THE GOLDEN CALF
Exodus 32-40
Key Verses
32:1-4 The people of Israel grew tired of waiting for Moses to come down off the mountain where he was meeting with God. So they pressured Aaron, saying, “We need spiritual guidance. Make some kind of idol to direct us. Moses could have died up on the mountain for all we know.” Aaron succumbed to their demands; he told them, “Remove the gold earrings you use to adorn yourselves and bring them here to me.” …Aaron then melted down all the gold ornaments and had them cast into the shape of a calf. The image was refined with a blacksmith’s tool and polished clean. Everyone was delighted, saying “Behold an image of the gods who brought us out of Egypt’s bondage!”
32:7-14 The Lord alerted Moses, saying, “You need to get back down to your people now, for they have fallen into corruption and abandoned the commandments I gave you for them. …Leave my presence now so I may give full vent to my holy anger and consume them entirely. You alone will I make into a great nation of people. …Moses, however, determined to use his favor with God on behalf of his people. He pleaded, “Dear Lord, if in your anger you consume the people you have brought out of Egypt, the Egyptians themselves will say it was only an evil divine ploy to destroy the Israelites. …Consider your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the covenant promise you made to them, swearing by your own holiness.” …And the Lord changed his mind, holding his anger in check and sparing the people from destruction.
32:15-19 Moses made his descent down off the mountain bearing the two stone tablets of testimony on which God had engraved his covenant with Israel. …As Moses approached the Israelite camp he heard the sound of wild partying. Drawing nearer, he saw the people dancing with abandon before the golden calf. Moses flew into a fury and smashed the stone tablets to pieces there at the foot of the mountain. He seized the golden calf and burned it in an open fire until it melted into a shapeless mass. Moses then ground the mass into powder that he mixed with water and made the people drink.”
32:25-28 Moses could see that the people had become unruly and that Aaron had no control over them whatsoever. So at the entrance to the camp Moses stood and declared, “If you are with the Lord in this matter over the golden calf, come join me at my side.” And all the Levities took their stand with him. Then Moses said to them, “This is the word of the Lord, ‘Buckle your swords on your side and go throughout the camp killing the idol-worshippers, whether they be brother, friend or neighbor.’” And the Levites did as Moses ordered, slaying some three thousand Israelites in the camp that day.
32:30-32 The following day Moses said this to the people: “All of you have committed the vilest of sins.” But I am going back into the presence of the Lord and attempt to reconcile you to him.” So Moses climbed back up the mountain and pleaded with God on their behalf: “O Lord, the sin of these people is so great, worshipping an idol-god of their own making. If you can find a way, please forgive their grievous sin. But if you cannot, then wipe my name also from your Book of Life.”
32:33-35 The Lord replied to Moses, “Only those who sin against me will be erased from my Book of Life. What is important for you now is to go and lead your people Israel to the land I have appointed for them. And take heart, my angel will lead the way for you. There will come a day of reckoning, however, when I will punish the people for their sin.” And the Lord allowed a contagious disease to break out among the people who worshipped the golden calf Aaron had cast for them.
33:1-17 The Lord directed Moses, saying, “Be on your way then. Take the people you led out of Egypt and guide them to the Land of Promise. …But I will not be present among you any longer because these people are stubborn and rebellious and I am likely to destroy them along the way.” …Moses said unto the Lord, “If you are not present with us, call off the order to go to the Land of Promise; for without your presence, how will anyone know that we are the people upon whom your favor rests? Is there any other reason we are different from all the other peoples of the earth?” The Lord answered Moses, saying, “I will do as you wish because you have won my favor and I have a very special relationship with you.”
34:1-7 The Lord then gave Moses these instructions: “Take an iron tool and chisel two stone tablets like the first ones I gave you. On them I will rewrite the words of the covenant that were smashed to bits when you broke the first tablets. Then rise early in the morning and climb to the top of Mount Sinai to meet me.” …So Moses followed God’s instructions and carried the two blank tablets up the mountain. …And the Lord appeared in a cloud before Moses and his presence passed in front of him, declaring, “I am the Lord who is full of compassion and grace, ever-patient, full of love and faithfulness for all, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But I will punish those whose guilt remains unforgiven with a penalty that extends to the offspring of the guilty for generations to come.”
34:8-11 Moses
bowed down and worshipped the Lord, saying, “Dear Lord, if my efforts to obey
you have pleased you, be present with us in our journey ahead. Although we are
a stubborn, obstinate lot, please forgive our sin and evil and claim us once
again as your own.” And the Lord replied to Moses, “Today I will reaffirm my
covenant of commitment to you and the people of Israel. Before them I will perform miracles
never before seen anywhere in the world.
But you all must obey the commands I give. Then I will dispossess every tribe
and nation that stands in your way.”
