OT Study: Exodus Part 5

Review

In the last section we learned that as a result of God establishing a covenant relationship with His people He will live in their midst. In chapters 25-31 God instructed Moses in how to build the dwelling place of God, the Tabernacle. It is in the details of this building that we saw how the Tabernacle relates back to creation. It is a microcosm of the earth and in every detail it demonstrates how the glory of God’s presence is to fill the entire earth just as it does the Tabernacle. We also saw that there was to be a veil and a priesthood, showing that not just anyone can behold God’s glory and that no one can behold Him fully for He is perfectly holy and mankind is not. There must be some separation and there must be some mediation between the people of Israel and God. 

Main Point & Structure

The main point of this section is to show how, in the Mosaic Covenant, God officially establishes the people of Israel as His nation and how He reveals His holy and gracious name through His Law and His Nation. 

Preparation for the Meeting on Sinai ()

Giving of the Covenant ()

Ratification of the Covenant ()

Instructions for the Tabernacle Worship ()

The Golden Calf ()

Moses’ Intercession (32:30-33:16)

God’s Presence Revealed ()

God’s Covenant Renewed ()

Sabbath and Tabernacle ()

The Presence of God Amongst His People ()

5. The Golden Calf ()

A. The Golden Calf Event (32:1-6)

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.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 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.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

It is important to consider the timing of this event. After Aaron and the Elders returned from Sinai where they shared a meal with YHWH, Moses stayed behind to receive further instruction about the Tabernacle. The people were filled with doubt because Moses didn’t come down with the rest of the Elders. He was on the Mountain with God learning of how God was to dwell with His people and exist in a beautiful and holy relationship there in their midst. They had just gathered together to hear Moses reveal the 10 commandments. They had just pledged full obedience to all the Words of God and had just performed a covenant ceremony in order to make the covenant official. But here, just a few moments later they gathered together to break the 10 commandments and make an idol out of a golden calf. 

They approach Aaron, the representative of Moses, the mouthpiece of YHWH, and they demand that he make them gods to go before them. This phrase was first used by God when He declared that He would go before them as they left Egypt. What they want to do here is replace YHWH with paganism similar to what they had in Egypt. They also declare that it was Moses who brought them out of Egypt, not YHWH. In a sense they have declared that they are atheists when it comes to YHWH. They don’t just reject Him. They refuse to acknowledge His existence. Remember that God’s presence was right there before them in the form of a thick, dark cloud. His presence was causing the rocks at Sinai to burn and the Mountain itself to shake. This is accentuated by their statement that they have no clue what happened to Moses. They had just heard God audibly call Him and the other Elders up to Sinai for the meal they shared with YHWH. Their willful blindness is absolutely delusional. In saying this they broke the 1st commandment. 

See too how Aaron doesn’t even put up a fight. He takes all their gold that they received when they left Egypt and he made a golden calf for them. He then declares to them the this idol was what brought them out of Egypt, not YHWH. In making this idol and worshipping it, Israel broke the 2nd commandment. Moreover, when they gave Aaron their gold jewelry they were giving him that which was supposed to be set aside for the construction of the tabernacle. In doing this they broke the 8th commandment for they stole from that which belonged to God and His tabernacle. After fashioning the golden calf, Aaron declares that the next day would be a feast in the name of YHWH. Even though Aaron had not completely rejected the existence of YHWH, his proclamation was a blatant violation of the 3rd command of taking YHWH’s name in vain. He declared that they would be worshipping YHWH but in reality they were sacrificing on an altar to the golden calf. This was also a violation of the 4th Command, where God instructed them to follow His worship schedule of celebrating the sabbath and the other regular feasts as He had ordained.

In this feast they performed burnt offerings, signifying total dedication to this golden calf and peace offerings which celebrated the relationship and fellowship that they had with this golden calf. These were the exact same sacrifices they had performed in the covenant ceremony with YHWH after they heard the 10 commandments. The text then says they sat down to eat, drink and play. This is a phrase used to describe pagan worship celebrations that were filled with gluttony, drunkenness and sexual perversions of all types. In doing this the Israelites violated the commandments against adultery, stealing and covetousness (7, 8 and 10). An argument can be made that in using his authority to organize this pagan feast, Aaron violated the essence of commandment 5, to honor God given authority for he used that authority to organize idol worship. When Moses comes down and confronts Aaron, he lies and bears false witness against the Israelites in order to claim innocence, thus breaking Commandment 9. Lastly, there is an argument to be made that since most pagan feasts included infant sacrifice, this feast could have included murder, a violation of Commandment 6.  Regardless of if this occurred or not, in this terrible event God’s people broke almost all, if not all, of God’s Law. 

