The people completely abandon Jehovah
While God was thus preparing the precious things connected with His relationship with His people,1 the people, only thinking of what they saw in the human instrument of their deliverance, completely abandon Jehovah: a sad and early, but sure fruit of having undertaken obedience to the law as a condition, in order to the enjoyment of the promises. Aaron falls with them.
(1. The tabernacle had a double character. It was the manifestation of the heavenly things, and a provision for a sinful people to be brought near again to God there. It is interesting to consider the tabernacle under another aspect; for, as a pattern of heavenly things, it is of the highest interest. First, it signifies the heavens themselves; for Christ is not entered into the tabernacle, but into heaven itself. In a certain sense, even the universe is the house of God; but, moreover, the unity of the church as a heavenly building is presented by it: we are His house, the tabernacle of God in Spirit. These two meanings are closely connected in the beginning of Hebrews 3-Christ, God, has built all things, and we are His house. He fills all in all, but He dwells in the church; it is a concentric circle, although quite different in its nature. Compare the prayer in Ephesians 1, which also connects these two things under the headship of Christ, and still more distinctly in Ephesians 3; Ephesians 1 being headship, not dwelling, though the relationship be the same. Compare Ephesians 4:4-6,4There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:4‑6) though there it is in the form of Spirit, Lord and God, that is, not simply dwelling in. What most fully answers is the prayer of Ephesians 3, where, note, “height,” etc., is not of the love, but of the whole scene of God’s glory, we being at the center to look out into it all, because Christ, who is the center, dwells in us. In another point of view, the person and the fullness of Christ Himself are there; for God was in Him, and thus the rending of the veil is applied by the Apostle to the flesh of Christ, or, if you please, the veil itself; “through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.” It is evident that the dwelling-place of God is the central idea of these things, just as a man lives in his house, in his property, etc.)
Moses as mediator pleads God’s glory and unconditional promises
Such being the state of the people, God tells Moses to go down; and now everything begins to be put on another footing. God, in His counsels of grace, has not only seen the people when they were in affliction, but in their ways. They were a stiffnecked people. He tells Moses to let Him alone, and that He would destroy them, and make of Moses a great nation. Moses takes the place of mediator, and, true to his love for the people as God’s people, and to the glory of God in them, with a self-denial which cared only for this glory, sacrificing every thought of self, intercedes in that magnificent pleading which appeals to what that glory necessitates, and to the unconditional promises made to the fathers.1 And Jehovah repented. The character of Moses shines in all its beauty here, and is remarkable among those which the Holy Spirit has taken pleasure in delineating, according to the precious grace of God, who loves to describe the exploits of His people, and the fruit they have borne, though He Himself is the source of them.
(1. This is a universal principle, where the full restoration of Israel is in question. Solomon, Nehemiah and Daniel only go back to Moses; an important remark as to the fulfillment of God’s ways towards Israel.)
The golden calf: the covenant of the law broken, Moses breaks the tables of the covenant
But it was all over with the covenant of the law; the first and fundamental link-that of having no other gods-was broken on the part of the people. The tables of the covenant never even came into the camp on the simple ground of law. The people had made a complete separation between themselves and God. Moses, who had not asked God what was to be done with the law, comes down. His exercised ear, quick to discern how matters stood with the people, hears their light and profane joy. Soon after he sees the golden calf, which had even preceded the tabernacle of God in the camp, and he breaks the tables at the foot of the mount; and, zealous on high for the people towards God because of His glory, he is below on earth zealous for God towards the people because of that same glory. For faith does more than see that God is glorious (every reasonable person would own that); it connects the glory of God and His people, and hence counts on God to bless them in every state of things, as in the interest of His glory, and insists on holiness in them, at all cost, in conformity with that glory, that it may not be blasphemed in those who are identified with it.
Levi’s consecration to Jehovah; individual responsibility to God under the law
Levi, responding to Moses’ call, says to his brethren, the children of his mother, “I have not known you”; and consecrates himself to Jehovah. Moses, now full of zeal though not according to knowledge, but which was permitted of God for our instruction, proposes to the people his going up, and “peradventure” he shall make an atonement for this sin. And he asks God to blot him out of His book rather than that the people should not be forgiven. God refuses him; and, while sparing them through his mediation, and placing them under the government of His patience and long-suffering, puts each one of them under responsibility to Himself-that is, under the law, declaring that the soul that sinned He would blot out of His book.
Contrast between the mediation of Moses and the work of our Saviour
Thus the mediation of Moses was available for forgiveness, as regards government, and to put them under a government, the principles of which we shall see by and by; but it was useless as regards any atonement which would protect them from the final effect of their sin (its effect as regarded their eternal relationship with God), and withdraw them from under the judgment of the law.1 God spares them and commands Moses to lead the people to the place of which He had spoken, and His angel should go before him.
(1. Hence it is that this revelation of God, though the character proclaimed be so abundant in goodness, is called by the Apostle (2 Cor. 3) the ministration of death and condemnation. For if the people were still under the law, the more gracious God was, the more guilty they were.)
What a contrast do we here remark, in passing, with the work of our precious Saviour! He comes down from above-from His dwelling-place in the glory of the Father-to do His will, and did it perfectly; and (instead of destroying the tables, the signs of this covenant, the requirements of which man was unable to meet), He Himself bears the penalty of its infringement, bearing its curse; and, having accomplished the atonement before returning above, instead of going up with a cheerless “peradventure” in His mouth, which the holiness of God instantly nullified, He ascends, with the sign of the accomplishment of the atonement, and of the confirmation of the new covenant, with His precious blood, the value of which was anything but doubtful to that God before whom He presented it. Alas! the church has but too faithfully reflected the conduct of Israel during the absence of the true Moses, and attributed to Providence what she had fashioned with her own hands, because she would see something.