Chapter 32. Last week we did a bit of a comprehensive move through the chapters dealing with the construction of the tabernacle. So in chapter 25 beginning in verse 1 all the way to chapter 31 verse 18 you basically have instructions for the building of the tabernacle. We have a bit of an interruption in chapters 32 to 34. And then the emphasis on the tabernacle will recommence in chapter 35 to 40. So in 25 to 31, you have the instructions for building the tabernacle. And then in chapters 35 to 40, you have the actual construction of the tabernacle. But as I said, you have a bit of an interruption here. in chapters 32 to 34. Basically what you see is the need for Israel for the tabernacle. This section teaches or emphasizes their need for blood atonement so that they may indeed maintain a relationship with a thrice holy God. And chapter 32 does seem to underscore what we sang in the hymn, prone to wander, prone to leave the God that I love. So they had sworn fidelity to God in chapter 24 in terms of their covenantal obligations, and just a few months, not even a few months later, they're departing from that. engaged in transgression of the second commandment. So I want to read chapter 32. We'll take up the first half of it tonight, and then, God willing, the second half in two weeks' time. So, beginning in 32.1. And Aaron said to them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf. Then they said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, Go, get down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation. Then Moses pleaded with the Lord as God and said, Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak and say, He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. So the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people. And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides, on the one side and on the other they were written. Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is noise of war in the camp. But he said, it is not the noise of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear. So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses' anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder. And he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, What did those people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them? So Aaron said, Do not let the anger of my Lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, Make us gods that shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And I said to them, whoever has any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me, I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out. Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained, for Aaron had not restrained them to their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. And he said to them, thus says the Lord God of Israel, let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. Then Moses said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that he may bestow on you a blessing this day. For every man has opposed his son and his brother. Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, You have committed a great sin, so now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, O these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold. Yet now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray, blot me out of your book which you have written. And the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin. So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. Amen. So as I said, a bit of an interlude or interruption in terms of the tabernacle narrative. And in some ways, it is sort of an anti-tabernacle narrative. The tabernacle was to be the visible representation of the dwelling place of God. Now, they obviously wanted the golden calf as a visible representation of the living and true God. That's their emphasis, so that's the sin that we see in this particular section. And as I said, it shows the necessity for the tabernacle and the emphasis on blood atonement for their acceptance with God and for the maintenance of their relationship with God. When we get to the book of Leviticus, we will see that emphasis. It's not only a matter of the Day of Atonement each year, but there were laws concerning cleanliness and ceremonial purity, and a way by which the people of Israel were to maintain that relationship with a thrice holy God. So tonight, as I said, we're going to take up the first half of the chapter, verses 1 to 14, under two considerations. First, the idolatry of Israel in verses 1 to 6, and then secondly, the intercession of Moses in verses 7 to 14. So we've got the idolatry of Israel, and then we've got the intercession of Moses. So let's look first at the idolatry of Israel in verses 1 to 6. Now before we get to verse 1, we need to remember the background. The background with reference to where we've been and where we are now relative to our study in the book of Exodus. Remember the emphasis on the deliverance by God of the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt. That takes place in chapters 1 to 18. And then we have the demand for obedience by God, beginning in chapter 19. You have the revelation of the moral law of God, Revelation 20. You have the revelation of the judicial law of God, chapters 21 to 23. Then you have the ratification of the Old Covenant, chapter 24. And then chapter 25 and following, you have the revelation of the ceremonial law of God. But in terms of the ratification of the covenant, you can turn back there, specifically to chapter 24. This was, in fact, a covenant of works God makes with the children of Israel. They understand the obligations imposed upon them, and they swear fidelity to God Most High. They do that twice in this ratification ceremony. Notice in chapter 24 at verse 3. So Moses came and told the people, Excuse me, all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord has said, we will do. And then dropping down to verse 7, then he took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people and they said, all that the Lord has said, we will do and be obedient. Now the chapter ends at chapter 24 verse 18 