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A Very Great Sin Exodus 32
WHILE Moses was on Mt. Sinai the people did a sad and dreadful sin: they asked Aaron to make an idol to lead them on the journey! Instead of telling them no idol could lead them, Aaron told them to bring their gold earrings, which he melted and shaped into a golden calf. The people sacrificed animals before it; they feasted, and danced, and sang, saying, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of Egypt!” What foolish, untrue words!
The Lord knew what they were doing, and told Moses and Joshua to go down to them. Moses carried the two stone tablets which the Lord had written on. When he heard the shouting and saw the gold calf, he was so grieved at the sin, which showed God’s words were already despised, that he threw down the stones and they were broken.
He came to the gate of the camp; talked to Aaron; and called, “Who is on the Lords side?” That all who were sorry should come to him. Aaron must have been one who was sorry, as we read that all the sons of Levi came, and Aaron was of that family. Then Moses melted the gold calf, ground the gold, and cast the dust into the water, and many were punished.
The next day Moses went again up Mt. Sinai, and begged the Lord to forgive the people the great sin. The Lord did forgive them, and said He would still lead them on the journey (Deut. 9:8-228Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed you. 9When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water: 10And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant. 12And the Lord said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image. 13Furthermore the Lord spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 14Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they. 15So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. 16And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the Lord your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the Lord had commanded you. 17And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes. 18And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. 19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you. But the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also. 20And the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. 21And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount. 22And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, ye provoked the Lord to wrath. (Deuteronomy 9:8‑22); Psalm 106:19-2419They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. 20Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. 21They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; 22Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea. 23Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. 24Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word: (Psalm 106:19‑24)).
“My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Exo. 33:1414And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. (Exodus 33:14).
ML 06/06/1937