#056 - S4:14 - Exodus 32

Veronica and Erika examine God's response to the people sin with the golden calf.  They talk about the significance of God's word choice as well as Moses's shrewd and bold conversation with God.  Then they look at Moses's word choice when he asks the people to help deal with the sin of the golden calf.

Questions to Consider:
What was the significance of God's word choice?

How have you seen Moses' relationship with God change since the burning bush?

Why was it important for God  to  deal quickly and descively with the sin of the golden calf?   

You can join us on our Facebook page called "The Context and Color of the Bible" as well as Erika's website erikavanhaitsma.com.

In order to prepare for this study we used the following books or articles:
Exploring Exodus by Nahum Saran
Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom by Dennis Prager
The JPS Commentary on Exodus by The Jewish Publication Society
Messiah - Issue 24
Exodus: Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible by Thomas Joseph White, OP
Exodus: A Mentor Commentary by John L. Mackay
Shadows of the Messiah by First Fruits of Zion, book 2
Miqra Journal - Winter 2003

Music: Tabuk by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4453-tabukLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

Erika:  Do you ever want to dive deeper into the Bible but you just don’t know where to begin? Or struggle to feel like you even have the time?  When you read the Bible, do you get frustrated because you know there is so much more in there, you just have no clue how to get it out?  Or maybe you just want to know the Bible better and so you’re looking for any resource to help.  This is the podcast for you. Welcome to the Context and Color of the Bible podcast. We are two sisters who love to study the Bible and secondly, love to help others understand it better.  I’m Erika, I’m Veronica and we have found when it comes to our own study of Scripture, that bringing context adds to our understanding. It adds color to the black and white pages of the text.  Welcome to the book of Exodus.

Erika:  All right, Veronica, this is season four, episode fourteen.

Veronica: Yes, we are now into December. 

Erika: This is crazy, we thought we’d be done with Exodus at this point.  

Veronica: Yeah, we thought we’d be a little closer.

Erika: Yeah, I am enjoying it so much.

Veronica: I am too, and there’s so much more in here that I didn’t get that before.  So, that’s why we have to do this together.  We add so much to each other when we share because we think differently and we see things differently.  So, hopefully, you’re all enjoying it and willing to keep going.  We’re probably going to go longer than we originally told you.

Erika: Right, we thought by Christmas we’d be done.

Veronica: We thought by mid-December we’d be done.

Erika: We’ll see.  Probably not.  

Veronica: No promises.

Erika:  But, we are working through right now, God covenants.  We’ve been through the redemption, we’ve been brought out of Egypt, a price has been paid, and now, Veronica, we’re at Mount Sinai. God’s presence has filled the mountain, the earth was shaking, thunder and lightning, that huge cloud on the mountain, and the people said we will obey!  Everything you say Lord, we will do!  Like, it was this amazing heartfelt moment.  And then…. A mere forty days later, or a long forty days later, and true, as people forty days can seem very long.  

Veronica: Yes, you go without chocolate for forty days…

Erika: Oh, let’s not go there.  Ouch.

Veronica: Or sugar.  That’s a long time.

Erika: That is a very long time.  So that’s true.  A very long forty days.  Moses has been on the mountain and the people are saying we’re done.  

Veronica: And we’re in chapter 32, because we skipped a few chapters that we will come back and hit later.  The people come to Aaron saying we need something to represent God.

Erika: Because this man, Moses, who brought us out, isn’t here right now.  It’s fascinating they attribute their redemption for Moses.  

Veronica: Yeah…we know what’s going to happen.  Aaron’s going to build this calf.  He gathers the jewels, the gold, the jewelry.  So we’re going to jump back up the mountain to Moses.

Erika: Right, the camera pans back up, now we know what’s happening down here,  and how does God feel about it?

Veronica: Yes, that idea that Moses brought us out…

Erika: Well, it’s fascinating.  It got pointed out to me, the Lord said to Moses, Go down, because your people who you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt.  It’s almost like God is saying, hey Moses, they’re claiming this was all you, so they’re your responsibility now.  They apparently forget me, it’s all on you.  Which, if I was Moses, I’d be like huuu no.  

Veronica: But I like that too, because so long it had been my people.  

Erika: The heartbreak of God.  To say, they forgot. Or they’re attributing it to you Moses, and not to me.

Veronica: Right and we’ve pointed out when God hasn’t gotten angry.  He didn’t get angry when they were questioning about what are we going to eat, what are we going to drink, you brought us out here to die, His anger never burned against them.  But now, it does.