with Moses went up into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. So in the period of time that Moses was up on that mountain, since they had sworn fidelity to the covenant Lord, they are now engaged in a breach of that covenant at the point of the second commandment. They are worshipping or attempting to worship the true God in the wrong way. Remember that the first commandment demands that the object of our worship be God Most High. The first commandment demands that we're not supposed to worship Baal, we're not supposed to worship Moloch, we're not supposed to worship, you know, sex, drugs, or rock and roll, we're not supposed to worship money, we're supposed to worship the true and living God. So the first commandment demands the who we worship. The second commandment demands how we worship the true who of commandment number one. And so when they say, this is your gods, or rather, chapter 32 looking at 34 here, when they say, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt, they are attempting to worship the true God, Yahweh, in a way that is forbidden by the second commandment. And so that's the primary breach in terms of their covenant obligation in this section. So in terms of the background, As one man said, the deliverance from Egypt, the awe-inspiring giving of the law at Sinai, and the solemn ratification of the covenant were all quickly forgotten. It goes right out the window, 40 days later, after saying, all that the Lord has commanded we will do and be obedient, They are reneging on their covenant vow in such a way as to invoke or provoke the wrath of God Almighty. Now, that brings us to the demand that we see in chapter 32, verses 1 to 4a. Now, before we actually get into the text, what are some of the reasons, or probable reasons, for their idolatry? Well, I would suggest there are two, theological reason and then second, practical reason. Theological reason, the doctrine of total depravity, the doctrine of total inability. As Calvin said, our hearts are like idol factories. We will seek out anything and everything other than the true and living God to worship. And this is a problem not just with the completely dead sinner, the one who is in a state of total depravity, but it's also a persistent problem amongst the professing people of God. 1 John chapter 5, the apostle ends his epistle on the note, my little children, keep yourselves from idols. This is not something that just made its way into hymnody, prone to wander, prone to leave the God that I love, but it's always a challenge for God's people to resist that perennial sin of idolatry. Jesus cautions against it in Matthew chapter 6. You can't worship God and mammon. You'll either love the one and hate the other, or love the other and hate the one. You can't entertain these two sort of rival allegiances in your heart. So the theological rationale is very clear. They're sinful men and they're sinful women. But in terms of some practical reasons, I'd offer up four things to consider here. Before we look at these four things, when it says, verse 1, now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, this does not mean every single one of the people involved. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10, 7, and do not become idolaters as were some of them. And he's pointing to this particular issue or situation in Exodus chapter 32. So it wasn't the case that it was a universal and comprehensive defection into idolatry on the part of Israel, but there were a lot of people involved in this particular sin. Now in terms of some practical reasons, I'd offer up first their experience. Their experience in the past, they had been idolaters. They had been in an environment where there were a whole host of gods. And in their recent history, they were new to monotheism. They hadn't been involved with, you know, this Yahweh in terms of this formal of a covenant and these stipulations in terms of the first and second commandments. Now I would argue that these things are present before the giving of the law in Exodus chapter 20, but for the garden variety Israelite, they grew up in a world where there were lots of gods. And it was their custom and it was their, again, perennial challenge going forward in redemptive history to not try to engage in the worship of a whole plethora of gods. One commentator, Stewart, says, they had all grown up in a society devoted to the religious system and way of life known as idolatry. They were understandably, though by no means excusably, not yet used to the rigorous anti-idolatry demands of Yahweh's covenant with them. Because the attractions of idolatry for them were so strong, and their recent stance against it so derivative and new, they were, in fact, not at all genuinely committed to its eradication in their beliefs and practices, as the present passage demonstrates all too clearly. So when we come to a passage like this, we go, wow, I can't believe they're doing that. It's kind of like that's what they had always been doing. Again, it doesn't make it true, or it doesn't make it good, it doesn't make it authorized, doesn't legalize it, but it is nevertheless at least an understandable thing in terms of their experience. But as well, notice their impatience, and that's where the text seems to focus in 32.1. Now, when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, Now, with reference to Moses in 24.18, or at the time when Moses ascended up into the mountain, there was no communication as to how long he would be there. God didn't say, oh, by the way, I'm going to have Moses for 40 days. This man who has been intimately involved with every jot and tittle of your lives. This man who has led you. This man who has been the protector of you when the Amalekites raided at Rephidim and I gave victory to you as a result of this. So they had no clue how long Moses was going to be gone. And again, I'm not rationalizing this. I'm not justifying it. I'm simply suggesting that when you look at the text, there might be some evidences as to why, or indications as to why, they do what they're doing. So, when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, they wanted