Exodus 32. The Golden Calf

The Golden Calf

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.” 

• Moses was gone for 40 days, which I understand is a long time without a specific timeframe! I can sympathize with the uncertainty, but God had shown Himself over and over again to His people. they should have continued trusting Him, as they were being fed and sheltered daily.

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.” 

• In a shocking twist, the man who is about to be the High Priest of YHWH, leads them into idolatry

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.

• An interesting difference between the Spirit filled craftsmanship from the previous chapter, and the sin fueled one of this chapter.

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.” 

• In Egypt, bull or calf idols (Apis) represented strength or fertility
• It is really odd that after Aaron himself crafts the idol, and the Israelites say “these are your gods who brought you out of Egypt”, Aaron decides to have a feast for YHWH. What is happening here?
  • Some say he was trying to please the Israelites by giving them an idol but giving honor to YHWH somehow through it.

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.

• “play” (צָחַק tsaḥaq) in Exodus 32:6 may have been sexual or just meant “laughter” (similar to Isaac’s name Yitzhak יִצְחָק).
  • It is thought to be sexual because we see similar word in Genesis 26:8, where Isaac is seen “laughing” (meṣaḥēq) with Rebekah which is implying intimacy, since Abimelech recognizes her as his wife, not his sister.
  • Verse 25 also has the Hebrew word translated “running wild” or “out of control” is פָּרֻעַ (paruaʿ), from the root פָּרַע (paraʿ), which means to neglect, or make bare.
• If the above is true, they essentially broke 4 commandments
  • 1. Have no other gods before YHWH
  • 2. Not make any graven images and bow down to them
  • 3. Not take YHWH’s name in vain
  • 4. Not commit adultery
    

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. 

• Very interesting word choice from YHWH, “for your people”, “you brought out of the land of Egypt”. He is not claiming them in this moment.

⁸ 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!’” ⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 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.”

• Exodus 32:9 is the first time the phrase “stiff-necked people” appears in the Bible (similar to animal not turning it’s neck with a rope)
• God is essentially telling Moses He is willing to consume Israel and start over with Moses as the founding father of a great nation.
  • We already know from Genesis 49 that “Shiloh” (Jesus) would come from the tribe of Judah, not Levi.

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.

• Moses gives three arguments
  • 1. Remember all that God has already done for Israel
  • 2. God’s power and intent in Egypt will be questioned
  • 3. Remember God’s covenant to His people
• Moses’ intercession for Israel in Exodus 32 reminds me to Abraham’s for Sodom in Genesis 18.
• “And the Lord relented…” The Hebrew verb here is from נָחַם  nāḥam (to relent, comfort, change)
  • The same Hebrew root is translated “regretted” in Genesis 6:6 “The Lord regretted that he had made human beings…”
  • and “relented” in Jonah 3:10 “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”
  • This can be confusing as Numbers 23:19 says
    • God is not man, that he should lie,
          or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
      Has he said, and will he not do it?
          Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
    • We cannot equate human reasoning with God’s reasoning
    • Charles Spurgeon said “I suppose that I need not say that this verse speaks after the manner of men. I do not know after what other manner we can speak. To speak of God after the manner of God, is reserved for God himself; and mortal men could not comprehend such speech. In this sense, the LORD often speaks, not according to the literal fact, but according to the appearance of things to us, in order that we may understand so far as the human can comprehend the divine.” 
      • Spurgeon, Charles Haddon The New Park Street Pulpit, Volumes 1-6 and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volumes 7-63 (Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1990)

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. ¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”

• I forget that Joshua was up there waiting as well!

 ¹⁸ But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 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.

• Moses’ anger mirrors God’s anger in this chapter. Both are furious with the response of Israel and their apostasy.
  • However, Moses’ later anger will ban him from the Promised Land (Numbers 20).
  • His previous anger banned him from Egypt (Exodus 2)
• Did everyone drink it the calf or just the leaders?

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.”

• We know from verse 4 that Aaron carefully crafted the calf using the gold, but here in verse 24 the calf ‘appeared’
• I wish we got Moses’ response to Aaron here. Maybe it was angry silence.

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. 

• Why did only tribe of Levi respond to Moses about being on God’s side?

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.”

• Why were those 3000 chosen to die? Were they leading sin?
• On Pentecost 3000 came to Christ (Acts 2:41). The law brings death, but the Spirit brings life! (2 Corinthians 3:6)

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.”

• Moses’ second intercession in this chapter
  • Remember the punishment for bowing down to an idol is to be utterly destroyed (Exodus 22:20)
• Blot me out of your book: some say this is the Book of Life, some say its more like an earthly register/symbol

³⁵ Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

• This could be in reference to the killing of the 3000, or a different plague.