Idol Factory

What do we learn about prayer from this example? We learn that as sinners we need a mediator. We have the ultimate One in Jesus. He turned away the wrath of God from us through His intervention (John 3:16). But as followers of Jesus, we must also plead to God for others through Jesus, and to do so, I suggest that we learn three lessons from Moses.

Notice how Moses appealed to the following:

Praying according to God’s faithfulness is expressed again in Numbers 14:13-19. Let me encourage you to appeal to the character of God in prayer.

Moses did not ask for personal glory here. God said that He would start all over with Moses: “I will make you into a great nation” (v. 10). This was flattering and tempting, but Moses cared more about the people who were in the process of fulfilling God’s purposes of becoming a great nation. We too should pray in line with God’s will; that is, making disciples of all nations, not desiring our own fame. This prayer points us to Jesus, who would be the ultimate offspring of this people. It is His glory that we should seek.

This account in Exodus 32 is one of the best examples of how God responds to prayer. Those who have a high view of God’s sovereignty often struggle with prayer. But remember, God is not a math equation.200 He is not some abstraction. God is personal. He responds to prayer! I love what Spurgeon said:

When you pray like Moses, you are not whistling to the wind. Believe that God hears the cries of His people. Is He pushing you to intervene through intercession? Draw near to God, through Jesus, and appeal to God, believing that He answers prayer.

Exodus 32:15-29

Notice the process here. First, Moses confronted the people. Second, Aaron shifted the blame and minimized sin, instead of repenting. Third, some joined Moses, turning from idolatry.

Moses confronted them by doing two things: breaking the commandments and destroying their idol. Moses descended the mountain with the two tablets. They were inscribed on the front and back with the law of God. The text says God wrote it Himself. Here is a picture of the fact that the law came from God. It revealed His holy character.

Then Joshua joined him. He had gone halfway up the mountain and waited for Moses. He then commented on the sound, as mentioned earlier.

Next we see Moses’ reaction. He had heard of what Israel was doing at the foot of the mountain, but now when he saw it, he was filled with anger. As a result, he threw the tablets down and broke them. Then he ground up the idol and made Israel drink it. I do not think Moses was acting sinfully here, since he was never rebuked for his anger (as he was later in Num 20:1-13). Instead, I think he illustrated the point that Israel broke God’s law (cf. Zech 11:10).

201Think about this: these tablets were the most valuable possession on earth! If a letter written by Abraham Lincoln can fetch $300, 000, think what an inscription written by God is worth! When Moses broke the tablets, it symbolized the severity of sin. James said, “For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all” (Jas 2:10). The Israelites had broken their covenant with God. That is serious. The Word confronts us.

Notice also that it was at the foot of the mountain (32:19). This was the official gathering place for worship, the place of meeting with God (19:12, 17) as well as the location of the only proper worship altar (24:4). Moses confronted their sin publicly here, announcing the breach of the covenant in the place where the covenant should have been most honored.

Next Moses completely destroyed the calf (32:20). What a picture! Idols are not to be managed; they are to be destroyed. Moses probably put it in their water supply so they would drink it and digest it—passing it as waste, making it permanently ruined.

The next person Moses confronted was his big brother, Aaron, demanding, “What did these people do to you that you have led them into such a grave sin?” (v. 21). Moses correctly called this a “grave sin.” Aaron, as the spiritual leader, rightly was singled out for allowing this to happen (see v. 35). But instead of repenting of sin, Aaron did what Adam (the first garden priest) did in the garden: he shifted blame. He put the blame on the people for their evil and tried to make it sound like Moses had the problem (v. 22; cf. 1 Sam 15:20-24). He essentially said, “Don’t be so upset, little brother; you know how these people are. They are bent on evil.” In other words, “Why are you getting so mad?”

We have seen our own versions of this approach. Instead of confessing sin, people prefer to make excuses for their sin. Sometimes there is truth to these excuses. In this case, Aaron was right: the people were evil. But that was not the issue. What they did was irrelevant in this discussion; Aaron chose to give into the temptation. You cannot control your situation and your circumstances all the time, but through Christ, you must not yield to temptation.

Aaron then said the people made him do it (v. 23). Once again, Aaron refused to admit his sin. He refused to acknowledge that he had yielded to temptation. He said, “They said to me ...” as if he had no202 choice in the situation. The proper way to respond when confronted with sin is not by saying “Everyone was doing it!” or “She made me do it!” You may indeed be in a tempting situation, but you must respond appropriately, and when you sin, you need to repent.

His final excuse was the most pathetic. He blamed the fire (v. 24)! Aaron said that when they threw the gold in the fire, a calf came out! Aaron tried to cover up his sin with the spin game. He lied, made up things. Whether you admit your sin or not, you remain accountable for it. We need to own it and repent of it, like David, who said,

We read in Proverbs, “The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy” (28:13). The choice is yours: conceal or confess.

In verses 25-29 God made it clear to Moses that those committed to idolatry must be cut off. As a result, 3, 000 men fell.

