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Exodus 31
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Exodus 32 β€” Commentary 4
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Benson
Benson Commentary Exodus 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. Exodus 32:1 . The people β€” That is, some of them, as it is explained 1 Corinthians 10:7 . The defection, however, appears to have been very general, though we find several, particularly the sons of Levi, exempt from it, Exodus 32:26 . Saw that Moses delayed β€” He had now been absent from them near forty days. For this defection appears to have happened a day or two before he came down from the mount, Deuteronomy 9:11-12 . Gathered themselves together unto Aaron β€” Or, as the Hebrew is more properly rendered, against Aaron: and so the expression will denote that they came upon him in a tumultuous manner, insisting to have their demands complied with. Up, make us gods β€” No doubt other discourse had passed before this; to which Aaron making some difficulty to consent, they insisted on having their desire gratified, and said in a seditious manner, Up, without further delay, make us gods, or make us a god, as ????? Elohim is generally rendered, and ought to be rendered here, as Le Clerc observes, and that for two plain reasons: 1st, Aaron made but one calf, one idol-god; 2d, It appears from Exodus 32:5 that this symbol was consecrated to Jehovah alone. They were weary of waiting for the promised land. They thought themselves detained too long at mount Sinai. They had a God that stayed with them, but they must have a God to go before them to the land flowing with milk and honey. They were weary of waiting for the return of Moses: As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of Egypt, we know not what is become of him β€” Observe, How slightly they speak of his person, this Moses: and how suspiciously of his delay, we know not what is become of him. And they were weary of waiting for a divine institution of religious worship among them, so they would have a worship of their own invention, probably such as they had seen among the Egyptians. They say, make us gods, or, a god. But what good would a god of their own making do them? They must have such a god to go before them, such as could not go itself farther than it was carried! Exodus 32:2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. Exodus 32:2 . Break off the golden ear-rings β€” These were probably some of the jewels which they had of the Egyptians. From the ears of your sons β€” Men wore these ornaments in the eastern countries as well as the women, Jdg 8:24 . Some suppose that when Aaron gave this direction he did it with a design to crush the proposal, believing, that if their covetousness did not hinder them from giving up their ear-rings, their pride, at least, would prevent their parting with them. He says, therefore, Which are in the ears of your wives and daughters β€” Thinking them most fond of their jewels, and most unlikely to part with them. Exodus 32:3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. Exodus 32:3 . The people brake off their ear-rings β€” Whereby they showed both their madness upon their idols, and their base ingratitude to God, who had transferred these jewels from the Egyptians to them. Exodus 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Exodus 32:4 . He made it a molten calf β€” He melted it down, and, having a mould prepared, poured the melted gold into it, and then produced it in the shape of an ox or calf giving it some finishing strokes with a graving tool. β€œThey made a calf,” says David, β€œin Horeb, and worshipped the molten image: they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.” It is probable that the origin of this idolatry was from Egypt. The Scriptures inform us that the Israelites in Egypt imitated the Egyptian superstitions, Joshua 24:14 ; Ezekiel 20:7-8 . Now that the Egyptians worshipped animals as early as these days, appears from Exodus 8:26 . An ox or calf in particular was their great idol. So that we may with certainty conclude, notwithstanding what some late commentators have alleged, that Aaron, in compliance with the prejudices of the people, made this calf after the model of what the Israelites had seen in Egypt, consecrating it to Jehovah as the Egyptians had consecrated similar symbols to their principal deity Osiris. Aaron’s compliance with the popular clamour was, undoubtedly, highly criminal: he ought to have opposed them with all his might, nay, he ought rather to have suffered death than to have yielded to their will in any degree. Accordingly, we find it recorded, ( Deuteronomy 9:20 ,) that β€œthe Lord was very angry with him to have destroyed him,” but that Moses β€œprayed for him.” They said, These be thy gods β€” Or as Nehemiah expresses, ( Nehemiah 9:18 ,) This is thy God; that is, This is the image or symbol of thy God; who brought thee out of Egypt β€” For they intended to worship the true God, by this image, as afterward Jeroboam did by the same image, it being incredible that the generality of the Israelites should be so void of all sense and reason, as to think that this new-made calf brought them out of Egypt, even before its own creation, and that this was the same Jehovah that had so lately spoken to them from heaven with an audible voice, saying, β€œI am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” Exodus 32:5 And when Aaron saw it , he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. Exodus 32:5 . Aaron built an altar β€” Being borne down with the stream; and proclaimed a feast β€” Namely, of dedication; yet he calls it a feast to Jehovah β€” By which it is still more evident that the people did not intend to terminate their adoration in the image, but designed to worship the true God in and by this calf, which they meant to consider as only a visible token of God’s presence with them, and a medium by which to convey their worship to him. And yet this did not excuse them from the sin of gross idolatry any more than it will excuse the Papists, whose plea it is that they do not worship the images which they use, but God, or Christ, by the images, so making themselves just such idolaters as the worshippers of the golden calf, whose feast was a feast to Jehovah, and proclaimed to be so, that the most ignorant and unthinking might not mistake it. Exodus 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. Exodus 32:6 . They rose up early β€” To show their zeal they began betimes in the morning, and seem not to have stayed for Aaron; and offered burnt- offerings, &c. β€” To this new-made image of Deity. And the people sat down to eat and drink β€” Of the remainder of what was sacrificed; and then rose up to play β€” To play the fool, to play the wanton. It was strange that any of the people, especially so great a number of them, should do such a thing. Had they not, but the other day, in this very place, heard the voice of the Lord God speaking to them out of the midst of the fire, β€œThou shalt not make to thyself any graven image?” Yet they made a calf in Horeb, the very place where the law was given! It was especially strange that Aaron should be so deeply concerned, should make the calf, and proclaim the feast! Is this β€œAaron the saint of the Lord?” Is this he that had not only seen, but had been employed in summoning the plagues of Egypt, and the judgments executed upon the gods of the Egyptians? What! and yet himself copying out the abandoned idolatries of Egypt? How true is it, that β€œthe law made them priests which had infirmity, and needed first to offer for their own sins!” Exodus 32:7 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves : Exodus 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Exodus 32:8 . They have turned aside quickly β€” Quickly after the law was given them, and they had promised to obey it; quickly after God had done such great things for them, and declared his kind intentions to do greater. Exodus 32:9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Exodus 32:9 . A stiff-necked people β€” Untractable, wilful, and stubborn; unapt to come under the yoke of the divine law, averse from all good, and prone to all evil, incorrigible by judgments, and obstinate to all the methods of cure. Exodus 32:10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. Exodus 32:10 . Let me alone β€” What did Moses, or what could he do, to hinder God from consuming them? When God resolves to abandon a people, and the decree is gone forth, no intercession can prevent it. But God would thus express the greatness of his displeasure, after the manner of men, who would have none to intercede for those they resolve to be severe with. Thus also he would put an honour upon prayer, intimating, that nothing but the intercession of Moses could save them from ruin. Exodus 32:11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Exodus 32:11 . And Moses besought the Lord his God β€” If God would not be called the God of