Erika: Now it hurts.  It’s personal now.  You’ve made this covenant, these promises with me, and now you’ve broken it.  And one commentator pointed out that there are two different ways you can sin.  You can worship a false god or you can worship the true God in a false way.  And right here, we’re not really sure which one the Israelites are doing.  Because they could still say we’re still trusting that it’s the God of Moses that’s behind all this, but we need more than just an idea.  We need more than just a thought, we need something physical. But instead of waiting on God to provide the physical, they come up with their own ideas. When we create God in our image, we have to come up with our own rules, our own worship, our own physical representations, we gain control.

Veronica:  Well, and you have to remember, they were slaves in Egypt for four hundred years so they  had over five hundred gods in Egypt.  They’re used to an image, an object representing the god.  So when they say, fashion us the calf who brought us out of Egypt, they probably realized that wasn’t who actually brought them out.

Erika: Right, the god rides on the calf, this is symbolic of the god, but we still need something physical, which is a legitimate need.  But they handle it incorrectly and that’s the problem.

Veronica: So we have Moses and God, up on the mountain, God is mad.  Verse ten He says, leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.  Then I will make you into a great nation.  And just, we talked about last week, the humility of Moses.  And here you see it again.  God is like, Moses, I’m done, I’ll just use you and start over.  And we’ve seen God do this.  He did it with Abraham. He did it with Noah.  God has no problem saying “reboot”.  But what does Moses do?

Erika: Moses says no, you can’t.  This just amazes me.  That word, hutzpah - the audacity of Moses to tell God no.  And in verse eleven, Moses sought the favor of the Lord, his God.  Oh Lord, why should your anger burn against your people whom you brought out of Egypt with the great power and mighty hand.  Why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth.  Turn from your fierce anger. Relent. Do not bring disaster on your people.  Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to whom you swore by your own self, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.  I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, it will be their inheritance forever.  Then the Lord relented.  

And as I was studying this portion Veronica, it just hit me how shrewd, how merciful, how brilliant Moses is at this moment.  Moses never says God’s reaction is wrong or sinful.  He admits, God you are just in your reaction.  You have a right to be angry.  And you have a right to wipe these people out.  Israel betrayed you and your covenant so your action of obliterating them would be just.  But instead what Moses does, he doesn’t focus on that.  He says, God your name has been made great because you brought these people out, your name, your reputation will be lessened if you do this.  God, instead of being merciful, who forgives and redeems, will be seen as potentially malevolent, intending to bring out Israel simply to destroy them.  And oh yeah God, don’t forget about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-the covenant promises you made to them.  What about fulfilling those promises, God?  And you swore on yourself God, you have to keep those promises.  So Moses doesn’t focus on the fact that God’s anger is just and his punishment would be just, instead he takes a different tactic.  God, your anger’s valid, but what does a response like that do to your reputation?  And he says, God, if you want your name to keep going out, you have got to forgive these people.  And in verse eleven, it says Moses sought the favor of the Lord.  Favor in the Old Testament is the same word as grace in the New Testament.  We translate it favor, but it carries the idea of grace with it.  Moses, is seeking grace for God’s people.  There is grace all over the Old Testament, we just need eyes to see it.

Veronica: So Moses is a priest here, interceding on the behalf of the people.

Erika: Right.  He’s being a mediator.  And this is the reason God chose him.  God chose Moses knowing these people would sin, knowing they would make him angry with their disobedience.  And so he chose the perfect man who could argue with him, who could remind him of his covenant.  You know, even, it amazes me, Moses has to tell God, remember!  I think what we were talking about Veronica is saying God, remember.  It’s okay to remind God of His words.  Because remembering does not mean He’s forgetting, but you’re asking God to act.  Based on His promises, based on what He said.  And that’s what Moses is doing here.  God, act on your promises.

Veronica: What hit me as you were talking about this Erika is memory.  We keep coming back to it in Exodus.  God redeems, God covenants, God dwells, all based on memory.  We are called to remember.  Moses reminded God of the memory - don’t forget Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  There’s a reason we keep going back and looking back because you’ve said things and you’ve been faithful in the past.  So we need to see you doing it again.

Erika: Here and now.  Again. Yes.

Veronica: And what I love about Moses though, is that Moses’ love for Israel is such that he nobly and selflessly rejects God’s offer to make his own descendants the sole heirs to that promise that he made to the patriarchs.  You see Moses just being humble.  

Erika: Time and again.  This man is amazing.  I mean, how many of us would have the ability to say, no God, don’t and in fact, not only am I going to say don’t do that to me, but now you need to forgive them.

Veronica: Yes, yes, because it would have been easy to get on God’s side and say, yeah, burn them.  I’m tired of them.  They’ve come against me numerous times, let’s just start over.

