The following is Pastor Nate’s teaching transcription from Calvary Monterey’s 6/15/21 Tuesday Night Service. We apologize for any transcription inaccuracies.
Breaking the Covenant
Exodus 32:1, "When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, 'Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'" Now, the section that we're entering into here in chapter 32 actually extends all the way through to chapter 34. We're not going to cover all three chapters in one sitting, though that would be an appropriate exercise because they are a unit. And this unit is meant to communicate a message about the rebellion of the people, the mediation of Moses in interceding for the people, and God's restorative process in the people's lives, bringing them right back into the covenant. By the end of this whole episode, not just the chapter we're going to look at today, but by the end of chapter 34, the covenant is going to find full renewal before God and his people.
The Sin
1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
But what's happening of course is that Moses is up on the mountain top receiving the law from God. You might remember, and we'll allude to this later, that the people had asked Moses to be the one that interacts with God on their behalf, but they got tired of waiting for Moses. He was gone for 40 days. They lost their impatience, and so they approached Aaron with this fascinating and disappointing request. But again, Moses had been gone for 40 days. That's what it says there in verse one, "When they saw that Moses was delayed, they made these decisions." Now it is interesting, because on one hand they didn't do well without visible leadership. And you could almost make the application, you're tempted to make the application that well, Moses was gone, he was vacant. He wasn't a visible leader. He wasn't there speaking to them, constantly casting vision, being ... Check on maybe some of their sinful inclinations and Moses's lack of presence drove them to make these kinds of decisions.
But remember, the decision to be on the mountaintop for 40 days and 40 nights, that was not Moses' decision, it seems that it was God's decision. God is revealing himself to his men. God has called Moses up onto the mountain. So there is likely a very different leadership message that is communicated to God's leaders within God's covenant community, whether it's back then in the Israelite community, the people of Israel, or in our modern time, the church. And the message would simply be this, that when God calls his leaders up to the mountain or when God calls his leaders into intimate times of prayer and receiving from him, they need to do it. It sort of reminds me of the passage there in Acts chapter six, when they're in the early days of the church was a daily distribution. The church was only in Jerusalem at that point.
It not extended out beyond Jerusalem, but it had been growing numerically and people were giving lots of financial gifts to the church or to the leaders of the church. And there were those who were impoverished in the church and the church was taking care of, specifically the widows that were in the church. And the Hellenistic widows. So they were Jewish, but they were living a Greek kind of lifestyle. They felt that they were being neglected in the daily distribution because they were Hellenistic. And so they brought that complaint to the apostles. And the apostles said in Acts 6, they said, "It's not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables." And then they told them to find seven men full of the spirit and of good reputation to oversee the distribution. And then they said, "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."
And really in a sense, it's hard to say that Moses was doing anything other than that. He's definitely receiving, or in the ministry of the word he's receiving the literal Word of God, the law of God written on the tablets and also in the form of the ceremonial and civil law for the people of Israel. So he's receiving the word of God. And you could also say he's in prayer, he's interacting with God. He's speaking with God. So in a sense you could say Moses is doing the exact right thing for his role as the leader of God's people. And you kind of have to wonder, "Where were all the judges?, the other leaders that had been installed, who were supposed to kind of help with the daily operation there in Israel?" They sort of let their guard down here with this request that people brought to Aaron that he would make Gods for them. Gods who will, they said in verse one, "Go before us."
So there's Moses experienced in all this spiritual triumph on the mountain, but the people, here they're presented as plummeting to a new low at the base of the mountain. And it was kind of an anti-Moses word that these people spoke. They said, "As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." It was a very harsh word. And it was also a forgetful word if you really think about it, because Moses had not delivered them, it was God who had delivered them from their captivity. So let's see what Aaron said in verse two.
2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
So Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, 'These are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'"
Now, don't we wish that what it said was, so Aaron said to them, "There's no chance that I'm going to make you a God. Moses is up on the mountain communing with your God. He'll be back. You need to be patient. That's the God who delivered us." But instead of rebuking the people, Aaron gave in to the people. And this helps us see that sometimes even holy men, especially when they're operating alone and under pressure from the people. Sometimes they'll behave irrationally out of step with even their character at times because of the pressure that is being placed upon them.
