Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10
Moses is on the mountain for forty days receiving the pattern of the Tabernacle. The people below see the delay and demand Aaron make gods to go before them. The calf is made. The feast is held. And God interrupts Moses's lesson with a report and a proposition: your people have corrupted themselves; they have made a calf and worshipped it; now leave me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I will make you into a great nation.
Moses refuses. He intercedes. Three arguments: the Egyptians will say God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, your reputation, LORD. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: your covenant, LORD. You swore to multiply them and give them the land, your oath, LORD. Moses appeals not to Israel's merit but to God's own character and commitments.
And the LORD relented, vayyinnachem YHWH. The nacham-word. The same verb used in Genesis 6:6 (it grieved/relented him that he had made man), in Jonah 3:10 (God relented of the disaster), in Jeremiah 18:7-10 (the potter who changes his plans when the clay changes). The relenting is genuinely responsive to Moses's intercession. If it were not, the intercession was meaningless, Moses's three arguments were theater, and the whole exchange was predetermined.
Thread 1 is in the intercession itself and in the relenting: the God who cannot stop reaching is reached by genuine human intercession and responds. Thread 4 is in the people's genuine failure: they genuinely made the calf, genuinely worshipped it, genuinely broke the covenant, and in Moses's genuine choice to intercede rather than accept the offer of personal greatness.
Moses intercedes and the LORD relents, vayyinnachem YHWH. One of the most theologically significant verbs in the OT; genuine human intercession produces genuine divine response, and the relenting is not theatrical.
וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת לְעַמּוֹ (vayyinnachem YHWH al ha-raah asher dibber laasoth le-ammo): and the LORD relented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people: vayyinnachem (Niphal of nacham, to be comforted, to relent, to change one's settled mind; the Niphal is the reflexive-passive: the relenting happens to God himself; Terence Fretheim: nācham is God's genuine responsiveness to genuine human acts within his sovereign knowledge of all outcomes); the relenting is real, not theatrical, otherwise Moses's intercession was performance and the whole event was scripted
threads t1 · t4 · see Genesis 6:6 · Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10