The Golden Calf and the Cross

        Have you ever read something a bunch of times, but then you read it again and all of a sudden a new kind of understanding strikes you?  There is something there that you didn’t see at first?  That happened to me the other day when I was preparing to teach the story of The Golden Calf out of Exodus.  If you are unfamiliar with that story basically the Israelites have lost faith in Moses and in God because they were taking too long on Mt. Sinai writing down the 10 commandments.  The people pressured Aaron (Moses’ brother) to make an idol that would be their god that could lead them to the promised land.  I don’t think the people stopped believing in God (the real God), since they could see the giant cloud on the mountain and hear the thunder and lightning.  They also just witnessed the 10 plagues and the parting of the red sea…I don’t think anyone doubted God existed and was powerful.  What they had a problem with was the idea that God was on their side, God had their best interests in mind, that God was the one and only God that deserved all praise and worship.  They came out of Egypt with which had multiple gods and prayed to all kinds of things.  The Israelites wanted a god they could carry around, a god they could touch, a god they could see, and a god they could control.  But, as we soon find out in the story God is a jealous God and does not share His glory with anything.  Read the following passage and see if you pick up on some of the specifics.  Can you feel the emotions in the story; both God’s and the people’s?  What details stand out to you?  Why?                                               

Exodus 32

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.

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. 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.”

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.

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.” 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.

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.”

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.”

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

Things to think about:

·      What would it have been like to be Moses?  You think things are going well and then you hear straight from God that your family, friends, and people have committed a huge sin and God is going to completely wipe them out and kill them all?  Everyone you know – dead.  Read verse 11 again to see Moses’ reaction…you bet he “implored the LORD!” 
·      What kind of prayer is that from Moses?  Do you pray that way?  Read it again…notice that Moses refers to God’s fame, God’s great name, God’s reputation.  “God don’t do this because people will not know the truth about you and will speak poorly of you.  They will say you are an evil God…”  Have you ever prayed that way?
·      Stop and take a moment to consider the punishment that the people did receive…they were all going to die, but because of God’s mercy some survived, but what was that like?  Think of that experience as a Levite.  They took their swords and killed “brothers, companions, neighbors, and sons…”  At the cost of their own son they were given the blessing of the Lord.  Could you imagine killing your own son?  The question is absurd and horrific.  YET!  That is exactly what God did for us! 
·      These people deserved total annihilation and received mercy!  Jesus deserved praise and honor and glory and NO punishment, but he chose to be punished and die in our place.  God the Father killed His Son so that you and I could receive eternal Mercy!  Take the appalling emotions that these Israelites experienced on that day when they killed their loved ones including their son and that comes a step closer to understanding the experience that the Father and Jesus experienced on that day so many years ago.  It was no small thing to die on the cross for our sins.  May we have faith in Him, may we trust in His goodness and not lose hope; for he may be a God of power and authority, he is also a God of Love, Grace, and Mercy!