(9/21/16) As chapter 32 opens up, Moses has been on top of Mt. Sinai for forty days and forty nights receiving God s law.

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1 28. Exodus 32:1-35 (9/21/16) The Gold Calf Exodus 32:1 (NKJV) 1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for 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." As chapter 32 opens up, Moses has been on top of Mt. Sinai for forty days and forty nights receiving God s law. While he s been gone the people have grown restless and they want Aaron to make them not gods plural in the sense they are turning to other gods to worship. The Hebrew is elohim which is plural and when not used of God Almighty it would correctly be translated gods. But when Elohim is used in relation to the One and Only True and Living God (as in Genesis 1:1) it is correctly translated God singular (the correct translation in Ex. 32:1). As one commentator put it whenever the word Elohim appears in the O.T. and relates to the LORD God the verbs and pronouns are always in the singular which makes the sentence grammatically incorrect but communicates the tri-unity of God. 1

2 The people don t want Aaron to make them statues or images of other gods they want him to make a visible representation of God Almighty to worship and use to lead them into the Promise Land Exodus 32:2-5 (NKJV) 2 And Aaron said to them, "Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." 3 So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, "This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!" 5 So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD." Once again, this calf was not another god it was a visible representation of the LORD God of Israel. Aaron wasn t leading the people into idolatry thru the worship of other gods but he was leading them into the idolatry of false worship the worship of the true God in a wrong way. This was in direct violation of the 2 nd Commandment which God had spoken to the entire nation in chapter 20 before Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to get the rest of God s laws Exodus 20:4-5 (NKJV) 4 "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, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God It s interesting that so many people need some visible representation of God in order to connect with, relate to and worship Him statues, crucifixes, medals etc. You can always tell what kind of relationship a person has with God when they feel the necessity to use something visible to represent Him as Israel did here. 2

3 Although I do see some Egyptian idolatry in this Golden Calf it probably reminded the people of the Egyptian god Apis (the bull god). One commentator Calf is not a good translation of the Hebrew egel a young bull in his first strength is meant: for instance, the word can describe a three-year-old animal (Genesis 15:9). Exodus 32:6 (NKJV) 6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. This verse, I think, describes exactly the attitude of many so-called worshippers in America they come to church on Sunday to worship God but then eat, drink and rise up to play the rest of the week (live in immorality). and rose up to play As one pastor said, This is a tasteful way to speak of gross immorality among the people of Israel. Their worship included eating, drinking (in the sense of drunkenness) and sexual immorality. Hebrew scholars confirm that the verb here translated play (saheq) signifies drunken, immoral orgies and sex-play. It is hard for us to imagine that so soon after being delivered from Egypt and entering into a covenant of fidelity with the LORD that the people of Israel would fall so quickly and so completely into this kind of gross immorality and yet it proves how unfaithful God s people can be to Him at times. And what was God s response to this scene? 3

4 Exodus 32:7-11 (NKJV) 7 And the LORD said to Moses, "Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!' " 9 And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and indeed 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. And I will make of you a great nation." 11 Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: "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? Notice, at this moment God passes these people off onto Moses by saying, Your people whom you brought out of Egypt Moses responded, Your people God, whom You have brought out of Egypt Exodus 32:12-14 (NKJV) 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to 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 descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.' " 14 So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. It sounds as if God lost His temper and Moses is trying to cool Him down. Here s a problem we often run into trying to use human terms to describe how God works or conducts Himself at times in the affairs of His people. The KJV translates verses 12 and 14 4

5 Exodus 32:12-14 (KJV) 12 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 thy people 14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. However, this contradicts other scriptures Numbers 23:19 (KJV) 19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? 1 Samuel 15:29 (KJV) 29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent. The word repent means to have a change of mind about the direction of your life or the decisions you have made both are impossible for God since God never changes His mind because His ways are always perfect to begin with. So then what does it mean in the O.T when it says that God repented? It means that He changed course with regard to His will for our lives. God has a perfect will for our lives but if we sin He has to adjust what He has promised us because our sin has grieved Him (the Hebrew word relent/repent means to be sorrowful or grieved) and requires a change of course. For example God s perfect will for Israel was to deliver them out of Egypt, bring them through the wilderness directly into the Promised Land. 5