B. God’s Wrath (32:7-14)

7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

10 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.” 11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O 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? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against 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 offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

The scene then shifts to God and Moses on the Mountain. It is there that we see that God demanded immediate action for Israel’s idolatry. Moreover, He calls them “your people”. They declared that it was Moses who brought them out of Egypt, and God responds by declaring that they are no longer His people. The relationship was violated by their sin and here God breaks it off. The punishment for violating just one of the commandments was judgement and wrath from God. They broke all of the commandments and God’s justice and holiness demanded that His wrath be poured out on them. 

So then God reveals to Moses the actions that His just wrath should take, so that Moses will be set up in the role of a mediator. God is all-knowing and He is all sovereign, so He was not caught off guard by the idolatrous sin of Israel. In His sovereignty He planned for Moses to respond the way that he did in order to lay the foundation for how His wrath against sin can be appeased by a mediator. Notice how Moses pleads with God for mercy based on God’s ultimate plan for displaying His maximum glory to the world and His unending faithfulness to His promises. If God carried out His just wrath, His name would not be exalted amongst the nations and the promises that He made to the forefathers of Israel would not be completely fulfilled. Ultimately, Moses is pleading for God’s mercy based on God’s will for the world and for Israel that He has revealed in the book of Genesis and in bringing the people out of Egypt in the Exodus. 

The english translators translate verse 14 with terms like God relented, or repented from His plan. However this does not capture the essence of what is said in the Hebrew. The word translated here “relented” comes from the Hebrew stem nahum which means “comfort”. The idea here is that through the intercession of Moses, the all consuming calamity that was the proper expression of God’s just wrath was no longer an impending certainty. It was through the sovereignly ordained mediation of Moses that God’s burning anger was calmed and comforted.  The question is: how can God not do this and still remain just and holy? 

C. Moses’ Confrontation of the People (32:15-29)

15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.20 He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it. 21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, ‘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.’24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” 25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), 26 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. 27 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.’” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

After humbly pleading for mercy for the people of Israel, Moses is filled with righteous anger when he comes down from the Mountain and sees the terrible sin that the people are committing. By breaking the two tablets Moses was symbolizing how Israel had broken the commandments and thereby broken the covenant. They had violated the intimate relationship that God had established and in breaking the two tablets Moses was demonstrating that this relationship was over. In essence, this was an act of divorce. 

Moses then forces the people to experience the pain and grief that their idolatry had caused. He ground the calf down into a powder and mixed it with water and forced the people to drink. This would have caused terrible stomach pain and violent vomiting and defecation. Moses then confronts Aaron for leading the people in their rebellion.  Aaron responds with a bold faced lie, declaring that he was forced to make the golden calf. He stated that he really didn't fashion it either, but that it just appeared out of the fire. 

Even though God did not consume the entire nation with His wrath, blood still must be spilled for breaking the covenant. Moses calls out to any who remained loyal to God and refrained from worshipping the golden calf and only the sons of Levi came to his side. This righteous remnant was instructed to judge the rest of the nation for their sin by killing those who had engaged in worshipping the golden calf. They were to kill all who had sinned, no matter their relationship to that person. This act of loyalty also led the Levites to become the priestly tribe who were to be ordained for service to God. There is no real end to this killing that is mentioned, implying that every Israelite who sinned deserved to die at the hands of the Levites. 

6. Moses’ Intercession (32:30-33:16)

A. Moses Mediation and God’s Verdict

30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” 33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” 4 When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.

