Saturday, October 06, 2007

Exodus 32

The Golden Calf


   This narrative is an unhappy interlude in the flow of the argument of the book. After the giving of the Law and the instructions for the tabernacle, the people get into idolatry. So this section tells what the people were doing when Moses was on the mountain. Here is an instant violation of the covenant that they had just agreed to uphold. But through it all Moses shines as the great intercessor for the people. So the subject matter is the sin of idolatry, its effects and its remedy. This chapter can be divided into four parts for an easier exposition:



  1. Idolatry (32:1-6)

  2. Intercession (32:7-14)

  3. Judgment (32:15-29)

  4. Intercession again (32:30-33:6)


Four summary statements for expository points might be:



  1. Impatience often leads to foolish violations of the faith.

  2. Violations of the covenant require intercession to escape condemnation.

  3. Those spared of divine wrath must purge evil from their midst.

  4. Those who purge evil from their midst will find reinstatement through intercession.


-- BibleGateway - Exodus 32: www.bible.org/netbible/exo32.htm


   Sometimes we're on a mountain peak in our Christian spiritual experience with the Lord when we're suddenly brought "back to earth" by something going on around us. We want to be on the mountain top all the time, but we're supposed to be here on earth helping others, dealing with problems, praying for others, etc. Here, Moses has been with God for 40 days and nights speaking "face to face" with Him, getting all the details of the law and of the tabernacle and, surely, having a tremendous experience; then, he's suddenly pulled away to deal with a problem. How often does that happen to us? We're moving along and growing in our relationship with Christ and understanding God's Word better every day and then something terrible happens in our lives - the death of a loved one, the injury to one of our kids, a lost job, financial difficulty and on and on. God left us here in the "valley" not on the mountain top. The purpose of the mountain top experiences is to help us deal with the realities of life here on earth.


   Moses is on the mountain with God; the people are in the valley with Aaron. In the difference between those two locations is a difference in spiritual and ethical experience. The mountain is the place of awe; it is the place of divine presence; it is the place of sheer grace. It is the place of personal transformation.


   David in Psalm 106:19-23 sums up Exodus 32: The people made a calf at Mount Sinai; they bowed before an image made of gold. They traded their glorious God for a statue of a grass-eating bull. They forgot God, their savior, who had done such great things in Egypt— such wonderful things in the land of Ham, such awesome deeds at the Red Sea. So he declared he would destroy them. But Moses, his chosen one, stepped between the Lord and the people. He begged him to turn from his anger and not destroy them.


(1) When the people saw *how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they **gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can ***lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”


*how long: Exodus 24:18: Then Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.



  • Genesis 7: 4: Seven days from now I will make the rains pour down on the earth. And it will rain for forty days and forty nights, until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created.”

  • Genesis 50:3: The embalming process took the usual forty days. And the Egyptians mourned his death for seventy days.

  • Deuteronomy 9:11: At the end of the forty days and nights, the Lord handed me the two stone tablets inscribed with the words of the covenant.

  • Exodus 34:28: Moses remained there on the mountain with the Lord forty days and forty nights. In all that time he ate no bread and drank no water. And the Lord wrote the terms of the covenant—the Ten Commandments—on the stone tablets.

  • Numbers 13:25: After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned

  • 1 Samuel 17:16: For forty days, every morning and evening, the Philistine champion (Goliath) strutted in front of the Israelite army.

  • 1 Kings 19:8: So he (Elijah) got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God.

  • Ezekiel 4:6: After that, turn over and lie on your right side for 40 days—one day for each year of Judah’s sin.

  • Jonah 3:4: On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”

  • Acts 1:3: During the forty days after his crucifixion, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.


**gathered around Aaron: By the way, the phrase that says, “they gathered around Aaron,” is a menacing phrase. They gather around Aaron to threaten him. They come to him essentially looking for a new mediator. The people’s request seems to be not a request for a different god and a god other than the Lord, rather a representation of God. They wanted something visible upon which they could fix their attention and hope. It was symbolic, it was representative of the God who had brought them out of Egypt. The expression used here suggests that this was an angry, aggressive mob, whose presence Aaron perceived to be a threat to his safety, perhaps even his life. Aaron was under fire. He feared this hostile crowd and what they might do if he failed to give them what they wanted.


***lead us: They wanted gods to go before them, undoubtedly to the Promised Land. They knew the Lord led them out of Egypt and they knew the Lord God had revealed Himself at Mount Sinai. Yet, they were willing to trust a god they could make to finish what the Lord began. Paul dealt with the same error with the Galatians: Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you know being made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3 - KJV). It is possible to begin the Christian life trusting Jesus, and then to begin to trust self or one's own spirituality. Following our own gods is no better for us than it was for ancient Israel.