It doesn't excuse them in any way. Aaron cannot be excused for this answer that he gives to the people or what he does for the people in fashioning this golden calf. But it helps us to understand a little bit here. Here he is alone, intense pressure from the people, just a real trying experience, and so he buckled under that pressure. I've known a lot of pastors even over the last year or so, as I teach this, who due to the pressures of the COVID pandemic and all of that, that they've gone through in their church, social upheaval, they've found themselves buckling and giving in to the pressures of people around them. So Aaron, he allowed the pressure from the people to dictate his actions and also his theology. But of course we know that that's always an error. It says in Proverbs 1:7 that, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge."
And in Proverbs 29:25 it says, "The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe." And here Aaron shifted his fear from the Lord to man. And I believe this is common in our day. Many of the theological changes that modern believers make for themselves as they deconstruct their faith. I think many of the changes that they make are rooted in a fear of man, rather than a fear of God. But not all of them, many of the decisions are also made with a personal desire for to affirm a certain kind of activity even for themselves. So they've got skin in the game as they're making these theological decisions. So it's very common in our day to see this kind of buckling though to the pressure. And so Aaron constructs with the gold from their earrings this, it says in verse four, "Golden calf."
It comes out, he fashions it. And they said, when they saw it, "These are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." Now, worshiping a golden calf or a calf shaped idle in that era among the people around Israel was very common. Likely this calf would have been engraved to look like a bull, which would have been a symbol of power or sexual strength or fertility. And this of course is a violation of the second commandment that God has given to Moses up on the mountaintop, "You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath." But the people, when they see this golden calf, they say, "These are your gods." Now this is just shocking. Their descent is so rapid.
And part of the feeling that we're supposed to have is just this jarred kind of feeling, because you're reading through in the book of Exodus, and Moses, he's up on the mountain top of God, he's communing with God. He's interacting with God. He's hearing all these commands from God. He's interacting with the holiness of God. He's learning about the priests and what the priests of God are to be like. And he's hearing about all the different instruments that they're going to build in the tabernacle and the people that God has set aside to help them construct the tabernacle. He's hearing all of these things yet down below, boom, we shift to a rebellious people who, before they even hear of these rich plans of God, these beautiful things from God, they're already rejecting them in a sense. It's almost like their actions are an attempt at undoing 31 chapters of God's grace.
Now it's possible if not probable that the golden calf was at first meant to be an outward expression of Yahweh or of God, the God of Israel himself. It's possible if not likely that in suggesting that Aaron make them gods, they were not asking for Gods to replace the God of Israel, to replace the God that Moses introduced them to, but that they were looking for a visible, tangible object that they could follow.
Now remember, of course Moses was their lone connection to this God at this point. And it was at their request, in Exodus 20:19 they said, "You speak to us. We will listen, but do not let God speak to us unless we die." But here they just get to this point where they can't wait. They lack faith. They're not going to wait any longer, and they jump out ahead of God and his plans. Now this of course reminds us of the importance of being patient, waiting on the Lord, waiting for his best. And that part of the reason that we have a hard time with waiting is that we often want something that we can see, but the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that, "We walk by faith and not by sight." So we have to be a people who learn how to trust the invisible God.
And even though Moses was up on the mountain top, and God was with Moses on that mountain top and these people could not see Moses and could not interact with God directly at that time, they should have waited upon the Lord. You see, in a sense, I mean, think about it like this. What have we been reading about in the previous chapters, well we have been reading about all these different pieces of furniture that are going to be in the tabernacle amongst the tabernacle itself and the priestly garments. And so many of them are gold. Now we're reading about this golden calf. It's like a cheap imitation of what God had provided if they just waited. They want something to represent the Lord and Moses builds his golden calf. They have this whole thing coming, this elaborate tabernacle, this priesthood, they had this beautiful thing that God was going to provide where his glory was actually there, right there present with them.
So in a sense it's kind of like a rebellion against God and his tabernacle system even in this point. So what would you rather have? A golden calf or the Ark of Covenant? Obviously the Ark is much better, the real thing, but their inpatients really cost them.
