Exodus Chapter 32

• 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 know not what is become of him.

This gives us a hint that the people were prone to religious emotions instead of being rooted and grounded in the truth. They knew very little about walking by faith. They desired to feel or see something. The miracle of the Red Sea Crossing was forgotten.

This was a test of faith in which we shall see, they fail. Moses was delayed and they were losing their faith. Instead of asking Aaron to seek God and find out what they were to do without Moses, they desired an alternative form of worship. They were settling for emotion and hype instead of truth and the real God.

This is not to imply that we never feel anything when we worship and experience God's presence. We certainly do many times but just like the miracles, they don't happen all the time. We don't feel God's presence all the time so the word within us is needed so that our faith doesn't fail in time of trials. We need a constant balance of the word, worship and fervent prayer.

• 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.
• 3 And all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
• 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.

Why Aaron who should have known better, did this is not told to us. My guess is that he was not strong and feared the people more than God. Like some of us today, he wanted to please the people and give into the desire of the crowds rather than tell the truth. However, we can never please men and God at the same time. It just can't be done.

• Exodus 32:5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.
• 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.

I can imagine that this playing and dancing was not worshipping God or bringing glory to God but was flesh in every respect. Some commentators state that sexual immorality accompanies idol worship so that was probably going on as well.

Even today our worship needs to glorify God and edify the worshippers. It should never be to satisfy the emotions of our flesh or bring glory to any human being whether it be a singer, a preacher or a performer. All worship must glorify God and bring forth the fruits of the spirit.

We have an entertainment gospel being presented today or a gospel that promises riches to those that give. This type of worship does not bring souls to Jesus Christ and it does not glorify God but gives glory to man. It is a worship that centers on man. It is man centered. "What can I get from God?" "What can God do for me?"

It should be, "How can I learn to present the gospel so that someone might be saved?" "How can I hear from God so that He can use me to save others?" We should desire to receive so we can give out the word of God, not so we can get rich, and make people like us.

• Exdus 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:
• 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Do we make God cry? I sometimes wonder how sad He must be with us when we so quickly forget Him when things get a little rough or when we are not well entertained. In some cases we forget Him if we have too much and other cases we lose heart if troubles mount.

• Exodus 32:9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
• 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.

Here God offered to get rid of everyone and start a new nation out of Moses. I assume his wife also. I imagine that God is testing Moses to see if he would be an intercessor for the souls of the people. If that is the case, Moses passes the test with flying colors.

• 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?
• 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.

God never has to repent of sin so in this case, repent means just to change one's mind. Since God's mind never changes, it means that God just changes His previous orders.

Moses knew that the surrounding nations would hear of it, if they were destroyed and all the wonders done to show the Egyptians who God was, would have been for nothing. God's reputation was at stake.

• Exodus 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou sworest 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 forever.

God didn't need reminded of course but Moses reminded God of His promised to Abraham, Isaac and Israel (Jacob). To bring the prophecy to pass, Israel could never be destroyed completely. That is still true today by the way.

• Exodus 32:14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

God heard the intercessor and changed His heart toward Israel.

• 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.
• 16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
• 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.

Joshua didn't sin with the rest of the people but was waiting for Moses in a place separate from the main body of people. He heard the sounds and thought there was war.

• 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.

Not all singing glorifies the Lord. People sing for various reasons. I pray that we sing to glorify God.

• 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 broke them beneath the mount.

People that are so quick to bring dancing into our modern worship services should take heed that they are worshipping to honor and praise God, not themselves or to seek to draw attention to the flesh and to someone's talent.

However, I've seen plenty of jumping up and down, running and being excited over the presence of God. Nothing wrong with that. If we read what David did when the ark of God was returned or see the way Jesus rebuked the people who were trying to stop a group of people from shouting and praising the Lord when He entered Jerusalem, we see that there is a time and a place for loud vocal worship.

Some of us are more emotional than others. We see people yell and jump at the football games, when they come into money or get a gift we've been waiting for, so why not shout to the Lord? Let all be done for God's glory.

• Exodus 32:20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.
• 21 And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?
• 22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.
• 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 know not what is become of him.

In the previous verses, it says that Aaron fashioned the calf so why he lied here, is not known unless it was out of fear.

• 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.
• 25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)

Other versions read that Aaron allowed them to get out of control. This shows how much we need good strong leadership in our assemblies.

• 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.
• 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 neighbor.
• 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.

If God would have allowed this to go without punishment, it would occur again and the sin would not be purged. Notice that this judgment is for Israel only and has never been given to believers in Christ today. The church can make judgment about what is right or wrong and correct those that sin but they cannot pass judgment that may do someone harm or condemn anyone to die. We are now commanded only to spread the gospel and make disciples by teaching the word and trusting the Holy Spirit to draw people to Christ. We are never to use forced conversions or physically harm anyone that rejects the gospel. Religion that is forced on people is not real heart felt conversions, it is just religion.

• Exodus 32:29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.
• 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.

Others who did not die must have been guilty somewhat of sin in their hearts so they had to have an atonement to free them from the guilt of this serious 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.
• 32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

Here we see a foretaste of what Jesus does when He comes. Moses was willing to give up his place in the book of God to save his brethren. God did not allow that but He did plan to send His own Son to be an intercessor and become the perfect sacrifice for sin.

• Exodus 32:33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

The children of Israel had their names in God's book. They were chosen people to bring forth salvation to the entire world but only those who sinned in this matter were to be blotted out of the book of the Lord.

• 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.

That angel that went before them was the one we know now as Jesus.

• Exodus 32:35 And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

Those that were not killed by the sword of the Levites were plagued with some kind of disease of judgment.

Oh how we need to fear the Lord and not take lightly His word. We need so much to be rooted and grounded in the word so that when the trials come or when our riches increase, we will still wholly follow the Lord. DC

Exodus 33

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