Running from God by Going to God

On the contrary, this man [Moses] dares to remind God of His own promise, to appeal to His faithfulness, beseeching Him, but also very definitely remonstrating with Him: "Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou has brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against they people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven..." ([Exodus] 32:11f.). Is not this to flee from God to God, to appeal from God to God? And is it not the case that in this flight, this appeal of Moses, God finds Himself supremely and most profoundly understood and affirmed, that in a sense Moses has prayed, or rather demanded, from the very heart of God Himself? He hears and answers this prayer which is so defiant and dogmatic.

--Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, Volume 4: The Doctrine of Reconciliation, Part I (transl. by G.W. Bromiley; edited by G.W. Bromiley and T.F. Torrance; New York: T&T Clark, 2004), 425-426.