Exodus 32:25-29 – Taking a stand for God

What the people did was gross and indecent. It was an orgy. The word used here is wild. It carries the meaning of nakedness. They could be engaging in immorality and perhaps even committing sexual sin. Aaron was to be blamed. He allowed them to go out of control. He had failed to ensure discipline. This is the same even for any fellowship of believers. Every time the leadership fails to ensure discipline and allows disorderliness and chaos to reign, God’s name gets discredited. It behoves us as leaders to ensure that the people entrusted to our care will never run wild.  We must never let our ministry become a joke and the Lord’s name be mocked.

A great leader always does something when things are wildly wrong. That was what Moses did. He stood at the entrance of the camp and called for those who were for the Lord to come to him. He was making an allowance for those who would change their mind about sinning and leave it to join him. The only men who responded were the Levites, people from Moses’ own tribe. They all made a personal commitment to leave sin and join Moses to be on God’s side. Like those Levites, choosing to be on God’s side is a decision that every one of us has to make personally. We must choose to forsake sin and submit to the Lordship of Christ. If we are not for Christ, we will be against Him. There is no third alternative. Christian living is making a choice between truth and falsehood, between righteousness and unrighteousness, and between humility and pride. There can be no neutral ground when we are living for the Lord. Every day we must choose to take a stand for Him. Choosing God’s side requires absolute obedience.  

Once the Levites took their stand with Moses, they were taking their stand with God. Moses at the direction of God ordered them saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbour.’” This was a serious assignment and it did not come from Moses. It was from God. This dastardly sin must be dealt with swiftly and completely. They had broken a blood covenant with God and it had to be paid with their life. They had forfeited the right to live. To worship other gods is a serious sin and it had to be dealt with swiftly and thoroughly. 

Everyone guilty of worshipping the golden calf must be dealt with, but only 3,000 were killed. Why? The 3,000 men that were killed were not the total number of people who had sinned. From this figure, we know that God’s restraining hand was even in judgement. When the judgement was being executed, people stopped their sinning. The truth is this, 3,000 were killed so that the others could stop from continuing in their sin. The Levites did it regardless of whether they were family members or friends, they would not be spared. In the life of obedience, God has first claim over our life. We must prefer Him over mother, father, sons, daughters, relatives or friends. When there is a conflict in allegiance between God and the people close to us, we must always choose God. One other lesson can be gleaned from here. That holiness must be pursued relentlessly. Purity must be pursued if we are to serve God. We must put all idolatries in our life to bed forever. There should be no concession. It must always be God and nothing else. This we have to do by taking up our cross daily to follow Him. We need to take a stand for God!

  

Exodus 32:21-24 – The need to own up to our wrong

Moses confronted Aaron point blank and asked him, “What did these people do to you that you brought such a great sin upon them?” This tells us that while he held Aaron accountable, he also knew what he was up against. He knew it wasn’t easy for him to deal with the people. For he himself had seen how unruly they could be. However, what Aaron did was serious and making the golden calf was a great sin. Moses was holding him responsible since he was a leader. He was deemed to be the one that had led the people into sin.   

Without a doubt, a leader has greater accountability. Aaron was the leader and Moses had left him in charge. He wanted him to take full responsibility for what he had done. Aaron was given the opportunity but instead of seizing the chance and confessed his wrong, he began to make excuses. So, he said to Moses, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So, they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” 

Can we identify how erroneous his excuse to Moses was? What he did was flawed on three counts. First. he was suggesting that Moses should back off. He was almost suggesting that Moses shouldn’t be angry, as if his anger was the problem. He was trying to make it seem as if Moses was the one who was having a problem. People who are confronted with their sin would often try to refract their wrong this way. Secondly, he blamed the people for what he had done. He was in effect saying, it was the people who demanded that he did it. Haven’t we heard this before? People, when confronted, would often blame it on the devil saying “the devil made me do it.” But in this case, Aaron blamed it on the people. He was actually saying to Moses that the people made him do it. Thirdly, he began to lie, making it sound as if the golden calf was a miracle. He said that the people gave him the gold and he threw it into the fire and out came the golden calf.