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
Now, when Aaron saw this, verse five, he built an altar before it. He built an altar before this golden calf and Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord." And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
Now it kind of reads as Aaron saying, "Hey, you've had your fun. We've, you've worshiped this golden calf. I built you this altar to it. And now tomorrow is going to be the time that we dedicate to God. Again, we're going to go back to our roots. We're going to worship the God of Israel." And in a sense what we might say is, "Hey, procrastination is lethal. God is not worthy of tomorrow. God is worthy of today." It says in Hebrews three, verse seven and nine, "Today, if you will hear his voice." And in 2 Corinthians 6:2, it says, "Today is the day of salvation. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the favorable time." So when is the time to seek the Lord? Not tomorrow, today. So in a sense there might be some of that in the passage.
But Aaron just kind of institutes this feast that they're going to celebrate tomorrow. And they do. "They rise up to play," it says in verse six, which usually has a sexual connotation attached to it, a sexual capacity when they use the phrase rose up to play. Because immorality often, if not usually, accompanies idolatry, we even see this in Romans chapter one, when idolatry invades the human heart, eventually sexual immorality follows. It's just the desire of humanity to express themselves sexually. And every culture has been trying to figure out ways to justify that action.
And so the people they eat and drink and they rise up to play. So it's like they're reversing everything that God was trying to do up there on the mountain. He had even not just told Moses about the tabernacle, but he told Moses about the feast and that they were going to partake up before the Lord. Every single year they had this beautiful thing that God was designing. They're reversing all of it. They're throwing their own fees. They have a golden calf.
God's Anger
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
"And so the Lord," verse seven said to Moses, "Go down for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt that have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, 'These are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.' And the Lord said to Moses, 'I've seen this people, and behold it is a stiff neck people. Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you.'"
Now, this is an ominous passage. The first hint that it's ominous is that God says to Moses, "Go down, for your people whom you brought up, have corrupted themselves." You know, up to this point God has been referring to the people of Israel as his people. When Moses approaches Pharaoh, it's over and over again, God says, "Let my people go that they may serve me." So God has been the possessor of the offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Here he distances himself, at least in his words to Moses, "They're you people, they're not my people anymore."
And what he proposes to Moses is that Moses stay out of the way, "So that God's wrath can burn hot," he says in verse 10, "against the people of Israel, bringing this judgment against them." This is not just a story of the people's rebellion against God. But it seems the way God took it was that this was something that they were rejecting, that God has been plotting and planning all the way since the days of Abraham. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Now Moses up there on the mountain top, all these beautiful plans. There should be his people, his nation, and now though they know they're supposed to come out to serve him, and though they know there's a land that they have been promised from him, they're shifting their allegiance to this golden calf. God is taking it as a rejection of his longstanding plan from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob on down the line into their current day. And God is not saying ,"I want to be done with that plan." In fact, he proposes to Moses, "Hey, I'll make a great nation out of you."
And in a sense it's almost like God is saying, "Hey, remember back in Genesis, chapter 12, when I looked over the face of the earth and I chose Abraham and I made promises to him, Moses, we could just do that now again. You're a descendant of Abraham, you're offspring of Abraham. So I'd still be keeping my word and I'll make a great nation out of you."
Now, at first glance when we read this, it might make us feel that God is unmerciful. This great sin, this big rejection of God and his longstanding plan occurs in Israel. They're pursuing a different God and basically saying, "The God that has made all the promises to our ancestors and the God who has brought these plagues and delivered us from Egypt, the God who brought us across the Red Sea and who's miraculously taken care of us in the wilderness so far. That God who is right now speaking to our leader up on the mountaintop for 40 days and 40 nights, probably really great things, can't wait to hear what they are, but that God who has all these plans for us, this word for us, these things he's doing for us, that God, we reject that God and we want to go a different route, a different way."
As God determines to bring judgment against them, we might feel that God is unmerciful towards them. But I think we also have to remember something. God is going to respond to the intercession of Moses and he will show mercy to the people as a response to Moses' prayer. Who is it that raised up Moses? Well, it's God. God prepared a man to be the intercessor who would unlock the merciful heart of God for his people.
