Moses' Paradigmatic Preaching Proportions

[Deut. 4:32-40] offers pastors a paradigm for preaching, not only in its content, but also in its proportion. In a text consisting of 163 words, Moses uses 109 to tell the story of Israel's historical experience of grace; he uses 26 to reflect theologically on those events; and then he concludes with 26 words of application. This paradigm contrasts with much contemporary evangelical preaching, which, in its drive to be practical, fails to develop the story of God's gracious redemption (or tells it in hurried and passionless tones) and consequently also fails to show the theological implications of that story. Instead we spend our time on pointed but trite and facile application.

--Daniel I. Block, Deuteronomy (NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 147.

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.

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.