This week’s Torah portion is Ki Tissa, which covers Exodus 30:11–34:35. It is also the week Jews in Israel and abroad celebrate Purim. Purim is the joyous Jewish holiday that marks the survival of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire after a plot to annihilate them was thwarted by the bravery of Esther and the steadfastness of Mordecai. The portion presents a narrative pendulum that swings from Israel’s highest high—the giving of the ten commandments—to her lowest low—the casting of the golden calf.
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The Israelites had just seen the presence of God descend on the mountain in a display of fire and cloud. Struck with awe, they committed themselves to obey his commandments, but that resolve was short-lived. When Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days, the wait felt like an eternity to the people below. Alone in the wilderness and unsure whether their leader would ever come back, their fear led to bad choices.
Restless and afraid, they demanded a god they could see and touch. They defaulted to the visual language they had learned over generations in Egypt. The Egyptian god Apis was often depicted as a bull. By casting the golden calf, they were trying to force the God who rescued them into a shape they could understand and control.
In the absence of Moses, the people turned to Aaron. Aaron was passive and went along with the mob. Instead of standing firm, he facilitated the idolatry, even instructing the people to bring him their gold jewelry.
When God witnessed the apostasy, He told Moses that he was done with Israel. He raged, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, and of you I will make a great nation” (32:9–10). The image of a stiff-necked person comes from agriculture. It describes an ox that tenses its neck muscles so it cannot be guided by the reins. God is telling Moses that the Israelites are incapable of submitting to his authority.
Moses begged God to spare the stiff-necked people he led. He took the exact reason God gave for wanting to destroy the people—their stubbornness—and used it as the reason God must stay with them. Moses said, “Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance” (34:9).
Another way this verse can be translated is also “Because this is a stiff-necked people.” He is saying yes, their stubbornness may be a flaw, but it was also a trait of survival. Moses argued that a God of infinite mercy is the only one who can handle a nation this headstrong.
A Glimpse of Glory
The contrast in faith during this episode is staggering. The people’s faith was so fragile that they could not handle their leader being gone for a month. Moses’ faith was so robust that he was rewarded by seeing God’s very essence. God granted a unique, shielded encounter, hiding Moses in the cleft of a rock and covering him with his hand as he passed by. As the Lord passed before him, he proclaimed his own character —a moment known as the revelation of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (34:6).
This self-description is one of the few places in the Torah where God defines himself. Having just witnessed a “stiff-necked” people break the covenant, Moses received the assurance that God’s nature is “slow to anger” rather than fast to consume.
The glimpse of glory was so intense that it physically changed Moses, causing his face to radiate light when he finally descended with the second set of tablets. You may have seen Michelangelo’s statue depicting Moses at this moment. He portrayed Moses with horns on his head. The statue was based on a mistranslation of the Hebrew word for “radiating,” which is karan, with the Hebrew word for “horn” (keren).
From Sinai to Shushan
On the Jewish reading calendar, the portion in Exodus coincides with the celebration of Purim. In the Purim story, we see the “good side” of the stubbornness Moses described. Mordecai, a Jew living in Persia after the Babylonian exile, famously refused to bow the knee to Haman.
The text tells us that Haman was a descendant of the Amalekite king whom Israel was commanded to oppose in every generation. When Haman walked through the king’s gate, everyone bowed in reverence, either out of respect or fear. But Mordecai refused (Esther 3:2).
To the Persian officials, Mordecai’s behavior was baffling. They asked him day after day why he would risk his life and the safety of his people over a simple gesture. Mordecai’s response was simple: he was a Jew.
His stubbornness was a refusal to pivot his loyalty away from the one true God. At Sinai, the people’s “stiff necks” prevented them from bowing to God’s leadership. In Shushan, Mordecai’s “stiff neck” prevented him from bowing to an idol of human pride. He proved that the very trait that makes Israel difficult to lead also makes them impossible to defeat. When directed toward the Lord, this relentless loyalty becomes a shield that ensures the nation’s survival.
Bible Fiber connects the story of ancient Israel to modern Israel when it applies. I try never to force it, but sometimes, like this week, the parallel is a flash of the obvious.
On February 28, 2026, Israel and the United States struck Iran and wiped out the entire top brass of the leadership. This occurred during the very week Jews are celebrating Purim. Haman tried to wipe out all the Jewish people in the Persian Empire. Haman cared more about killing Jews than he did about anything else in his career. 2,500 years later, a new Iranian regime became strangely obsessed with the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.
In 2017, the Ayatollah installed a countdown clock in Tehran’s Palestine Square. It was a massive digital billboard that counted down the days until Israel’s predicted annihilation. Its timeline was rooted in a 2015 prophecy by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared that the “Zionist regime” would cease to exist by the year 2040. For nearly nine years, the clock loomed over the city, its countdown on display. However, during the opening attack of Operation Roaring Lion on February 28, 2026, the clock was destroyed.
Building His Own Gallow
If we were still adding to the canon, there would surely be a book and an extended holiday telling the story of this modern forty-year struggle. It would recount how a Persian dictator made the fatal decision to gather his entire top brass in their headquarters at the exact moment the United States had positioned a third of its naval and air assets toward Tehran. How does a leader make such a catastrophic failure of judgment? Like Haman, Khamenei’s pride and anti-Israel obsession lead him to a sudden end.
And how are the stiff-necked people of Israel faring? Their stubborn faith continues to ensure their survival. Even while stuck in bomb shelters and forbidden from large gatherings as Iran rained missiles over many Israeli cities, they stayed in costume. They are reading the story of Esther, spinning their graggers, and celebrating the elimination of the most recent tyrant set on their destruction.
May God receive all the glory, all the credit, and all the praise. We are blessed to see the divine hand so obviously at work in the world today. Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and our Messiah has remained in the heavens for two millennia, but we will not give up on our faith. We will not let go of the thread that connects us. We keep our eyes toward heaven and maintain a vigilant awareness of the things God delights in and the things he destroys.
God bless Israel and God bless America.
- The Paradox of the “Stiff-Necked” (Exodus 32:9–10; 34:9): A “stiff-necked” person is like an ox that tenses its muscles to resist being guided by reins. God initially uses this trait as a reason to destroy the nation, but Moses later uses it as the reason God must stay with them. How was stubbornness a bad thing during the golden calf incident and a trait of survival for a person like Mordecai?
- Fear and the Visual Language of Faith (Exodus 32:1–4): When Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days, the Israelites became restless and demanded a god they could see and touch. Why does a fragile faith often demand a physical image to worship during a season of waiting?
- The Revelation of Mercy (Exodus 34:6–7): Moses heard God define his own character through the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. God describes himself as slow to anger rather than fast to consume. How does this specific self-description by God provide the assurance Moses needed to the nation?