34:27-32 Then the Lord addressed Moses once again, saying, “You are to write down the words of the covenant that I made with you and the people of Israel.” So for the next forty days and nights Moses stayed on the mountain with God, sustained by the nourishment of God’s presence despite having nothing to eat or drink. And God etched into the tablets the ten words representing the hallowed covenant. Then Moses descended from the mountain carrying the tablets to the people. He could not see that his own face was radiating a holy light from his encounter with God. But Aaron and the rest of the Israelites saw its illumination and feared to approach him. Moses, however, called them to himself and gave to them the Lord’s commands. …After he finished, Moses covered his face with a veil so the people would not be intimidated.
[Then Moses directed the people to construct the tabernacle and altar with all its furnishings. And he put the stone tablets into the sacred chest, as the Lord had directed him.]
40:33-38 When the courtyard was finally completed, all the work of constructing the tabernacle was finished by Moses. Then the cloud of the Lord’s presence descended over the tabernacle…and the majestic glory of God filled it. On the days to follow, whenever the cloud of God’s presence rested over the tabernacle, the people remained camped wherever they were. But whenever the cloud lifted, they broke camp and followed the cloud to the next place it would settle. The cloud of the Lord appeared as dense, white mist during the daylight. At night, however, the cloud turned to fire, illuminating the whole encampment of the Israelites.
Basic Message
When Moses didn’t come down from the mountain, the people felt abandoned and asked Aaron to provide something tangible for worship and guidance. He responded by gathering their gold earrings and casting the image of a calf, which they used to worship and celebrate. God told Moses what had happened and sent him down the mountain, threatening to annihilate the people for their blasphemy. But Moses convinced God to change his mind and spare them.
Upon seeing the calf and the people celebrating, however, Moses grew angry himself. He smashed the tablets of the law and enlisted the Levites to kill several thousand of the people. Then the condemned the Israelites for their sin and went back up the mountain to seek God’s forgiveness for them, offering to die with the people if God withheld that forgiveness. God responded that he would not condemn someone who had not sinned against him and sent Moses back to get on with the job of leading the people to the Promised Land. However, a plague of punishment broke out among the Israelites, killing many.
God told Moses to go on to Canaan but he would not be personally present with the people. Moses protested that he would not go without God’s presence, appealing to their special relationship as a reason for God to change his mind—which he did. Then God told Moses to cut two stone tablets like the broken ones and come back up the mountain to meet with him once again. On the mountain Moses pleaded with God to forgive the Israelites and to travel with them. God’s response indicated that he would do so, based on the people’s recommitment to the covenant God would rewrite on the second set of stone tablets.
Afterward Moses returned to the people and publicly read the laws of the covenant. Then he had the tabernacle and all the furnishings constructed and placed the tablets of the law inside the sacred chest. God descended in a cloud upon the tabernacle as a visible presence among the Israelites. At night the presence of God was visible as a fire within the cloud. From then on, whenever the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, the people remained stationary. But whenever the cloud lifted, the people followed it to the next campsite.
Comments
* One wonders at how quickly the Israelites abandoned God’s laws and reverted to idol worship. Yet they thought Moses would not return and so developed their own form of worship, a fairly common response to anyone who lacks spiritual guidance. The calf replaced Moses as something tangible around which the Israelites could center their desire to worship. They had, after all, become accustomed to an intense spiritual experience and wanted more. It is notable that Aaron was complicit in the grave sin of idol worship, yet God still allowed him and his sons to be consecrated as priest. That allowance proved the point God made to Moses on the mountain when he described himself as endlessly patient and a God of love, mercy and grace.
* Several times in this section the scriptures say God changed his mind. Some may find that odd, yet it occurs elsewhere in the Bible. Notably, it always involves a change toward God being more compassionate. All the instances point out an invariable tension in scripture between God’s mercy and his judgment. He is merciful but he is also utterly holy, and his holiness requires that those who come into his presence (or he into theirs) be cleansed of their sin; for sin cannot coexist with divine holiness. The two are mutually exclusive. Remediation for sin is God’s way of dealing with it, either directly punishing those who sin or through propitiary measures involving a “scapegoat”.
* Beyond this point, the fact that God changes his mind in scripture highlights his interactive, personable nature and the unique relationship he was establishing with the people of Israel. The one, all-powerful God of the Universe was acting in such a way as to demonstrate his deep desire for a close, personal relationship with his people. This is one of the most profound and far-reaching thoughts in scripture, reiterated by the likes of David and many of the Prophets, and in the life of Jesus himself. The One through whom the worlds were created came into our world to engage each of us personally. There is nothing in life more dignifying.
* The personal nature of the relationship God was establishing with Israel shows forth in both the way Moses approached God and the way God treated Moses. Moses and God both spoke of the special nature of their relationship—that is, it was especially personal. Moses appealed to God on behalf of the sinful people by way of his specialness to God, and God responded favorably to Moses’ request because of that specialness. In this way, Moses represented the coming Christ, the only-begotten Son whose unique relationship to God—“very God of very God” as the Book of John phrases it—provided him the means to redeem humanity from the wages of sin and reconcile us all to God. Moses needed not only his special relationship with God but also the blood of sacrificial animals to deal with the sins of the Israelites. Jesus (God incarnate) did so through his own, freely offered blood—a one-time sacrifice that replaced the repeated sacrifices required of Moses.
Biblical Themes
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13
