Exodus 32

CHAPTER 32

The Golden Calf (32:1–35)

1 The Israelites had begun to wonder what had happened to their leader Moses; he had been gone so long (forty days and nights). So they asked Aaron to make them gods¹¹⁷ who could lead them. The people’s faith had clearly failed. Had they forgotten the awesome visitation of God on Mount Sinai only forty days earlier?

2–4 To make any kind of god out of gold (or any other material) was to directly disobey God’s law (Exodus 20:4–5,23), which the people themselves had solemnly agreed to obey (Exodus 24:3,7). But surely Aaron was the most guilty; he was the leader during Moses’ absence. He simply caved in to the people’s request for a god. A leader is supposed to do what God wants, not what the people want. People need leaders; when leaders fail to oppose sin, the people run wild and get out of control (verse 25). It’s even worse when the leader participates in the sin himself, as Aaron did.

Aaron asked for the gold earrings that the people had brought with them out of Egypt (Exodus 12:35–36). He then melted them down and made a golden calf (Acts 7:41–42). The people were so mixed up that they thought this calf was the God who had brought them out of Egypt! (verse 4).

5–6 Aaron must have had second thoughts; surely he couldn’t have forgotten God completely. So he built an altar in front of the calf and announced that a festival to the LORD would be celebrated. The people even offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. But though the offerings themselves were correct, the people’s understanding of God was totally incorrect. It does no good to offer correct sacrifices and follow correct rituals if we do not know the God we are worshiping. This was the situation of the Israelites throughout much of their history, and it is true of nominal Christians today who just go through the forms of worship but lack a personal knowledge of God (Isaiah 29:13; Mark 7:6–8; 2 Timothy 3:5).

After a period of confused, syncretistic worship, the people began to indulge in revelry (verse 6), which most likely included drunken and immoral behavior.

7–10 God, of course, knew what was going on and informed Moses. God was so angry that He wouldn’t even recognize them as “His people”; He told Moses, “They are your people” (verse 7). In saying this, God was disowning the Israelites because they had broken His covenant. God called them stiff-necked—like unruly oxen that resist the yoke (verse 9). They were too “stiff-necked” to bow before Him, yet they had no trouble bowing down before a calf!

The sin of the Israelites was so great that God determined they should be destroyed. He decided to transfer to Moses the promise He had originally given to Abraham many generations earlier (Genesis 12:2); He told Moses He would make him into a great nation (verse 10).

11–13 But Moses, in his role as mediator, interceded with God on behalf of the Israelites. He argued that the Israelites were truly God’s people, whom God had delivered from Egypt. What would the Egyptians and other people say if God ended up destroying His people in the desert? Moses reminded God of His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Israel(Jacob)—in particular, of the time when God swore by [His] own self (verse 13) that He would make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars and give them the land of Canaan as an inheritance (Genesis 22:15–18).

14 Then, in one of the great statements of Scripture, we are told that the LORD relented¹¹⁸ and agreed not to destroy His people. Does this mean that God is fickle, changeable, forgetful? Of course not. What it means is that God is willing to listen to His servants; not only that, He actually invites us to persuade Him. He is not some puppeteer moving lifeless puppets around; He treats us like the intelligent beings we are. He wants us to be co-workers with Him. He wants us to “wrestle” with Him in prayer, and Scripture is filled with verses exhorting us to do so (Luke 18:1–8; James 5:16–18).

God “relents” for three reasons. First, He responds to prayer and intercession—as here in verse 14 (see Amos 7:1–6). Second, He responds to people’s sincere repentance (Jeremiah 18:7–10; Jonah 3:8–10). Third, He responds purely out of His own love and mercy apart from any human action (Judges 2:18; 2 Samuel24:16). In all three cases God’s love plays a major role in His “relenting” (John 3:16). He is a God of love, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:3–4).

15–20 After successfully interceding with God, Moses went down the mountain with the two stone tablets (see Exodus 31:18). He first joined up with Joshua, who had been waiting for him partway up the mountain—probably for all those forty days (Exodus 24:13).

When they reached the camp, Moses saw with his own eyes what a terrible sin the people had committed. He threw the two stone tablets on the ground, breaking them to pieces; in this way he demonstrated to the people that God’s covenant with them had been broken. Then Moses forced the people to literally consume the golden calf that Aaron had made (verse 20).

21–24 When Aaron was confronted by Moses, Aaron tried to pass the blame, just as Adam and Eve had done in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:12–13). But Aaron’s weakest excuse was his statement that when he melted the people’s gold in the fire, out came this calf all by itself! (verse 24).

25–29 Seeing that the people were out of control (verse 25), Moses knew he had to take drastic action. So he called on the people to make a decision: they could choose to be for the LORD (verse 26) or they could choose to be against Him; there was no middle way, no staying neutral. This choice continues to be given to every person on earth: we can be on God’s side or on SATAN’S side; we can be in the kingdom of heaven or in the kingdom of darkness; we can enter through the “narrow gate” or through the “wide gate” (Joshua 24:15; Matthew 6:24; 7:13–14). But not to take a side is to side with Satan.

Of all the Israelites only the Levites, descendants of Jacob’s son Levi (Genesis 29:34), chose to be on God’s side. The Lord ordered them to go through the camp and with their swords kill other Israelites—brother and friend and neighbor (verse 27)—and three thousand were killed. And because the Levites put the Lord before their own fellow Israelites, the Lord blessed them and they were set apart to the LORD that day (verse 29).

This passage may trouble many modern readers; one asks: How can such bloodshed be justified? The answer is: sin must be punished, and often the Lord uses human instruments to carry out the punishment. The Israelites had committed the greatest possible sin against God; they brought the punishment on themselves.

But why would God especially bless the Levites for carrying out this bloody slaughter? Because they had put God first; they had proven themselves worthy to serve the Lord (Matthew 10:34–37; Luke 14:26). And so the Lord gave to the Levites and their descendants the responsibility for the maintenance of the tabernacle and its services; the whole tribe of Levi was thenceforth consecrated to the service of the Lord (Numbers 1:47–53; 3:5–13). This was the reward for their obedience.

30–32 When Moses saw how many Israelites had died, he once again sought to mediate between God and the people. By making atonement for the people’s sin, Moses hoped to restore the relationship between God and Israel(verse 30).

He asked God to forgive the Israelites’ sin. But if God did not, then Moses wanted his own name to be blotted out of the book God had written (verse 32). This book was the book of life—the list of all those who were to receive eternal salvation (Psalm 69:28; Revelation 3:5; 20:15; 21:27). Moses so identified himself with his people that he was willing to offer up his own life to make atonement for them. Moses‘ offer was refused; centuries later, however, Jesus’ offer was accepted, and dying on a cross He made atonement for all who put their faith in Him.

33–35 Moses, like other human beings, was not allowed to take someone else’s punishment; each person must bear his or her own punishment (Deuteronomy 24:16). But God indicated that He would not abandon His covenant with Israel; He told Moses to lead the people to the land He had spoken of, that is, Canaan (verse 34). But He also told Moses that there was still punishment left to come upon the Israelites. And indeed God struck the people with a plague because of their sin in worshiping the golden calf (verse 35).