Transcript
Suppose you are driving down the highway. You go around a curve and there in the median is a State Policeman with his radar gun. What’s you first reaction?
Let off the gas or step on the brake. Why? Because he is the law and you’re immediately aware that you may be breaking the law and you don’t want to get caught.
The police car is an instant judge on your life. In the same way the law of God makes us conscious of our sin and judges our sin. As Paul wrote in Romans 7:7: “I had not known sin, but by the law.”
Also in 1 Timothy 1:8, Paul wrote, “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.” We are not under the law but under grace today.
There is a good use of the law under grace, however, in giving a knowledge of sin and how we’ve fallen short of God’s standard.
Because we’ve all broken God’s law and we are all sinners. The lawful use of the law under grace is to produce conviction of sin and an understanding of a person’s need of God’s grace and the Savior.
In the account of the golden calf we learn that while Moses was up in the heights of Mount Sinai, receiving the law and the instructions for the Israelites’ worship and the blueprints for the tabernacle, the people were down below creating their own form of worship and breaking the law that Moses had received.
Moses demonstrated their breaking of God’s law in a very vivid way, by casting down the tablets of stone containing the ten commandments and breaking them.
Exodus 32:1-6: “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.
“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.
“And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
For forty days and forty nights, Moses had been up on Mount Sinai receiving the law (24:18). The people became impatient. And they found it difficult to wait on the Lord, just like we often have trouble when God calls on us to wait on Him.
The number 40 in Scripture describes times of testing.
For example, during Moses’ life he lived forty years in Egypt and forty years in the desert in Midian before God had him lead His people out of bondage.
For forty days, the spies investigated the land God promised to Israel. Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
Jonah gave Nineveh 40 days to repent before their city was overthrown. The Lord was tempted by the devil for 40 days in the wilderness. After He rose again, Christ appeared to His disciples and others for 40 days.
These speak of times of testing. And we find that Israel after 40 days failed their test miserably.
Giving up on Moses returning, the people turned to their temporary leader, Aaron.
Moses had given Aaron and Hur authority to lead in his absence. Exodus 24:14 says, “And [Moses] said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.”
Having this delegated authority, the people turned to Aaron for what to do next. Instead of restraining the people or trying to stop them, Aaron went along with them.
We learn a principle here. The Apostle Paul reminds us that things such as this in Israel’s history are examples for us the Church “and they are written for our admonition.”
And under grace, we are waiting for Someone as well, waiting for Christ’s return at the Rapture. While we wait, Aaron is a reminder to us in the church of the danger of leaders going along with what the people want instead of what God desires.
In our times, there is a call in the church among God’s people for things that make people feel good and what entertains them.
Much is made about meeting the felt needs of people. But in this case, here was a people that did not know what its needs really were.
They thought they needed an idol, but what they really needed was to trust the Lord.
What people need the most is the Word of God. But there are leaders in the church who, like Aaron, go along with what the people and the majority want and think they need and they are departing from the Word. While we wait for Christ to come for us, we need leaders in the church devoted to God’s will and God’s Word no matter the cost.
The people tell Aaron to come and make them gods that would go before them. They weren’t just requesting gods, but gods to lead them—”that shall go before us.” They were ready to leave Sinai and they wanted gods to guide them forward.
In their unbelief, they attributed their deliverance from Egypt to Moses and not God. They said “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.”
Not having Moses to lead and guide them, they ask Aaron to make gods to lead them forward now. They wanted a visible, tangible object to follow. They imagined that a god formed by their own hands and that they could see, was better than Jehovah God.
They preferred a visible counterfeit to the invisible reality of God Almighty. They exchanged the glory of the true and living God for the image of a cow. That makes you shake your head, but this is what is in the heart of mankind.
Israel’s desire for idols originated in Egypt and it was still working in their hearts here. Joshua later warned the Israelites about putting “away the gods which your fathers served in Egypt” and that they should “serve ye the LORD” (Josh. 24:14).
Here Aaron fed these people’s appetite for idolatry and gave them what they wanted.
He tells them to bring him the golden earrings in the ears of their wives, sons, and daughters. Exodus 12 tells us how when the Israelites were leaving the Egyptians lent them “jewels of silver, and jewels of gold” and they spoiled the Egyptians as a result.