Before the killing started the next day Moses returned to the Lord to attempt to make atonement for their sin. Moses interceded for the people of Israel before so he returns to Sinai to and propose a substitution. He pleads with God to punish him by taking his life so that the people of Israel would be spared and forgiven. But Moses isn’t the right mediator for this type of sacrifice. He can’t substitute his life for theirs because he is a sinner too. God refuses to blot him out but what He does do is forgive His people. The killing is to stop and they shall go on and be led to the promised land. However as we see in 33:3, God will not go up with them. Their sin has been forgiven but the relationship as not been restored. God will remain true to the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but that does not mean that He is bound to restore the relationship that was promised in the Mosaic covenant. This news devastated the people and they were filled with great mourning. 

C. Moses Outside the Camp ()

7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. 10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Even though God no longer dwelt in their midst, He continued to meet with Moses outside the camp. He has not completely left them and Moses continues to act as a mediator between the people and God. Every time that Moses would enter the tent of meeting YHWH would descend in the pillar of cloud (remember that we learned that this is the pre-incarnate Christ) and there YHWH would speak with Moses. The people saw this and they waited at the front of their tents hoping that God will again dwell with them. Moses longs for the relationship to be restored as well and he pleads with God to make the nation His people once more and dwell with them. In verse 14, we see God’s answer, ““My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Not only has God forgiven them, He has decided to restore them to the relationship that they had before. He promises to give them rest, a reference back to the Edenic/Sabbath rest that God is returning the world too. He is restoring His relationship with Israel and He is restoring Israel’s role in God’s redemptive plan. 

7. God’s Presence Revealed ()

18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

This act of marvelous mercy and grace seems too good to be true and Moses pleads with God to authenticate His promise by showing His glory to Moses. ‘He longs for God to reveal who He is so that He knows that His merciful actions are true. No other god in the other gentile religions would act like YHWH has acted and Moses wants to know that these actions are based in who YHWH is. God doesn’t have to grant Moses request but He does.

Before in , God only revealed His name, YHWH, to Moses in the burning bush. Here YHWH will reveal the fullness of who He is as YHWH to Moses. This revelation will be a form of security for Israel’s forgiveness and restoration. God declares that after showing Moses His glory He will write the commandments on Two Tablets again, symbolizing that the relationship established by the Mosaic Covenant has been officially restored. Again, notice how it is the Angel of the Lord in the Cloud that appears. He is the one who calls on the name of the Lord and reveals YHWH’s character. Understand that in this moment, the Ultimate Mediator, the Pre-incarnate Christ,  is the one who is interceding between YHWH in Heaven and Moses and Israel on earth. 

In verse 6, YHWH declares the attributes of His character. He is merciful and compassionate. This carries the idea of a loving mother who cares deeply, and intimately for her child with unending empathy. He is gracious in a way that is a proactive outpouring of divine power for His people’s ultimate good. He is slow to anger which means that He is extremely patient in expressing His displeasure, wrath and judgement. Lastly He is abounding in lovingkindness and truth. He never runs out of these. The idea of lovingkindness is that God is filled a loyal love that leads Him to powerfully intervene on the behalf of His people for their good. This word lovingkindness is the OT equivalent of grace. God abounds in truth for everything that He does is right, pure, real and genuine. There is nothing that is fake, or false or faulty in who God is. In , John uses this phrase, stating that Jesus is full of grace (lovingkindness) and truth, clearly testifying that Jesus is the same God who has this name and this essence. 

In verse 7, YHWH declares the perpetual actions that flow from His character. First, He is one who keeps lovingkindness. God is actively seeking to pour out His grace on His people. Moreover, His lovingkindness does not fade or diminish. He is a God who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. The idea of the word for forgive is to lift your sins off of you so that He no longer sees your sin anymore. A transgression is a deliberate and willful violation of a command. The word for sin carries the idea of a breach of contract or standard where you either do something that violates the contract or you do not act how the contract demands. Iniquity is the legal guilt that is placed on those who transgress and sin. Here we see that God forgives it all. He forgives the transgression and sin and He forgives the guilt that comes with those. Lastly we see that God does not clear the guilty. There is a tension here. He forgives sin and iniquity, but He does not forgive unjustly. God is just and He must punish sin. Someone will be judged for sin. This is what we just saw. 3000 people were killed as punishment for their sin. But God forgave the rest of the nation of Israel and here restored the relationship. So then who bore their sin? Moses tried to be that substitutionary sacrifice, but God turned him down. So then who is punished? How is God just in forgiving Israel and restoring a relationship to them? This is the tension that Exodus sets up. 