protection from their leader, they wanted guidance from a god, and they wanted as well life in the promised land. Remember, they're going to a particular place, a land flowing with milk and honey. They want to get, you know, make haste. They want to get there. They want to get to that land that has the good stuff. as well their vulnerability. They know they're vulnerable. They've just come out as a slave people from a nation. They don't have a lot of coping skills, like taking a house cat and then sending him outside. He doesn't have the skills to cope, the skills to function. These were not a military people. These were not a people that were skilled in warfare. These were a people that were skilled at being slaves and doing what they were told. So there's a certain sense of vulnerability. Again, they saw that in Exodus chapter 17, when they were converged upon by the Amalekites. And then, as well, their carnality. Their carnality. The fact that they walk by sight and not by faith. If you turn to Deuteronomy chapter 4, you see one of the rationales for the first and second commandment. Specifically, the second commandment. Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 15 and 16. Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, In other words, you're not supposed to try to conceive by sight the invisible and glorious God Most High. And so they are a carnal people. Notice specifically in verse 1, come make us gods that shall go before us. We want to see them. We want to taste them, touch them, feel them. We want that sense, sort of perception, that they are present and among us. And again, this is why I suggest this is sort of an anti-tabernacle sort of a motif. God has provided or prescribed a dwelling place such that his glory is protected. They're not going to see any carnal image. But at the same time, it's a place where they can meet together. And yet they don't want that. They reject that. They want something that they can tangibly see and attest as their God who leads them. The Geneva Bible here says, the root of idolatry is when men think that God is not at hand, except they see Him carnally. That's a very important passage of Scripture. We're told by the comment on Scripture, Paul tells us in Corinthians that we walk not by faith, but by sight. The persons that need movies and sense perception and all those things are persons that are not operating by faith. When you have the Roman Catholic Church and its various approaches to try to carnalize the invisible deity, this is a people that aren't walking by faith. And so that's the emphasis here in this particular passage. Now notice the demand placed upon Aaron in verse 1. It says, come, or they say, they gather together to Aaron. He's the default leader now that Moses is gone. Moses is up on the mountain. Aaron is the default leader. So they say to him, come make us gods that shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So the nature of the demand indicates that they were looking for a visible God. Make us gods that shall go before us. So they want a visible God and they want a God to lead. This idea of going before us means just that. We want one to go before us to lead us, to protect us, to defend us, and to guide us ultimately into the promised land. And then notice the way they describe Moses sort of reflects a shifting allegiance. They're probably not all the way sold on the program at this point. But as for this man Moses, or as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Boy, that's a pretty quick way to discard Moses after all that he has done in terms of God's use of him. I mean, that's just kind of an out-of-hand dismissal. As for Moses, we're just not sure what's happening here. We're not sure we can trust his program. We're not sure we can sign off on the dotted line. But as well, their sense of urgency trumped theological orthodoxy. I suspect this has been the cause for many a person to engage in idolatry over the history of the world. That sense of urgency, that sense for something right now has probably caused many a professed believer to turn from the invisible God that doesn't immediately act when we snap our fingers to that idol that at least gives the appearance of providing something tangible to us and benefiting us in some perceived practical way. So theological orthodoxy is often discarded quickly when there is this desire for something that we have a felt need for. Now notice the response of Aaron. He gives instruction to collect the gold. Verse 2, Aaron said to them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. The very gold that was given by God's grace Remember in chapter 11, he says, you're gonna ask the Egyptians, after you see the destruction that I bring upon them in terms of the 10 plagues, you're gonna ask them for gold, you're gonna ask them for precious things, and they're gonna give it to you in abundance. And that happens exactly in Exodus chapter 12. After the death of the firstborn, they're basically throwing their gold, they're basically throwing their silver, they're basically throwing their good things at Israel to get them to leave. The longer you're here, the longer God is going to devastate our land. Take the stuff and get out. So now they take that gold and instead of using it for the glory of God, they're going to use it for this anti-tabernacle sort of approach to God. With reference to chapter 25, remember we saw the very beginning, it starts off with the things that the people are supposed to freely give. It was supposed to be freewill offerings to God for the construction of the tabernacle. So every step of the way here, you're seeing kind of just the opposite. You're seeing the anti-tabernacle. You're seeing the anti-Ark of the Covenant. You're seeing the anti-God that they want to lead them through their troubled times. And then notice that the people comply. Verse three, so all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. Listen to John Gill on this. I think this is indicting. I think this is a, you know, you read the old boys, and they caught you to the quick. I mean, the modern commentators, they get some stuff right, but they don't get