This is where they had acquired these golden earrings that Aaron requested. The people brought them to him, and Aaron then melted these earrings into an idol cast in the shape of a calf.
It’s been said that “The Egyptians viewed [the Apis] bull, as the ‘vehicle’ on which a god rode in power, and as such they identified it as divine itself.”
After the golden calf was constructed, it was hailed by the people as the gods which brought them up out of the land of Egypt.
Earlier on Mount Sinai, when the covenant of the Law was established with Israel, the Lord had said these words as the basis of His authority as Israel’s God.
In Exodus 20:2, the Lord told Israel, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
But now in their unbelief, they were attributing their deliverance to this golden cow that they made with their own hands.
After its completion, Aaron built an altar before it and declared the next day a “feast to the Lord.” A feast to THE LORD! Aaron mixed the worship of the true and living God with the worship of a false god. And the people loved it.
It was a mixture of worshiping a golden calf, bringing offerings to it, and a feast to the Lord, drinking, eating, and dancing. It was a mixture of everything they wanted.
Aaron led the people in breaking the first three commandments: (1) They had put another god before Him. (cf. 20:3). (2) They had “made a graven image” (cf. 20:4-6). And (3) they had “used the LORD’s name (in vain),” in false worship (cf. 20:7).
They rose up early on the day of the feast for sin and false worship. The Israelites offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar before the golden calf.
They then ate and drank, “and rose up to play.” The “play” that followed the feast is explained later in the chapter in verses 19,25, which describes dancing and that the people were naked. It was an immoral, sensual, idolatrous feast.
Exodus 32:15-20: “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.
“And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. 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.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
In verses 7-14, Moses interceded on behalf of the children of Israel. God informed Moses what was going on at the foot of the mountain and threatened to destroy this stiffnecked people.
God told Moses that Israel was HIS people whom HE brought out of Egypt. But Moses reminded the Lord that they were HIS people and HE had delivered them “with great power, and with a mighty hand” (v. 11).
The Lord said He would destroy the people and make a new nation from Moses and his descendants. But Moses out of his love for Israel, reminded God about His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He urged Him to turn from His wrath and have mercy on them.
In addition, Moses was concerned about God’s reputation, telling the Lord that destroying the Israelites would cause the Egyptians to call into question the name and character of the true God. In response to the intercession of Moses, the Lord turned away from the judgment which He otherwise would have inflicted on His people.
After God turned away from His wrath, Moses turned and went down the mountain.
When Moses initially went up, the Lord had told him, “Come up to Me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone…And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God” (Ex. 24:12-13).
Moses obediently went up on the mountain to receive the tables of stone and he took Joshua with him into the mount.
In Exodus 31:18 we learn how the Lord “gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”
Now returning, Moses descended the mountain with these two tablets of the ten commandments. And he met Joshua on the way in the mountain.
Meeting Joshua, Joshua is confused and troubled by what he heard at the base of the mountain. He thought the camp was under military attack because of the shouts he was hearing from it.
Moses responded to Joshua saying that it was not the voice of them that shout for mastery and it was not the voice of them that cry for being overcome.
In other words, those are not the sounds of battle from the strong who are conquering and from those who are being defeated and overcome. He tells him that it’s the sound of singing that Joshua was hearing.
As Moses and Joshua drew near to the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing. The combination of the idolatry and the immorality caused Moses’s anger to wax hot.
In righteous anger, he then threw those two stone tablets down and shattered them.
He broke the tablets of the law as a witness of what the people had already done. It symbolized how Israel, in her heart and by her actions, had broken the law and their covenant with Jehovah.
Moses did not break the law when he cast the tablets down at the foot of the Mount. Israel had already broken it when they desired the golden calf and danced around it.
The breaking of those 2 stones, which were “the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God” (v. 16), was a demonstration of the seriousness of Israel’s sin.
Moses broke the tablets first, and then he proceeded to destroy the golden calf.
He burned the calf, he smashed and reduced it to powder, and then he spread that powder on water, and then he made the people drink it.
Recalling this incident, Moses said in Deuteronomy 9:21, “And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.”
So Moses took that gold dust and spread it on a mountain stream that came out of Mount Sinai. Then as a punishment, he made the children of Israel drink that water. He forced the people to identify with their terrible sin.
And as one commentator put it too, “In this manner the thing they had worshiped would become a product of their own waste, the very epitome of worthlessness and impurity.”
