The Greatness of Moses

Yet the greatness of Moses is also seen in his humiliation: he rejects the offer to become covenant father ([Exodus] 32:10) and "empties himself" to share the covenant curse (32:32). However, it is especially with respect to the intercession motif that one could say that Moses is so crucial that Israel's destiny hangs on his girdle. This does not suggest some "merits of Moses" idea but does try to take account of him as covenant mediator and as evidently the only Israelite still in covenant fellowship with God and unstained by the smear of apostasy.

--Dale Ralph Davis, "Rebellion, Presence, and Covenant: A Study in Exodus 32-34," Westminster Theological Journal 44:1 (Spring 1982), 73.