theology right, typically, and we're gonna see that as we move through this passage. There's a couple of sort of almost difficult situations here in terms of a theological approach to the reading. But the older guys say things like this, idolaters spare no cost nor pains to support their worship. Do you hear that? See, we have to harangue people and harass people and cajole people into coming to church. I'm not talking about anybody here. About giving and about all those sorts of things. It becomes, you know, pastors have to be scolders and pastors shouldn't be scolders. It's not the job of a pastor. That's what you have a mother for. They're supposed to scold. That's what you have a government for. The ecclesiastical government is to administer to you the healing gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. You shouldn't be scolded or cajoled or harangued. Now, the best of pastors at times scold and harangue and cajole, but listen to what he says. Idolaters spare no cost nor pains to support their worship and will strip themselves, their wives and children of their ornaments to deck their idols. which may shame the worshipers of the true God, who are oftentimes too backward to contribute towards the maintenance of his worship and service." I mean, come on! That's a pretty huge emphasis here. He says, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. Obviously, they had a felt need. Obviously, they thought this was the manner in which they were going to get some relief in terms of this felt need. If it meant coughing up their gold to construct this idol, they were all in. And then we see the fabrication of the molded calf in verse 4. He received the gold from their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf. Now, this is not unique to this situation. The gold calf was something that was used not just in terms of Egypt, but it seems to have been a feature in a lot of idolatrous approaches to God and religion in the ancient Near Eastern world. Now, notice the sin of idolatry as it's expressed in chapter, or in verses 4b to 6. Notice in 4b, you've got the confession of faith. You've got an actual confession of faith. Then they said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Just like a deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 6.4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And based on that confession, then comes the response, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Well, you see the same emphasis here. You've got the confession, you've got the worship and adoration, and then you've got the practical benefit as a result. But in terms of the confession of faith, I would suggest that the people did not for a moment believe that this golden calf that comes out of the furnace at the hand of Aaron was the actual God that delivered them from Egypt. I don't believe that at all. I don't think that for a moment. The people were representing Yahweh under the image of the golden calf. Look at verse 5. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast of what? It's a feast to Yahweh. It's a feast to the Lord. This is a second commandment violation. This is taking the true and living God, Yahweh, and picturing Him or imaging Him by this golden calf. A man by the name of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, does the same thing in 1 Kings chapter 12. 1 Kings chapter 12, it records the division of the kingdom. There is this revolt against Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. It is launched by this man called Jeroboam. So the kingdom of Israel splits. You've got now the northern tribes and you've got the southern tribes. Well, Jeroboam, as wretched a man as he was, was nevertheless bright and savvy. And he understood that in order to secure his hold on these northern Kingdomites, he couldn't have them go down to Jerusalem for worship, because if they went down to Jerusalem for worship, they might just realize, we've been hoodwinked by Jeroboam. Let's stay in Jerusalem and worship God there. So notice what Jeroboam does in 1 Kings 12 at verse 25. Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. And he went out from there and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom may return to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their Lord. Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam, king of Judah." Again, a wretched man, but a savvy man. He's politically smart. He knows how he's got to keep a hold of his people. Therefore, the king asked advice, made two calves of gold and said to the people, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt. And he set up one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. He made shrines on the high places. He made priests from every class of people who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel. sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made." So he had made offerings. Notice the verb made over and over and over and over and over again. This is man's attempt at false religion or man's attempt at religion. He's making it. He's fabricating. He's building. He's the one putting it together. rather than receiving from the hand of God the instructions and obeying consistently with that. So he made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart, and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned in sand." So the same sort of a thing. These are the gods that brought you out of the land of Egypt, which they knew was Yahweh. They had heard the stories. They understood all too well. And so again, with reference to the words of Aaron in verse 5, tomorrow is a feast of the Lord. What they're doing is they're trying to worship the true God in consistency with the first commandment, but they're doing it in a bastardized way with reference to the second commandment. They're saying that this golden calf is in fact Yahweh of Israel. There is this objection to those who engage in idolatry under the auspices of Christianity. Roman Catholics do this. They say something like this. Images are in common use in the Catholic Church. The object of images is to set Christ, the Virgin, and the saints before our