Exodus Chapter 32
A. Israel steps into idolatry.
The Golden Calf
Each of our lives also have “golden calves” of our own. Remember that this Word has application in our own lives too! We all have something that displaces the primacy of God in our life.
Notice that this occurs when the leader is absent (Eve got into trouble when Adam was not present). Some scholars see 40 as the number of probation; Moses was gone 40 days and 40 nights on the mount.
1. (1) The people make a request.
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 for this Moses” - even through translation we can pick up the condescending nature of their speech.
“Man who ...” - God brought them out!
a. Moses delayed coming down from the mountain: This troubled the people of Israel. It is true that Moses delayed, but God had a wonderful purpose for Moses’ delay, and it would soon be over. Yet because the people couldn’t see the reason for the delay they allowed it to stumble them.
i. Moses was gone for forty days (Exodus 24:18). This probably seemed like a long time to the people, but a short time to Moses. Certainly, it was a short time related to the outworking of God’s plan for Israel.
ii. How we handle God’s ordained delays is a good measure of our spiritual maturity. If we allow such delays to make us drift off into sin or lapse into resignation to fate, then we react poorly to His ordained delays. If we allow such times to deepen our perseverance in following God, then they are of good use.
b. The people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him: This sinful impulse came first from the people, not Aaron. The episode of sin described in this chapter started at the impulse of popular opinion. This is an example of where the will of the people is not always the will of God.
i. This is true in society in general, but it is also true among God’s people. When it comes to representing God in the world and in serving mankind, there is danger in starting in what people want or what they feel that they need.
c. Come, make us gods that shall go before us: The people wanted gods to go before them, leading them 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.
i. “As later Israel wanted a human king, not the invisible divine king (1 Samuel 8:4-8), so now they want a god ‘with a face’, like everybody else.” (Cole)
ii. Centuries later, the Apostle Paul dealt with the same error with the Galatians: Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3) It is possible to begin the Christian life trusting Jesus, and then at a later time to trust self or one’s own spirituality. Following our own gods is no better for us than it was for ancient Israel.
d. We do not know what has become of him: Not knowing led Israel into sin. Frustrated because of this uncertainty, Israel turned to idolatry and sin.
i. “It is likely they might have supposed that Moses had perished in the fire, which they saw had invested the top of the mountain into which he went.” (Clarke)
ii. “The clause, ‘as for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt’ is deliberately cast in coarse language, thus revealing the attitude of the people who had relegated God’s works to a mere mortal.” (Kaiser)
2. (2-4) Aaron responds to the peoples’ request.
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.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 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!”
a. Break off the golden earrings… and bring them to me: God told Moses to receive a free-will offering to gather materials for the tabernacle (Exodus 25:1-7). Before Moses came down from Mount Sinai and received this God-commanded offering, Aaron received this offering of gold to make an idol.
i. The people were generous in response – all the people broke off the golden earrings… and brought them to Aaron. By nature, people are generous in what they give to their idols. We should be even more generous with what we give to the Living God.
ii. “Aaron instructed the people to ‘take off’ (paraq, lit. ‘tear off’; contrast laqah [‘take’] in 35:5) their ‘gold earrings.’” (Kaiser)
b. He fashioned it with an engraving tool: This wasn’t the Spirit-inspired craftsmanship of Bezaleel and Aholiab mentioned in Exodus 31:1-6. This was the sin-inspired work of Aaron. He thought it out, melted the gold, molded it, and fashioned it carefully with an engraving tool.
i. A molded calf: “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).”
c. Then they said, “This is your god”: Aaron did not anoint this thing as their god; he simply went along with the people as they proclaimed it as their god. He was probably flattered at their admiration of his creation.
i. 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 was an example of the one who leads by following popular opinion.
ii. “Jeroboam borrowed this statement when he installed the two golden calves at the division of the kingdom in 931 B.C. (1 Kings 12:28).” (Kaiser)
d. That brought you out of the land of Egypt: This shows the foolishness of idolatry. This statue of a calf did not exist the day before, yet they worshipped it as the god that brought them out of Egypt.