Erika: Yes, wipe them out Lord.

Veronica: Yes, because I don’t know about you, but there are times I do pick up someone else’s righteous anger and go, yep, you deserve it.  Do I stand in the way? Do I intercede and say, you know what that was wrong, but there might be something bigger going on?  There might be a call to glorify God in a different way. So, we have Mose interceding for the people.  He’s going to start heading back down the mountain, but who’s he going to pick up on his way down?

Erika: Joshua.  Joshua cracks me up. It’s war.  Joshua is like, it’s war Moses, war.

Veronica: Yes.  But I love the fact that Joshua has been up there that whole time too.

Erika: Faithfully waiting.  Right.  You get why he was Moses’ successor.

Veronica: And so verse nineteen, Moses approaches the camp, sees the calf, sees the dancing and his anger burned.  That’s the same Hebrew word that they use in verse ten to talk about God’s anger. 

Erika: So Moses is angry with the same righteous anger that God has.  And God is right to be angry and right to punish and deal with sin.  A good God deals with sin.  A god that’s easy to deal with in the moment is a god who winks at sin. But in the long run, that’s a horrible god.  Because look at the evil that would come.  I mean, how often are we dealing with our kids, if we just constantly count to three, but never give them consequences, eventually they go well, pssh, you’re not going to do anything and I can ignore the three.  I can live however I want and the chaos that comes from that.  It takes a good and loving God to deal with sin and to deal with it appropriately.  

Veronica: To discipline takes time and energy and effort.

Erika: Yes, and sometimes it’s easier to either just not do it or to do it the wrong way.

Veronica: Right.  And so you have Moses again, picking up that anger, rightly, and I always thought he threw down the tablets in anger, in frustration.

Erika: Right.  Ugh, these people, I am so frustrated.

Veronica: In a moment of passion, just ugh, I’m done.

Erika: Because some of us have done things in a moment of passion like that.

Veronica: Do you want to talk about toys?

Erika: Nope.  (laughter) I kicked a toy.  Not at a person.  I was angry.  Nothing broke.

Veronica: But Moses doesn’t have an emotional breakdown here.  Moses isn’t being passionate and out of control.  Those tablets, those two tablets that we talked about that he’s carrying are the legal binding documents saying we are in covenant with each other and the covenant’s been broken.  And so what he is doing is, he is symbolically ripping up that covenant.  Just like when a contract is broken, you rip it up.  You don’t keep it around.  So it’s not Moses in anger, out of control.  Moses is acknowledging, it’s done.  

Erika: Right.  You broke this.  This is considered the biggest sin the nation of Israel ever commits.  At the very beginning of the covenant.  It would be like a wife on her wedding day and she’s just said the “I do” part of her wedding and she in her husband are up in front of a massive group of people and after saying “I do”, she turns and looks out in the audience, grabs another man and kisses him passionately.  That’s what Israel is doing here to God.  And how would your husband, or if you are the husband, how would your wife respond if you did that to them?  It would hurt anytime, but imagine on your wedding day, after just saying “I do” and you immediately go and kiss someone else.  This has got to hurt the heart of God.  Gut-wrenching sorrow.  And this causes some changes in the relationship with Israel that we will talk about.. 

Veronica: Yes, because when we started God said to Moses, this is going to be a kingdom OF priests. Everybody is supposed to have that access to God.  Everybody is supposed to be able to come into my presence.  There weren’t going to be those boundaries.

Erika: Right, or there were going to be fewer boundaries.  There would still probably be a high priest boundary, but even the layman would have access to God with an intimacy that a priest has and all of a sudden God says, well wait a minute.  Can’t happen that way anymore. Now we have to put up an extra boundary.

Veronica: So you see Moses calling the people to him and who comes?

Erika: The tribe of Levi.  

Veronica: Which is Moses’ tribe.  His own kin comes but that’s why then the Levites get the privilege, the blessing of working in the temple and the tabernacle.

Erika: It’s interesting.  Moses doesn’t say whoever hasn’t worshiped the golden calf, but he calls out whoever is on the Lord’s side.  It’s almost like he gives them a chance to repent. If you’re willing to acknowledge this is wrong and come back to God, come to me.  So he gives everybody a chance to repent and for some reason, only the Levites respond.  

Veronica: I know, which is just a fascinating thing to me.

Erika: So the blessing they get is they get to become those priests.  They get that level of holiness and ability to go into the presence of God that God wanted for the entire nation.  And so, instead of a kingdom of priests, they become a kingdom WITH priests.  And that huge change happens right here.