eyes. We do not worship the images themselves, the honor which we give these objects being referred to the persons whom they represent." Oh, we're not worshiping them. They're just aides. They just assist us. They just help us. Listen to Turretin. He's dealing with the statement, I worship not this visible thing, but the divinity dwelling there invisibly. He says, neither would the Israelites have been idolaters to the golden calf, which they did not suppose to be God. For who can believe them to have been so stupid as to believe the work of their own hands to be that of God who had led them out of Egypt? They intended merely to form for themselves a representation of Him that they might worship the true God in this image. That's the crime. That's the sin. That's the breach. It's the second commandment. This is Yahweh, this golden calf that Aaron had fashioned. He's the God that brought you out of the land of Egypt. He is the one that's going to go before you, and He is going to be the one that delivers you from your enemies. So that's Yahweh. Now notice, so we see this confession of faith in verse 4b, but then there's the act of worship and adoration in verses 5-6a. It follows, doesn't it? If this is our God, how do we respond? We respond with These are acts of worship and adoration. This is taking seriously their idolatry. If they believe that this gold calf is Yahweh who led them out of Egypt, then this is appropriate and it's fitting for them to adore and to worship. But then notice the practical benefit that they achieve. See, people don't worship idols for no reason. People don't engage in love of money and love of, you know, whatever it is that takes their affection from God for no reason. There's some practical benefit involved. And look at what it is. And the people sat down to eat and drink. excuse me, and rose up to play. There was something pleasing in all of this. There was something pleasurable in all of this. Now, the reference could be employed in a sexual way. It's not that you don't see Israel worshiping using those methodologies that the pagans used all the time. You see it in Numbers chapter 25, specifically 1 to 3. But later on, the text doesn't seem to indicate that it was a sexual sort of a sin, but it was just a general revelry. It was just a letting loose. It was just a dancing and whooping it up and having a good old time. Look at verse 18. He said, It is not the noise of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear. So it was as soon as he came near the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing. Now again, brethren, there might have been some sexuality involved in that, but the bottom line is they had fun. They enjoyed it. There was practical benefit associated to the worship of this gold calf. Just like there's practical benefit for us as we worship the true and the living God. The only difference is it's not always as immediate. It's not always as right now. It's not always as sort of pleasant or pleasurable as we might conceive it ought to be. It's a very interesting thing that the type of God that man fabricates is the exact opposite to the true and living God. Think about this. Stuart, I think, is right here. He says, since God himself had chosen his ways of personal manifestation in the past, fire, smoke, pillar, overpowering voice, the people's choice of a dumb idol who could do none of these things over the living God was also a rejection of his methods of demonstrating his presence. What they could see and touch at their convenience was what they wanted. A God who would let them live as they wished and have a good time when they wanted to and would not impose his covenant requirements on them. Theirs was a foolish choice reflecting badly on any people so self-absorbed and self-destructive as to make it. Do you hear that? They picked just the opposite. They pick the God that can be seen, the God that doesn't speak, and the God that lets them dance and have fun. Now, I'm not suggesting the true and living God doesn't let you dance and have fun from time to time, but that's the primary emphasis associated to their worship service. They confess their God, they worship and adore their God, and on the heels of that, they sit down to eat and drink, and they rise up to play. Now that brings us to the intercession of Moses in verses 7 to 14. This breaks down into two sections. First, the anger of God, which is the background in verses 7 to 10, and then the actual intercession of Moses in verses 11 to 14. So notice that God instructs Moses to leave the mountain. So verse 7a, the Lord said to Moses, go, get down. And then notice, for your people, some see their God distancing himself from the Israelites. There might be some of that, but interchangeably throughout the Pentateuch you see these references. They're God's people, they're Moses' people. The idea is that God delivers them His primary means and use is through Moses. So there might be something there. I tend not to think it's that big of a deal. Later on Moses is going to say, refer to them as your people. And God doesn't say, well I'm done with them and they're your people. So I don't know that we need to read too much into that. But go get down for your people. I mean, there might be something like, you know, the father or the mother, when the mother says, you know, your son has got some problems and needs some attention. Your son needs some correction or some discipline. Maybe there's a little bit of that going on, but I don't suspect that's the emphasis. So there is this command to get down from the mountain, and then God gives the reason why. Notice in verses 7b to 8, first the people have corrupted themselves. The people have corrupted themselves. The second commandment is not some sort of a, you know, general approach to, you know, a better, happier religious life. No, it is the means by which many a soul has corrupted themselves. There's that bit in Acts chapter 17 when the Apostle Paul comes to the city of Athens. And when he's looking around at the city of Athens, guess what he sees? He sees pomp and glory. He sees splendor. He sees the effects of intellect and money and art