6 They refused to trust God to give them the victory He promised them over the giants of the land and therefore God kept them in the wilderness for forty years. Now, and here is where it gets tricky, God knew what they were going to do and incorporated it into His overall plan (because our disobedience never thwarts His ultimate plan, nor does He have to make constant adjustments on the fly according to our constant disobedience since He already knows what we re going to do in any given situation). So God never repents in the sense that He changes His mind but He does make adjustments to His will for our lives (for blessing or judgment) depending on whether or not we obey or disobey what He has said. Jeremiah 18:7-10 (NKJV) 7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it. One last thing, our rebellion never hinders God from doing what He has determined what He has determined will come to pass. But our disobedience always grieves His heart because He wants to receive glory from our lives and bless us in the fullest way possible which He can t do if we sin against Him. So first of all, from the passage, it seems that God lost Him temper and Moses is trying to cool Him down wrong! God had no intention of wiping out His people He wanted Moses to intercede on behalf of the nation. 6

7 It was God that put this into the heart of Moses because all true prayer and intercession starts in the heart with the will of God. Symbolically, we have here a picture of Christ, our Deliverer, interceding on behalf of His people in the New Covenant when we sin to assuage God s wrath. I know it sounds as though, through logic and reason, Moses persuades God out of doing what He wanted to do but that would put man into a position where he can control God through prayer not so! Matthew 6:9-10 (NKJV) 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV) 14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. This was all about teaching Moses to be a leader as one commentator correctly points out: In leadership, the difficult experiences with our people either make us or break us, and Moses was about to be tested. God called Israel your people whom you brought out of Egypt, as though the Lord were abandoning the nation to Moses, but Moses soon reminded Him that they were His people and that He had delivered them. Furthermore, God had made a covenant with their forefathers to bless them, multiply them, and give them their land (Gen. 12:1 3). Moses intended to hold God to His word, and that s what God wanted him to do. Exodus 32:15 (NKJV) 15 And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. 7

8 How many of you realized that the tablets containing the Ten Commandments were written on both sides with the finger of God why both sides? Probably to keep them small enough for Moses to carry (first compact Bible in history). One commentator suggests that God writing these Ten Commandments on both sides of these stone tablets meant He wrote using large letters so large that it left no space for additions. Exodus 32:16-17 (NKJV) 16 Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. 17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is a noise of war in the camp." All of this time Joshua had been waiting part way up the mountain for Moses who had gone up to the top to talk with God and receive His laws. Joshua didn t realize what was really going on down in the camp he thought it was the noise of war, but God had revealed to Moses it was the noise of drunken sinful partying. Exodus 32:18-19 (NKJV) 18 But he said: "It is not the noise of the shout of victory, Nor the noise of the cry of defeat, But the sound of singing I hear." 19 So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses' anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. The people had promised earlier (Ex.19:8) "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." And yet Moses didn t even get down from the mountain with God s laws before the people had already broken them which Moses then threw down the tablets and broke them as an illustration of this. (Comment) 8

9 Exodus 32:20 (NKJV) 20 Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. Unfortunately, we have a lot of people in our culture that drink their god. Exodus 32:21-24 (NKJV) 21 And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?" 22 So Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, 'Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' 24 And I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.' So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out." That s got to rank up in the top ten of the lamest excuses ever given and remember this was Aaron the High Priest! Aaron wasn t a strong leader he was a man pleaser. He excused himself and blamed the people for forcing him to make the golden calf. And his explanation for how the golden calf came about was the lamest part of all I threw the gold into the fire and poof out came this golden calf like magic! Now you might be wondering why God didn t strike Aaron dead for making this golden calf. Well, we read in Deut. 9 that it was only because Moses interceded for him that the Lord would not kill him 9