So a couple of lessons that we're going to come out of this episode. One would be that someone must atone for everyone else. We're going to see this lesson in a moment, and what we're going to learn is that Moses could not be that person. So this is a very gospel preparatory passage. Because Moses will ask to be the atoner and he won't be able to. And then we're also learning that God is bound by prepared persons doing God's work in God's way. You know, Moses prays according to God's will, according to God's nature and God's character here in a moment, and God is bound. He responds to that prayer.
Moses Intercedes
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
All right, so let's read what Moses does to intercede. It says in verse 11, "But Moses implored the Lord, his God and said, 'Well, Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you've brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth?' Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, 'I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven and all this land that I promised I would give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.' And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people."
So what does Moses do? It says in verse 11, "He implored the Lord, his God." He interceded for the people. Now this is beautiful, because think back with me if you can, to the beginning of the Book of Exodus, when Moses was approached by God to go in and be the deliver for the people of Israel. What did Moses do? Well, he argued with God from a very selfish perspective and he tried to get out of that mission, but what does he do here?
Well, he pleads with God instead, and it's all based on God's nature and God's promises and he's praying not for himself, but for others, he's crying out to God for others. Now, Moses, throughout that prayer prayed to God or appealed to God in three ways that are important for us. They help us learn how to pray well. First of all, in verse 11 he basically says to God, "God, why would you do that? You brought them out of Egypt. You brought them out of Egypt." In other words, he was reminding God of the work that he did to deliver the people of Israel. So in our modern day it's kind of claiming the cross, so to speak, "Hey Lord, these are people that you died for, that you suffered for, that you did a lot to deliver. And so we're coming to you based on the fact that you are the one who delivered them. There must be a feeling of love, care, compassion that you have for them because you redeem them. They now belong to you."
The second part of Moses' prayer is in verse 12. He says basically to God, "God, your reputation among the nations will be ruined. What they're going to say about you. What they're going to think about you." What he's appealing to is God's name, God's reputation, that his name will be kept holy among the nations. And then finally in verse 13 he appeals to the covenant. He says, "God, you made a covenant with them, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." He refers to all these great patriarchs and the promises that God made. So he's bringing up the victory that God won for them, he's bringing up God's name and reputation and he's bringing up the covenant, the promises that God made in the past.
So when we're praying, we can be praying through the lens of the cross. We can be praying through the lens of God's reputation, what would be good for his reputation to occur? And we can be praying through the lens of the promises that he's made to his people. So after hearing this prayer, it says in verse 14, something some people have trouble with. It said that, "The Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken." Now, I do think that for the most part this is an anthropomorphism, which means that in some places in the Bible God is presented as this mystery, and he's not spoken of in human terms in any way. And then another places in an attempt to describe what just happened, he is described in very human terms.
And so here he had said, "I'm going to bring my wrath against them." And then he makes this decision. He relents from his decision and he does not bring the disaster that he had spoken upon them. It speaks of a relief from a planned or undesirable course of action. But to me this just shows that God is not inflexible, but that he sovereignly responds to the individual needs and attitudes and actions of his people. In other words, he did not change in the way that he would relate to Moses. That was prime or primary to see this man of the covenant intercede, call out to him in this way. Of course the Lord was going to respond. Now in the Bible, there are three major areas where the Lord will change or relent or do something different, when someone intercedes, when people repent, or when his compassionate heart overwhelms him.
Moses' Anger
15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
And so we just need to be thinking about that as we cry out to the Lord and as we pray. Yes, he's sovereign, he has a plan, he has a purpose. But as we come to him in intersession for others, as we repent of our sins, and as we appeal to his compassionate heart, he hears our prayer and he knows what he wants to do, and so he will do it. And so he did that here for the people of Israel at this moment. "Then Moses," verse 15, "turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. Tablets that were written on both sides, on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets."
Now, everything here in this little description of Moses, he's coming down the mountain and the description that really isn't of Moses, it's all about these tablets. They were written on two tablets, written on both sides. I like that idea because it indicates there's no room for adding anything. God filled up all the space, can't add to God's word, but they're written on both sides, front and back. "It was deliberately said to be," in verse 16, "the work of God. The writing was the writing of God." The whole idea is you're to be impressed with the reality, these are sacred. These are special. God has designed these as he comes down, as Moses comes down the mountain. So we'll see what happens next.