Exodus 32:21-24: “And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?
“And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. 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.
“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.”
Moses called what they did “so great a sin.” It was a great sin for a number of reasons. Because of WHO committed it: God’s chosen people, His peculiar treasure. That God’s chosen nation fashioned a golden calf and worshipped a false god.
Because of WHERE they committed it: at Mount Sinai where God’s presence was residing, where His glory had been revealed, and where they entered into a covenant with Him. They had seen the lightnings and thunders and the smoking mount.
Because of WHEN they committed it: not long after they had experienced the mercy and power of God through their deliverance, seeing the miraculous plagues God brought against Egypt, the remarkable parting of the Red Sea, and God’s provision of food and water for them as they traveled to Sinai.
Moses confronted Aaron. Since Aaron had been placed in charge while he was gone, Moses held him responsible for what had taken place in the camp.
Aaron tried to blame shift and pass the blame on to the people, rather than admitting his own complicity in this sin. Aaron’s feeble excuse included him telling Moses that he knew what these people were like and that they had a propensity to do evil.
Then Aaron says, “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.”
You cannot help but laugh at this. He explains the presence of the golden calf that it just popped out of the fire all by itself. It’s amazing! He was shocked too.
And I imagine Moses saying, “You mean, Aaron, that you collected the people’s gold, you threw it in the fire, and the calf just walked out?”
A few verses back we were told though, that Aaron “fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf.” What Aaron told Moses was a complete lie.
If Aaron had stood against the people and taken a stand for the Lord and done what was right, he wouldn’t have needed to lie. But he added sin on top of sin here.
Not recorded here, we learn in Deuteronomy that God in His anger would have killed Aaron as well had Moses not interceded for him.
Moses recalled in Deuteronomy 9:20, “And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.”
Exodus 32:25-28: “And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)
“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.
“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.
“And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.”
Some of the people were still carrying on without moral restraint, and were unruly and licentious as a result of Aaron’s lack of leadership. So Moses stood in the camp gate and asked “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
What about you? How would you answer this question by Moses? In this culture we live in that is devoid of any moral restraints will we take our stand on the Lord’s side?
Will we decide to be on the Lord’s side, to do what is good and right according to His Word, and follow the Lord by faith?
“Who is on the Lord’s side?” was an opportunity for Israel to reaffirm their commitment to the Lord after their great sin. When Moses made this call for loyal followers of Jehovah, the tribe of Levi responded. They were on the Lord’s side.
To punish those who had rebelled against the Lord and were continuing to do so, Moses instructed the Levites to slay with the sword those who were out of control and unrepentant. Even close relatives and friends were not spared.
They were told by Moses to “slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.” As a result, 3000 men were killed. God’s punishment of the rebels was severe, because of the seriousness of their offense.
Colossians 2:14: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.”
The word for “handwriting” here speaks of a “handwritten note of a debtor acknowledging his indebtedness. It literally was an I.O.U.” The certificate of debt here consisted “of ordinances,” or decrees, which is referring to the law.
The Law accuses and condemns all who break it. And we all have broken God’s law. We are all sinners who have a sin debt outside of Christ.
Paul says that our debt and the Law were “against us,” or it had a valid claim on us, indicting and condemning us, and was “contrary to us,” as we could never pay it.
The penalty for the broken law is death like we saw in the account of Israel at Mount Sinai. All people owe God an unpayable debt for violating His law, and are under sentence of death. We all deserve death, eternal death in hell as a result of breaking God law.
But Christ blotted our debt out. He erased it, canceled it; He wiped the slate clean by the Cross. Paul graphically compares God’s forgiveness of our sins to wiping ink off a parchment. Through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, God has totally blotted out and erased our certificate of indebtedness.
He took away all the Law’s power to condemn us, as He nailed the broken Law to His Cross, took our sins on Himself, and fully paid our sin debt for us.
Through the Cross and His shed blood, the Lord Jesus paid the price for all our sins, and now the Law can no longer accuse or condemn us, because we have been “forgiven all trespasses.”
Pastor C. R. Stam rightly put it, “Christ died for the broken Law—though He had never broken it Himself. He died for you and for me.”
How thankful we should be for the Savior and His love, as the One who didn’t deserve death died, so the ones who do deserve death live.