The Fire and the Calf

Series on Exodus

IX. The Compromise of God’s People

B. The Correction of the People, Text: 32:9-33:6

Title: The Fire and the Calf

Introduction

Last time we looked at Israel’s idolatrous worship of the golden calf and saw that it was not only false worship but foolish and fearful. This time we are looking at God confronting this rebellion through his servant Moses. While Moses was in the mountain the Israelites murmured and complained. They wanted someone else to lead them. They rejected all that God had done for them and offered to them. This was not just a rejection of Moses. One is led to ask if this isn’t the way many people react when faced with difficulty they simply shift allegiance to a more comfortable God, one who will do what they want or avoid doing what they do not like! idolatry is not dead, in fact the apostle John warns at the end of his first epistle, Dear children keep yourselves from idols. in our present study we want to note first of all the deceit of Aaron. it is a commentary on the greatest mistake a man can make. Then we will look at the dedication of Moses, which is a commentary on the greatest thing a man can do, and finally we will look at the deliverance of the children of Israel.

I The Deceit

In verses 15-24 Moses is described as coming down the mountain with Joshua. The people were partying. In anger Moses destroys the tablets, the very tablets which God had given him, and then he destroyed the idolatrous calf. The people had done exactly what they were counseled not to do in Chapter 20:23, Do not make gods of gold. Centuries later Ezekial the prophet reminds them in 20:8 they never forsook the idols of Egypt. Having destroyed the calf Moses grinds it up and makes the people drink. This is surely a reminder to them that their sin and the curse they had brought upon themselves would mingle with their very lives and make their lives bitter. They were waters of bitterness. What is perhaps most puzzling in the face of this travesty is the role of Aaron. Why did he so readily acquiesce? Was it fear or folly? We shall never know, but we do know that there is a lesson to Israel here. This was the high priest, the father of all priests, and he miserably failed. This would surely be a continual reminder to Israel of the infirmity of the priesthood and of the necessity for them to offer sacrifice for their own sins. Jesus our great high priest did not need to do this because he was holy. But more importantly, this is a lesson to us. Aaron hides his sin. He shifts the blame totally on the people, records the fact that he asked for their jewelry but when he comes to talk about the calf, it’s a miracle, 32:24, So I told them, “Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.” Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf. He says he put the jewelry in and the calf came out. Earlier we are told in 32:4, He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” This is a bald faced lie. Sinners will resort to subterfuge to hide their sin, but we must not miss the critical point, this deceit is self-defeating. We can be forgiven only when we admit our sin. A long time ago Phillips Brooks preached a sermon entitled “The Fire and the Calf.” In that sermon he reminds us the life of a servant of Christ dates from and begins with his sin. He cannot afford to find his consciousness of himself only in the noble parts of his life. If you try to tell someone rejoicing in salvation that he is not guilty of the very sins for which he was forgiven you will rob him of his joy and his assurance. Not that he loves the sin, but it is only that through that sin he has had his only real experience of God‘s grace and found himself and his Savior. Never listen to the voice that would make your sins less yours. Let us say of all our wickedness, “I did it, I did it, I did it.”

II The Dedication

Moses role is as important for our spiritual discernment as Aaron’s. in the two conversations that Moses has with the Lord there is displayed a meekness and humility reaching beyond our imagination. in the first conversation Moses refuses honor, in the second he forsakes life. God’s anger burns so brightly against Israel that He says He will destroy them and make of Moses a new nation. But in verses 11-13 Moses reply is very instructive, But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” He does not simply say thanks, but no thanks. He says to God that this would ruin God’s reputation. The Egyptians would say that God had simply brought the people out of Egypt to kill them. Destroying the people would not only ruin God’s reputation in the eyes of the Egyptians, it would be contrary to his own promises. This is far more important. Moses pleads God’s promises to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God cannot deny himself, and Moses knows it. Here is the secret of true dedication. It is to rest in God’s Word, and to so honor the promises of the Word that nothing can deflect us from them. Our own gain, our honor, our pride, our success in this world is as nothing besides God’s promises. The second conversation goes even deeper. Moses has announced to the people that he will go up and see God. This is after the Levites have faithfully executed judgment upon three thousand of the rebels. Moses is going up to plead with God, because the issue is not settled yet. and he says perhaps I will be able to make atonement, The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin-but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” It is already clear what Moses has in mind. He will offer himself, and this is the ultimate decision, greater love has no man than this. Only the love of one exceeds it for Jesus laid down his life for us, his enemies. Moses fully realizes in this offer the inadequacy of the sacrifice, but in offering himself he prefigures Christ who was sufficient to the task. Christ the Son of God and man could offer himself for God’s people. You see, covenant breaking demands death and Moses knew that. It demands a death greater than that of animal sacrifice and Moses knew that, but he himself was all he had to offer so he gave what he could. We know that Christ is our offering.

III Deliverance

We have seen that we must not deny our sin but that in accepting it the grace of God becomes real to us. This grace so transforms us that we will give anything in the light of it, even our lives. But God needs to remind us of this and he reminded the Israelites. He says I will still give you the land I promised and I will drive out your enemies before you but I will not go up with you lest I destroy you. So loathsome was their sin in His sight that God requires them then to take off their ornaments and not to put them on again. These very ornaments are like the ones which they had given for the golden calf, and were a token of their sin and shame. There is a sense here that they were not able to be trusted. However, what God is saying is that He will not be in their midst, that is, in the tabernacle in the center of their encampment. Instead He would communicate with Moses at the “tent of meeting” which is a tent Moses set up outside the camp according to 33:7. This is kind of similar to some member of a church being suspended from the Lord’s table because of unrepented sin. Deliverance would come not only through sorrow but through changed lives, lives that were covenantally committed to God. This idea is carried through in the New Testament. Remember the parable of the pharisee and the publican? Think also of the parable of the talents. The man who was more trustworthy received more to use for his master’s work. There are consequences to our sin which must bring changed lifestyles.