17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” 18 But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.”
"Now when Joshua," verse 17, "heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, 'There is a noise of war in the camp.' But he said, Moses said, 'It is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.'"
Now, as we're reading this, we might be shocked to all of a sudden see Joshua. He's not been there hearing the commands about the tabernacle and receiving the Ten Commandments and the commandments about the priests and all the furnishings in the tabernacle, any of the ceremonial law, all these different things, Joshua has not been present. And then all of a sudden here's Moses coming down the mountain with the two tablets and Joshua just says something to him. So you kind of wonder where was Joshua? Was he there the whole time?
Well, back in chapter 24:13, we remember that as Moses' assistant, it says that, "He went halfway up the mountain." So I'm not willing to say that Joshua continued going up, because the Bible doesn't say it. I am willing to say at the very least he was halfway up the mountain. And as Moses descended, he connected with Joshua. Perhaps Joshua had prepared a little halfway up the mountain kind of base camp that Moses came, collected Joshua, and as they go down, Joshua says to him, "I hear the sound of war down in the camp." And many people have made the joke or the comment, because Joshua would eventually be the one to go into the promised land and fight many battles for the Lord that he was just this kind of war hungry type of person. But I don't know that that's the case.
But Moses, he had an insight from God that Joshua didn't have. And he says, "No, what you're hearing is singing." Now, how could you confuse the sound of war and the sound of singing? Well, perhaps what Joshua was hearing was singing. You remember the people of Israel when they won a victory over the Egyptian army, when they cross through the Red Sea, what did they do in response after that war was over with? Well, they sang a song to the Lord. So perhaps Joshua is hearing a melody. He's hearing a song and he thinks this is a war must have taken place. And now they're singing in celebration because of a victory that they've been given.
19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
Now, it says in verse 19, "And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and grounded to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
So Moses comes down and takes six immediate steps. God was angry up on the mountain and told Moses of his anger. Moses prayed to God, he intercede, interceded for the people of Israel. He tried to sooth God and draw out God's compassion. But now Moses, he is grieved and he is angry when he sees what is happening. And six things happen. First of all, his anger burns hot. And I believe this was righteous indignation. I don't think this was fleshly anger. I think he saw the holiness of God being defiled, and that's what caused anger to rise up within him. He knew that sin was killing the nation right now and that they were in jeopardy. And so that produced an anger within. The second thing that happened is that he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them. You know, these tablets. And we've just read all these words about that tell us how sacred these tablets are, written on both sides. The hand of God did this. He takes them and throws them down onto the ground and breaks them at the foot of the mountain.
Then he takes the calf, third thing that he does, and he burns it with fire. So it's like he just judges this calf right away. It cannot defend itself. It is not a God. It is not able to speak like the God that I was just interacting with for 40 days and 40 nights. He just judges the God, this human being is superior to this golden image. And then he grinds it to powder. Fourthly kind of demonstrating the powerlessness of this false God. It can do nothing. It cannot defend itself. He grinds it to powder after burning it in the fire. And then he takes the powdered gold, scatters it on the water, fifth. Just kind of shows everybody, this is worthless. This is nothing. And then sixthly, he makes the people of Israel drink it.
Consequences for their actions. Later in the Book of Numbers there is a very strange law that God gives to the people of Israel. When suspicious of a spouse who might have committed adultery, he gave them this whole ceremony. And one of the parts of it was that the husband who was suspicious, the priest would take some dirt from the tabernacle floor, put it in this mixture and the woman would drink it. And if her belly swelled, she was guilty. And if not, she was innocent.
Maybe there's some kind of illusion to that future law in this kind of passage where the guilt is going to be discovered based on some kind of physical manifestation that is unmentioned in the text. I really don't know, but this is Moses' way of judging and expressing to the people of Israel the seriousness of their crime.
21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
"And Moses said to Aaron," verse 21, "what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?" And Aaron said. "Let not the anger of my Lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, "Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So I said to them, "Let any who have gold, take it off. So they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire and out came this calf."
All right, so Moses goes straight to Aaron, the leader. He needs to give an account for his actions, he is the leader after all. And Aaron makes excuses all the way through, three major excuses. First of all, in verse 22, he says. "You know the people, they're set on evil." So no ownership at all. No, I can't believe I led in this way. No repentance, but you know the people they're so sinful.