Israel, yet he hoped he might address him as his own God. Now Moses is standing in the gap to turn away the wrath of God, Psalm 106:23 . He took the hint which God gave him when he said, Let me alone, which, though it seemed to forbid his interceding, did really encourage it, by showing what power the prayer of faith hath with God. Exodus 32:12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Exodus 32:12-13 . Turn from thy fierce wrath β€” Not as if he thought God were not justly angry, but he begs that he would not be so greatly angry as to consume them. Let mercy rejoice against judgment; repent of this evil β€” Change the sentence of destruction into that of correction; against thy people β€” Which thou broughtest up out of Egypt, for whom thou hast done so great things. Wherefore should the Egyptians say, For mischief did he bring them out β€” Israel is dear to Moses, as his kindred, as his charge; but it is the glory of God that he is most concerned for. If Israel could perish without any reproach to God’s name, Moses could persuade himself to sit down contented; but he cannot bear to hear God reflected on; and therefore this he insists upon, Lord, what will the Egyptians say? They will say, God was either weak, and could not, or fickle, and would not complete the salvation he begun. Remember Abraham β€” Lord, if Israel be cut off, what will become of the promise? Exodus 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. Exodus 32:14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. Exodus 32:14 . The Lord repented of the evil β€” Changed his sentence at the entreaty of Moses, who in this represented the Lord Christ, the great Mediator and Intercessor for all the sinful race. He was pleased not to inflict upon them that punishment which he threatened, ( Exodus 32:10 ,) and so acted as men do when they repent and change their minds. Though he designed to punish them, yet he would not ruin them. See here the power of prayer! God suffers himself to be prevailed with by humble, believing importunity. And see the compassion of God toward poor sinners, and how ready he is to forgive! It must, however, be well observed that such expressions as this, of the Lord’s repenting, must be understood as spoken after the manner of men. For that no proper change or repentance can take place in the Divine Mind, plainly follows from the perfection of the divine knowledge, which comprehends at one view all things, past, present, and to come, and can never be surprised at their happening as they do, or change his mind on that account. See this further explained on Genesis 6:6 . Exodus 32:15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. Exodus 32:15-16 . On both their sides β€” Thus it was effectually provided against a possibility of any one either taking from or adding to this law, to do either of which God expressly forbade his people, Deuteronomy 4:2 . The tables were the work of God β€” Herein they differed from the second tables, which were the work of Moses, Exodus 34:1 . Exodus 32:16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. Exodus 32:17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. Exodus 32:17 . Joshua said, There is a noise of war in the camp β€” Joshua had waited upon the middle of the hill for Moses, and so neither knew what the people had done, nor heard what God had said to Moses. Exodus 32:18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. Exodus 32:19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. Exodus 32:19 . He saw the calf and the dancing, and his anger waxed hot β€” It is no breach of the law of meekness to show our displeasure at wickedness. Those are angry and sin not, that are angry at sin only. Moses showed himself angry, both by breaking the tables, and burning the calf, that he might, by these expressions of a strong passion, awaken the people to a sense of the greatness of their sin. He broke the tables before their eyes, ( as it is Deuteronomy 9:17 ,) that the sight of it might fill them with confusion when they saw what blessings they had lost. The greatest sign of God’s displeasure against any people is his taking his law from them. Exodus 32:20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it . Exodus 32:20 . He took the calf which they had made β€” The people were evidently overawed by the presence of Moses, and therefore attempted no resistance while he took away their idol to destroy it. Here we see how much Moses excelled Aaron in courage and zeal for the glory of God, as also in authority among the people. He burned the calf β€” Melted it down, and then filed it to dust. This speedy reduction of the calf to powder, as well as the materials whereof it was made, inclines one to believe that it was not of any considerable size. He strewed it upon the water β€” Upon the brook which flowed for them from the rock in Horeb; and he made the children of Israel drink of it β€” Not that he constrained them to it; but, having no other water to drink, they could not avoid, when thirsty, to drink of that with this mixture. Thus it would be taken notice of throughout the camp, and would appear to all who had the least discernment that an idol is nothing, this being reduced to atoms, and made as mere a nothing as could be. Exodus 32:21 And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? Exodus 32:21 . What did this people unto thee? β€” He takes it for granted that it must needs be something more than ordinary that prevailed with Aaron to do such a thing. Did they overcome thee by importunity, and hadst thou so little resolution as to yield to popular clamour? Did they threaten to stone thee, and couldest not thou have opposed God’s threatenings to theirs? Exodus 32:22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. Exodus 32:23 For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. Exodus 32:23 . They said, Make us gods β€” It is natural to us to endeavour thus to transfer our guilt. He likewise extenuates his own share in the sin, as if he had only bid them break off their gold, intending but to make a hasty essay for the present, and childishly insinuates that when he cast the gold into the fire, it came out either by accident, or by the magic art of some of the mixed multitude, (as the Jewish writers dream,) in this shape. This was all Aaron had to say for himself, and he had better have said nothing, for his defence did but aggravate his offence; and yet, as sin did abound, grace did much more abound. Exodus 32:24 And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. Exodus 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) Exodus 32:25 . Moses saw that the people were naked β€” This is the most common and obvious meaning of the word ??? , paruang, here used, as many examples in the Old Testament show, and it is the sense which seems best to suit this place. They were stripped of their ornament and armour, not only of their jewels, but of the innocence of their minds and lives, and of their defence, the favour and protection of God, by which alone they were secured from the Egyptians, and by which they were to be defended against those many and mighty enemies toward whom they were about to march, and to whom, being thus disarmed and helpless, they would become an easy prey. Exodus 32:26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD'S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. Exodus 32:26 . Moses stood in the gate of the camp β€” The place of judgment; and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? β€” Who abhors this idolatry, and adheres to the true worship of God? The Chaldee interprets it, Who feareth the Lord; let him come to me β€” Let him take God’s part, and plead his cause against idolatry and idolaters. They had set up the golden calf for their standard, and Moses sets up his in opposition to them. The sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him β€” This shows that the defection of the people to this idolatrous worship was general, since none but the sons of Levi joined Moses on this occasion: and it is probable, that even they were not all free from the sin. Exodus 32:27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. Exodus 32:27 . Thus saith the Lord God of Israel β€” What Moses now did was not done merely in the heat of a pious zeal, but by a divine influence and direction; and therefore can be no warrant to others to imitate his example, who cannot pretend to the same authority, and who are placed in circumstances entirely different from those in which he and the Israelites were placed. Slay every man his brother, and every man his companion β€” Moses being, under God, their chief ruler, at God’s command, passed this extraordinary sentence upon the offenders, without the common process in courts of judicature, requiring the sons of Levi to go armed into the camp, and cut off the most notorious and obstinate offenders, without regard to kindred, friendship, or any other distinction whatever. And there was no fear of their killing the innocent in this