and all that sort of thing. But he also sees a great deal of idolatry. And it says that his spirit is provoked within him. Why? Because when you see that, it's the indicator that man has corrupted himself. Idolatry is a bad thing. We ought to be provoked within ourselves when we witness the idolatry all around us. This was never God's intent for man. Our purpose was to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, not to corrupt ourselves by violating the second commandment. But then notice as well, the people have turned aside quickly. They have turned aside quickly. Brethren, never underestimate the power of remaining sin. In this case, it's probably reigning sin for the most of them, but there might have been the faithful remnant that got caught up in it because of their remaining corruption. Don't underestimate that. There is this propensity in us to not only corrupt ourselves, but to turn aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. And then the people have made themselves a molded calf. the making of which inevitably led to the worship of it, and sacrifice to it, and the confession that the calf was the one who delivered them from Egypt." So notice, they have made themselves a molded calf, worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Now God reveals His wrath to Moses in verses 9 to 10. And this shouldn't surprise us. Our God is holy. Our God is righteous. Romans 1, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. That's the logical reflex, the logical response of God, a holy God, to sin and rebellion and idolatry. So notice, verse 9, God describes the nature of the people. Now this is intriguing. The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people. It is a stiff-necked people. G.K. Beale has a book on idolatry. It's a biblical theology of idolatry. The title is, We Become What We Worship. And that's the central thesis in the book. He says, what you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or redemption. Okay, let me read that again. What you revere, you resemble. You take on the characteristics of that, you worship, right? Either for ruin, if you worship the devil, that doesn't turn out well. You're going to ruin your life. But if you worship God, redemption. We become godly. We become godlike. Not in the sense that we have deity, but we become like God. So what you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or redemption. He makes the interesting observation in a passage like this. Notice, I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people. How many times in the Old Testament does God apply this to the children of Israel? Stephen, in Acts chapter 7, before he's martyred to death, he says the same thing. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart. Guess what else has a stiff neck? A bull calf. You have to put a yoke on it to make sure that it does what you want it to do. So they have taken on the characteristic of that which they are worshipping. Now Beale doesn't just make up that proposition, what you revere you resemble, either for ruin or redemption, because he's some sort of a wordsmith. He gets it from Psalm 115. In Psalm 115, the psalmist is mocking the idols of men. He says they have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they don't hear. They have mouths, but they don't talk. They have noses, but they don't smell. And then in 115.8, he makes this statement. Those who make them, idols, are like them. So is everyone who trusts in them. What you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or redemption. These people had taken on the characteristic of the bull calf that they are worshiping. They've become stiff-necked. They have become stubborn. They have become incorrigible against the living and the true God. And then notice the revelation of his wrath. So he reveals the nature of the people in verse 9, but then the revelation of his wrath in verse 10. Now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation." Now, the command to leave him alone, this is all spoken in what I'm going to argue is the manner of men. And what I mean by that is that God is creator and we're creature. And in a sense, all of scripture is an accommodation to us. In other words, we need God to, in the language of Calvin, function like a nurse lisping to a little baby. Because if he doesn't do that, we don't get things. We need God to speak to us in language that we can understand, that we can appropriate. And so when he says, now therefore let me alone, I think this is an implication, or it does rather imply his graciousness. And what I mean by that is this, is that it is a commentary on the reality that man can and does successfully prevail with God in prayer. I mean, Moses does that in this very passage. Moses does this in Numbers chapter 14. As well, Deuteronomy chapter 9 is a rehearsal of this same sort of thing. Abraham, in Genesis chapter 18, remember what he does? He intercedes on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, if there's however many people, please don't destroy it. He has to whittle it all down to, you know, there's basically nobody there, so God's going to spend his wrath on that. So this, let me alone, I think is an implication or rather implies the graciousness of God Almighty. But then it goes on to express his just judgment against the sinful people. He says that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. Our God is a consuming fire. