone who refuses to bend the neck in submission. He connects it with obstinance: a stubborn refusal to listen, to submit, or to bow before a greater authority.

Stiff-necked does not describe physical pain; it describes spiritual posture. A stiff neck will not bow before God’s instruction, even when His voice is clear. Moses himself tells God, “We are a stiff-necked people,” admitting that Israel resists God’s authority rather than gladly yielding to it.

This becomes especially striking when one remembers the first words of the covenant. God has just spoken from the mountain with terrifying power (Exodus 20:1–19). The class notes that the people perceive God almost as a “terrorist” in modern terms—His presence overwhelms them so completely that their minds cannot wander and they cannot answer back. The first commandment He gives is:

“You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3, NASB 1995)

He immediately adds:

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:4, NASB 1995)

Yet within forty days (Exodus 32:8), Israel does exactly what He forbids: they make an אֱלֹהִים(Elohim, “god / mighty one”) of gold, a visible representation to “go before” them (Exodus 32:1–4). The stiff neck refuses to stay bowed under the unseen God’s word and demands a god that can be seen, handled, and managed.

The Calf, the Earrings, and the Meaning of Gold

The people bring their earrings to Aaron, who melts them down and fashions the calf (Exodus 32:2–4). Richard reminds the group that these earrings likely carried tribal markings or family significance, symbols of identity and belonging. Israel takes those marks and re-forms them into an image of a calf. Their identity, in a sense, gets reshaped around this new, unauthorized image of deity.

When Moses comes down, sees the idolatry, and shatters the tablets (Exodus 32:19), he does something startling: he grinds the calf into powder, scatters it on water, and makes the Israelites drink it (Exodus 32:20). Susan connects this with the Torah ritual when a woman suspected of adultery must drink water mixed with dust from the sanctuary (Numbers 5:17, 24). In both cases, there is covenant unfaithfulness and a testing through drinking.

Others in the group explore a deeper symbolism of gold. Richard emphasizes that God says, “All the gold is Mine” (cf. Haggai 2:8), and that gold belongs to God. Kathy notes that in the adultery test (Numbers 5:11–31), the dust from the sanctuary is involved; here, dust and gold combine. Richard builds on this: in Scripture, humanity comes from dust (Genesis 2:7), but God’s intention is to refine and transform His people like gold in the fire.

So gold can represent people—human lives that belong to God and must pass through purification. He associates this with the refining fire that does not merely consume but ultimately purifies, resulting in pure gold. The class hears the implication: the calf made of gold is not just metal shaped into an idol; it is God’s own “gold” (His people) misused and polluted.

When Moses grinds the calf and makes Israel drink it, it becomes a powerful picture. The people must take into themselves the consequences of their idolatry. They have polluted what belongs to God, and now what they have made becomes part of their own internal reality. Spiritually, they must come to terms with what they have done, and the “gold” must be purified again.

The Tablets, the Ark, and the Value of God’s Words

The group also pauses to visualize the tablets and the Ark. Exodus records that the tablets are written on both sides, engraved by the finger of God (Exodus 32:15–16). Richard questions the traditional curved-tablet imagery and imagines them as more rectangular, fitting upright inside a rectangular Ark, like every other measured item in the tabernacle—the tent, the outer court, the Ark itself.

Whatever their exact shape, the key point is that these tablets carry the direct writing of God. Yet in contemporary culture, Richard notes, many treat these commandments as if they have little or no value—insignificant even if “God wrote them.” He contrasts that attitude with the Torah’s insistence that these words define the covenant relationship.

Later, the Ark will also contain a bowl of manna and Aaron’s rod (Hebrews 9:4 alludes to this), but in this study the focus remains on what those stone tablets represent: God’s revealed will, physically entrusted to Israel. When Moses breaks them, it graphically symbolizes the breach in the covenant. The people have broken the first words almost immediately; the shattered tablets make visible what has already happened spiritually.

Aaron, Leadership Failure, & Prophetic Foreshadowing

Moses confronts Aaron, who was supposed to “retain” the people—keep them under control and in order—while Moses was on the mountain (Exodus 32:21–22). Instead, Aaron yields to their demands and participates in the making of the calf.

Richard recalls that God said to Moses, “I will make you Elohim (אֱלֹהִים, Elohim, “a god / a mighty one”) to Pharaoh, and Aaron your prophet” (cf. Exodus 7:1). Aaron, then, functions as a kind of נָבִיא (navi, “prophet”), the spokesperson. In the class discussion, this role becomes prophetic: Aaron prefigures a future, true Prophet who will fully represent God without compromise.

The group acknowledges Aaron’s failures—he lies, he yields, he does not restrain the people (Exodus 32:25). Yet from a Messianic Jewish viewpoint, these failings make the contrast with Yeshua all the sharper. Where Aaron caves to pressure, Yeshua stands firm, even taking a whip into the Temple to cleanse it (John 2:15). Richard notes that people could not successfully bring charges against Yeshua; they are afraid to touch Him. Aaron’s weakness and the people’s sin highlight the need for a greater, sinless High Priest and Prophet.

Jeff also observes a prophetic nuance in the New Testament: when Pilate says, “Behold, the Man!” (John 19:5, NASB 1995), it echoes the Torah phrase “the man” used of Moses. Richard connects this with the Hebrew word אִישׁ (ish, “man”), and points out that Pharaoh himself first calls Moses “the man” who wields great power. Moses becomes, in the people’s eyes, the one with power to destroy or deliver. This sets the stage for later Messianic reflection: Moses as the man of unparalleled authority in Torah, and Yeshua as the ultimate “Man” who fulfills and surpasses Moses.

The Levites, Violence, and Covenant Justice

When Moses calls out, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me!” the sons of Levi gather to him (Exodus 32:26). Moses then commands them to go through the camp and execute those who persist in rebellion; about three thousand men die that day (Exodus 32:27–28).