Aaron certainly knew how to spin a yarn. Like it or not, he was accountable and he tried to lie about it. He was literally minimizing his sin and downplaying its seriousness. He was not prepared to own up. So he gave those excuses to evade the real issue. Isn’t that what we are also prone to do when confronted with our wrong? We may fool others but nothing escapes God’s sight. He knew exactly. If we compare what God told Moses and Aaron’s account, Moses could see how Aaron tried to extricate himself out of the blame. Whether we care to admit it or not, sin always begins in one’s own heart. No one can make us do it if we refuse to bend our moral. The first letter of John in verses 8 and 9 tell us this, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Hence, whenever we have committed a sin, the only way is to come clean, admit, repent and confess our wrong. Only when we are prepared to do this, then can we find the peace of mind to progress with the Lord again.

Exodus 32:19-20 – God deserves out absolute devotion

God will always confront our sin. We can never hide any sin from Him though we can hide it from man. Even that, we can only hide it for a season and soon it will all come out. No one has a fail-proof to protect their sin forever. A day without repentance is a day we will travel down the slippery sloop of deeper depravity. And a loving God will not allow that. He has paid too much for our redemption.  Somehow it will all surface. This should make us think twice and then two times again if we intend to commit a sin.  Like it or not, our sin will always find us out.

In Exodus 32:19-20, Moses came to the camp and saw the ravelling and carousing. The people were dancing around a calf and that made his blood boil. So, we are told that his anger burned. When he pleaded with God on their behalf, he probably couldn’t imagine the extensiveness of their sin, though he believed and concurred with God. That was why he immediately interceded for the people. He pleaded for mercy for them on the basis of the covenant that the Lord had made with the patriarchs. God on His part had already decided not to destroy the Israelites. But their sin still needed to be dealt with and Moses knew that too.

When a sin is committed and forgiveness may be sought, there is still a consequence to reckon with. Bear in mind that forgiveness removes the guilt of sin but not the consequences. While forgiveness is granted readily, there’s a process of discipline and correction that needs to be installed to ensure that the person will not commit it again. Disciplinary action must be carried out in a godly way to help the fallen person to progress in godliness. It takes godly leadership to discipline with sin effectively. And Moses demonstrated that godly leadership. He took immediate action as soon as he saw what the people were doing. In anger, he took the two tablets in his hand and threw them at the foot of the mountain, shattering them. He then took the golden calf, grounded it into powder, scattered it on the water and made the people drink it. He probably wanted them to taste the bitterness of what they had done.  

In breaking the two God-given stone tablets, Moses was demonstrating God’s grace. It was not a case of a person who was unable to control his anger. It shows a person who knew that the people had already broken the two most important of the commandments. In righteous anger, he did what he did. He was showing them that if they weren’t prepared to keep the laws, they did not deserve to keep the tablets. We know that God didn’t punish him for breaking the two stone tablets, for He could see that Moses was demonstrating the anger like Him. 

In destroying the golden calf as soon as he saw them dancing around it demonstrates to us how we must deal with idols in our life. All idols must be dealt with swiftly and instantly when realized. We must never tolerate and be gentle with any idol. For us, the definition of an idol is anything that replaces our first love for God in our heart. It must be got rid of instantly and swiftly. The longer we take to get rid of them, the deeper we will be ensnared, and it would be harder to destroy them. Let us never allow anything to come between us and God. He alone deserves our affection.     

Exodus 32:15-18 – Right living begins with honouring God

In the hand of Moses were the two stone tablets of the testimony. They were not very large because they were supposed to be placed inside the Ark of the Covenant as well. However, inscribed on both sides of the two tablets were the Ten Commandments. Exodus 32:16 makes it clear that God was the one who wrote on the tablets, it was His writing and that He personally inscribed those Ten Commands. These God-given laws were His instructions to man. Hence up till today, they are still binding. The law of most countries can trace its roots to the Ten Commandments. The effect of these God-given commandments is like the ripples created when one throws a stone into the water. Hence not to steal, lie, covert, murder or commit immorality are essentially God’s command. They come from these moral laws that He had given.  

Earlier, we were told that Moses took Joshua with him up to the Mount Sinai. When God summoned Moses up into His presence, he left Joshua waiting further down. He himself went into God’s presence. So, when he came down from God’s presence, he met Joshua on the way down to return to the camp. When they drew near the camp where the people were, they both heard a strange sound. Joshua couldn’t identify what sound they were making. Being a man of war, he thought it was the sound of war. But Moses knew of their detestable activities for the Lord had already told him. So, he revealed that they were not engaged in any warfare but that they were singing.