3. (5-6) Ungodly and immoral worship at the golden calf.
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.” 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.
“Feast to the Lord” - not to the golden calf. Also, feasts had not yet been ordained.
There are no feasts in the third or fourth month. Form of false ritualism.
This is an obvious intent to offend God. They were giving of themselves in rebellion. Only 5 months earlier they had sung: Ex 15:2.
Ex 20 has the 10 commandments, they broke all the commandments... Cf Acts 7, what they are specifically doing here is not so much worshiping the golden calf, but rejecting the set commandments and the worship that they were called upon to give. They are casting off allegiance to God, in their hearts they had turned back to Egypt (= the world). We too turn back to the world, replacing our allegiance. (Worshiped Egyptian gods, Josh 24:14; Deut 32, lacked faith) They were overthrown in the wilderness, 1 Cor 10:1-6. Rev 2 and 3 each letter aimed at “overcoming,” so that we are not overthrown. (1 John climaxes with “keep yourselves from idols.”)
The point of chapter 32 is not just the worship of the golden calf. There was golden calf worship in Egypt, the god of Apis (Neh 9:18; Ps 106:19; Jer 10:3-5). Ps 106:21-23, God would have wiped them out but Moses stood in the way, Moses is a type of Christ in the role of intercessor.
a. When Aaron saw it: Aaron was flattered by the enthusiastic response of the people. When he saw their devotion to this idol, he built an altar before it. He began to organize the worship of the idol he just made.
i. It was bad enough to have a golden calf the people praised for their escape from Egypt. This second step of Aaron’s was worse. He honored and sanctified the idol with animal sacrifice. He made the calf, and then he made the altar to worship it.
b. Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD: This shows that the creation and the worship of the golden calf was not a conscious rejection of the LORD. Aaron and the rest of Israel probably thought that they could give honor to the LORD through the golden calf.
i. Aaron was not crass enough to say, “Let’s do away with the LORD God.” As Israel saw it, Aaron didn’t take away the LORD God; he simply added the golden calf.
c. They rose early on the next day: They served their idol with eagerness, energy, and personal sacrifice. People usually find a way to rise early for the things that are really important to them. This shows that Israel was willing to give their time, their sleep, and their money in the service of this idol.
i. Offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings: “Aaron might make a calf, but the people made it a god, by adoring it.” (Trapp)
d. And rose up to play: 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.
i. “The verb translated play suggests sex-play in Hebrew… and therefore we are probably to understand drunken orgies.” (Cole)
ii. “The verb sahaq signifies drunken, immoral orgies and sexual play.” (Kaiser) One Hebrew dictionary uses the phrase “conjugal caresses,” as found in Genesis 26:8, 39:14 and 39:17.
iii. Less than two months before this, Israel heard the voice of God Himself thunder from heaven, audibly speaking the Ten Commandments to the nation. That dramatic experience, in and of itself, did not change their hearts. It made many of them desire a less demanding god.
iv. “It seems impossible that, so soon after receiving such a lofty revelation, Israel could fall so low: but Christian experience today is often the same.” (Cole)
B. The nature and result of Moses’ intercession.
1. (7-8) God tells Moses what is happening at the camp of Israel.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 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!’”
“Thy people” - He just disowned them...
a. For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt: God called Israel your people, in the sense that they belonged to Moses, not to God. In this God suggested to Moses that He had or was about to disown Israel.
b. They have turned aside quickly: This is almost an understatement. They didn’t wait long to go their own sinful way.
c. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it: God described to Moses everything that happened, and even quoted the words of the people in their idolatry. God knew exactly what happened. The people ignored God, but He did not ignore them.
2. (9-10) God’s amazing offer to Moses.