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 24, Hebrews chapter 12 verse 29. That's the reality. You mess with God, God is a consuming fire. And then notice the proposal that he makes to Moses. I will make of you a great nation. Imagine that. If Moses was a wretch, if Moses wasn't the humblest man on the face of the earth, if Moses was in it for himself, he might just be ready to say, yeah, that sounds good. Get rid of all these incorrigible Catholic wretches and let's start afresh. Moses doesn't even entertain that. Moses doesn't even think about that. Moses just continues to go on. So God reveals His wrath. Now notice how Moses intercedes in verses 11 to 14. This is masterful. If you want to be an intercessor, it is good for you to read the prayers of Moses here and in Numbers chapter 14. And I'm gonna suggest Psalm 74 in a moment. But notice how Moses goes to God with reference to a desire that God does not destroy the nation of Israel. He first gives him a reminder of the Exodus. Not a reminder in the sense that, you know, God, it's been, you know, some months now and you might have forgotten. No, he's just reminding God with reference to his power. Notice in verse 11, then Moses pleaded with the Lord, his God, and said, Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against, notice, your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? So he reminds them that they are God's people, and he reminds them that they were delivered by God's hand. In other words, this is your project, God. You've done this. It's a blessed and a wonderful thing. Notice, he then invokes the possible ridicule of the Egyptians. God, you don't want to be ridiculed by the Egyptians. You don't want to destroy the people out here and have the Egyptians say, well, you know, they couldn't handle it in the mountains. Verse 12, why should the Egyptians speak and say, he brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? See what he's saying? God, it's about your glory. The deliverance of your people, the salvation of your people, the preservation and well-being of your people reflects upon you. They're your people, you delivered them. If you kill them now, then the Egyptians are gonna celebrate and say, Yahweh's just like all the other gods, he's a failure too. He wasn't able to preserve, he wasn't able to bless, he wasn't able to keep them. And then notice, there is this remembrance of his covenant. Well, let me back up for just a moment. Look at verse 12. We need to deal with some theology here. Why should the Egyptians speak and say he brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Notice, turn from your fierce wrath and relent from this harm to your people. John Gill says not that there is any turning or shadow of turning with God or any change of his mind or any such passions and affections in him as here expressed. But this is said after the manner of men concerning him. when he alters the course of his dealings with man according to his unalterable will, and does not do the evil threatened by him and which the sins of men deserves. When he says he speaks in the manner of man, the tactical language for this is an improper predication. A proper predication of God is when we say that God is holy. God is righteous. That's a proper predication. He is righteous and holy. It's an improper predication to say that God relents. Doesn't mean that it doesn't teach us truth, but it doesn't mean that properly God changes. There's too much other Bible that tells us God doesn't change, God can't change. But it's spoken in the manner of men so that we can learn something from the God who lisps to us the way that a nurse does to a baby. It's spoken in the manner of men. More on this in a moment. Notice he then points God to the covenant, remembrance of the covenant. So he says, verse 13, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoke of, I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. So he invokes the covenant. You see what he says? He reminds God of his power and the deliverance of his people. He reminds God that the ridicule of the Egyptians is a potential. And he reminds God concerning the covenant. And in Psalm 74 20, the psalmist says the same sort of thing when he's pleading with God. He says, have respect to the covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty. I love what Spurgeon says on that passage. I loved it so much I wrote it in the margin of my Bible. He says, here is the master key. Heaven's gate must open to this. Have respect to the covenant. Here's the master key. Heaven's gate must open to this. God had sworn that he would do X and Y for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so Moses brings that to bear with reference to his intercession. And then that concludes or brings us to this conclusion in verse 14. So the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people. Again, this is an improper predication. God does not change. He's always purposed, always decreed, always the plan of God that he wasn't going to kill the people in this instance in Exodus chapter 32. But it's using the language that we can understand. God is angry with his people God doesn't follow through with what He said He was going to do, so therefore He relented. Nothing wrong with seeing it that way, but understand that God doesn't change. He doesn't actually relent. He doesn't have this sort of movement from one state to another because God is immutable. That means He's unchangeable. And God is impassable. That means He doesn't have passions. Now, for a good explanation of this, Genesis 6-6 is also in the Bible where it speaks of God having repented or relenting because he had made sinful man on the face of the earth. In fact, Matthew Poole's commentary on Exodus 32-14 basically says, go look at what I said at Genesis 6-6. So he says this, properly God cannot repent. Now, when I use that language of proper and improper, I don't mean like cuss words and not... Proper means that which is true of God without qualification. God is holy. Improperly, God is... Relenting. He doesn't move from one state to another, so it's an improper predication. So he says, properly God cannot repent, Numbers 23, 19, 1 Samuel 15, 11, 1 Samuel 15, 29, because he is unchangeable in his nature and counsels, Malachi 3, 6, James 1, 17, and he is perfectly wise and constantly happy and therefore not liable to any grief or disappointment. But this is spoken of God after the manner of men by a common figure called Anthropopathia. This is called Anthropopathism. You've probably heard of Anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is when the Bible ascribes physical features to God. The Bible says God's mighty right arm. Do we believe that there's an actual right arm in heaven that can be borne out and seen by all the nations? No, it's an anthropomorphism. It's the predicating of or asserting