From: Exodus 32:7-14
The Lord’s Ire
Moses’ Prayer for Israel
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
32:7-14. The Lord’s dialogue with Moses contains the doctrinal basis of salvation
history—Covenant, sin, mercy. Only the Lord knows just how serious this sin is:
by adoring the golden calf the people have taken the wrong road and have vitiated
the whole meaning of the Exodus; but most of all, they have rebelled against God
and turned their backs on him, breaking the Covenant (cf. Deut 9:7-14). God no
longer calls them “my people” (cf. Hos 2:8) but “your people” (Moses’) (v. 7). That
is, he shows him that they have acted like anyone else, guided by human leaders.
The punishment that the sin deserves is their destruction (v. 10), for this is a stiff-
necked nation (cf. 33:3; 34:9; Deut 9:13). The sin deserves death, as the first sin
did (Gen 3:19) and the sin which gave rise to the flood (cf. Gen 6:6-7). However,
mercy always prevails over the offense.
As Abraham did in another time on behalf of Sodom (Gen 18:22-23), Moses inter-
cedes with the Lord. But this time intercession proves successful, because Isra-
el is the people that God has made his own; he chose it, bringing it out of Egypt
in a mighty way; so, he cannot turn back now; in fact, he chose it ever since he
swore his oath to Abraham (cf. Gen 15:5; 22:16-17; 35:11-12). He established
the Covenant with Israel, as Moses reminds him when he refers to “thy people,
whom thou has brought forth out of the land of Egypt’ (v. 11). Thus, promise,
election and Covenant form the foundation which guarantees that God’s forgive-
ness will be forthcoming, even if they commit the gravest of sins.
God forgives his people (v. 14) not because they deserve to be forgiven, but out
of pure mercy and moved by Moses’ intercession. Thus God’s forgiveness and
the people’s conversion are, both of them, a divine initiative.
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: John 5:31-47
Christ Defends His Action (Continuation)
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
31-40. Because Jesus is Son of God, His own word is self-sufficient, it needs
no corroboration (cf. 8:18); but, as on other occasions, He accommodates Him-
self to human customs and to the mental outlook of His hearers: He anticipates
a possible objection from the Jews to the effect that it is not enough for a person
to testify in his own cause (cf. Deuteronomy 19:15) and He explains that what
He is saying is endorsed by four witnesses—John the Baptist, His own miracles,
the Father, and the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament.
John the Baptist bore witness that Jesus was the Son of God (1:34). Although
Jesus had no need to have recourse to any man’s testimony, not even that of a
great prophet, John’s testimony was given for the sake of the Jews, that they
might recognize the Messiah. Jesus can also point to another testimony, better
than that of the Baptist—the miracles He has worked, which are, for anyone who
examines them honestly, unmistakable signs of His divine power, which comes
from the Father; Jesus’ miracles, then, are a form of witness the Father bears
concerning His Son, whom He has sent into the world. The Father manifests the
divinity of Jesus on other occasions—at His Baptism (cf. 1:31-34); at the Transfi-
guration (cf. Matthew 17:1-8), and later, in the presence of the whole crowd (cf.
John 12:28-30).
Jesus speaks to another divine testimony—that of the Sacred Scriptures. These
speak of Him, but the Jews fail to grasp the Scriptures’ true meaning, because
they read them without letting themselves be enlightened by Him whom God has
sent and in whom all the prophecies are fulfilled: “The economy of the Old Testa-
ment was deliberately so orientated that it should prepare for and declare in pro-
phecy the coming of Christ, Redeemer of all men, and of the Messianic Kingdom
(cf. Luke 24:44; John 5:39, 1 Peter 1:10), and should indicate it by means of dif-
ferent types (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:11). [...] Christians should accept with venera-
tion these writings which give expression to a lively sense of God, which are a
storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound wisdom on human life, as
well as a wonderful treasury of prayers; in them, too, the mystery of our salvation
is present in a hidden way” (Vatican II, “Dei Verbum”, 15).
41-47. Jesus identifies three obstacles preventing His hearers from recognizing
that He is the Messiah and Son of God—their lack of love of God, their striving
after human glory and their prejudiced interpretation of sacred texts. His defense
of His own actions and of His relationship with the Father might lead His adver-
saries to think that He was looking for human glory. But the testimonies He has
adduced (the Baptist, the miracles, the Father and the Scriptures) show clearly
that it is not He who is seeking His glory, and that the Jews oppose Him not out
of love of God or in defense of God’s honor, but for unworthy reasons or because
of their merely human outlook.
The Old Testament, therefore, leads a person towards recognizing who Jesus
Christ is (cf. John 1:45; 2:17, 22; 5:39, 46; 12:16, 41); yet the Jews remain un-
believers because their attitude is wrong: they have reduced the Messianic pro-
mises in the sacred books to the level of mere nationalistic aspirations: this out-
look, which is in no way supernatural, closes their soul to Jesus’ words and ac-
tions and prevents them from seeing that the ancient prophecies are come true
in Him (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:14-16).
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.