And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 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.”
a. I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people: God spoke as if He had seen enough, and He made a remarkable offer to Moses. If Moses would only agree, God would consume Israel and start over again with Moses (I will make of you a great nation).
i. Hypothetically, God could have done this and still fulfilled every promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It would completely change the place of Moses, making him the new “Abraham” of God’s plan for Israel. Moses had the opportunity to be as revered as Abraham was, and to be honored by every following generation.
ii. Stiff-necked: “This phrase, common in the Bible, is a farmer’s metaphor of an ox or a horse that will not respond to the rope when tugged.” (Cole)
b. Let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them: God did not ask for the opinion or participation of Moses in this matter. He simply told Moses, “Let Me alone so I can do this.” The clear impression was that if Moses did nothing, the plan would go ahead.
3. (11-13) Moses intercedes for Israel.
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? 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. 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.’”
Moses presents the case on several grounds: 1) ownership, your people; 2) His grace; 3) His Glory; 4) His Faithfulness.
Never want to give the opportunity for the enemies of God to blaspheme.
Lord’s faithfulness. Note “Abraham, Isaac and Israel” not “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Moses is reminding God of His promises (God hasn’t forgotten, Moses is showing that he too has not forgotten them).
a. Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God: Moses refused to do nothing. He did not fatalistically say, “Well, whatever God will do, God will do.” He pleaded with the LORD, according to what he believed to be God’s heart.
i. Moses’ prayer was not long but it was strong. “It is not the length, but the strength of prayer that appeals to heaven.” (Meyer)
ii. “Thus did Jehovah lead His servant into fellowship with the deepest things of His own heart. Therefore his intercession prevailed.” (Morgan)
b. Your people whom You brought out of the land of Egypt: In his prayer, Moses first gave the people back to God. “LORD, they belong to You and not to me. I don’t want to be god over these people; only You can do that.”
c. Your people whom You brought out of the land of Egypt: Moses then appealed to God on the basis of grace. “LORD, we didn’t deserve to be brought out of Egypt to begin with. You did it by Your grace, not because we deserved it. Please don’t stop dealing with us by grace.”
d. Why should the Egyptians speak: Moses next appealed to God on the basis of glory. “LORD, this will bring discredit to You in the eyes of the nations. The Egyptians will think of You as a cruel God who led your people out to the desert to kill them. Don’t let anyone think that of You, God.”
i. “Undoubtedly Moses was filled with compassion for the people, but his chief concern was for the honor of the name of God.” (Morgan)
e. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self: Finally, Moses appealed to God on the basis of His goodness. “LORD, keep Your promises. You are a good God who is always faithful. Don’t break Your promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.”
i. “In the want of other rhetoric, let Christians in their prayers urge with repetition. Lord, thou hast promised, thou hast promised. Put the promises into suit, and you have anything. God cannot deny himself.” (Trapp)
4. (14) God relents from His anger.
So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.
God does not change, here He wanted Moses to fight for it, to commit to being the intercessor. Moses as mediator.
Insubordination, alienation from God (Eph 4).
Heb 11, Moses as a type. (Phil 2:5-11; 1 Cor 10:31; Num 14; Deut 9).
There go you and I. We are no better. Look at Adam, Nadab and Abihu, Joshua with Ai... Always on the heels of a great victory that we have a dismal failure. The Holy Spirit is trying to teach us that we need a mediator. Moses is a type of Christ, here his role of intercession on behalf of his people.
a. So the LORD relented: God answered Moses’ prayer. God was going to destroy the nation – all Moses had to do was leave God alone and let Him do it. But Moses did not leave God alone; he labored in intercession according to what He knew of the heart of God.
b. So the LORD relented: In the King James Version this phrase is translated the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. Based on this, some believe God sometimes needs to repent of evil, or that God changes His mind.
i. It is helpful to read other translations of this passage.
· Then the Lord relented (NIV).
· So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people (NASB).
· The Lord turned from the evil which He had thought to do (Amplified).
