One question concerning this verse is who did G-d find in the howling desert? I believe that the standard explanation is that the someone is the Jewish people that G-d found them in the desert. With this approach the singular pronoun in the verse is understood as referring to the plural, them, but did G-d find the people in the desert? G-d "found" the people in Egypt, which was not the desert, and then G-d took the people to the desert. Seemingly to answer this question, Rashi (on 32:10) argues that the finding is that G-d found that the people were loyal, faithful to Him by the Decalogue at Mount Sinai. This is difficult since the people were not so loyal at Mount Sinai as forty days after the Decalogue, they committed the sin of the golden calf (see Shemot 32:1-6 and Devarim 9:8).
Rashi himself seems bothered by this approach and towards the end of his comments on the verse, he quotes a second explanation from Targum Onkelos (also quoted by the Rashbam on 32:10), that based on Bemidbar 11:22 one can claim that the word find means that G-d provided the people with food. N. Leibowitz (1982a, p. 342) notes that this explanation is "rather strained linguistically" and she prefers Rashi's first explanation that the finding is by the Decalogue since this approach accords with the following verse, 32:11, which has a connection with the events at Mount Sinai, see our discussion on 32:11, “On the wings of eagles.”
Another problem with the idea that 32:10 is referring to the time of the giving of the Torah is that the implication of 32:10 is that prior to this finding by G-d, someone or some people was/ were on the verge of dying in the barren desert. Were the people on the verge of dying at Mount Sinai? G-d had already given them the mahn, Shemot chapter 16. Also, Devarim 9:21, seems to refer to some river/ creek by Mount Sinai when the people were there, which implies that the people were not in a barren desert at the time of the giving of the Torah.
These problems suggest that the reference to G-d finding someone in 32:10 is referring to a specific person who was in trouble in the desert, but who could be this person? One possibility could be Moshe when he ran away from Pharaoh, Shemot 2:15, but was Moshe on the verge of dying in the desert before he found the wells by Midyan? Maybe yes, but 32:10 also implies that this finding signaled the beginning of the people, and the Jewish people existed prior to Moshe.
Another possibility is that the verse is referring to Avraham that some time prior to G-d's call in Bereshit 12:1, he had got lost in the desert. Could this be the reference to Bereshit 20:13?
Another possibility is that the verse is referring to Yaakov, who was mentioned in the previous verse, 32:9, that maybe at some point when Yaakov was running away from Esav, he was on the verge of dying in a desert.
A fourth possibility is that the verse is referring to Terah, who was the progenitor of the Jewish people both on the male line (Avraham) and the female line (Rivka, Rahel and Leah, and maybe Sara). The verse would then be telling us that there was an incident when Terah was on the verge of dying in the desert and G-d saved him and then protected his descendants.
There is no explicit reference to such an incident in the Torah, but there are two hints that this might have happened. One, Bereshit 11:31 records that Terah, on his own, decided to go the land of Canaan/ Israel from Ur Kasdim (southern Iraq?) but he did not make it and ended up in Haran (Northern Syria). What is the significance of this verse? Why is it important that that he wanted to go to the land of Canaan/ Israel but did not make it? The Torah is giving him credit for his effort even though he did not make it, why? Our verse might suggest an answer. Maybe when he was trying to get to the land of Canaan/ Israel, he got lost and ended up in the Syrian Desert near death. At this point G-d found him and saved him, but after this experience he did not want to try again and he lived out the rest of his life in Haran. However, this moment was crucial since maybe this is when the Jewish people were founded in the sense that at that point, G-d decided to watch over Terah’s family and this is why Bereshit 11:31 recorded Terah’s effort to get to the land of Canaan/ Israel.
A second hint is that Bereshit 12:1 records that G-d told Avraham to "go to the land that I will show you." Why did G-d not say explicitly the land of Canaan? A possible answer is that since Avraham had travelled with Terah (Bereshit 11:31) when Terah had been saved by G-d, he knew which land G-d was referring to, but he also knew how dangerous was the trip that he could get lost again in the desert, so G-d had to tell him that I will show you the way in order that you will not get lost this time.
Alter, Robert, 2004, The five books of Moses: A translation and commentary, New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Leibowitz, Nehama (1905-1997), 1982a, Studies in Devarim, translated and adapted by Aryeh Newman, Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization.