Ex. 32: Israel Freaks Out...Thousands Dead

Moses is gone. 40 days and nights (give or take) go by, and the Israelites have no idea when he'll be back. 40 days is a long time actually, to wait for someone who says they will be be back, but don't really give a set time. Anyway, during this time, God must not have been communicating to the Israelites in the way to which they were accustomed. Even though there was that giant cloud on the mountain the whole time. They knew God was there.

Well, they had to worship something, and in chapter 32 they surround Aaron and tell him to make them some gods who will go before them. They were evidently tired of being in this one place for so long, and got the wanderlust. Aaron, the priest, who went up on the mountain, who ate and drank with God Himself, is like, "OK, bring me all your gold earrings." He makes a golden calf out of them.

Extremely unsettling what they say here next in verse 4. "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egpyt." Wow. So it wasn't just a need to follow a different god. A replacement god. They go even further, and misattribute the LORD's miraculous power in bringing them out of Egypt to a lump of gold carved out of their earrings. This was after Moses sprinkled them with the blood of the covenant, gave them the ten commandments (one of which being "have no other gods before me") and they themselves proclaimed they would do everything the LORD says.

Aaron sees this, and figures this god needs an altar and some sort of offering, as the real God did, so he built an altar in front of this calf, and declared that the next day would be a festival unto this god. Aaron even calls it LORD. And the next day, the people got up early, sacrificed to the calf and presented offerings, ate, drank, and generally just raved.

Well, God of course sees this, and tells Moses to

"Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'

"I have seen these people, and they are a stiff-necked people. Now 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."

This is a seeming contradiction to what God has been saying all along. First off, He calls Israel Moses' people. All along, they have been God's chosen people. Then God says Moses brought them out of Egypt. Yet all these festivals and commemorations were designed to celebrate God's bringing the people out of Egypt. Why would God say this? Why would God throw Moses under the bus like this for Israel's behavior?

Is Israel's worshipping this calf their way of excusing themselves from God's covenant with them? They were told to destroy other idols back in chapter 23. Would this be a way of passing Israel from God's covenant to Moses?

God tells Moses to leave him alone so that his anger can burn and God can destroy them. Not unlike a teenage girl throwing a hissyfit, not wanting anyone to see her trash her room.

Or perhaps this was to call Moses out on their behavior? Was Moses not taking ownership of this priesthood? Perhaps he did not fully understand what it is his position meant to Israel ( and to himself). Was this God leading Moses to a response, testing him, and seeing where Moses was and to whom Moses was allied?

I find Moses' response very calming, and probably what God had hoped he would say. Moses brings up the Egyptians, asking why they should say that God brought them out to kill them in the mountains and wipe them out? Moses reminds God of the covenant He had made with Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. I don't think this was Moses trying to soothe God's fragile ego, or manipulate the mind of a deity. I think God wanted Moses to show some fortitude. And he did.

So God relents, and doesn't kill everyone. Whew. And Israel had no idea what almost was.

So Moses goes back down the mountain with Joshua...and I don't know if Joshua was actually in the cloud with Moses or what. Something tells me he wasn't witness to what happened between God and Moses, as he mistakes the sounds of Israel's pagan revelry for the sound of war. Moses hears the sounds, and says, "It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing I hear." They must be poor singers to make Joshua think they were at war. War sounds are not beautiful sounds. Moses sees the calf and the dancing, and completely loses it. He had just gone to bat for these people, and now he sees for himself how bad it really is. He smashes the tablets on the ground at the foot of the mountain, and creates some old fashioned Bible justice. He burned the calf in the fire, melted it down, ground it into powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. I don't think he held each one by the throat and poured calf-inated water down his gullet. He probably scattered it on their only water source, so they had no choice but to drink it.

Moses confronts Aaron, and Aaron blames the people, essentially saying, "You know Israel...."

He saw the people running about wild, and knew this was ridiculous in the eyes of Israel's enemies. So he took a stand, and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me." The Levites took the call and rallied to him. Moses forwards a command from God to go back and forth in the camp, killing his brother, friend and neighbor. And they did as they were commanded, and kilt off about 3,000 people. Which is just horrible. But they were warned. God blessed them for being more loyal to Him than to their own sons and brothers. Following God's commands was so important, they were to put their sons to death. Sons who were wicked.

The next day, Moses addresses a (probably) shocked and subdued camp, telling them that what they did was super naughty, and that he would talk to God and see about letting them off the hook. As indicated in the previous chapters regarding atonement and sin offerings, sin was going to be a given, which was why there was a need for these offerings to take place. God knew that.

Moses asks God to forgive the Israelites for their golden calf episode, recognizing how serious it actually was. If God refused, Moses offered to have his own name blotted out of something called God's book. Was this a list of names of righteous people who have found favor in God's eyes? Was it a book of every single person, and when they sin without atonement, the name is blotted out? God tells Moses whoever sins against him will be blotted out of his book, at any rate. God tells Moses to go on, and follow the angel, and God will punish Israel for their idolatry with a plague when the time is right.