   The seventy elders who ate the covenant meal in the presence of God are not mentioned, and yet they are most likely in the camp. How could they not have exercised some leadership in this situation? Moses had given only Aaron and Hur authority to handle legal disputes (24:14), and even Hur’s name is not mentioned in chapter 32.


(2) So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”


(3) All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.


(4) Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a *calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”



*calf: Apis was an Egyptian god in the form of a bull.


   The word translated "calf" in the narrative refers more specifically to a young bull. Thus the choice may well have related to the practice of bull worship, which was prevalent in ancient Egypt and Canaan. Fearsomely strong, notoriously quick-tempered, bulls were revered throughout much of the ancient world as symbols of strength and fertility. Early records from Memphis, in Egypt, reveal that the Egyptians worshiped a live bull known as Apis. The animal was thought to be a manifestation of the city's patron deity, Ptah, creator of the universe. Apis became identified with Osiris, legendary god of the sun and of immortality.
Egypt's goldsmiths turned out finely wrought effigies of Apis-Osiris and of his wife, Isis, represented by the head of a cow. When an Apis bull died at Memphis, its body was mummified. It was entombed in splendor during a period of mourning that lasted 70 days. In Mesopotamia, bulls were long venerated as symbols of majestic strength and potency. Savage wild bulls, called aurochs, once roamed the region, some weighing up to 3000 pounds, and colossal stone images of these beasts were set up to guard the entrances to the temples and palaces of Babylonia. In later years, the Assyrians adopted the bull-god as their guardian, often adding wings and a human face. When the Israelites reached the Promised Land in the 13th century B.C., the bull cult was already ancient there. Canaanite temples were sometimes built with images of bronze bulls in their foundations. It was perhaps for this reason that the Israelites in moments of doubt were tempted by bull cults. -- Bull Worship: www.bible-history.com/tabernacle/TAB4untitled00000088.htm#b5ecba84


Nehemiah 9:16-18: “But our ancestors were proud and stubborn, and they paid no attention to your commands. They refused to obey and did not remember the miracles you had done for them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt! But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon them, even when they made an idol shaped like a calf and said, ‘This is your god who brought you out of Egypt!’ They committed terrible blasphemies. Nehemiah seems to imply here that the people wanted to be led, not to the Promised Land, but back to Egypt.


   In 1 Kings 12:28, Jeroboam tries to stop the Northern Israelites from visiting Jerusalem. He has two high places erected at Dan and Bethel as new offering places. At each of these he has constructed a golden calf and says It is too much trouble for you to worship in Jerusalem. Look, Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt!


   True leadership would have cried out, "This is idolatry! We must destroy this golden calf. You people are wrong in calling this creation of man your god!" But Aaron wasn't a true leader. He is an example of the one who leads by following popular opinion.


(5) Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!”


   Later on, just as the Israelites were beginning their new life in the land of Canaan, Joshua challenged them to choose whether they would serve their old “gods,” which they had served in Egypt, or they would serve the God who had brought them from Egypt and had given them this land (Joshua 24:14-15). The people enthusiastically promised to serve the LORD (Joshua 24:16-18). Joshua’s response is consistent with what we have learned about the people of God (their depravity) and the Mosaic Covenant (its inability to save sinners): Then Joshua warned the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy and jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you abandon the Lord and serve other gods, he will turn against you and destroy you, even though he has been so good to you". (Joshua 24:19-20). The people insist that they will serve the Lord, saying “No, we will serve the Lord!”
(Joshua 24:21). Instead of assuring the people that they will be blessed in so doing, Joshua responded, “You are a witness to your own decision,” Joshua said. “You have chosen to serve the Lord.” “Yes,” they replied, “we are witnesses to what we have said.” (Joshua 24:22). This is a very pessimistic word from Joshua, but it is true. Given the “stiff necks” of the Israelites and the inability of the Law to remove sin, there is no hope of God’s blessing. The solution to the problem is a new covenant, one which will change men’s hearts and will remedy the problem of sin. That solution is the promised new covenant, promised by the prophet Jeremiah.


   There are those today who would tell us that the way for us to obtain the blessings of God is to live in accordance with the Law of Moses. The sinfulness of the Israelites and the weakness of the Mosaic Covenant, as evident less than 40 days after that covenant was ratified helps us understand Paul’s strong words in the Book of Galatians to those legalists who were attempting to turn men from the work of Christ (the new covenant) back to the old (the Mosaic Covenant). To try to keep the Law in order to be saved, sanctified, or blessed, fails to understand the depravity of man, which prohibits him from keeping the Mosaic Covenant perfectly, as is required. The legalist not only overestimates the ability of man (to keep the Law), but he minimizes the work of Christ, which alone saves and sanctifies. The worship of the golden calf only a few days after the ratification of the covenant should warn us about placing too much faith in our ability to keep the Law of that covenant. Galatians 3:1-4: Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?