Number two, he said, "They told me to make gods for them because you were gone." This is a little bit of blaming not just the people, but Moses, "They told me to do this, that's their fault. But the reason they told me to do this is because you, Moses were gone for so long. We just didn't know what to do anymore."
And then thirdly, Aaron lies to Moses and says, "You know, I put the gold in and threw it in the fire and out came this calf." Clearly Aaron had crafted the calf, that's what he text said earlier, but here he says, "Out came this calf. It generated itself."
Now, some have pointed out that what God is doing with the tabernacle, and all the laws to Israel. It's like a recreation account. In the Book of Genesis, everything was designed and made by God. He saw that it was good, it was beautiful. He created his earthly tabernacle, so to speak. Adam was kind of the priest along with Eve. They were to work and live in God's presence. But then this horrible event occurred. Sin entered in, this great rebellion that just broke everything. And now God is doing a recreation work. He's got his people that he wants to live among, just like he wanted to live among Adam and Eve. But here they've done this terrible thing.
And you might remember in the Genesis account that Eve and Adam made all these excuses before God, they would not own up to their sin. They blamed each other. They blamed the serpent. Aaron is doing the same thing. He is shifting the blame. Brothers and sisters, shifting the blame for our personal sin is never helpful. It will never get us where we need to go in Christ. I see a lot of people respond in really terrible ways to their own personal sin and their own personal shame. You know, one terrible way is right here. To make excuses for your actions by blaming your environment, blaming your history, blaming someone else in your life, blaming an authority figure, blaming somebody else. It was not my fault, it was a culture's fault. It was not my fault, it was this power structure's fault. It was not my fault, it was my history. It was not my fault, something else.
But another problem that I see is that people will then re-engineer their sin or their guilt in order to figure out a way to say, "It's not sin at all." Even when clearly and biblically it is. And then another thing that people will do is they will feel that any sense of shame must somehow be unbiblical, "Jesus would never want me to experience that." But here's the thing. The Lord died for our shameful acts and the elements of shame that are within. So when that shame occurs, we can run to the Lord and thank him for his grace in dealing with that in our lives. So even our shamefulness should trigger a rejoicing over the grace of God, but Aaron did not embrace God's grace in that way. He did not take ownership of anything that he had done. He made excuses.
25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.
"And when Moses saw," verse 25, "that the people had broken loose for Aaron had let them break loose to the derision of their enemies. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, 'Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me.' And all the sons of Levi gathered around him." Now, when it says that they broke loose or cast off restraint, the idea is that they're just engaging in some very debased desires right there in Moses's midst. It might not mean all of the people of Israel, two million people. It might have been a segment of the population that had gone into this. But the idea of breaking loose, if you really study the various philosophers of the last few hundred years, this has been kind of the progressive hope that has been bubbling over, that people have been trying to communicate. That we could get to a point where we break loose of any more oral restriction that is placed upon us.
I think a lot of times there's a little conversion of Marx and Freud kind of coming together, Marx saying, "You've got to overthrow the power structure." Freud saying, "You've got to be free to live your sexual self. So put those together, any structure that is trying to keep you from living out your sexual desires, that must be overthrown. We have to break loose and be totally free." That's what the people of Israel were doing all the way back in Exodus 32. And so they break loose, cast off restraint. So Moses asks for volunteers to stand up for God's holiness and the sons of Levi. And this is great, because the sons of Levi will be the ones responsible for the maintenance of the tabernacle worship. They gather around Moses and they join him.
27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’ ” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”
And he said to them, verse 27, "'Thus,' says the Lord, God of Israel, 'put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp. And each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.' And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about 3000 men of the people fell. And Moses said, 'Today you've been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.'"
Now this is a wild and even harsh passage for us to read in our modern time. But I hope that I've been faithful to communicate to you a couple of things. First of all, I hope that I've been faithful to communicate to you that in this environment, the days of Exodus and the season that they were in, the death penalty at the hands of Moses' direction from God, this was not considered in that moment extreme.