· The Lord was moved with compassion to save His people. (Septuagint Bible).
ii. Numbers 23:19 says, God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Some say that these two passages contradict each other, and that Exodus 32 shows God repenting and changing while Numbers 23 says God never changes or repents. We can understand these passages by understanding that Moses wrote with what we call anthropomorphic, or “man-centered” language. He described the actions of God as they appeared to him. Moses’ prayer did not change God, but it did change the standing of the people in God’s sight – the people were now in a place of mercy, when before they were in a place of judgment.
iii. Also, we can say that God did not go back on His word to either Moses or Israel. We understand the principle that God’s promises of judgment are inherently meant to call men to repentance and prayer and therefore avert the judgment (Ezekiel 33:13-16).
iv. Some are frustrated because the Bible describes God’s actions in human terms, but they really cannot be described in any other way. “I suppose that I need not say that this verse speaks after the manner of men. I do not know after what other manner we can speak. To speak of God after the manner of God, is reserved for God himself; and mortal men could not comprehend such speech. In this sense, the LORD often speaks, not according to the literal fact, but according to the appearance of things to us, in order that we may understand so far as the human can comprehend the divine.” (Spurgeon)
c. The LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do: God did not destroy Israel, and He knew that He would not destroy Israel. Yet He deliberately put Moses into this crucial place of intercession, so that Moses would display and develop God’s heart for the people, a heart of love and compassion. Moses prayed just as God wanted him to – as if heaven and earth, salvation or destruction, depended on his prayer. This is how God waits for us to pray.
i. “We are not to think of Moses as altering God’s purpose towards Israel by this prayer, but as carrying it out: Moses was never more like God than in such moments, for he shared God’s mind and loving purpose.” (Cole)
ii. Living under the New Covenant, we do not have less privilege in prayer than Moses had. We do not have less access to God than Moses had. The only thing we may have less of is Moses’ heart for the people.
C. Moses confronts Aaron.
1. (15-18) Moses and Joshua hear the people in the camp.
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. Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. 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.” 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.”
Only two places in Scripture where there is an emphasis on something being written on both sides (that which condemns and that which redeems, Rev 5, sealed scroll).
a. Moses turned and went down from the mountain: In the midst of this great idolatry, Moses and Joshua came down from their extended time up on Mount Sinai. He carried the two tablets of the Testimony, written direction by the hand of God.
b. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God: It is significant that the tablets were written by God’s direct hand. All law and morality must come from God’s standard and character or be up to the opinion or changing values of men.
i. “For as he is the sole author of law and justice, so he alone can write them on the heart of man.” (Clarke)
ii. Under the New Covenant, God also promised to write His law: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people (Jeremiah 31:33)
c. There is a noise of war in the camp: We might say that Joshua was correct when he said this. However, the noise reflected a spiritual war instead of a material war.
2. (19-21) Moses puts an end to the disgrace and confronts Aaron.
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. 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. And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”
a. Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them: Israel broke the covenant by their idolatry and immorality with the golden calf. There was something appropriate about Moses breaking the stone tablets of the covenant at Israel’s breaking of the covenant.
i. Cole called the breaking of the tablets “a significant ceremonial act, not a mere exhibition of anger.” Moses acted out the broken law and covenant.
ii. Nevertheless, Moses had to deal with anger through much of his life. In anger he killed an Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-12). In anger he broke the tablets written by the finger of God. In anger he beat the rock God commanded him to speak to (Numbers 20:10-11). This last display of anger kept Moses out of the Promised Land.
b. He took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder: This idol had been the object of adoration and immoral rites; yet it seems that no one challenged Moses when he did this. Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the authority and strength of a man who had been with God – and all Israel knew it.
c. Made the children of Israel drink it: Moses ground up the calf and made the people drink it for several reasons.
· To show the so-called god was nothing and could be destroyed easily.
· To completely obliterate this idol.
· To make the people pay an immediate consequence of their sin.