case, because Moses had called to himself all that were on God’s side. These, either by resorting to him, or by retiring to their tents, were separated from the guilty, who were impudently walking about in the camp, trusting to their numbers. It may be observed further here, that, besides the authority of the command of Moses to the Levites, a peculiar impulse from God must have actuated them in this business, otherwise it is very improbable that they should have obeyed so readily, or have dared to attack so many; and a peculiar consciousness of guilt and terror must have fallen on the people, to have caused such a multitude to submit to be slain without making any resistance. Exodus 32:28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. Exodus 32:28 . And there fell of the people that day about three thousand men β€” Probably these were but few in comparison with the many that were guilty; but these were the men that headed the rebellion, and were therefore picked out to be made examples of, for terror to others. Exodus 32:29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. Exodus 32:30 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. Exodus 32:31 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Exodus 32:31 . O, this people have sinned a great sin β€” God had first told him of it, ( Exodus 32:7 ,) and now he tells God of it, by way of lamentation. He doth not call them God’s people, he knew they were unworthy to be called so, but, this people. This treacherous, ungrateful people, they have made them gods of gold. Exodus 32:32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sinβ€”; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. Exodus 32:32 . If thou wilt forgive their sin β€” if not β€” If the decree be gone forth, and there is no remedy but they must be ruined; blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written β€” Termed the book of the living, Psalm 69:28 ; and alluded to Isaiah 4:3 , where the prophet speaks of being written among the living in Jerusalem. He evidently means, β€œLet me die rather than live to see the evils that are coming upon them, if thou shalt think fit to punish them as they deserve: if they must perish, let me perish with them.” God, it must be observed, is here represented after the manner of men, as having all the names of the living enrolled in a book, to signify his particular care and inspection of the sons of men, see Psalm 56:8 . So, to blot out of the book of life, or of the living, is to cut one off from the land of the living, equivalent to Moses’s expression, ( Numbers 11:15 ,) If thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand. And thus it is understood by the Hebrew doctors. Compare Deuteronomy 25:6 ; Psalm 87:6 ; and Ezekiel 13:9 . In pursuance of the same allusion, God is represented as enrolling the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, or the members of his true church, in a book by themselves, Daniel 12:1 ; Php 4:3 ; and Revelation 3:5 . Moses’s words may be further illustrated by those of St. Paul, ( Romans 9:3 ,) I could wish myself to be an anathema from Christ, or rather, as the words ??? ??? ??????? may properly be rendered, after Christ, that is, after his example to be consigned to temporal death, and made a curse for my brethren’s sake. In short, Moses here expresses his vehement zeal for God’s glory, and love to his people, signifying that the very thought of their destruction, and the dishonour that would thereby come upon God, was so intolerable to him, that he rather wished, if it were possible, that God would accept of him as a sacrifice in their stead, and by his destruction prevent so great a mischief. Those who understand Moses’s words as if he wished to be excluded from eternal life for the sake of his brethren, make him talk a language quite unnatural, and inconsistent with that desire of self-happiness which is the first law of nature. Besides, it should be remembered, that to be excluded from eternal life, implies not only the loss of heaven and final misery, but also final and desperate enmity against God; and that any man should think a willingness to be eternally wicked, and a desperate hater of God, can spring from love, and be a proper expression of zeal for his glory, is wonderful indeed! Exodus 32:33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Exodus 32:33 . Whosoever hath sinned, him will I blot out of my book β€” The soul that sins shall die, and not the innocent for the guilty. Exodus 32:34 Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. Exodus 32:34-35 . My angel shall go before thee β€” Some created angel that was employed in the common services of his kingdom, which intimated that they were not to expect any thing for the future to be done for them out of the common road of providence. When I visit β€” Hereafter, when I shall see cause to punish them for other sins, I will visit for this among the rest. From hence the Jews have a saying, that from henceforward no judgment fell upon Israel, but there was in it an ounce of the powder of the golden calf. And the Lord plagued the people β€” Probably by the pestilence, or some other infectious disease. Thus Moses prevailed for a mitigation of the punishment, but could not wholly turn away the wrath of God. Exodus 32:35 And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.
Expositors
Expositor's Bible Commentary Exodus 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. CHAPTER XXXII. THE GOLDEN CALF. Exodus 32:1-35 While God was thus providing for Israel, what had Israel done with God? They had grown weary of waiting: had despaired of and slighted their heroic leader, ("this Moses, the man that brought us up,") had demanded gods, or a god, at the hand of Aaron, and had so far carried him with them or coerced him that he thought it a stroke of policy to save them from breaking the first commandment by joining them in a breach of the second, and by infecting "a feast to Jehovah" with the licentious "play" of paganism. At the beginning, the only fitness attributed to Aaron was that "he can speak well." But the plastic and impressible temperament of a gifted speaker does not favour tenacity of will in danger. Demosthenes and Cicero, and Savonarola, the most eloquent of the reformers, illustrate the tendency of such genius to be daunted by visible perils. God now rejects them because the covenant is violated. As Jesus spoke no longer of "My Father's house," but "your house, left unto you desolate," so the Lord said to Moses, "thy people which thou broughtest up." But what are we to think of the proposal to destroy them, and to make of Moses a great nation? We are to learn from it the solemn reality of intercession, the power of man with God, Who says not that He will destroy them, but that He will destroy them if left alone. Who can tell, at any moment, what calamities the intercession of the Church is averting from the world or from the nation? The first prayer of Moses is brief and intense; there is passionate appeal, care for the Divine honour, remembrance of the saintly dead for whose sake the living might yet be spared, and absolute forgetfulness of self. Already the family of Aaron had been preferred to his, but the prospect of monopolising the Divine predestination has no charm for this faithful and patriotic heart. No sooner has the immediate destruction been arrested than he hastens to check the apostates, makes them exhibit the madness of their idolatry by drinking the water in which the dust of their pulverised god was strewn; receives the abject apology of Aaron, thoroughly spirit-broken and demoralised; and finding the sons of Levi faithful, sends them to the slaughter of three thousand men. Yet this is he who said "O Lord, why is Thy wrath hot against Thy people?" He himself felt it needful to cut deep, in mercy, and doubtless in wrath as well, for true affection is not limp and nerveless: it is like the ocean in its depth, and also in its tempests. And the stern action of the Levites appeared to him almost an omen; it was their "consecration," the beginning of their priestly service. Again he returns to intercede; and if his prayer must fail, then his own part in life is over: let him too perish among the rest. For this is evidently what he means and says: he has not quite anticipated the spirit of Christ in Paul willing to be anathema for his brethren ( Romans 9:3 ), nor has the idea of a vicarious human sacrifice been suggested to him by the institutions of the sanctuary. Yet how gladly would he have died for his people, who made request that he might die among them! How nobly he foreshadows, not indeed the Christian doctrine, but the love of Christ Who died for man, Who from the Mount of Transfiguration, as Moses from Sinai, came down (while Peter would have lingered) to bear the sins of His brethren! How superior He is to the Christian hymn which pronounces nothing worth a thought, except how to make my own election sure. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.
