Exod 32–34 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, at the foot of Mount Sinai, God made a covenant with Israel. Moses read the book of the covenant to the people, and they said, “We will do all that the LORD has said, and be obedient” (Exod 24:7).
In this lesson, Moses is still on the mountain. Not long has passed since those words were spoken.
1When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”
2Aaron said to them, “Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.”
3All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
4He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
5When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”
6They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
7The LORD spoke to Moses, “Go, get down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!
8They have turned away quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”
9The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.
10Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
11Moses begged the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath, and turn away from this evil against your people.
13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
14So the LORD turned away from the evil which he said he would do to his people.
Moses came down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands. Joshua heard noise in the camp; Moses said it was the sound of singing. (vv. 15–18)
19As soon as he came near to the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain.
20He took the calf which they had made, and burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.
Moses confronted Aaron. Aaron said the people were set on evil, and that he threw the gold into the fire, ‘and out came this calf.’ Moses stood in the gate of the camp and called those on the LORD’s side; the sons of Levi did as Moses said, and about three thousand of the people fell that day. (vv. 21–29)
30On the next day, Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin.”
31Moses returned to the LORD, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.
32Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”
The LORD said that whoever had sinned against him, he would blot out of his book; and he told Moses to lead the people on, saying his angel would go before him. (vv. 33–35)
Read the whole passage: Exodus 32–34.
Tired of waiting. The people say, “As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him” (v. 1). Moses has gone up the mountain and has not come down for a long time. They want gods “which shall go before us” (v. 1) — something they can see, walking out in front.
God under another name. Once the calf is made, they say, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (v. 4). Aaron builds an altar before it and proclaims, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD” (v. 5). They do not say they are leaving the LORD; they turn him into a calf. Yet in the covenant just made, God had said, “You shall not make for yourselves an idol” (Exod 20:4).
Your people. God says to Moses, “Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves” (v. 7). Moses hands those words back: “Your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand” (v. 11). God says, “I will make of you a great nation” (v. 10), and Moses does not take up the offer. He asks God to “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants” — to remember the oath God swore by his own self (v. 13).
The broken tablets. Moses comes down, and “he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain” (v. 19). The covenant had only just been written, and it lay broken at the foot of the mountain. That day the sons of Levi did as Moses said, and “About three thousand men fell of the people that day” (v. 28). The passage records this without explaining it further here, and we do not add to it.
Blot me out. The next day Moses goes up again: “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written” (vv. 31–32). He puts his own name together with the people’s. God answers, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book” (v. 33). Moses cannot carry someone else’s sin; yet God has him keep leading the people on (v. 34).
If you don’t go with us. God says an angel will go ahead of them, but “I will not go up among you” (Exod 33:3). Moses answers, “If your presence doesn’t go with me, don’t carry us up from here” (Exod 33:15). What he wants is not the land itself, but God himself going with them. God replies, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exod 33:14).
Two new tablets. God tells Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first” (Exod 34:1), and proclaims his name before him: “The LORD! The LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth” (Exod 34:6). In the same breath he says he is one “who will by no means clear the guilty” (Exod 34:7). The covenant was broken, and God wrote it again. His mercy is real, and his justice is real.
Israel had just said, “We will do all that the LORD has said, and be obedient” (Exod 24:7). Not long afterward, they were dancing around a calf.
The passage does not make this generation into heroes. God proclaims himself “a merciful and gracious God” (Exod 34:6) precisely after they had sinned a great sin. The covenant goes on not because the people kept it well, but because God was willing to write those tablets again.
You may have made your own ‘golden calf’: when God felt slow to come, you grabbed hold of something you could see, to make yourself feel safe.
This lesson does not make sin small. It shows you that the God who “will by no means clear the guilty” (Exod 34:7) also proclaims himself “a merciful and gracious God” (Exod 34:6).
This week: Find a quiet moment and read Exodus 34:6–7. Then go to God once for someone you care about, and pray for them.
Scripture: World English Bible.