(6) The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in *pagan revelry.


*pagan revelry: A polite way of saying they were involved in a sexual orgy!


(7) The Lord told Moses, “Quick! Go down the mountain! *Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.


*Your people: The Lord is no longer claiming them as His people! See verse 11 where Moses is calling them God's people!


(8) How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”


(9) Then the Lord said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are.


(10) Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.”


   God is offering to be the "God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses". Not only is Israel being tested as to what they would do without a human to lead them instead of God, but Moses is being tested here too. This would be great temptation, similar to Satan's temptation of Jesus in Luke 4.


Numbers 14:11-12: And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them? I will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are!” This is when they refused to go into the land.


(11) But Moses tried to pacify the Lord his God. “O Lord!” he said. “Why are you so angry with *your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand?


*your own people: Compare to verse 7 where God calls them Moses' people! Here is intercessory prayer at work!



   Intercessory prayer is prayer for others. An intercessor is one who takes the place of another or pleads another's case. The Biblical basis for the New Testament believer's ministry of intercessory prayer is our calling as priests unto God. The Word of God declares that we are a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5), a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), and a kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:5). The priest stood before God to minister to Him with sacrifices and offerings. The priests also stood between a righteous God and sinful man bringing them together at the place of the blood sacrifice.
Jesus Christ is our model for intercessory prayer. Jesus stands before God and between Him and sinful man, just as the Old Testament priests did For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5). Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
(Romans 8:34). Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.
(Hebrews 7:25). Jesus was an intercessor while He was here on earth. He prayed for those who were sick and possessed by demons. He prayed for His disciples. He even prayed for you and me when He interceded for all those who would believe on Him. Jesus continued His ministry of intercession after His death and resurrection when He returned to Heaven. He now serves as our intercessor in Heaven.
In intercessory prayer, we follow the Old Testament priestly function and the New Testament pattern of Jesus - standing before God and between a righteous God and sinful man. In order to be effective standing "between" we must first stand "before" God to develop the intimacy necessary to fulfill this role. As New Testament believers, we no longer sacrifice animals as in Old Testament times. We stand before the Lord to offer up spiritual sacrifices of praise (Hebrews 13:15) and the sacrifice of our own lives (Romans 12:1). It is on the basis of this intimate relationship with God that we can then stand "between" Him and others, serving as an advocate and intercessor in their behalf. - Intercessory Prayer - The Model of Christ: www.allaboutprayer.org/intercessory-prayer.htm


Job 16:21: I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.


(12) Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people!


(13) Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’”


(14) So the Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on his people.


   Moses, therefore, like Abraham before him, has been given an opportunity to stand in the council of heaven and advise God. This is no place for false modesty, and so Moses comes straight to the point. Moses believes the promises of God. If God is to remain faithful to his promises, then he cannot act in this fashion. Did God need Moses to remind him of this? Of course not! But God revealed his anger to Moses, so that Moses (and we) might understand his wrath against sin. Israel deserved to be stricken from the face of the earth. Moses, as the only faithful Israelite, would take their place as the son of God. But Moses desired no such blessing, because if God would destroy all those who sinned against him, then the descendants of Moses would fare no better than the descendants of Jacob When we see our sin, when we understand the righteousness of God, and what we deserve from him, then our only refuge is in the promise of God. Because now Jesus Christ, the mediator of a better covenant, is seated at the right hand of God for us! Now, we have one who intercedes for us, and pleads before the throne of grace, by the power of his own blood. Now, there is a man who sits in the divine council forever! And so brings eternal life to those who believe in him, and call upon his name. -- The Golden Calf: www.michianacovenant.org/sermons/ex32.html


   In Numbers 23:19 we read that, God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? We see Moses standing there interceding, holding God off. But who put it in the heart of Moses to intercede? Who put it in the heart of Moses to pray? Who put a love for these people in the heart of Moses? It was God's work in the life of Moses to begin with. The inspiration of Moses' prayer came from God Himself. All true prayer begins with God. Thus, God was the inspiration behind the prayer.God knew they were going to worship this calf. In fact, He knew it before they ever did it. God is speaking to Moses about their sin in need of judgment. Moses is now inspired of God to plead for their salvation.


(15) Then Moses turned and went down the mountain. He held in his hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.