· To make the gold of the idol absolutely unusable, being corrupted with bodily waste.
i. “The gold dust sprinkled on the water of the wady, flowing down from the mountain, the water that Israel must drink, reminds us of the ‘water of bitterness’ to be drunk by the wife suspected of unfaithfulness (Numbers 5:18-22).” (Cole)
d. What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them: This was a perceptive question. Moses understood that this plan didn’t originate with Aaron, but that he allowed it and implemented it.
3. (22-24) Aaron’s excuse.
So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 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.’ 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.”
a. Do not let the anger of my lord become hot: Aaron essentially asked Moses to calm down, and to not be so angry. Aaron had no sense of the greatness of his sin. He had no significant sense of the fear of the LORD.
b. You know the people, that they are set on evil: Moses knew this as well as Aaron did. Yet Moses had a sense of his need to restrain the evil of the people, while in this case Aaron actually encouraged and supported the sin of the people.
c. Make us gods that shall go before us: Aaron quoted the people exactly. But he lied when he described his own actions (I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out).
i. Aaron no doubt meant that this calf was produced by a miracle – it just happened. But Moses – and everyone else – could see the human engraving marks on it (Exodus 32:4). Aaron claimed this was a miraculous work, but the evidence of his workmanship was all over it.
ii. Aaron gave the classic “it just happened” excuse. But it didn’t just happen. Aaron thought it out, melted the gold, molded it, and fashioned it carefully with an engraving tool (Exodus 32:4).
iii. Aaron did this evil thing and made his excuse because at that moment, it seemed harder to stand for the LORD than to go along with the people, and Aaron took the path of least resistance. He was lazy. “Lazy people always find fault with their tools, and those who do not intend to work always find some excuse or other; and then they make up for their laziness by having a delicious spiritual dream. Have the nominally Christian people about us are dreaming; and they consider that thus they are doing the work of the LORD. They are only doing it deceitfully by putting dreaming into the place of real service.” (Spurgeon)
iv. “What a silly and ridiculous subterfuge!… Just like the popish legend of the falling of the shrine of our Lady of Loretta out of heaven! These legends come from the same quarter. Satan can provide more when necessary for his purpose.” (Clarke)
v. Aaron’s sin was so great that only the intercession of Moses saved his life. And the LORD was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. (Deuteronomy 9:20)
D. The call to side with either God or idolatry.
1. (25-26) Moses issues a challenge.
Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), 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.
a. The people were unrestrained: This shows how great the problem was. There is no greater danger than for people to cast off all restraint and do whatever seems right in their own eyes. The darkest days of Israel’s national history were characterized by the phrase, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6)
i. “The idea of the verb ‘to cast off all restraints’ is that of loosening or uncovering. It would appear that there was a type of religious prostitution connected with the people’s worship of the golden calf.” (Kaiser)
ii. In our modern culture we regard the absence of restraint as heaven on earth. But the Bible and common sense tell us that this kind of moral, spiritual, and social anarchy brings nothing but destruction.
iii. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12) When man follows his own instincts, his own inclinations, it leads to ruin. We need to follow God’s way, not our own.
iv. Unrestrained… not restrained: “The exact word used twice in this verse is found in the warning of Proverbs 29:18: ‘Where there is no revelation [i.e., the message from or attention to the Word of God], the people cast off all moral restraints [i.e., they become ungovernable]’.” (Kaiser)
v. God has given many restraints to us: the curbs of the fear of God, of family, of culture, of conscience, of law, even of necessity. But these restraints can be – and are being – broken down.
b. Whoever is on the LORD’s side; come to me: Moses gave the people of Israel the opportunity to make a stand for the LORD. The Levites, to their honor, sided with the LORD and with Moses. Sadly, they were the only significant group to come out clearly for God’s cause at the golden calf incident.
i. It only makes sense for us to be on our LORD’s side. He is our Creator, our Redeemer, our Preserver, and our Best Friend. Yet being on the LORD’s side requires something.