Veronica: Which, again, the whole point of doing Exodus is we are setting the foundation of what’s been happening, what’s going to happen.  So you’ve got key players, kind of that game board idea, we’re still setting up, not as much anymore, but key players you’re going to follow then throughout the rest of the story.

Erika: Ok, now we have a priestly level that we’re going to introduce that we’re going to have to deal with and work with.  

Veronica: And what you said last week, I think it was, that with that responsibility comes more limitations.  So you have the priest, the Levites now having different limitations on them.  And then specifically Aaron gets pulled out as the high priest, with more limitations.

Erika: The greater your access to holiness, the greater responsibility.  And so more commands to follow.

Veronica: Moses takes, as you can read, grinds up the calf, makes the people drink it.  You did want to talk about though, God’s just and that not everybody died.  You and I had talked about that.

Erika: Right, because how many people die Veronica?  On this day?

Veronica: 3,000

Erika: Right, the Levites go through and kill 3,000 people and to us that almost seems like a horrible, oh my word, they’re killing people, it’s terrible.  But, we already know, Paul says later on, the wages of sin is death.  The punishment of sin is death.  And God has the righteous justification to put the whole nation to death.  But He doesn’t.  Moses gains God’s favor, God’s grace on these people and so only 3,000 die.  So yes, those who sin do get punished.

Veronica: Which again, it’s over a million people.

Erika: Right, so it’s even that many.  So, yes, those who sin are punished, but the nation as a whole still remains God’s people, most of them, the vast majority do live, and so there’s punishment, there’s consequences, there’s discipline, but it is a very merciful discipline.  I also, I think another aspect of this Veronica is that we need to remember this belief in one God.  It’s called monotheism.  Mono, one. Theism, God.  Is in its infancy.  Every other nation at this point is poly-theistic, they worship a multitude of Gods.  And so this is the beginning of a new thought process, of a new way of understanding God, of interacting with Him, and it’s just in its infancy.  And if God doesn’t deal with the idolatry right away, it will grow and it will spread, and we see that.

Veronica: And we already know it’s going to be an issue.  

Erika: It becomes a massive issue until the destruction of the first temple.  It takes them hundreds and hundreds of years and exile to finally deal with idolatry.  That’s when they finally get rid of it.  So God is appropriately saying, this is huge.  And I need to get it out and cut it off right away.  Otherwise, monotheism will die.  This idea of one God isn’t going to spread unless we immediately cut off any sense of idolatry.  So His anger here and His discipline is big because of where they are in history and what He’s trying to do with these people.  I’m trying to create a new people, I’m trying to create this new thought.  

Veronica: A new nation, set apart, different from everybody else so I have to deal with this.  And I hadn’t thought of that before but I thought of it now as you are talking, Ananias and Sapphira  (Acts 5) dropped dead because again, it was a new way of approaching God and setting up, okay, some things are going to change, but here’s what’s not changing.

Erika: Right, in Acts they come to Peter and they lie.  It’s the beginning of the ministry of believers of the church, going out to the Gentiles and they come in and lie to Peter’s face, saying oh, we sold our property and gave God all this money.  And they only give half. They are just trying to make themselves look good.  It’s a total flat out lie for themselves and they drop dead.  And so, yes, it’s a harsh punishment it seems, but again, something new is starting…

Veronica: You’re setting a foundation, you’re laying a foundation, if you start with anything new and then say we’re going to let that slide, it only goes downhill from there.  Nothing ever just gets better on its own without the time, the work, the energy.  So if you already start off making compromises, it’s really hard to get that back, if not impossible.  I’m not going to say it’s impossible, but it’s going to take more work.  So you start with a high standard… think of someone who has food allergies when they are first trying to figure it out.  They take so many things out of their diet and then slowly let things back in.  

Erika: But sometimes He’ll lessen the consequences, yes, His immediate consequences, yes.

Veronica: So, that’s where we are, chapter thirty-two.  We aren’t going to get into thirty-three unless you want to.

Erika: Nope, there’s more we could talk about with thirty-two I think.  It’s interesting, you need to do God’s life God’s way.  And it’s not just enough to say, oh I love the Lord and then worship Him however you want.  Once you’re in this covenant with God, you are responsible to do it His way.  You know, Israel maybe honestly was thinking, this calf represented the Lord, and so their heart’s desire was to worship God but it totally led them down a wrong path and three thousand people died because of it.  You have got to worship God in His way.  And the only way to know what His way is to read it in His word.  You know, you have to study and understand what He says about Himself, who He is, what He wants, it’s not just enough to know God, we have to live life His way.  And I think that’s something that today we often say as long as your heart’s in the right place.  You know, I’m sincere in my belief.  But you can still be sincerely wrong and end up in a very bad spot.

