Exodus 32

The Golden Calf

We are going to look at a story that many of you will be familiar with but maybe you only know the highlights from children’s Sunday School classes. I want to look at the story of the golden calf and understand every aspect of it on a deeper level than we did before, so turn with me to Exodus chapter 32.

Recap of Story

To begin really we need to make sure we are all on the same page as to the story so far. The Israelite people had been in the captivity of Egypt for generations and their culture had nearly been eradicated. God chose Moses to save the people and lead them out of captivity. After their freedom was won by God they were in the wilderness awaiting directions from God at Mount Sinai. God had called Moses up to the mountain once and he had returned with instructions from God and now Moses has been called up again and taken his assistant Joshua with him and left Aaron (his brother in law) and another man named Hur in charge of the people.

Moses has now been gone for forty days when we begin in chapter 32. Let’s look at verse one together.

Exodus 32:1 “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. 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.””

Impatience and Idolatry

The people of Israel had become impatient with God. They felt like they had been waiting at the mountain for long enough and wanted to move on with their lives. They come to Aaron and ask for him to make them gods to go before them. They are wanting to go under new leadership essentially. These people while yes they were Israelites had been in Egyptian captivity their whole lives. Not only that, but Egypt had worked to erase everything from their lives that made them Hebrew. Egypt had feared that they would rise up and revolt so they did not want them to be unified under that nationality. These people were likely worshipping the Egyptian gods while they were in Egypt and they now are saying that they want to return to the way they had worshipped before. They no longer wanted to serve this God that they could not see they wanted to have a physical entity to worship like they used to have.

We see their idolatry here but we also see their denial of what God had done for them. Notice who they say brought them out of Egypt, not God but Moses. They denied the works of God and only saw it as a work of Moses and even him they were willing to give up on and abandon. See that they did not suggest anyone go check on him to make sure he was ok, they just wanted to abandon him and his God all together. This shows us the truly selfish and wicked hearts that these people possessed.

Well after they come and ask Aaron to make new gods for them Aaron tells them to bring them all of their golden rings. He takes those rings and fashions it into a golden calf for them to worship. He tells them that these are your gods who brought you up from Egypt. Again even Aaron who is supposed to be leading these people in Moses’ abscence is denying who truly freed them form Egypt.

We are not that different from these people though. We often have idols of our own, and no we don’t worship them in the way that the Israelites bowed down and worshipped this golden calf but we still commit idolatry. Idolatry really is just placing something at a higher place in our lives than where we place God. We so often can be devoted to school, work, sports, relationships, drugs, money, really anything can become an idol in our lives if we let it. But, look at verse five and see what Aaron says here.

Exodus 32:5 “When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.””

Look at the word Lord here. In Hebrew the word used here is Yhwah which we typically pronounce as Yahweh though we do not actually know how they would have pronounced this word as they never spoke it out loud. This was the name for God and they held such a respect for it that they didn’t speak this only wrote it.

So, why is Aaron using the name for God if they are worshipping idols now? Aaron knows what they are doing is wrong and is trying to mask it by using the name of God and saying it is for Him. This is not the only time we see idolatry in this form in scripture. Think of the Pharisees. They worshipped the law. They said it was God who they were worshipping but they had really made God’s own laws into an idol. I see this in the world today in progressive Christianity. They claim that they worship the same God as us and that they worship Jesus, but in their actions we can see that those words are empty and that what they truly worship is themselves and their own feelings.

That’s what is going on at the base of the mountain, but meanwhile at the top of the mountain Moses is still being instructed by God. Let’s cut to their conversation and see what God has to tell Moses now.

Exodus 32:7–8 “And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ””

Gods Wrath

Notice what God tells Moses to do. He says go down to YOUR people. Not His people anymore but telling Moses that they are his now. God is saying ok if it was Moses that brought you out of Egypt then maybe it is Moses who you belong to and not to me.

He tells Moses what they have done down below them and continues in verse nine.

Exodus 32:9–10 “And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.””

God then says matter of fact Moses I am just going to destroy them all and restart with you. God has had it with the Israelites. After all that He had done for these people and they still refuse to recognize who saved them.

Moses responds by begging God for their lives. He asks God to spare the Israelites, not just so that they would not meet their end, but we see in Moses intercession on their behalf that it is Gods glory that is Moses’ chief concern. He talks to God about how the Egyptians would either think Him weak or cruel if they heard about them being slaughtered here. Instead God should continue with His plan to bring them to the promised land so that Gods name would be glorified.

Does God Change His Mind?

Verse fourteen then tells us that after hearing Moses out God relents and does not destroy the people of Israel. So, did Moses change Gods mind? That was the question I had when I read this and had to wrestle with because God is unchanging, the same yesterday as He will be tomorrow. God is also omniscient meaning that Moses did not tell Him anything He did not already know so it does not make sense to say that He changed His mind here. Then what was going on?

It is my opinion that God was testing Moses. He tells Moses to leave Him alone meaning don’t bother trying to convince me otherwise and then promises that He will still make a nation out of just him instead. He does this to show if Moses truly cares for Gods glory chiefly and the good of the people secondly.

Why are we tested?

That brings up a new question though. If God knows everything then why does He test people? Does He not already know the outcome of the tests? Yes, He already knew what Moses would do in this situation, the test was not for God. The test was for us. God tests people like Moses or like Job or any other character in scripture not so that He can see their resolve but so that they can show it to the world around them thus bringing more glory to God and bringing more people to Him. We are tested as believers too. God puts us in situations that pushes our limits sometimes so that we can make the right choices and bring glory to Him which is why we see bad things happen to good people.

Now back to our story. After God relents from destroying the Israelites below Moses goes down to set the record straight. He comes down the mountain and can hear the sounds of the people partying as he approaches. When he gets to them he sees them dancing and celebrating around the calf and becomes enraged. He takes the golden calf and grinds it down into a powder to mix into water and make all Israelites drink it. Then he goes to Aaron and says basically what did these people do to you that you decided to bring this sin onto them. Moses is letting Aaron have it and Aaron tries to explain the situation and how the people are set on doing what is evil.

Look at verse 25 to see Moses response.

Exodus 32:25–27 “And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’ ””

Merciless Purging of Sin

Moses has no mercy for sin. He first calls to him those who are on Gods side. Not on his side, but Gods. Moses orders them to go and kill their brothers and companions and neighbors. When he says this he does not specifically mean that in each situation, he is just saying that they may be called to kill people who they know and though of as close before. Notice though they are only ordered to kill those who are out and about going about their day as if nothing happened. Moses is looking for the people who are unrepentant. The people who are out in the streets instead of finding seclusion to beg God for forgiveness. He is culling the evil and wicked from the flock to protect everyone else.

When we have sin in our lives we need to be just as thourough in our purging of it. And sometimes that means getting rid of things that we love and it will hurt to cut it out of our lives but to protect the rest of our lives we need to be willing to make sacrifices.

After this purging Moses returns to God and begs for forgiveness on their behalf saying that if you are going to blot them out then please blot him out to. This to me shows Moses taking responsibility for the people of Israel and being a good Godly leader instead of throwing the blame onto Aaron.

Through Gods Strength

God tells Moses that he will blot out the ones who have sinned against Him but as for the rest Moses will continue to lead them to the promised land. God then sends a plague to finish off any of the unrepentant evil that was still lurking in the camp. You see while on our own we may be able to get rid of some evil in our lives, but we cannot totally eradicate it. It is only through the power of God that sin can be defeated and removed wholly from our lives. We must rely on His strength to defeat sin.