Illustrator
Up, make us gods. Exodus 32:1-6 Idolatry J. B. Brown, B. A. I. THE VERY ESSENCE OF IDOLATRY IS NOT SPIRITUAL IGNORANCE AND OBTUSENESS, BUT A WILFUL TURNING AWAY FROM THE SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE AND WORSHIP OF GOD. 1. This act of idolatry was in the very front of the majesty and splendour of Jehovah revealed on Sinai. 2. With the idol before him, the priest proclaimed a feast unto the Lord; and the people pleased themselves with the thought that they were "fearing the Lord, while they served their own gods." The real heart of idolatry is here laid bare. It is, in plain terms, an effort to bring God within reach; to escape the trouble, pain, and weariness of spiritual effort, and substitute the effect of the eye, hand, and tongue for the labour of the soul. 3. In God's sight β€” i.e., in reality β€” this is a turning away from Him. They meant this bull to be an image of God their leader. God saw that it was an image of their own idolatrous and sensual hearts. II. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE PROPHET AND THE PRIEST. III. THE CENTRAL PRINCIPLE OF IDOLATRY IS THE SHRINKING OF THE SPIRIT FROM THE INVISIBLE GOD. It is the glory of the Incarnation that it presents that image of the invisible God which is not an idol, that it gives into the arms of the yearning spirit a Man, a Brother, and declares that Jesus Christ is the God of heaven. ( J. B. Brown, B. A. ) Lessons from the worship of the calf W. Whale. I. THE DIFFICULTY TO HUMAN NATURE OF FAITH IN THE UNSEEN. II. THE IMPATIENCE OF MAN AT GOD'S METHOD OF WORKING. Moses delayed in the mount. The people would not wait for the man with God's Word. III. THAT MAN WILL HAVE A GOD. Up, make us gods. They are often manufactured gods. The man who would be popular must make gods to go before the people. It is the very height of folly when men of science, art, or manufactures, say of their own works, "These be thy gods, O Israel." IV. THE EFFECT OF SLAVISH ADHERENCE TO OLD IDEAS. In one sense, at least, they were not out of Egypt β€” The sacred ox. See the importance of keeping the young from early impressions of error. Let none expose themselves to false teaching, it may bring them into bondage. V. THEIR EXTRAVAGANT EXPENDITURE FOB THE GRATIFICATION OF A FANCY (ver. 2, 3). People often spend more in superstition than Christians for the truth. Christians spend far more for luxury, pleasure, fancy, than for Christ. Who amongst us is willing to do as much for Jesus as these people did to procure a golden calf? VI. HOW ART IS DESECRATED TO SINFUL PURPOSES (ver. 4). So in building at Babel; in worship at Babylon, and Ephesus, and Athens. Abundant proof in our picture galleries and museums, and also in our modern theatres, gin palaces, etc., etc. VII. THAT IF GOD IS DISHONOURED, MAN IS MISLED, HUMILIATED, RUINED. ( W. Whale. ) The golden calf of Aaron and the Lamb of God Homiletic Monthly. 1. The calf of gold was made of earth's choicest valuables. The Lamb of God was heaven's greatest treasure. 2. The calf of gold was made to make God visible. Christ was God manifest in the flesh. 3. The calf of gold was made to meet a seeming extremity. Christ came when man was lost beyond hope. 4. The calf of gold was made to go before the children of Israel to the land of promise. Christ is the way from sin and bondage to a land glorious beyond the imagination of men to conceive. ( Homiletic Monthly. ) The golden calf E. N. Packard. I. The first fact that asserts itself in these lines is this β€” THAT THE GREATEST MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD S PRESENCE AND POWER DO NOT NECESSARILY KEEP US FROM SIN. We must rely on Christian principle; or, if we say it in other terms, we must walk by faith, not by sight. II. Another lesson which comes out of this painful history is THE UNCERTAINTY OF POPULAR MOVEMENTS IN RELIGION. They are very deceptive, and never more so than to-day, when the democratic idea is carried over into the realm of Christian faith and made to do duty where it has no place. The work of the tempter is seen not only on individuals, but on whole communities, swaying them from the severe standard of purity and truth. With the children of Israel the rule was the Ten Commandments which they had just accepted from Jehovah and which left them no excuse for idolatry. With us the standard is the whole Word of God. III. PERHAPS THE MOST PITIABLE FIGURE IN THE WORLD IS A PRIEST LIKE AARON WHO WEAKLY SUCCUMBS TO THE POPULAR WILL AND ATTEMPTS TO LOWER THE UNCHANGING AND THE SPIRITUAL LAWS OF GOD. It was convenient for the turbulent and idolatrous crowd at the foot of the mountain to have an Aaron to do their wicked work. It made it look better and soothed the outcries of conscience. It has often been convenient for godless and cruel monarchs, like Henry the Eighth, to have a Wolsey to sanction their wickedness. IV. Lastly, we see THAT THE COVENANT WAS BROKEN, BUT NOT ANNIHILATED, BECAUSE THERE IS FORGIVENESS WITH GOD OUR FATHER. The two tables were shivered to atoms, but the law that was written on them by God's finger is still in power. ( E. N. Packard. ) Makeshifts W. Birch. It was then a period of ignorance and superstition; but even now the greater portion of humanity worship tangible gods. The cry is for something which can be touched; and though men believe in an invisible God, yet they seek to gather comfort from makeshift idols. Men see that gold will enable them to obtain the comforts of life, and thinking that such comforts will give joy to the soul, they say, "Oh, that we could get gold!" They work and slave, and bow down, and sacrifice themselves for gold, as if it were a god. The fountain of pure joy and rest can be given only by a living God; gold is a dead thing, which does not know us and cannot sympathize with us. Men have an instinct for religious worship and for holy conduct, and if they do not exercise this sacred instinct in its true channels, they must have a makeshift to satisfy them for the time being. Let us describe some of the makeshifts on which men try to lean for comfort. 1. Some people make their intention to serve God to-morrow a makeshift for goodness to-day. You use this intention as a makeshift for true piety, and try to persuade your conscience to be content with it instead of the genuine article. 2. Many people seek worldly satisfactions as makeshifts for spiritual realities. Men say, "If I had this wealth, or that friendship, or his love, or her affection, I should have a happy soul." They think that earthly satisfactions will be good makeshifts for blessings which none but God can bestow. 