Exodus 32:6-186And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. 7And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: 8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 9And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. 11And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? 12Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. 14And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. 15And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. 16And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. 17And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. 18And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. (Exodus 32:6‑18)
There was plenty of energy for this feast to the golden calf, and this we always see in connection with false religion. The people got up early in the morning and prepared their sacrifices. They gave willingly too, and did not seem to mind it at all. O that there were more of the true spiritual energy seen on behalf of the truth, and more of the free giving too! Of course we know that the enemy is ever ready to oppose the child of God who would walk in the truth, but he never opposes false religion. Man, being naturally religious, likes a religion which salves his conscience and lets him live on in his sins.
Let us remember, dear reader, that the God with whom we have to do is a holy God who cannot pass over sin. Every sin must be punished and unless your sins have been put away in the precious blood of Christ you must bear your own punishment in eternal banishment from the presence of God.
After attending to their idolatrous sacrifices, the Israelites spent the rest of the day in wickedness and sin until the Lord looked down upon them. They had fully earned His righteous vengeance and should have been judged, but it is beautiful to see Moses interceding for them. The Lord heard him too and spared the people. May this be a word of encouragement for us when looking to the Lord in prayer. Let us intercede for the lost, and for the children of God who are walking badly, knowing that “our Father will hear.”
As Moses was walking down from the mountain with his shining face, and Joshua with him, they came near the camp. Joshua heard a great noise in the camp and he thought it was the noise of war, but soon he heard a little more clearly and found out that they were singing. As they crane a little nearer they could see the golden calf, and the people dancing. They Were having “a good time” as the people of the world would say. Why disturb them? Why be a joy-killer? Such is the thought of the unsaved man who loves his sins, but Moses had the thoughts of God about what was going on there. Their so-called good time would have quickly come to an end if Moses had not interceded for them with God; and so now the Christian is “the salt of the earth.” It is only the goodness of God that waits while His people proclaim the message of salvation through the finished work of Christ, or judgment would fall upon this world right now. The world would like to get all the real Christians out of the way so that they can have their good time, but little do they realize that when the Christians are gone their good time will be gone too, and God’s sorest judgments will begin to fall upon the favored lands of Christendom. Dear reader, if you are one of the pleasure seekers of this doomed world, let us warn you that your days are numbered. Your empty pleasures are soon going to end, and then your eternal destiny will be the lake of fire. How solemn! Why not come to Christ, and have the joy of His love in your soul now, and then in a coming day, “pleasures for evermore” in heaven with Him. Leave your empty religion and your empty pleasures behind, and be cleansed in the precious blood of Christ today. You will never, never regret it.
ML 05/07/1950