Susan recalls Jacob’s words over Simeon and Levi in Genesis 49:5, calling them “instruments of violence.” She notes that here, again, Levi becomes an instrument of severe action—this time, however, under Moses’s explicit authority and within God’s covenant context. Richard distinguishes between unauthorized violence (as in the incident with Dinah in Genesis 34) and authorized execution of justice. In the earlier story, Levi and Simeon act without their father’s consent; here, Levi acts under Moses, God’s appointed leader.

Ellie adds that the Levites will later become the teachers and priests of Israel, administering sacrifices and, in a sense, “leveling the playing field” through God-ordained justice and atonement. In Numbers, they are formally set apart for this service. Richard suggests that it appears no Levite participates in the making of the calf; instead, they stand with Moses and carry out discipline.

From a Messianic Jewish angle, this has both a sobering and a hopeful note. The sobering side is the cost of idolatry and covenant-breaking—lives are lost, blood is shed. The hopeful side is that God can take a tribe with a violent history and re-purpose its zeal into priestly service and instruction. God reshapes raw, dangerous energy into holy service in His presence.

Consecration, Repentance, and Moses the Intercessor

After the executions, Moses tells the people and the Levites to consecrate themselves to the LORD that day, so that He might bestow a blessing on them (Exodus 32:29). Consecration here includes setting themselves apart, dealing with the aftermath of judgment, and aligning again with God’s holiness.

The next day, Moses tells the people:

“You yourselves have committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the LORD, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” (Exodus 32:30, NASB 1995)

The class notices how Moses steps into an intercessory role. He ascends again to plead with God on behalf of Israel. He acknowledges the magnitude of their sin—they “have made for themselves a god of gold” (Exodus 32:31)—and then offers something astonishing:

“But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” (Exodus 32:32, NASB 1995)

From a Messianic Jewish perspective, this is one of the clearest Torah pictures of a righteous man willing to lay down his own eternal standing for the sake of his people. Moses effectively says, “Erase me if that will save them.” Richard emphasizes how extraordinary this is. Far from being an unrighteous or small man, Moses displays staggering love and covenant loyalty.

God, however, responds that He will blot out only the one who has sinned against Him (Exodus 32:33). Moses cannot serve as the final substitute in that way; nonetheless, his willingness becomes a powerful foreshadowing of the One who will, in fact, bear the sins of many (Isaiah 53:12).

God’s Presence, Bad News, and the Cry for Glory

In chapter 33, God announces that He will send an angel before Israel to bring them into the land, but that He Himself will not go up in their midst, lest He consume them on the way (Exodus 33:1–3). When the people hear this “bad news” (Hebrew: a “bad” word, not “evil”), they mourn and remove their ornaments (Exodus 33:4–6). Richard notes the irony: previously, they used ornaments to make an idol; now God commands them to strip those ornaments off as He decides what to do with them.

This is more than a change in travel arrangements. For Israel, the difference between an angel and God’s own presence is the difference between covenant intimacy and mere survival. From a Messianic perspective, one hears the foundational longing: not just for God’s blessings, but for God Himself.

Moses then pleads intensely. He reminds God that the nation is His people and that he himself has found grace in God’s sight (Exodus 33:12–13). He prays:

“If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.” (Exodus 33:15, NASB 1995)

Moses does not settle for success without presence. He presses further and asks for something even more radical:

“Please, show me Your glory” (Exodus 33:18).

Here the word is כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory, weight, honor”). Earlier in the class, Richard mentions that believers often carry a Christian concept of “glory” that can be vague or sentimental, but the Torah’s idea of kavod is weighty, substantial, and deeply tied to God’s character and name. He plans to unpack this more when the group reaches Exodus 34.

God answers that He will cause all His goodness to pass before Moses and proclaim the name of יְהוָה(YHWH, often vocalized “Yahweh”) before him, showing grace and compassion as He chooses (Exodus 33:19). Yet God also says:

“You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” (Exodus 33:20, NASB 1995)

Instead, God places Moses in a cleft of the rock, covers him with His hand, and then allows Moses to see His back—His “afterglow,” His passing-by glory (Exodus 33:21–23). Richard notes that Moses cannot even describe what he sees; there are no categories or language fully adequate for that moment.

From a Messianic Jewish standpoint, this encounter marks a high point of Torah revelation. God discloses His name, His character, and a measure of His kavod to Moses. Later, Moses will say that God will raise up a prophet like him, to whom Israel must listen (Deuteronomy 18:15). The class suggests Moses does not yet fully grasp the future Messianic fulfillment; he speaks what God gives him, and the fullness of that word unfolds across history.

Why Understanding Moses Matters

Richard closes by stressing why it is so important to take a close look at the man Moses. God spends more explicit time with Moses than with any other individual in the Torah. He shows Moses more, teaches him more, and entrusts him with more than anyone else. If one does not understand what happened with Moses—his calling, his intercession, his encounters with God’s presence and glory—it becomes very difficult to properly understand the New Testament.

From a Messianic Jewish perspective, the New Testament is not a replacement of Moses but the continuation and fulfillment of what began with him. The “song of Moses,” the covenant at Sinai, the golden calf, the Levites’ zeal, the broken and renewed tablets, and Moses’ willingness to be blotted out—all of these prepare the way to see Yeshua rightly.

This study of Exodus 32–33, then, does more than recount an ancient failure. It invites today’s readers to examine their own “golden calves,” their own stiff necks, and their own hunger for visible substitutes when God seems delayed. It also holds out a picture of a mediator who loves his people enough to stand in the breach, and a God who, even in judgment, moves toward mercy, presence, and revealed glory.

Speaker: Richard Agee