3. Others seek in the approval of men a makeshift for the approval of God. 4. Is it not true that many people consider the pleasures of sin a makeshift for the joys of holiness? Can you find any of the men who have given themselves to sin and profligacy who can truly say that they have enjoyed life? 5. Perhaps you have given up some sins, and make that fact a makeshift for perfect cleansing. As a child is content with washing a part of her face, leaving the crevices of the eyes and ears untouched, so you have put away some of your sins, but have left your heart as it was. 6. Some people make attendance at church a makeshift for Divine service. ( W. Birch. ) Aaron's sin George Breay, B. A. Aaron, formerly so courageous; fearlessly speaking to Pharaoh; who was a mouth unto Moses his brother; called the saint of the Lord. Aaron, so prompt in obedience to the will of God, listens to the people, and actually leads them on in the way to destruction! In all probability he was afraid of offending the people, who were assembled in numbers, and he had not courage to resist their sinful desires. We have other instances in Scripture in which the servants of God failed in that very grace for which they were most remarkable. Simon Peter could declare his determination to go with his Master to prison and to death; yet within a short time he cursed and swore, saying, "I know not the man." Elijah, who cut off four hundred and fifty of the prophets of Baal, was intimidated by the threats of Jezebel, fled from his post of duty and usefulness, and wished for himself that he might die. We may remark from this that no sacredness of office or of character will keep man from sin. It is only grace that can effect this for us. It is imagined by many that Aaron did not intend to promote idolatry; that he merely gave the advice which he did give to get rid of the difficulty, and that he did not expect the people would make the sacrifice which he demanded, knowing their love for their ornaments and jewels. But how unwise and unholy was such conduct: he was at any rate appearing to sanction what he knew to be wrong; he was putting the most important interests in jeopardy, and descending from the only ground which a child of God ought to occupy in moral questions. But Aaron's manner of defending himself with Moses afterwards proves that he had given way in opposition to his conscience (ver. 24). What need have we to pray that ministers especially be not left to themselves! we are men, not angels; we are compassed with infirmities, and subject to like passions with others; we have need constantly to watch and pray, that your desires may not lead us to say or do what would be injurious to your best interests. ( George Breay, B. A. ) Aaron's flexible disposition W. M. Taylor, D. D. Of ready and eloquent utterance, he seems, like many who have been similarly gifted, to have been of a pliant and flexible disposition. He bent, like the sapling, to almost every breeze; his nature was receptive rather than creative; he took impressions from others, but made little or no impression on them in return; he floated on the current which others formed, but he rarely, if ever, made a torrent which swept all opposition before it. He had little of that formative power which is always the indication of the possession of the highest greatness, and by which the individual moulds and fashions all who come within the range of his influence. He had more of the soft impressiveness of the melted wax than of the hardness of the die that stamps it. Hence he was well enough in time of peace, and when everything was going smoothly; but when a sudden emergency arose, when a mutiny was to be quelled, or, as in the present instance, a fit of idolatrous madness was to be repressed, he proved unequal to the occasion, and was found yielding, against his better judgment, to the demand of the multitude. From a timid and pusillanimous regard to his own safety, he would not oppose the wishes of the people; and so it happened that the spark, which a moment's firmness might have trodden out, became at length a mighty conflagration, in the flames of which some thousands were consumed. It was in his power, had he resisted the demand at the first, to have prevented all this evil; and even if he could not have put down the idolatrous revolt, it was still his duty to have offered to it the most uncompromising opposition. Hence his conduct was not only condemned by Moses, but also in the highest degree displeasing to God ( Deuteronomy 9:20 ). 1. It is always wrong to do wrong. Aaron does not think for a moment of denying that idolatry is a sin; but the whole drift of his reply to Moses is, that his making of the golden calf was, as far as he was concerned, a thing which he could not get rid of. The man who came home intoxicated last night, saying that he could not help it, because he met some friends who insisted on his going with them, and he could not get away; the family who are ruined by reckless extravagance, and declare that they were under the necessity of keeping up appearances; the merchant who, on the eve of bankruptcy, has recourse to dishonourable expedients; the youth who helps himself to his employer's money, because he had to do something to pay his debts β€” all are in the same category with Aaron.(1) In settling what is your duty you have nothing to do with consequences. The moment you begin to trouble yourself about what will be the issue, you admit the tempter to a parley; and it will be well if in the end he do not bring you over to his views.(2) We must remember that no one can compel us to sin. We cannot do wrong until we choose to do it, and the choosing is a free act of our own. 2. The difficulty of doing right is always exaggerated by the timid. The world's own maxim is, "Grasp the nettle firmly, and it will not sting"; and a deep knowledge of your own heart, or a large experience of the ways of men, will convince you that, if with spirit and energy you do the right thing at the right time, opposition will fall away from before you, and they who threatened to persecute will in the end approve. Nor ought we to forget that God has promised to be with those who stand up bravely for His cause. The stern eye of an unflinching man will hold β€” so it is said β€” even the lion spell-bound; and courage in the service of God, turning an unyielding eye on Satan, will send him away from us for a season. 3. The consequences of wrong-doing are always more serious than the wrong-doer at first supposed. I can imagine Aaron bitterly upbraiding himself for his weakness when he saw the fatal fruits of it, but then it was too late to repair the wrong. You cannot stay the shell midway in its flight; after it has left the mortar it goes on to its mark, and there explodes, dealing destruction all around. Just as little can you arrest the consequences of a sin after it has been committed. You may repent of it, you may even be forgiven for it, but still it goes on its deadly and desolating way. ( W. M. Taylor, D. D. ) That most men have their weaknesses, by which they may be taken Owen Felltham. I have never read of any island so impregnable but nature has left in it some place or other by which it might be vanquishable; nor have I ever met with any person so well armed, at all points, as not to leave some way whereby he might be sometime surprised: this passion, that affection, this friend or that kinsman, this or that delight or inclination. He is the strongest who has the fewest accesses. As those places are the weakest which lie open to every invader, so, certainly, he is the most subject to be overcome whose easiness exposes him to be prevailed upon by every feeble attempt. And however fertile he may be by nature, and of a good soil, yet, if he lies unsurrounded, he shall be sure to be always low. At least he ought to have a fence and a gate, and not let every beast that has but craft or impudence to graze or dung upon him. ( Owen Felltham. ) Lack of decision of character "A man without decision," writes John Foster,"can never be said to belong to himself; since, if he dared to assert that he did, the puny force of some cause about as powerful, you would have supposed, as a spider, may make a seizure of the hapless boaster the very next moment, and contemptuously exhibit the futility of the determination by which he was to have proved the independence of his understanding and his will. He belongs to whatever can make capture of him; and one thing after another vindicates its right to him by arresting him when he is trying to go on, as twigs and chips floating near the edge of a river are intercepted by every weed and whirled in every