· Being on the LORD’s side requires decision.
· Being on the LORD’s side requires action.
· Being on the LORD’s side requires separation.
2. (27-29) The execution of 3,000.
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.’” So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. 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.”
Tribe of Levi, Gen 24, rough men.
No compromise. No covering up. No fooling around about sin. Types: our sword is the Word; 3000 slain, next time 3000 is seen is in Acts 2, 3000 saved!
Be consecrated unto the Lord, as He wants to bless you!
a. Let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor: In this case, siding with the LORD meant siding against some people. Those who were more interested in siding with all the people could never do what these Levites did.
i. “My one interest is into this separation between those who are ‘on the Lord’s side’ and those who worship their own god, and their own ideas, and their own thoughts.” (Lloyd-Jones)
b. About three thousand men of the people fell that day: It seems that the sin of Israel at the golden calf involved more than these 3,000 people. Yet these were undoubtedly those most flagrant in their idolatry and immorality, or these were the leaders of the sinful conduct.
E. Moses’ second intercession.
1. (30) Moses returns to intercede for the people.
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.”
a. Now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin: Moses already interceded for the people in Exodus 32:11-14. But he prayed again for them because now he saw the sin with his own eyes and was struck with the depth of the people’s sin.
b. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin: Moses also learned on Mount Sinai that God’s penalty for idolatry was death. He who sacrifices to any god, except to the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed (Exodus 22:20). He was more aware than ever of the distance between the people and God and sensed the urgency to intercede.
2. (31-32) Moses’ bold request on behalf of the people.
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! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”
a. Oh, these people have committed a great sin: Moses did not minimize the sin of the people or put it in soft terms. They were guilty of worshipping a god of gold.
i. People still worship gods of gold. In August of 1990 a man staggered to the steps of his Los Angeles office. Before he died of the gunshot wound to his chest, he called out the names of his three children. But he still had his $10,000 Rolex watch clutched in his hand. He gave his life for a god of gold.
b. Yet now, if You will forgive their sin: Moses knew the enormity of the people’s sin, yet he still asked for forgiveness. This was an appeal to the mercy and grace of God.
c. If not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written: Moses asked God to forgive Israel on the basis of his own sacrificial identification with the sinful people. If God would not forgive, Moses asked to be damned in sacrificial identification with his sinful people.
i. Moses felt that Israel had sinned so terribly that the blood of a goat or an ox couldn’t cover it; it had to be a man who suffered in their place. Therefore, he offered to be blotted out of God’s book if it could somehow rescue the people. God said “no” to the request of Moses; yet we can say that God looked ahead to the sacrifice of One greater than Moses who would give Himself for the people, bringing full and complete atonement.
ii. “He stands between the people and the wrath of God and says, ‘Punish me.’ He could not have borne it, of course, it was too much. And yet the noble spirit of Moses shines out so clearly in this great incident.” (Lloyd-Jones)
iii. Of course, this sacrificial heart was the same heart Jesus had in dying for our sins (1 Peter 3:18 and 2 Corinthians 5:21). The Apostle Paul also had some of this same heart of Jesus (Romans 9:3).
3. (33-35) The LORD’s response to the plea of Moses.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. 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.” So the LORD plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.
Don’t confuse the various books:
Num 14, the Book of the Wars of the Lord;
Ps 69:28 and Isa 4:3 Book of the Living; Mal 3:16, Book of Rememberance; Rev 20:12, Lamb’s Book of Life.
a. Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book: God agreed to spare the nation as a whole, but He definitely reserved the right to judge individual sinners.
b. Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you: This was God’s promise to stay faithful to Israel and to keep His presence with them (My Angel shall go before you).
c. I will visit punishment upon them for their sin: That entire generation of adult Israelites would never enter the promised land. That specific judgment had yet to be pronounced, but God knew it would happen.
d. So the LORD plagued the people: This probably describes the death of the 3,000 already mentioned in Exodus 32:28.