something of God that is physical in nature. God is spirit. Jesus defines Him that way in John chapter 4. He doesn't have a body like man. So an anthropomorphism is the predicating of physical features to our God who's a creator, an immaterial God. Well, anthropopathism is taking human emotions, human feelings, things like relenting and repenting and changing and moving, and that sort of thing, and applying it to God in an improper way. It teaches us something true about God, and I think the take-home message here is that God is angry with the wicked. God is just and righteous in His desire to consume wicked sinners. That's the abiding truth. But it's not like He goes into this Thursday in a bad mood and comes out of this Thursday in a good mood. That's not God. He doesn't change. He's not got sort of this flux or emotional capacity that's creaturely, that He moves from one state to the other. So he says, this is spoken of God after the manner of men by a common feature, a figure called anthropopathism. So again, this manner of men simply means an improper predication. Improper predication, the eyes of the Lord are in every place. They run to and fro throughout the earth. The mighty right arm of God most high. Those are anthropomorphisms. They're spoken in the manner of men to teach us truth about God. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth. What do you think the take home message is? That he's omnipresent, that he's omniscient, he sees all things. Doesn't mean there's actually eyes of God sort of running through the earth. When it says he bears his mighty right arm before the nations, it's not to teach that he's got, you know, a big mighty right arm. It's to teach that he's powerful and he's capable and he's omnipotent. Well, the Bible does that with passions as well. And just because it predicates that of God doesn't mean that we have some sort of a contradiction, the God who can't change or doesn't change, and then we have the God who does change or can change. So back to Poole. This is spoken of God after the manner of men by a common figure called Anthropopathia. whereby also eyes, ears, hands, nose, et cetera, are ascribed to God. And it signifies, here's what it signifies, here's what this improper predication, here's what this speaking in the manner of men signifies, an alienation of God's heart and affections from men for their wickedness, whereby God carries himself towards them like one that is truly penitent and grieved, destroying the work of his own hands. Again, you may not get your mind wrapped all the way around this, but know this, that when you have an Exodus 32-14 that says, "...so the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people." It teaches us truth. It teaches us what's going on in this particular passage. But in terms of theology proper, it cannot be made to teach that there's flux in God, that there's change in God, or that there's movement from one state to another in God. There can't be, because God is perfect. If God got better, he wasn't perfect before. If God got worse, then he moves the place from perfection to a place of less perfection. So there is no change, no variation, no shadow of turning with our blessed God. So that's one of the ways that we deal with that sort of language in our Bibles. But all that to say, they messed up. God was right to be angry with them, they had departed from Him, they breached His covenant, and they had turned aside quickly and corrupted themselves by engaging in sins that were against the second commandment. One last passage and then we'll go. Psalm 106. Psalm 106. It's a history of Israel and the psalmist obviously rehearses this particular scene. And in Psalm 106 at verse 19 it says, They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molded image. Thus they changed their glory into the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt. wondrous works in the land of Ham, awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen one stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he destroy them. And then notice in verse 41, he gave them into the hand of the Gentiles and those who hated them ruled over them. Now I suggest that this is probably one of the passages in the mind of the apostle as he writes Romans chapter one. In Romans chapter one, verse 23, they change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. So there's this exchange of the glory of God for the non-glory of the corruptible image. And then in Psalm 106, 41, they were given over to the Gentiles. Doesn't Paul say that in 24, 26, and 28? Doesn't say to the Gentiles, he just simply says, God gave them up three times. So Romans 1 has the background of Psalm 106, which has the background of Exodus chapter 32. There ain't nothing new under the sun. Idolatry looks as bad in Romans 1 as it does in Psalm 106, as it does in Exodus 32, as it does in our own lives when we're not seeking, by God's grace, to keep ourselves from idols. Let us close in a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the clarity of scripture on this point of idolatry. And God, forgive us that there is that proneness to wander and that proneness to leave the God that we love in our own hearts. Forgive us and restrain us and keep us by your sovereign grace and power. Bless all the brothers and sisters in our local church. Bless all of the faithful churches throughout this city. this nation and throughout the world, God. May your people glorify and honor you. And may we be content with the God of absolute sovereignty over all things. And we pray these things through Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, any comments or questions? There's a lot of material there. Sorry. Lots going on. Don't give up on theology proper, and proper predication, and manner of men. Once you see that, or once you get that, it's a hermeneutical way to avoid contradiction in scripture. Because the Bible that says, I, the Lord, do not change, has the word Atlantic, which obviously assumes change. So how do we explain that? How do we deal with that? We're not the first to be presented with this issue. The history of the church is very valiant, noble,