little eddy. Having concluded on a design, he may pledge himself to accomplish it, if the hundred diversities of feeling which may come within the week may let him. His character precluding all foresight of his conduct, he may sit and wonder what form and direction his views and actions are destined to take to-morrow; as a farmer has often to acknowledge that next day's proceedings are at the disposal of its winds and clouds. This man's notions and determinations always depend very much on other human beings; and what chance for consistency and stability while the persons with whom he may converse or transact are so various? A succession of persons whose faculties were stronger than his own might, in spite of his irresolute reaction, take him and dispose of him as they pleased. Such infirmity of spirit practically confesses him made for subjection; and he passes like a slave from owner to owner." A disappointing development of character Scientific Illustrations, etc. How surprised sometimes is the naturalist who, after carefully preserving a chrysalis, and awaiting day by day the appearance of the beautiful butterfly, of which it is the coarse and mysterious envelope, sees a crowd of flies emerge in place of it! This is through the work of the echinomyia, a genus of insects which derive their nourishment from flowers. They deposit their eggs on caterpillars, and the young larvae on hatching penetrate their bodies and feed on their viscera. How surprised sometimes is the kind father of a family who, after carefully watching the growth of a child, and anticipating the development of a noble character, sees to his dismay an exhibition of all the gross and common vices instead of it. This is the work of various bad associates, such as servants, tutors, or others who, whilst deriving their livelihood from tending children, have deposited in their minds β€” perhaps unintentionally, but nevertheless effectually β€” vicious ideas which have only waited the opportunity for a horrible unfolding. The victory of these vicious ideas is so insidious that forethought is disarmed. The embryo is placed where even ingenuity might search in vain. When those ideas develop they are as certain to destroy a beautiful character as the echinomyia are to destroy the most lovely butterfly. ( Scientific Illustrations, etc. ) We must not be persuaded to sin Then there was John Bunyan , who, under the despotic and profligate reign of Charles II., was sent to the Bedford gaol. True, they offered to release him, and allow him to go back to his wife and four children (one of them blind), but it was at the sacrifice of his convictions, and he scorned that. He was a man every inch of him, and in reply to the offer he said, "Before I will do that, I will stay in the gaol until the moss has grown around my eyebrows." Brave John Bunyan! Sat down to eat and to drink Epicurism described and disgraced T. Taylor, D. D. I. WHO DID THIS? The people; who had impiously presumed to set up a worship against God. Whence note that feastings and idleness are the undivided companions of idolatry. The counsel, then, of the apostle, upon this ground, is not unseasonable ( 1 Corinthians 10:7 ). Be not idolaters, as they were. But we are the people of God, and baptized in the name of Christ; there is no fear we should be idolaters. The Jews were God's people, yet set up the golden calf. II. WHEN THEY DID THIS. Even when their case was most miserable, then were they most insensible; for β€” 1. They had robbed themselves and made themselves poor, in that the ear-rings and jewels which God had given them from the Egyptians they bestowed upon an idol. 2. They had committed an horrible sin, aggravated sundry ways. They had turned the glory of an incorruptible God into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay. 3. For this fearful sin they lie under a heavy punishment: they were now naked, and God was coming to revenge upon them; and after He was entreated, at the instance of Moses, to spare them, yet, for example, three thousand of them were presently slain. III. BUT IS IT NOT LAWFUL TO EAT AND DRINK? Yes, it is not lawful only, but necessary to nourish our life, to repair strength decayed, and enable us to our duties and calling. Nay, more: we may use the creatures, not only for necessity, but for delight. God hath given us leave liberally to use His mercies, and furnished us with variety far beyond necessity. He hath not given bread only to strengthen the heart, but oil to make the face shine. What, then, did this people other? They failed in many things. 1. Whereas the chief end of eating and drinking is to glorify God ( 1 Corinthians 10:31 ), the end of this eating and drinking was to dishonour God and honour the calf. 2. Whereas eating and drinking should fit us to our duties and callings, both general and special, they by eating and drinking made themselves fit for nothing but play and wantonness. 3. Whereas men ought to eat and drink according to the call of nature, in sobriety and moderation, the text noteth an intemperate waste both of time and creatures, addicting themselves to the creature and nothing else. 4. Whereas feastings are seasonable in times of joy and gladness, these feast in a time when God's judgments are coming on them for their sin, and so the deepest sorrow would better beseem them, as also did they in Noah's time. They ate and drank, etc. (and Isaiah 5:12 ), not considering the work of God. ( T. Taylor, D. D. ) Rose up to play On recreation T. Taylor, D. D. If we be ruled by God in our sports and rejoicings, we must listen to His directions. I. First, our choice must be of sports in themselves lawful. We may not play with holy things, suppose Scripture phrases; we must fear the holy name of Jehovah, not play with it. Neither on the other side may we play with sin, or things evil in themselves, viz., to make one drunk or swear, or to laugh at such persons. It is a matter of sorrow to see God's image so defaced. So in other sinful merriments. Or if we have not warrant for them, by general rules of the Word, if the laws of the land prohibit them as unlawful. Here pause on that rule ( Philippians 4:8 ). And Christian wisdom will also guide us to the choice of the best sports. A spiritual mind will choose spiritual recreations, as a carnal mind will use carnal. II. Secondly, when we have chosen warrantable sports, we must beware we sin not in the use of them. And to keep us from sin in our recreations we must look to our neighbour, to ourselves. 1. For our neighbour two rules must be observed: one of wisdom, the other of justice.(1) For wisdom: we must wisely sort ourselves in our sports with the most sober, godly, and wise of our degree, condition, and sort of life, that may rather watch over us that we offend not in them than anyway draw and provoke us so to do. No pestilential air so contagious as where swearers and riotous gamesters are met.(2) For justice: the rule is that we must not use gaming as a colour to purchase our neighbour's money, or to help ourselves by the hindrance of his estate. 