Verse 1. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the
mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto
him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the
man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wet not what is become
of him.
What a terrible speech to be made by the people whom God had chosen to be
his own! “Make us gods. Make our Creator.” How could that be?
2. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the
ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto
me.
Poor Aaron! He never had the backbone of his brother Moses. He was a better
speaker; but oh, the poverty of his heart! He yields to the will of these
idolatrous people, and bows to their wicked behests at once.
3. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their
ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
Idolaters spare no expense; there is many a worshipper of a god of wood or
mud who gives more to that idol than professing Christians give to the cause
of the one living and true God. It is sad that it should be so.
4. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool,
after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O
Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
This was an Egyptian idolatry, the worship of God under the fashion of an
ox, the emblem of strength; but God is not to be worshipped under emblems at
all. What a poor representation of God any emblem must be!
5. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made
proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
They were going to worship Jehovah under the emblem of an ox. This is what
you will hear idolaters say; they do not worship the image, they say, but
the true God under that image. Yet that is expressly forbidden under the
second commandment.
6. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and
brought peace offerings; and the people eat down to eat and to drink, and
rose up to play.
Lascivious games were sure to accompany idolatrous worship, for idolatry
always leads to filthiness in some form or other, as if it were inevitable.
7. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which
thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
How startled Moses must have been when Jehovah said this to him!
8, 9. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them:
they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have
sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the LORD said unto Moses, I
have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff necked people.
Moses perhaps begins to lift his voice in prayer, and God says:
-10.Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and
that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
“I will keep my promise to Abraham by destroying these rebels, and taking
thee, his true descendant, and fulfilling the covenant in thee.”
11-13. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy
wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the
land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 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. Remember
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou awarest by thine own
self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of
heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed,
and they shalt inherit it for ever.
What a brave prayer this was! Here is a wrestling Moses, true son of
wrestling Israel; and he brings his arguments to bear upon Jehovah when he
is angry, and he succeeds in turning aside the Lord’s wrath.
14, 15. And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his
people. And Moses turned, and went down from the mount,
An unhappy, broken-hearted man, going from the closest communion with God,
down into the midst of a wicked people.
15-17. And the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were
written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they
written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the
writing of God, graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise of
the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in
the camp.
Joshua had probably waited lower down, and he met Moses in his descent. He
heard with the quick ears of a soldier, and his thoughts went that way.
18, 19. And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery,
neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise
of them that sing do I hear. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh
unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed
hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the
mount.
This is he who had been praying to God, and saying, “Why doth thy wrath wax
hot against thy people?” Now he is in deep sympathy with God, and he is
himself angry with the idolaters. He cannot help it when he begins to see
their sin. Before, he had only thought of the people; but now he looks at
their sin. When you see sin, if you are a man of God, your wrath waxes hot,
and you get into sympathy with that holy God who cannot be otherwise than
indignant at iniquity wherever it may be.
20. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and
ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of
Israel drink of it.
See the power of this one man who has God at his back, and God in him. While
the people are dancing around their idol, he tears it down, grinds it to
powder, and says, “You shall drink it every one of you.” Why, there are
millions to one; but what cares he about their millions? God is with him,
and he is God’s servant; and, therefore, they all tremble before him.
21-24. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou
hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of
my Lord was hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For
they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this
Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what
is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them
break it off so they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there
came out this calf.
That was a lie, for he had made the calf, and shaped it himself. Aaron had
not any backbone, nor any principle, he could not he stout-hearted for God.
What a poor little man he seems by the side of his great brother! How he
shrivels up under the rebuke of Moses!
26. And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them
naked unto their shame among their enemies:)
Moses does not spare Aaron, he lays at his door the guilt of the great sin
he had committed: “Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their
enemies.
26, 27. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the
LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered
themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD
Clod of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from
gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every
man his companion, and every man his neighbor.
This is the man who pleaded for them on the top of the mount. See how he
acts in the sight of their sin; by divine authority, he smites them right
and left. Possibly, those who were slain were the men who refused to drink
the water on which the powder had been sprinkled, or those who continued in
rebellion against the Lord.
28-30. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and
there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses had
said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son,
and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. And
it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have
sinned a great sin; and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall
make an atonement for your sin.
I will be bound to say that this was said after a sleepless night. The
people’s sin is now so vividly before him that he begins to feel that God
will be just if he punishes them, and does not grant them any forgiveness,
so he goes once more up that steep climb to the top of Sinai with a
trembling heart, and with only a “peradventure” on his lip.
31, 32. And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have
sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt
forgive their sin-,
There he broke down, he could not finish that sentence.
32. And if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast
written.
“Let me die in their stead!” But God could not accept one man in the stead
of another; there is a great Substitute, ordained of old, but he is more
than man, and therefore he can stand in the sinner’s stead.
33-36. And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him
will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place
of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee:
nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. And
the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.
Moses had only half success in pleading for the people; they were not to die
as yet, but God declared that he would visit their sin upon them.
In Celebration of Life in Him,
Dr. Jim DeBruhl, gembeaux@bellsouth.net