I hope you can also see that this is not just some delusional prophet, wildly pontificating, and without any sense of direction or justice judging a group of people. This is a Holy God giving this commission. It was a serious moment. And I hope I've also been faithful to help you understand that the whole covenant was in danger at this point. That God had been building up his promises all the way from Abraham to their current day. Moses was up on the mountain, receiving these laws from God and they were endangering the whole progressive thing that God had been working on for hundreds and hundreds of years at this point. And that progressive plan of God would ultimately produce the Messiah, the savior of all the earth. So it's a serious sin and a lot is in the balance in this moment. And it seems that the people of Israel needed to learn, you should not mess around with idolatry. It could kill you, but it could also kill the covenant plans that God has for this world. So the stakes were very high.
So I hope I've been faithful to show you all of those things. And it is from that place that God's judgment through these Levites lashed out against 3,000 brothers, companions, and neighbors there of these men in Israel. "But as they obeyed, God unlocked his blessing upon them," is what is said there in verse 29.
Moses Again Intercedes
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” 33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
Now the next day Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, 'Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold, but now if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.' But the Lord said to Moses, 'Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book, but now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you, nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.'
Now, Moses goes up here in this episode, back into the presence of the Lord. It's been a wild day. And so on the next day he goes up and his statement of the people is, "Perhaps I can make atonement for you." Now, what Moses will realize and discover is that he can't be the one to make atonement for the people. But what he says to the Lord in his presence is, "Please blot me. Instead of them, please blot me out of the book that you have written." Now throughout the Bible, there is this book, or scroll, or book of the living that is mentioned in places like Ezekiel, Daniel, Malachi, Revelation. And Moses is asking God, "Let them live, except them, and reject me instead." Now this is not like the man who prayed way back in the burning bush passage. Here rather than self preserve. Remember in that episode, he didn't want to go and sacrifice his life, lay it down for the people of Israel and ill obedience to God. Here he is now willing to pay the ultimate price and lay down his life for the people. This is incredibly Christ-like, for one.
And Paul said something very similar in Romans chapter nine, when he thought about the Jewish people that were living at his time, he said, "I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off for Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh." He so badly wanted his Jewish brothers and sisters to know Jesus that he was willing to be cut off himself so that they might have life. And of course, Jesus was cut off so that we could have life. No one else can be cut off so that we can have life. So this attitude of Moses and Paul, it's a very Christ-like feeling that of course we can't actually act out on ourselves, but it should produce a sacrificial spirit within us to lay down our lives for our community. But man, could we just have that spirit so much more that I would give anything for people to know Jesus.
Also, when Moses prays this way, "Please blot me out of the book that you've written," it's a gospel primer all the way back here in Exodus, chapter 32. The gospel is not clearly articulated in this chapter. It doesn't say, "Jesus is going to come. He's going to be the son of God. He's going to live a perfect life. And because none of you could, and then he'll die on the cross and take it within himself the wrath of God, and then he'll be buried and be raised three days later. And then ascend and whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life."
None of that is there, but it's a primer for the gospel in the sense that Moses is not qualified. God does not accept Moses as the one who could atone for Israel's sins. He could not have his name blotted out so that they could live. Only God could have this heart and actually do something with it. "God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son."
Now, this is also a very God honoring prayer. What Moses' heart was for ultimately was not just the people, but for the glory of God. I just think that Moses couldn't stand the idea of God's reputation being harmed. So God tells Moses what he's going to do. And then he tells him, "I'll send my angel before you. I'll get you there, but my angel will be the one that leads you." And we'll talk more about that in the next episodes.
35 Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
"Then the Lord," verse 35, "sent a plague on the people because they have made the calf." The one that Aaron had made. Now, personally I believe this is a recap of the death that entered the camp earlier through the Levites. I don't know that this is a strict chronological recounting of what occurred, it could be though. But either way, Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that he will also reap." And that's what occurred here. The people of Israel and Aaron, you see both of them there. God says, "Because they made the calf. The one that Aaron made." It's like God is saying, "Both of them are involved. The people made the calf. Aaron made the calf. What they sowed, they will also reap."
And so I pray that we would say yes to the covenant that God has made with us, that we'd be patient with it and with him, and that we would not run out ahead of the Lord, but just simply embrace his designs and plans for our lives. God bless you, church, have a wonderful week.