2. We must look carefully to ourselves. First, for our affection, that it be moderate. We may use lawful sports, but not love them. Secondly, for our ends. Our ends must not be to pass the time, which passeth whether we will or no, and we ought to redeem our time, and not let it pass without gaining something better than itself; nor yet to maintain idleness as men that cannot tell what to do with themselves else. Again, the end of sport is preservation of our health, both of soul and body, and not to impair the health of either, as many by watching at play, and forgetting or foregoing their diet and rest for play, destroy their health and call in numbers of diseases on themselves, and oftentimes untimely death. Lastly, seeing nothing can be lawful wherein some glory accrues not to God, therefore, if the end of our sports be not to enable us with cheerfulness in duties of religion and Christianity, it will all be returned as sin in this reckoning. ( T. Taylor, D. D. ) The right use of amusements T. De Witt Talmage, D. D. Remember our amusements and recreations are merely intended to fit us for usefulness. I hope that none of you have fallen into the delusion that your mission in life is to enjoy yourselves. Pepper and salt and sugar and cinnamon are very important, but that would be a very unhealthy repast that had nothing else on the table. Amusements and recreations are the spice and the condiment of the great banquet. But some of you over-pleasuring people are feeding the body and soul on condiments. We are to make these recreations of life preparations for practical usefulness. We must make our amusements a reinforcement of our capacity. Living is a tremendous affair, and alas! for the man who makes recreation a depletion instead of an augmentation. Once when the city of Rome was besieged by Hannibal's army there was a great shout of laughter inside the walls, and it strangely frightened the besieging army, and they fled in wild precipitation. That is a matter of history. But no guffaw of laughter will ever scatter our foes, or lift our besiegement, or gain our victory. It must be face to face, foot to foot, battle-axe to battle-axe, if we achieve anything worthy. Can you imagine any predicament worse than that which I now sketch? Time has passed, and we come up to judgment to give our account for what we have been doing. The angel of the judgment says to us: "You came up from a world where there were millions in sin, millions in poverty, millions in wretchedness, and there were a great many people, philanthropists and Christians, who toiled themselves into the grave trying to help others. What did you do?" And then the angel of the resurrection, the angel of the judgment will say: "Those are the women who consecrated their needle to God and made garments for the poor." The angel of the resurrection, the angel of the judgment facing the group of pleasurists: "What did you do?" "Well," says one of them, "I was very fond of the drama, and spent my evenings looking at it." May the Almighty God forbid that you and I should make the terrific mistake of substituting merriment for duty! Pliny says that the mermaids danced on the green grass, but all around them were dead men's bones. Neither bat nor ball, nor lawn tennis racquet, nor croquet mallet, nor boat, nor skate β€” although they all have their uses β€” can make death, life, and eternity happy. ( T. De Witt Talmage, D. D. ) A sermon on play A. Macleod, D. D. Play is neither idleness nor folly. It is one of the many good things which have come into your life from heaven. It is a gift from God. It is a part of your life as truly as prayer is, as truly as the soul itself is. And it is part of the life of children all the world over. 1. Now, the first thing I want you to see is that this playing of you boys and girls is a pleasure to God. He is a God so kind and loving that He delights in everything innocent that is a delight to you. Just as He delights in the songs of birds and in the colour and fragrance of flowers, He delights in the play of childhood. 2. God has made play a part of your life, because He wants you to be strong. He has work waiting in the years to come for every boy and girl on the earth. And although it is not all the same kind of work, all of it is work which will want strength for the doing. Therefore He will not have you always at tasks. He has divided the time for tasks with the time for play. He will have you out in the open air. By your games He will have your body in endless motion. You shall run and not be weary. 3. For another thing God wants you to have a happy gateway into life. Nobody can tell beforehand whether your after-life will be happy. In games you are joined together, just as we who are old are in our toils. The playground is a little world. You cannot have any pleasure in any of its games unless you try to have the others playing with you as happy as yourself. To be unkind, unjust, unfair, or ungenerous in a game is to spoil it or bring it to an end. Surely this is a new, rich addition to our knowledge of God when we discover that the same kind Father, who gave His Son to die for us, that He might deliver us from sin and death, made the joy and play of boys and girls in the streets and in the house. May you carry something of the joy of it through life with you, and may you remember that God has been so good to you that He has set your life between two worlds of joy β€” the world of your happy childhood and the world that awaits you in heaven! ( A. Macleod, D. D. ) Moses besought the Lord. Exodus 32:11-14 The intercession J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D. We find him in succession β€” 1. Highly privileged. 2. Deeply grieved. 3. Raised to a holy frame of mind. 4. Visibly answered. 5. Abundantly strengthened. I. Many events have taken place since Moses, at the Lord's command, drove back the waters of the Red Sea, and the song of deliverance voiced forth from heart and mouth of many myriads. Amidst the sound of thunder and of trumpets, heaven has already spoken to the earth, and Israel's camp has now for weeks been gathered round Mount Sinai, waiting patiently till Moses shall return. Return! Where is he, then, you ask, and where can Amram's son remain with more advantage than amidst the people, who, as is already fully evident, cannot remain without his help and guidance for another single day? Where? As if Moses could have been himself had he been always living in the abject sphere in which this Israel moved; as if a man to whom the Lord Almighty has vouchsafed a look into celestial mysteries should hasten back to earth again! The story of those forty days is written in heaven's register; and if Moses were himself still here to give his witness as to what occurred, perhaps he would repeat the words of Paul regarding the most blessed hour of his experience, "Whether it took place in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell β€” God knoweth." It is enough for us that he receives the law there through the medium of angels; that at this time he may have had withdrawn from him the cloud, which hitherto had quite concealed from human eyes God's counsel in its grand development, as now revealed in these last times; that there is now made known to him, not merely the grand principles of law to regulate the Jewish commonwealth, but God's express appointments as to everything relating to the life, both civil and religious, of the chosen nation, even to minute details; that he is now allowed (and this, the greatest privilege of all, I mention last) to pray in such a way that he most truly lives in close communion with the Infinite. Oh, happy Moses! who shall tell in what a stream of deep enjoyment you must then have bathed; how much refreshment your soul must have drawn from the full cup of God's delights; and how oblivious you must have now become of all the troubles which so often, like a leaden weight, oppressed your soul on earth? How high stands this great man of God above the carnal Israelites, who long for nothing so incessantly as for Egyptian flesh! Among those born of women, there has not been one, belonging to the days of the Old Covenant, that stood in such an intimate relation to Jehovah, except, it