Veronica: Not on the side of the Lord.

Erika: Sincerity isn’t always enough.  

Veronica: And it that, I just think of, God was gracious and kind and giving.  Here’s who I am, here’s how to approach Me, here’s how to worship Me, it’s not a guessing game.  He clearly spells out here’s what will please Me. If He’s taking the time to tell you, read it!  Understand it and do it.  And even if you don’t understand it, you still do it.

Erika: And understanding can come.  When we started celebrating Passover years ago, my husband and I, there was a lot of it I didn’t completely get.  But over the years, my understanding of what it means, of what it represents, has grown SO much that I look back and how I used to celebrate it and I kind of cringe to where it is today.  Like oh, I’m so sorry.  So yes, doing leads to understanding.

Veronica: But that sounds like so many things we do.  Anyone who has a skill, you look back on those first year or two and go, ohh, I’ve learned so much.  I know so much better now.  So the encouragement for those of you who are new to the faith, it will get better.  But those of you who have been in the faith, you’ll probably look back and go ohhh, I wish I would have known or done differently.  

Erika: I think of some things I taught before and I cringe and say, oh I’m so sorry.

Veronica: But that’s the whole point of why we dive into Scripture - why we chew on it, why we meditate on it over and over again.  Because each time you do, it grows.  It doesn’t get smaller.  You should never get to the point where you go, oh I know this book.  I know this story, there’s nothing there.  It’s going to get bigger and bigger.

Erika: Right.  It’s more amazing.  I think also, in verse thirty-four God tells Moses that He will punish people for their sins and this was pointed out to me that each generation tries to make God in their own image.  And right now, at least in our generation in the west, we want a God that’s very loving.  Very merciful, the shepherd who carried the sheep over His shoulder gently. And the idea that God does punish sin, that God does discipline people and reward obedience is not an idea we really like to play with a lot.  But that’s one thing that Exodus reminds us of, over and over again.  God does hate sin.  And He does punish it.  And sometimes very strongly punishes it but His desire is to bring about obedience.  To get us to walk His path, His way.  He says later in Deuteronomy, through Moses, I’ve set before you life and death, chose life that you may live.  He says that multiple times to the nation.  And choosing life means choosing obedience.  I think in the book of Hebrews, it says, I can’t remember which chapter, those who have faith must believe that God rewards those.   Hebrews eleven. That He is and He rewards those.  That’s faith.  Believing that even though right now it looks like the world is going crazy and everybody is living life their own way, I’m still going to live life God’s way.  And one day God will deal with the sin.  One day God will punish those who are worshiping the golden calf.  One day God will punish the disbelief, the unbelief, and the sin.  And I don’t want to be at that side.  I want to be rewarded for my obedience.  I want the Lord’s side at that point.  And I think that’s something we really need to bring back to the church today.  God does discipline sin and there will be a day when His justice comes and He will deal with the injustice.

Veronica: So deal with it now before He has to!

Erika: Yes.  And obedience matters to God.  How you live, it’s not enough to claim the Lord, you have to walk in His way.  That’s, and then He blesses you.  And it may not look like wealth, riches, fame.  That’s not always the blessing He gives.

Veronica: Right.  Because the Levites actually didn’t have land.  They didn’t have homes.  

Erika: They didn’t have wealth or riches but they got to enter the presence of God in a way no one else did. 

Veronica: Which, if we could grasp how amazing that is…

Erika: Yes.

Veronica: That would change our outlook.  I mean, the Levites were completely dependent on God for their food.  I mean, that was part of sacrifices.

Erika Right, to feed the Levites.

Veronica: And so you say, okay, God’s blessing might not look like the world’s blessing, but it’s so much better.  

Erika: If we could comprehend and grasp that and keep that thought, that God’s blessings are greater and will get greater once we enter eternity, okay, obedience, do it.  That’s a hard concept to live with in the here and now.

Veronica: Yes, it’s easily forgotten.  Do you have other thoughts?

Erika: No, I don’t, but since you had a little extra time, I thought I’d bring a few extra things up.  

Veronica:  I was only ending because we had reached the end of what we had previously discussed.

Erika: I know, but we had seven minutes.

Veronica: We did, so Erika wanted to fill them and those were good things.

Erika: I didn’t mean to blab.

Veronica: Nope, good reminds.  But this is the Context and Color of the Bible podcast.  Please like us, share us, rate us, subscribe, we’re available on all the podcast platforms, we have our Facebook page you can join, we also have Erika’s website, ErikaVanHaitsma.com.  Comment, let us know your questions.  Thanks for joining us and we’ll talk to you next week.  Bye!