Exodus 32 – Moses takes a long
time conferring with God on the mountain (40 days) and the people become
restless and anxious. It is man’s
nature to be endlessly restless when it comes to God. Throughout the wilderness journey, they express the same
anxieties. Back on earth, down the
mountain, life is full of human frailty (440). So they go to Aaron and ask him
to “make us a god who will be our leader” (32:1). The calf they make, at Aaron’s suggestion, is not meant to
be a different god from the one who led them out of Egypt, but a figure of that God (32:4). Nevertheless,
one of the commandments is specifically NOT to make any such
representation. The Lord, seeing
what is going on, tells Moses “Go down at once to your people, [not his any more, note] for they have become
depraved” (32:7).
God threatens to “consume them” but Moses
pleads with Him on their behalf—this is his other “hat” or role as a prophet—a
pleader for his people. The prophet not only represents God’s voice to the
people. He represents the people
to God. He is a two way intermediary.
Moses reasons with God as he might with some proud potentate and tries
to get Him to see how the fate of His people ultimately reflects on Him. He reminds God of the promise he made
to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and exhorts Him to the faithfulness He swore to
them on more than one occasion. I guess we all need to be reminded once and a
while.
Moses
meets up again with Joshua and returns to the camp with the stones, but when he
sees himself what they have done, his anger flares up so much [he does have a
temper---remember 11:8] he throws the tablets down and breaks them. He takes the golden calf, melts it
down, grinds up the gold, throws it on the water and makes the people drink
it. Then he turns to Aaron,
appropriately enough, and asks him an unexpected question—not what have you
done? Or even what have my people done? but “What did this people ever do to
you that you should lead them into so grave a sin?” (32:21)
Aaron, of course,
blames the people—he was just their pawn or he just did what he did to keep
them from doing something even worse.
“I told them, ‘Let anyone who has gold jewelry take it off,’ They gave
it to me, and I threw it into the fire,
and this calf came out.” [Is this supposed to be funny??] Moses, seeing what he is confronted
with, takes charge. He has those
who are “for the Lord” come to him.
Only the Levites rally to him, and he instructs them to slay their
kinsmen—about 3000 [a stylized number often used in the bible] are slain. And
this becomes the basis for their being seen as dedicated to the Lord in a
special way!!
The
next day, Moses leaves them again and returns to the mountain to “make
atonement” for them (32:30). Only when he is there do we see him as a pleader
for his people once again.