It was a sad moment. For when they were on the way out of Egypt, Moses led in a song. They were proclaiming in Exodus 15:1-2 that “I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and riders he has hurled into the sea.” What had happened? Why were they now singing another tune? They were raising a song to venerate a cow. How crazy had they become? They were having an orgy of a sort that was bordering on insanity and obscenity.  

The condition that would soon confront Moses and Joshua depicts the human condition today too. The laws given set out how we should live. The rest of the laws will be very difficult to honour when one fails to honour the first two commandments God has given. If we cannot love God and worship only Him, it’s unlikely we can love our neighbours as ourselves. Beware that nothing we do escapes God’s notice. We must always honour God first and all else will find their alignment. That’s why the cross has two dimension – a vertical as well as a horizontal dimension. When the vertical is not right, the horizontal will not be right. So, let us worship the Lord God only and have no idols before Him!       

Exodus 32:11-14 – Interceding effectively

Exodus 32:14 says, “So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.” This gives the idea that God, like us human, does not know the future. This is made difficult by how this verse is translated in the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. In the KJV it reads, “And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” Does God need to repent? Of course not. For our all-knowing, all-seeing God can see the end from the beginning. He certainly knows all this would happen. Besides, we are told in Numbers 23:19 that “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” So, we return to the question, why then does this verse say that God repented and changed His mind? This verse reveals to us that even in the face of wrath and anger, God was showing grace. He could have just annihilated the Israelites for their disobedience but He chose grace. He also knew the heart of Moses. He was sure that he would intercede for the people. And Moses did pray for the people. We can say that when God made known to Moses the condition back in the camp of Israel, He was inviting Moses to pray. In the same way, when God makes known the condition of the world to us, His purpose is to get us to pray. Remember, God will never make known anything to us just to satisfy our curiosity.     

God made Moses a tempting offer. He was in effect saying to Moses to let Him destroy everyone in the camp and in their place make him into a great nation. He was offered a role like He gave to Abraham. The offer God made was to test Moses’ character and he proved God’s estimation of him. He could have ambitiously seized on the opportunity God had given but he didn’t. Instead, he pled and interceded for the people of Israel. This is the mark of a great man. He chose God’s greater glory than his petty ambition. And His prayer is telling. It shows us that as God, how much Moses loved the people, despite the many headaches and heartaches they brought to him. He truly loved the people of God. This is a quality every man of God called to serve His people must seek to cultivate. It is the one thing that motivates a leader to pray for the people he leads.

Notice here that in his prayer, Moses had God’s interest in his heart. He did not want God’s name to be discredited. He didn’t want the Egyptians to think that God did not or could not keep His promise, that’s why He destroyed the people. Besides, he reminded God of the promises that He had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was reminding God of the investment He had already made on the patriarchs and suggesting that He should not squander it now. Moses was reminding God of the very promise He had made to the people right at the onset. He was reminding God of what He said to the people in Exodus 20:2 - “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt” He had saved them out of Egypt so He should protect them and save them to the very end.

Here are some key thoughts we take away from these four verses. Firstly, God does not change. He will never renege on His promise. Secondly, what He reveals to us is not to satisfy our curiosity but for the purpose of getting us to pray. Thirdly, when we pray, always have God’s greater glory as our priority. Fourthly, as people who pray, let us seek to cultivate a tender heart towards the people of God, no matter how trying they can be.

Exodus 32:7-10 – Let us not be stiff-necked

God gave Moses the two tablets of the Ten Commandments written with His own finger. Moses must have felt ready to go back to his people with God’s instruction to begin doing what God had bid him do. But back at the camp where the people were, things were not good. They had gone rowdy and demanded that Aaron made them another god. Foolishly, Aaron obediently followed their instruction and made a molten calf from the gold of the women and their children. The all-seeing God saw all that was happening with His people. And He broke the news to Moses and revealed how very hurt He was. Just a few weeks only and they had reneged and wanted to return to the gods of Egypt. While they had left Egypt, the mentality of Egypt had not left them. They were so depraved and corrupt and had become offensive to God. They had turned away from God and engaged in what they were told not to do and blatantly broke the first two commandments of God.