may be, Abraham alone: in this respect, then, we look upon Moses as a happy man. But the greatest privilege which Moses had at Sinai β€” confidential intercourse with God β€” is granted to each one of us who know Him in His Son. II. Yet do not think that such a privilege exempts you from a multitude of struggles on this earth; rather, when you but look at Moses' case, and find how deeply grieved he was, the contrary seems true. He is still standing in God's holy presence, raised above the dust of earth, when suddenly he hears the words addressed to him, "Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves." "Thy people": these are bitter, cutting words. Is it not just as if Jehovah meant to say, "A people such as this can no more be accounted Mine"? What has occurred to rouse the Holy One to wrath? "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Oh, wretched nation, thus, when not much more than called to liberty, to stretch their hands out for the fetters of unrighteousness, and, as it were, before the eyes of that Jehovah who touched yonder mountain-top and made it tremble, thus so quickly to transgress the first requirement of His holy laws! But we may also readily imagine what unutterable grief it was to Moses in particular, that even while in the immediate presence of his God, a dark cloud rises on His face. Is this, then, the reward for all the faithfulness with which he has devoted his whole energies to such an arduous work as Israel's deliverance? Is this the seal confirming what the people, scarcely forty days before, declared, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do"? Where are the songs of thanksgiving that echoed all along the shores of the Red Sea? They now are changed into the shouts of a rebellious mob. Where is the spoil that the dismayed Egyptians gave up? It has been spent on the adorning of an idol. Where is the prospect now of national prosperity to be enjoyed if men observed the ordinances of the Lord? "I have seen this people, and behold it is a stiff-necked people; now, therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and
Matthew Henry
32:1-6 While Moses was in the mount, receiving the law from God, the people made a tumultuous address to Aaron. This giddy multitude were weary of waiting for the return of Moses. Weariness in waiting betrays to many temptations. The Lord must be waited for till he comes, and waited for though he tarry. Let their readiness to part with their ear-rings to make an idol, shame our niggardliness in the service of the true God. They did not draw back on account of the cost of their idolatry; and shall we grudge the expenses of religion? Aaron produced the shape of an ox or calf, giving it some finish with a graving tool. They offered sacrifice to this idol. Having set up an image before them, and so changed the truth of God into a lie, their sacrifices were abomination. Had they not, only a few days before, in this very place, heard the voice of the Lord God speaking to them out of the midst of the fire, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image? Had they not themselves solemnly entered into covenant with God, that they would do all he had said to them, and would be obedient? ch. 24:7. Yet before they stirred from the place where this covenant had been solemnly made, they brake an express command, in defiance of an express threatening. It plainly shows, that the law was no more able to make holy, than it was to justify; by it is the knowledge of sin, but not the cure of sin. Aaron was set apart by the Divine appointment to the office of the priesthood; but he, who had once shamed himself so far as to build an altar to a golden calf, must own himself unworthy of the honour of attending at the altar of God, and indebted to free grace alone for it. Thus pride and boasting were silenced. 32:7-14 God says to Moses, that the Israelites had corrupted themselves. Sin is the corruption of the sinner, and it is a self-corruption; every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust. They had turned aside out of the way. Sin is a departing from the way of duty into a by-path. They soon forgot God's works. He sees what they cannot discover, nor is any wickedness of the world hid from him. We could not bear to see the thousandth part of that evil which God sees every day. God expresses the greatness of his just displeasure, after the manner of men who would have prayer of Moses could save them from ruin; thus he was a type of Christ, by whose mediation alone, God would reconcile the world to himself. Moses pleads God's glory. The glorifying God's name, as it ought to be our first petition, and it is so in the Lord's prayer, so it ought to be our great plea. And God's promises are to be our pleas in prayer; for what he has promised he is able to perform. See the power of prayer. In answer to the prayers of Moses, God showed his purpose of sparing the people, as he had before seemed determined on their destruction; which change of the outward discovery of his purpose, is called repenting of the evil. 32:15-20 What a change it is, to come down from the mount of communion with God, to converse with a wicked world. In God we see nothing but what is pure and pleasing; in the world nothing but what is sinful and provoking. That it might appear an idol is nothing in the world, Moses ground the calf to dust. Mixing this powder with their drink, signified that the backslider in heart should be filled with his own ways. 32:21-29 Never did any wise man make a more frivolous and foolish excuse than that of Aaron. We must never be drawn into sin by any thing man can say or do to us; for men can but tempt us to sin, they cannot force us. The approach of Moses turned the dancing into trembling. They were exposed to shame by their sin. The course Moses took to roll away this reproach, was, not by concealing the sin, or putting any false colour upon it, but by punishing it. The Levites were to slay the ringleaders in this wickedness; yet none were executed but those who openly stood forth. Those are marked for ruin who persist in sin: those who in the morning were shouting and dancing, before night were dying. Such sudden changes do the judgments of the Lord sometimes make with sinners that are secure and jovial in their sin. 32:30-35 Moses calls it a great sin. The work of ministers is to show people the greatness of their sins. The great evil of sin appears in the price of pardon. Moses pleads with God for mercy; he came not to make excuses, but to make atonement. We are not to suppose that Moses means that he would be willing to perish for ever, for the people's sake. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves, and not more than ourselves. But having that mind which was in Christ, he was willing to lay down his life in the most painful manner, if he might thereby preserve the people. Moses could not wholly turn away the wrath of God; which shows that the law of Moses was not able to reconcile men to God, and to perfect our peace with him. In Christ alone, God so pardons sin as to remember it no more. From this history we see, that no unhumbled, carnal heart, can long endure the holy precepts, the humbling truths, and the spiritual worship of God. But a god, a priest, a worship, a doctrine, and a sacrifice, suited to the carnal mind, will ever meet with abundance of worshippers. The very gospel itself may be so perverted as to suit a worldly taste. Well is it for us, that the Prophet like unto Moses, but who is beyond compare more powerful and merciful, has made atonement for our souls, and now intercedes in our behalf. Let us rejoice in his grace.