Restoration of Covenant Relationship

One would think that by the time the Levites had finished their work, with all its carnage, God was finished dealing with Israel’s sin. The golden calf had been destroyed. Aaron had been confronted. The people had tasted the bitterness of their idolatry. The ringleaders of the rebellion had all been put to death. But there was a still a problem, as James Boice explained in his exposition of this passage:

From a human point of view Moses had dealt with the sin. The leaders were punished. Aaron was rebuked. The allegiance of the people was at least temporarily reclaimed. All seemed to be well. But … God still waited in wrath upon the mountain. What was Moses to do?… By that time not all of the law had been given, but Moses had received enough of it to know something of the horror of sin and of the uncompromising nature of God’s righteousness. Had not God said, “You shall have no other gods before me”? Had not he promised to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations? Who was Moses to think that the limited judgment he had begun would satisfy the holiness of such a God?

[James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1986), pp. 253, 254.]

It is true: the people had suffered for their sin, but they had not yet satisfied the wrath of God. In breaking God’s blood covenant, they deserved to die. God had promised not to destroy them, but what could make atonement for the guilt of their sin? Was their anything their mediator, Moses, could do? Even he wasn’t sure.

Recognizing sin is the first step to restoration. Moses is seeing to it that repentance for the sin occurred even if the people made little show of repenting.

1. The Offer of Moses, 32:30-32

-Moses makes certain that the Israelite people know that they have sinned a great sin and have a great need for repentance. If there was no sin, there would be no need for repentance.

Dr. Boice imagines Moses struggling to figure out what he was going to say to God and then finally getting the first inkling of their salvation:

The night passed, and the morning came when Moses was to reascend the mountain. He had been thinking. Sometime during the night a way that might possibly divert the wrath of God against the people had come to him. He remembered the sacrifices of the Hebrew patriarchs and the newly instituted sacrifice of the Passover. Certainly God had shown by such sacrifices that he was prepared to accept an innocent substitute in place of the just death of the sinner. His wrath could sometimes fall on the substitute. Perhaps God would accept … When morning came, Moses ascended the mountain with great determination. Reaching the top, he began to speak to God.

[James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1986), p. 254]

2. God turns the offer down, 32:33-35

Verse 33 - Now God offers Moses a correction to his appeal on behalf of the Israelites. Moses cannot volunteer on behalf of others; only Christ can be a substitute for sinners. If He is not the substitute, sinners will bear their own judgment. If they are guilty, they will be judged. Corporately, the nation sinned against the LORD; here the LORD emphasizes the individual who has sinned (“Whoever”). He will hold individuals responsible for their sin.

Verse 34 - God then sets Moses on his next task: to lead the people to the promised land, Canaan. He encourages and comforts Moses by the promise of the LORD’s Angel who would go before them. This indicates that the LORD has forgiven the people. But the LORD reserves the right to chasten His forgiven people. This is a message we don’t want to hear; we want forgiveness and no punishment, but it does not work that way. God forgives but to help us not to sin again, He inflicts the rod of chastisement upon the sinner (Psalm 99:8)

Psalm 99:8 NASB95

O Lord our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God to them, And yet an avenger of their evil deeds.

God’s people do not lose their salvation when they sin; however, they may lose a lot of blessings on this earth as a result of their sin even though it is forgiven. This reminds us that we should never look at sin lightly. Sin always curses the guilty.

Verse 35 - The LORD did what He told Moses He would do to the people because of the calf and what they did with it. This word “smote” recalls (it is the same Hebrew word) the plagues He had visited on the Egyptians because of their stubbornness and rebelliousness against Him. God would smite His own people and disinherit them if they chose not to be His people. Thus, all the people learned to fear Him.

The LORD’s judgment responded directly to the sin at hand - the calf that Aaron made and the unrestrained worship of an idolatrous object. Moses had no complaint; he had punished the people also. Now the LORD had moved the restoration of the people a step further--for only He could create and grant atonement, and restore a covenant.

3. God cancels His trip, 33:1-3

Moses commands the people through Moses to depart and go to the promised land that He swore to give to the patriarch’s descendents. He promised that they would have a divine guide—an angel. He also promised to drive out those in the land, and described it as a land flowing with milk and honey. Then the blow came: “I will not go up in your midst.” He says He has cancelled His trip with Israel, because He as a holy God cannot be with the people. As a holy God of justice, it made it too dangerous for the LORD to stay with Israel. The people wanted and needed God to live close to them, yet He was unable to do this because of their sin. They were covenant lawbreakers, “an obstinate people,” refusing obedience to their God. This was for their own protection; at any moment He might have to judge them for their sin, and then they would perish.