(16) These tablets were God’s work; the words on them were written by God himself.


(17) When Joshua heard the boisterous noise of the people shouting below them, he exclaimed to Moses, “It sounds like war in the camp!”


(18) But Moses replied, “No, it’s not a shout of victory nor the wailing of defeat. I hear the sound of a celebration.”


(19) When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and he burned with anger. He threw the stone tablets to the ground, *smashing them at the foot of the mountain.


*smashing: They had already broken the covenant in their hearts and actions. His breaking of the tables on which the law of God was written reflected that they had broken the laws of God and had broken their covenant with Him.


(20) He took the calf they had made and burned it. Then he ground it into powder, threw it into the water, and forced the people to drink it.


(21) Finally, he turned to Aaron and demanded, “What did these people do to you to make you bring such terrible sin upon them?”


(22) “Don’t get so upset, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know how evil these people are.


   Aaron tries to shift the blame to Moses and the people and off himself - Just as Adam's "the woman thou gavest me" in the garden attempt to shift blame off himself and onto God. Then, Aaron compounds the sin with the lie in verse 24.


(23) They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’


(24) So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.’ When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!


   Oh really, Aaron. Did you really expect Moses to believe your lie?


(25) Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get completely out of control, much to the amusement of their enemies.


   The King James version tells us that they were naked.


(26) So he stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, “All of you who are on the Lord’s side, come here and join me.” And all the Levites gathered around him.


(27) Moses told them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Each of you, take your swords and go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other. Kill everyone—even your brothers, friends, and neighbors.”


(28) The Levites obeyed Moses’ command, and about 3,000 people died that day.


   In Acts, when Peter preached and the Spirit of God moved on people and they were saved, 3,000 were added that day to the church (Acts 2:41). When the Law was given, 3,000 died. When the gospel was given, 3,000 were saved.


(29) Then Moses told the Levites, “Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the Lord, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Today you have earned a blessing.”


Moses Intercedes for Israel


(30) The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin, but I will go back up to the Lord on the mountain. Perhaps I will be able to obtain forgiveness for your sin.”


(31) So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a terrible sin these people have committed. They have made gods of gold for themselves.


(32) But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, erase my name from the record you have written!”


(33) But the Lord replied to Moses, “No, I will erase the name of everyone who has sinned against me.


(34) Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about. Look! My angel will lead the way before you. And when I come to call the people to account, I will certainly hold them responsible for their sins.”


   The Law said that God would not clear the guilty. But here the punishment is postponed to some future date. The Jews have a saying, apparently founded on this text: "No affliction has ever happened to Israel in which there was not some particle of the dust of the golden calf."


(35) Then the Lord sent a great plague upon the people because they had worshiped the calf Aaron had made.



Deuteronomy 9:1-21: “Listen, O Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land belonging to nations much greater and more powerful than you. They live in cities with walls that reach to the sky! The people are strong and tall—descendants of the famous Anakite giants. You’ve heard the saying, ‘Who can stand up to the Anakites?’ But recognize today that the Lord your God is the one who will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy them. He will subdue them so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the Lord has promised. “After the Lord your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way. It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people.“Remember and never forget how angry you made the Lord your God out in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until now, you have been constantly rebelling against him. Even at Mount Sinai you made the Lord so angry he was ready to destroy you. This happened when I was on the mountain receiving the tablets of stone inscribed with the words of the covenant that the Lord had made with you. I was there for forty days and forty nights, and all that time I ate no food and drank no water. The Lord gave me the two tablets on which God had written with his own finger all the words he had spoken to you from the heart of the fire when you were assembled at the mountain. “At the end of the forty days and nights, the Lord handed me the two stone tablets inscribed with the words of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up! Go down immediately, for the people you brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted gold and made an idol for themselves!’“The Lord also said to me, ‘I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Leave me alone so I may destroy them and erase their name from under heaven. Then I will make a mighty nation of your descendants, a nation larger and more powerful than they are.’“So while the mountain was blazing with fire I turned and came down, holding in my hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. There below me I could see that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had melted gold and made a calf idol for yourselves. How quickly you had turned away from the path the Lord had commanded you to follow! So I took the stone tablets and threw them to the ground, smashing them before your eyes.“Then, as before, I threw myself down before the Lord for forty days and nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of the great sin you had committed by doing what the Lord hated, provoking him to anger. I feared that the furious anger of the Lord, which turned him against you, would drive him to destroy you. But again he listened to me. The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he wanted to destroy him, too. But I prayed for Aaron, and the Lord spared him. I took your sin—the calf you had made—and I melted it down in the fire and ground it into fine dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.



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