10 Deuteronomy 9:20 (NKJV) 20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. Exodus 32:25 (NKJV) 25 Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), The word unrestrained is the same Hebrew word used in Proverbs 29:18 Proverbs 29:18 (NKJV) 18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law. The idea that is being expressed in Ex.32:25 is that God s people had cast off all restraint with regard to His law and were now acting completely lawlessly sexually speaking. There is no greater danger than for people to cast off all restraint and do whatever seems right in their own eyes. As we have said numerous times, some of the darkest days in Israel s history were during the period of the Judges a time characterized by the phrase everyone did whatever seemed right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6) We see this casting off of God s laws in our own country where people are living unrestrained sinful lives morally, socially and spiritually this will only lead to judgment if we as a nation don t repent. The phrase, for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies carries the idea that, as the High Priest of the nation, it was his responsibility to uphold God s laws and demand that God s people obey them. 10

11 Instead, Aaron sought to be a man-pleaser instead of a strong leader Galatians 1:10 (NLT) 10 Obviously, I m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ s servant. When Christian leaders are men pleasers (which means they are soft on sin), the whole church gets soft on sin and unrestrained it is shameful because it gives the enemies of God a field day to mock and ridicule our God. 2 Samuel 12:14 (NKJV) 14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme " Exodus 32:26-28 (NKJV) 26 then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, "Whoever is on the LORD'S side--come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. 27 And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.' " 28 So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. There s a few things here we need to understand. Yes, God judged sin here pretty severely but He did give people a chance to repent first before He brought judgment. Secondly, this passage teaches that we re either for the Lord or against Him and loyalty to Him supersedes our loyalty to our physical families and our spiritual family in Christ. (Explain) 11

12 We can see how God dealt with sin in the camp of Israel back then and how the Church deals with sin in its midst today (not that we should kill anyone living in sin). Most churches won t confront sin with loving discipline and if need be cut people off from the fellowship who refuse to repent until they do. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. Paul had this in mind, and also how on the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out and the Church was born (Acts 2) how that three thousand were saved 2 Corinthians 3:6 (NKJV) 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (Comment) Exodus 32:29-32 (NKJV) 29 Then Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother." 30 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." 31 Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! 32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin--but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written." Moses is expressing a love for these people that could only have been put into his heart by God it s called agape love the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5) Paul had the same love for Israel 12

13 Romans 9:3 (NKJV) 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, Exodus 32:32 (NKJV) 32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin--but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written." Many believe the book Moses has in mind here is the Book of Life (mentioned in Revelation) Revelation 20:15 (NKJV) 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 21:27 (NKJV) 27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. (Explain) Others believe that the book Moses was referring to was the one David makes mention of in Psalm 69:28 Psalm 69:28 (NKJV) 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, And not be written with the righteous. This, many believe, was a reference to the census book that contained all who were living in Israel as the covenant people of God. If that s true than what Moses is saying is that if God refused to forgive the nation but was determined to wipe it out in judgment then Moses is saying let me suffer a premature death as well (but not suffer eternal torment in hell). 13

14 Exodus 32:33 (NKJV) 33 And the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. Ezekiel 18:20 (NKJV) 20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. There was only one Man that God allowed to die for the sins of others Jesus Christ! Moses couldn t die for the people s sins because he himself was also a sinner and sinners can t die for sinners. Only the sinless, spotless Lamb of God could die for the sins of mankind. Exodus 32:34-35 (NKJV) 34 Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin." 35 So the LORD plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. We re not told how the Lord plagued them exactly but I feel these were different kinds of sicknesses and diseases that He didn t protect them from because of their disobedience Exodus 15:26 (NKJV) 26 and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you." 14