God had been trying to draw His people closer to Him. This is seen in their answered prayers, His provision for their needs, teaching them His laws and even planning to build his home in their midst. But now because of sin the people have grown apart from God. Note that He first called them my people; now in verse 1, God refers to them as the people. Verse 2 is the promise of sending “an angel” to Israel to go before them. But this is different because formerly He called His messenger, “My angel,” with the implication that this angel represented His very presence , probably the Son of God Himself preincarnate. But now, an ordinary angel would have to do.

Because God was not going with them, the tabernacle was put on hold. This would have created a sacred space where God could dwell in their midst. Now because God would not go with them, there would be no tabernacle at the center of the camp.

The Israelites are learning that when we worship other gods, especially gods that we can see and touch, they do not bring us close to God, but take us farther away from Him. Martin Luther said:

“Whatever man loves, that is his god. For he carries it in his heart; he goes about with it day and night; he sleeps and wakes with it, be it what it may, wealth or self, pleasure or renown.” — Martin Luther

Let’s pause and ask some hard questions. What preoccupies our thoughts? What things are we treasuring in our hearts instead of the Lord? Just as He desired to do for the Israelites, God wants to fill our lives with his presence. But when we carry other things around, holding them dear, pursuing them by day, and thinking about them by night, there is no room for God.

Without the divine Presence, there was no tabernacle. Without the tabernacle, there would be no altar for sacrifice, no laver for cleansing, no lampstand for light, no table for bread, no incense for prayer, no ark for atonement, and no glory in Israel. God had cancelled His reservations. Peter Enns said this:

The significance of this turn of events cannot be stressed too highly. The whole purpose of the Exodus was for God and his people to be together. God’s presence with them will be firmly established in the proposed tabernacle. By saying “go ahead, but you’re going without me,” the events of the previous thirty-one chapters are being undone. This is not merely a setback; it means the end of the road. [Peter Enns, Exodus, NIV Application Commentary, 2000, p. 578]

4. Israel’s mournful response, 33:4-6

Think about it: God was offering to bless the Israelites without having a relationship with them. That’s exactly what most people want. “God, help me/us overcome ________ (you fill in the blank)” However they are not really interested in a personal relationship with God; after all He might cramp our style! But even Israel knew better. They refused to settle for any blessing apart from God’s very presence!

Their dismay is obvious in verse 4, displayed by their attitudes and actions. They went into mourning, demonstrating not only being sad to see God go, but also sorry for their sins. They also did not put on their ornaments—the jewelry and other finery—as a symbolic act of repentance.

Gleanings in Exodus Chapter 63: Outside the Camp

The removal of their ornaments was for the purpose of evidencing the genuineness of their contrition. Outward adornment was out of keeping with the taking of a low place before God. Contrariwise, external attractions and displays show up the absence of that lowliness of spirit and brokenness of heart which are of great price in the sight of God. The more true spirituality declines, the more an elaborate ritual comes to the fore.

It is suggested by some scholars that the taking off jewelry here is related in some specific way to idolatry. In Genesis 35:2-4, Jacob renewed the covenant at Bethel.

Genesis 35:2–4 NASB95

So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments; and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which they had and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem.

When he did, he told everyone in his family to take off their jewelry, and then he buried it all in the ground, along with all their idols. In this way, they were demonstrating their rejection of their pagan idols and recommitting themselves to serve the one true God.

This is what the Israelites were now doing, and doing so eagerly. God told them to “take off,” but the Bible says that they “stripped” (Heb. natzal) them off, indicating their eagerness to get right with God. This was a sign of genuine repentance.

Is something is causing us to sin, we need to deal with it immediately, and make sure that we never go back to it. The Israelites, once they stripped off their ornamentation, kept it off from Mount Horeb onward. The emphasis here is that this is a permanent change, another sign of genuine repentance. Today when the Holy Spirit convicts us of any sin, we need to take off whatever is leading us into sin and never put it on again.

For the culture of this time, these ornaments were a part of their wealth. In this we see the spiritual power of money. One measure of spiritual progress for the Israelites is simply to look at how they used their gold. Earlier they took off their earrings to make a golden calf, using their wealth to turn away from God. This time they were taking off the rest of their jewelry as a sign that their desire is to worship the LORD alone, putting off idolatry. The later they would use the gold they still had to build the tabernacle.

We see here that the Israelites are making some spiritual progress. They were learning to give up their wealth for God and to use it for His glory. For us today, what we do with our money and our possessions is one of the best indicators of our spiritual condition. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Where is your treasure?

Israel’s heart was in the right place. Upon hearing that the LORD would not go with them, they were distressed in the right way and for the right reason. They repented of their sin because they wanted to restore a right relationship with the LORD. They did not want to be led by an angel; they wanted to walk with God.

Their example reminds us to love God more than we love His blessings. Those blessings are innumerable, but the biggest blessing is God Himself. Let’s not focus on what He does for us but rather set our hearts on who He is to us. It is when we truly know God, then all the rest of His blessings will follow. That is why we should keep God at the center of our experience the way the Israelites wanted to keep Him at the center of their camp.