A Work in Progress….

Exodus 32:30a The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. 

Commentary says about verse 32 that while God says no to Moses, “we can say that God looked ahead to the sacrifice of One greater than Moses who would give Himself for the people, bringing full and complete atonement.”

Exodus 32:30b But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”

I struggle with that association because I still have the image of an angry Moses, making the people drink the gold, sanctioning 3,000 deaths of brothers, friends, and neighbors. That behavior is not Christ-like. But Moses does offer himself in place of the Israelites in verse 32.

Exodus 32:31 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. 

Precious Savior, You are perfect. We are not. Sometimes I get so tripped up in the details that it’s hard for me to see the bigger picture. Moses is not perfect, but You chose him because he was perfectly suited for this call, struggles and all. Help me to draw closer to You as I study Your word. Help me, Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 32:32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”

Have a blessed day. 

Exodus 32:25 Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. 

There are so many things that confuse me about today’s verses. Moses counsels God in v12 to turn from His anger, yet Moses gives the order that results in 3,000 deaths? I mean, I recognize that things are out of control, but the murder of 3,000 brothers, friends, and neighbors? That’s what will be helpful here?

Exodus 32:26 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.

And, while the only decision is “to be on the Lord’s side,” as commentary posits, we have to be able to trust the one who purports to be on God’s side, who purports to be preaching God’s word because, unfortunately, there are so many wolves preaching “God’s word” perverted by their own objectives that it is hard to know whom to trust sometimes.

Exodus 32:27 Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ”

Precious Savior, You know I struggle with death in the Bible: Is it truly necessary? Will it be used by modern “prophets” to twist and corrupt Your word and Your people? Help me–to understand and to trust–in a way that brings You glory and does not lead to ungodly destruction. Help me, Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 32:28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.

Have a blessed day. 

Exodus 32:21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”

My first response, reading all the way down to verse 24, is laughter at Aaron’s reaction. As a mother and a teacher, I have heard the excuse “I have no idea how that happened” by someone purporting to be innocent countless times.

Exodus 32:22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. 

It doesn’t take long for that laughter to die out, however. Aaron doesn’t even seem to realize his role in this debacle. Moses left him with the Israelites for religious guidance while Moses went up to talk to God. Aaron simply chooses the path of least resistance when the Israelites get antsy. He gives in rather than encouraging them to stay strong in the Lord.

Exodus 32:23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ 

Precious Savior, Forgive me for the many times when I show up in a situation like Aaron, choosing the path of least resistance over holding strong, even when it’s hard. Help me to stand on Your firm foundation, always. Help me, Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 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!”

Have a blessed day.

Exodus 32:17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”

So….Moses talks God out of destroying the rebellious Israelites, then pitches a temper tantrum because the Israelites are misbehaving? That confuses me. Moses knew exactly what they had been up to (v 7-8). He knew it before he counseled God to turn from His anger, so why does he react the way that he does?

Exodus 32:18 Moses replied: “It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.”

Commentary says that it is fitting that Moses breaks the stone tablets because the Israelites, by their behavior, have broken the covenant those tablets represent. It goes on to say that making the people drink the gold dust of the idol is fitting for many reasons, but I still struggle with the rationale of Moses’s anger.

Exodus 32:19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 

Precious Savior, I, too, have struggled with anger over the years. It’s an easy default reaction because I know how to handle anger much better than I know how to handle fear or doubt or grief. Is Moses’s reaction similar? He defaults to an emotion he understands? Is there more here? Help me to understand. Help me, Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 32:20 And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

Have a blessed day. 

Exodus 32:13 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.’ ” 

Today’s verses are troubling to me. It sounds like God decided to destroy the Israelites because of their idolatry and Moses talked Him out of it. The God of all creation, sovereign ruler of all the universe does not need Moses (or anyone) to talk Him out of (or into) anything, so what gives?

Exodus 32:14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

If God’s words are not for His benefit, then they must be for Moses’s benefit, right? Moses working through God’s “threat” and urging mercy changes Moses’s heart for the Israelites, right? But what if Moses had said, “You know what, God? You’re right. Wipe them all out. Make me a great nation instead”? Did God know Moses’s heart so well that He knew that would not happen? Does God work through this kind of manipulation?

Exodus 32:15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. 

Precious Savior, You are sovereign, merciful, compassionate, loving. Gone is the angry God of the Old Testament, whose way was anger and destruction, wiping out everything and starting over. I also don’t think You are manipulative, so help me as I read and study Your word to make sense of these passages I don’t understand. Draw me closer. Amen.

Exodus 32:16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

Have a blessed day. 

Exodus 32:9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 

As I read today’s verses, Moses’s response to God’s anger at the Israelites and their idol, my first thought is, “Moses is not an eloquent speaker? You could have fooled me.” Moses, in his reply to God’s anger, seems incredibly eloquent.

Exodus 32:10 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.”

Commentary confirms Moses’s eloquence, delineating how Moses reminds God that the Israelites are His people, and appeals to Him through His grace, His glory, and His goodness. The eloquence in Moses’s words is startling in its simplicity.

Exodus 32:11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 

Precious Savior, Sometimes, like Moses, I feel You have set me on a path that is just not right for me. Forgive me. Help me to see, to know, to understand that where You guide me, You will provide for me. Help me to trust You. Always. Amen.

Exodus 32:12 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.

Have a blessed day. 

Exodus 32:5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 

Remember way back to Exodus 6 when Moses convinces God to let Aaron help him because Moses is not an eloquent speaker and is afraid Pharaoh won’t listen to him? I wonder how Moses is feeling about that decision now that Aaron has leaned so quickly and so willingly into the golden calf.

Exodus 32:6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

I wonder if anything would have been different in today’s verses had Aaron not been allowed to assist Moses. Would someone else have sanctioned the idol? Would someone else have stopped the wandering of the waiting Israelites? Did this scene need to happen to help the Israelites truly understand that God is the One True God and there is no other?

Exodus 32:7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.

Precious Savior, Thank You for the ability to read Your word and wonder about what is happening, what could have happened, why it needed to happen. Help my reading, studying, and wondering to lead me closer to You. Always. Amen.

Exodus 32:8 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, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

Have a blessed day.