We may think that having experienced God’s manifold grace, it was unlikely for them to become corrupt so fast. Unfortunately, they did. This is a lesson for us not to take the grace of God for granted. Like them, we are also susceptible to turn away when we fail to trust Him explicitly. When we fail to trust God’s timing and purpose for our life, we too can become distracted. There is always the temptation to come up with our own device concerning how and when we want to serve God. We want to serve God on our own terms and in our own ways.    

God was prepared to destroy them and with Moses build a new community of people. This tells us how hurt God truly was. Notice how God described these people. They were obstinate meaning they were full of themselves. People who are obstinate are unbendable. It’s hard for such people to be humble and obey the instruction given. Let us not be said that we are a stiff-necked people. We must not be afraid to admit our wrong, repent and change. Let’s be pliable in the hand of God for He will give grace to the humble and resist the proud. For what they did, the people deserved to be punished. The fact that God should even discuss with Moses what He wanted to do tells us we have a gracious God. Why did He need to discuss with Moses? Being God, he could have done anything He wanted but He didn’t. He discussed with Moses. That’s a hint to us of His grace.

One lesson stands out clearly for us. None of us should ever become a stiff-necked person. The whole incidence here tells us that they didn’t even know the condition of their own hearts. They had experienced grace so many times in their journey, yet they never seemed to learn. They remained unchanged and had not grown in the Lord. Because of their obstinacy, they had never truly submitted to God. Take this lesson seriously and not allow any stubbornness in us to retard our spiritual growth. People do become obstinate to a point where they become impenetrable to God’s grace. For our own sake, we must never become such a person!

Exodus 32:1-6 – Stay true to God no matter what

In the concluding verse of Exodus 31 we are told that when God had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him “two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.” He had been on the mountain for a while now receiving instruction on the building of the Tabernacle and the instruction on worship.  Meanwhile, the people back in the camp left to the charge of Aaron had grown impatient and out of hand. Soon they were entertaining needless thoughts and doubts. Then they began to murmur and complain. They came to Aaron and demanded that he made a new god. Foolishly and obediently Aaron did. He made them a god, one that he knew from his time in Egypt. He made them a calf from the gold he told them to take from their wives and children. He made for them a graven image that he had “fashioned “…with a graving tool.” When he brought the molten calf that he had fashioned to them, they even had the audacity to say, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” When Aron saw that he thoughtlessly built them an altar for their god and called for a celebration. By the next day, the whole camp went into a religious frenzy and degenerated into a wanton ravelling in the pagan depravity. How disgustingly stupid and disrespectful could they be! They had gone from honouring the Almighty God to venerating the image of a silly handmade unholy cow.    

 

Earlier in Exodus 20:1-17, God revealed his law to Moses and in Exodus 24:3 we are told that he came and told the people all the Lord’s words and law. So, it was not a case of ignorance. It was a case of willful disobedience. They not only broke the call not to worship any gods but also the second command not to make for themselves any graven image. Aaron had twisted the very word of God given in Exodus 20:2. God said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Here in verse 4, as Aaron handed them the molten calf, they contorted God’s word and said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” They were subtly telling God that they would not obey Him. Sin always starts with disobedience. This was how it began with Adam and down through the corridor of time, disobedience had always been the first sign of sin.  

 

Not only is sin evident in disobedience, but it also demonstrates itself in distrust. This was clearly demonstrated in verse 1. “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” They were impatient and unwilling to wait for the instruction of God on worship. They wanted it now and they wanted it their own way. God had promised to take them into the promised land but they refused to wait for His leading. They wanted it straight away. Sin is distrust.

 

Sin is also seen in how we insist on doing things our own way. The key element of trust in God is always about waiting for things in His timing and His way. Not only are people often impatient with God, but they are also insistent on having it their own way. They want to pander to their own will.  Sin, like a spoilt child, makes us demand to have what we want and we want it instantly. It has no patience to wait on God’s timing. In these verses, we can see that sin is also abusing one’s resources and talents. They took the gold they were given, and Aaron abused the talent that he was endowed with and crafted a golden calf. These two fits of abuse show how sin can cause us to misuse our God-given gifts and talents.   

 

What we see in the mistake of the Israelites are lessons for us. We must never take God for granted. We must always choose to honour only Him. Let us live a life of obedience and a life of trust. He tells us that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts, our thoughts. Let us learn to wait for His timing and His ways. He only has the very best for us!