Exodus 32

The people of God are supposed to rest in Him and to serve Him according to His commandments. But do not leave us alone for too long...

Moses was on top of the mountain. There he received the Ten Commandments and many specific provisions from the Lord about life in the Promised Land. Prominent in these instructions were the Lord's directives concerning His worship.

But Moses was delayed, and the people, who had heard the Lord's voice not too long ago, were panicking. They came to Aaron with an instruction that was boldly idolatrous: “Up, make us gods who shall go before us.” Aaron followed their word.

The gold that the people should have freely offered for making sacred objects for the Tabernacle, Aaron instead collected in order to make a calf idol. He then proceeded to schedule a sacred feast for the next day. The people offered up this absurd proclamation: “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” Aaron built an altar, and the people rose up early to enjoy the man-made idol, with Aaron claiming that their celebration was a “feast to the Lord.” In came the animal sacrifices followed by eating, drinking, singing, and great celebration. Was this so wrong?

It was at this point that the Lord instructed Moses to go down the mountain. The Lord referred to the people of Jacob as “your people” in talking to Moses. If God should ever walk away from us, how will we go forward? God's Word to Moses: “Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” This had all happened so quickly. The Israelites, the Lord's special nation, were worshiping a golden calf.

God's provisional plan for the future: “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.” This dreadful pronouncement brought forth in the mediator of the covenant a spirit of intercession for a sinful nation.

The plea of Moses at this critical juncture in the history of Israel was for God's own glory. Would the Lord want to leave the Egyptians with the impression that He was incapable of accomplishing the redemption of Israel, or that He had brought them out of Egypt with evil intent, only to destroy them? Moses reminded the Lord of His own divine promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. God had promised to multiply their offspring. How would slaughtering them in the wilderness fit in with that plan? This intercession caused the sovereign Lord to relent, and surely the mediator, Moses, was changed by the experience.

Now what would happen? They were in the middle of the wilderness. The Lord would not kill them all; that was established. But would He do some positive good for them? Would He lead them into the Promised Land? How would His justice coexist with His tolerance? Before those answers came, Moses went down the mountain to see for himself what had taken place. He was carrying the handwriting of God on tablets of stone, but when he encountered the idolatry of the people, he broke those sacred tablets of Law. Even Moses was angry for the sake of God's holiness. “He threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.” He turned the metal image to powder, added it to the water, and made the people drink it.

Moses questioned his brother Aaron. The man who would be high priest blamed the people, and spoke of the circumstance of Moses' long departure. By this time the people had utterly thrown off the Lord's protective restraints. They had “broken loose,” and we are told that this resulted in “the derision of their enemies.” Even the Gentiles could see that Israel had lost all self-control.

The opinion of Almighty God was expressed that day in the death of many within the camp of God's people. First the Levites took their swords as agents of the Lord's justice by God's instruction through Moses. Three thousand men died by the sword. Then the Lord Himself sent a plague upon them.

Moses sought to make atonement for the nation. He offered himself up in the place of the nation, but God would not accept Moses as a substitute. “Blot me out of your book.” This was the cry of a man who would have stepped into this frightening breach between God's justice and His steadfast love. The Lord's response: “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. 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.”

This was bad news, and on that very day, the Lord sent a plague on the people.

We cannot wish away the Law of God. We cannot define sin or its penalties by our own desires. We cannot demand that God accept one of us as a substitute for the guilt of a nation. We cannot win a victory over death and hell by concluding in our own minds that we know better than God.

An acceptable sacrifice must be found according to God's terms. A man far holier than Moses was necessary to accomplish this work of atonement. This Man has finally come. He has accomplished all that was necessary that His death might win forgiveness with God for all who are found in Him.

This is what the cross of Christ is all about. We have the Son of God to lead us to heaven. We have not been left behind in the wilderness to die for our many transgressions. This is the truth about God's love and justice.