As I previously stated, there is no other deity in any other religion who acts like this. This is what distinguishes God. As Micah puts it in , “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever. because he delights in steadfast love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” Israel must depend on God alone to intervene in order that they might live and also experience a reconciliation with God. This is the nature of God’s love and His grace. 

8. God’s Covenant Renewed ()

27 And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. 29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

As previously stated, God covenants again with Israel and He wrote these covenants on two tablets just as before. God’s forgiveness and His reconciliation is so powerful it is as if the golden calf incident has been erased from memory. This is the covering nature of God’s love and His grace. 

Notice that when Moses returns from witnessing God’s glory, his face shines for it is reflecting the glory of God’s presence. The people are terrified at this for they know that they are sinful. Even though all is restored and forgiven, there is still a separation that exists. God’s glory can not be beheld by unholy people. So Moses veiled His face, much like the veil that was described in the holy of holies. However, there is another layer to this. By communing with God, Moses was being transformed. This is what Paul picks up on in , “16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. We who live in the New Covenant can be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and this indwelling transforms us from one degree of glory to another on a level that is even greater than what Moses experienced. 

9. Sabbath and Tabernacle ()

A. Sabbath Reinstituted (35:1-3)

1 Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. 2 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.

After this, Moses assembled all the congregation together, just as He did when He inaugurated the covenant the first time. He declares that they are to again keep the Sabbath holy thus demonstrating that Israel is still allowed to keep their role as a kingdom of priests to the nation showing that the Sabbath rest experienced in Eden is possible through worshipping YHWH. 

B. Tabernacle Construction (35:4-39:44)

5 Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution: gold, silver, and bronze; 10 “Let every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded:

29 All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.

5 and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.” 42 According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the people of Israel had done all the work. 43 And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them.

In Chapter 35 we see that Israel is called to contribute with a willing heart. They are all allowed to have a personal involvement in the building of the tabernacle, both men and women. They contribute both their things and their skilled labor. They are so willing to worship God in this way that they give more than what is needed. In this account we see that the people follow God’s instructions from chapters 25-28 in exact detail. They are willing, they are giving above and beyond and they are obeying God in every detail. This is the proper response to God’s forgiveness and reconciliation - perfect and willful obedience. 

It is important to notice here that they are to build the Tabernacle from the inside out. They start in the Holy of Holies and eventually finish in the outer court. This is symbolic of the nature of their relationship with God. God dwells among them, however, because of their sin, they must remain separate from God’s holy presence. They dwell with God, but at a distance. In 39:42-43 we see echos back to . There God made the world and  saw all that He had made and blessed it. Remember that the Tabernacle is a microcosm of the world. After the Tabernacle was finished, Moses saw all that had been done and he blessed the people. Even though there is separation in the Tabernacle between God and man because of their sin, ultimate the Tabernacle brings hope that things will return to how they were before sin entered the world. 

10. The Presence of God Amongst His People ()

34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 36 Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. 37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

After the Tabernacle is completed the glory of God’s presence enters the Holy of Holies. God had every right to terminate His covenant with His people. He had every right to no longer dwell with them but He does because He is a God who is gracious, and compassionate, abounding in lovingkindness, and forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. In this moment we also see His plan for redemption continue. The Tabernacle is a microcosm for the world, so when His glory fills the Tabernacle it looks forward to that day when His glory will fill the entire earth.  

The book ends by revealing that even Moses couldn’t even enter the tent. There is a tension. God dwells with man, but even the most righteous man is unable to stand before Him because he too is a sinner. The question is, how can sinful man dwell with a holy God? How can God justly forgive sin and reconcile with sinners?  How can the relationship that Adam had with God in the garden be restored? These are the questions that Exodus sets up for the rest of the Bible to answer. 

Questions for Application

What attributes and character traits about God do we see in this section

What do we learn about the nature of sin from Israel and the golden calf 

What do we learn about the nature of a mediator from the actions of Moses?

What do we learn about the nature of salvation from God’s actions towards Israel