I can imagine a modern person’s reaction to this scene. They would struggle to justify this action. That is because you must understand the reason behind it, namely, leaving idolaters in the land would threaten the preservation of truth and the salvation of future generations. If idolatry continued to exist, many would never have the opportunity to obtain eternal life through Jesus. Jews and Gentiles would both be eternally affected by the continuation of Israel’s idolatry. We must also point out that we must not imitate Moses’ actions. In the new covenant, we are not given permission to kill as a means of preserving orthodoxy.

Additionally, there seems to be here an opportunity for repentance before the judgment is carried out. In verse 26 Moses said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” Who chooses the Lord? The Levites do. Stuart said, “Since Aaron was a Levite and had led the move toward idolatry, it can hardly be doubted that other Levites had also succumbed to its attractions. But now, everyone was being given a chance to repent and re-establish loyalty to Yahweh’s covenant” (Exodus, 681). This is how we are to respond when we are confronted with sin. The Levites turned from idolatry and chose the Lord.

203In verses 27-29 we read of the Levites carrying out God’s demand for judgment. They were told to show no partiality (v. 27). It appears that the Levites carefully and systematically saw who was returning to Yahweh. Those found in idolatry were put to death. Three thousand men died (about 0.05% of the male population, cf. 12:37).

Because the Levites had to “consider the cost” in carrying out this severe act (cf. Matt 10:37-38), they were told, “Today you have been dedicated to the Lord” (v. 29). God said He was setting them aside for special service and that they were recipients of His blessing. So here we see the severity of sin; the reality of judgment; and the need to repent of sin, not to shift blame or minimize sin.

Exodus 32:30-35

Moses went back up Mount Sinai to intercede again for the people (vv. 30-31). He said, “perhaps I will be able to atone for your sin” (v. 30), which is “a concept that could also be translated literally as ‘get your sins covered/forgiven’” (Stuart, Exodus, 684). The killing of the 3, 000 was only the beginning of the process of restoring God’s favor and blessing. The judgment of the 3, 000 only corrected those who refused to return to God. It was a limited judgment. What about those still alive—those who had broken the covenant? Their hope was in the mediator who climbed the mountain to make atonement.

Moses appealed to God. He did not minimize their sin. He said it was a “grave sin” (v. 31). He sought forgiveness for their sin (v. 32a). Then he said something amazing: “But if not, please erase me from the book You have written” (v. 32b). Moses offered to lose his own life for the sake of Israel (cf. Rom 9:1-3). Moses understood the nature of salvation: when people sin, they need a substitute.

As mentioned with the priests, sin could be forgiven through a representative, with sacrifices. But here is a new approach! The representative offers Himself as the sacrifice! God responded with judgment and mercy. The judgment came with the immediate answer (v. 33); the mercy came when God agreed to continue with this stiff-necked people (v. 34; 33:1-17). God said, “I will erase whoever has sinned against Me from My book” (v. 33). This is a statement of God’s practice of judgment.

Eternal life is not automatically granted to a person who tries to enter it without the forgiveness of sins. Stuart says, “Verse 33 is, then,204 one of the Bible’s stronger statements about the absolute necessity for the forgiveness of sins, and therefore, for a savior. It can be regarded as messianic even if not overtly so” (Exodus, 685).

In verse 34 God told Moses to continue on the journey. Their idolatry did not result in total destruction. The punishment spoken of here might have referred to future punishment not the plague in the next verse (see Stuart, Exodus). The plague was a small-scale warning, a sample of God’s wrath (v. 35). We are not told how many people died—even if any did. This plague might have only made them sick.

From this, it is clear that we need a savior. The story seems to build up to this climactic finish, in which the mediator will give His life for the life of the people, but it did not work that way. Why not? Moses could not die for the people because he himself was a sinner. Ryken says, “God is willing to let someone die for someone else’s sin, but the only sacrifice he can accept is a perfect sacrifice, unstained by sin. So Moses could not do it. He came close—perhaps closer than any man had ever come—but he still couldn’t make atonement for sin” (Exodus, 1015). This whole chapter points us to one great reality: we need a perfect substitute. And we have One!

We have One who would come from this very people. He would ascend to the cross and bear the punishment that we idolaters deserve. He took the punishment in our place, in order for our sins to be covered. Jesus would say, “Take my life, that they may live.” “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Because of Christ, our names can be written in the book of life (Phil 4:3; Luke 10:20).

Let me pull it all together. To my non-Christian friend: You need to see Jesus Christ as your substitute who died in your place for your idolatry so that you could be reconciled to God. Turn from your idols to the living God (1 Thess 1:9-10). Apart from Jesus, we just live in Romans 1—satisfying our lusts and exchanging God for created things. Left to ourselves we are idolaters. You need a new life that is made possible through Jesus. To my Christian friends: You need to see your idols for what they are. They are dumb idols. Properly assess created things. Enjoy and be thankful for and steward created things, but only worship and serve and trust the Creator God (Rom 1:21-25). Put your lusts to death daily (Col 3:5). How? Set your mind on things above (Col 3:1-2). Consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God. Remember that you are new (Col 3:4)! 205Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly (Col 3:16). See all of life as an opportunity to worship Christ. Believe that Christ is the best master, the most intimate companion, and the most superior source of satisfaction.