After the ratification of the covenant, the mediator was once more called up into God’s presence to be alone with Him. The glory of Jehovah, hidden by the cloud, abode upon the mount for six days, spanning as it were, man’s time – his six days – and on the seventh day it appeared as devouring fire in the eyes of the children of Israel (Ex. 24:1; 6:171And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off. (Exodus 24:1)
17The sons of Gershon; Libni, and Shimi, according to their families. (Exodus 6:17)) and on God’s rest day, Jehovah called Moses into the midst of the cloud.
Two great responsibilities were entrusted to the mediator. “The Lord said unto Moses, Come up to Me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them” (Ex. 24:1212And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. (Exodus 24:12)); and, “Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Ex. 25:88And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8)).
After Moses had been upon the mount for forty days receiving the divine communications; and after the unalterable words, written with the finger of God upon the enduring stone, had been entrusted to him, he was prepared to return to the camp. Israel had to be taught of God, and both by the words of God, and by the nature of His sanctuary to be erected in their midst, they had to learn what He required from them as the people amongst whom He would dwell.
From the valley where Israel was encamped they had frequently watched Moses go up the shoulder of Sinai until he was lost to sight behind the upper heights, and they had seen him as he had come down its steep slopes returning to them with the message of Jehovah. But now he had been absent from them for forty days! This period is the familiar Bible term associated with probation. Forty days seemed a very long period to the people. They were weary of waiting. What had become of Moses? Would he ever return? Was he consumed in the fire? So they congregated about Aaron and said, “As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him” (Ex. 32:11And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. (Exodus 32:1)). The visible link between them and Jehovah was missing. They had been trained for generations in Egyptian conceptions; to them a representation of the deity, whether a king or an emblem, whether Moses or an image, was a religious necessity; and idolatry notwithstanding the words of Jehovah out of the fire, and their promise, “All that Jehovah hath said will we do, and be obedient” was ingrained in them. “Up,” cried they, “make us gods”! (The image was of gold and molten. We shall speak of the art of the goldsmith and the amount of the gold among the Israelites later on.)
Make us gods! What a suggestion to Aaron, who but six weeks previously, with the seventy elders, had witnessed the depth of heaven (Ex. 24:9-109Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: 10And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. (Exodus 24:9‑10)) which formed Jehovah’s footstool! Make us gods! A god made by man is not so great as the man who made it. An idol, an image, is despicable in the light of divine glory. Make us gods! Aaron had himself, with the rod of Jehovah, discomfited the gods of mighty Egypt, and had stood by Moses on the memorable day when he styled their calf-gods “the abomination of the Egyptians” (Ex. 8:2626And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? (Exodus 8:26)). How would Aaron treat the solicitation?
Whatever Aaron felt in his inward being, the popular impulse of the camp was for having a visible emblem of the deity, and thus for returning to idolatry; and Aaron fell under it. He was swept away with the current, and by, time-serving did what similar popular leaders do he led in turn the people who had led him; corrupted by the people, he corrupted them.
“Bring your gold earrings to me,” he said apparently hoping the sacrifice would not meet with approval but “all the people” (Ex. 32:33And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. (Exodus 32:3)) answered to the call. Gifts never seem to be wanting if idolatry is in view, and Aaron was left to pursue his course to its bitter end. He took the gold, made a molten image of a calf, and with a graving tool, chiselled it in true Egyptian style. And thus was the hateful emblem of incarnate deity introduced into the camp of God, and the “abomination”, was handed over to the people, with these words, “These be thy gods,” or “This is thy God, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”
While this apostasy was at its height, Jehovah had set apart Aaron for the high priesthood of Israel. Thus viewed, the sin is greatly intensified. It is worthy of notice that the man selected to typify Christ in Israel as priest, was the first transgressor against his office. The same principle holds good with the man selected to be Israel’s first king. The king was destroyed, but Aaron was saved through the intercession of the mediator. (Deut. 9:2020And the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. (Deuteronomy 9:20)).
Yet let us not suppose that either Aaron or Israel intended apostasy from Jehovah. It is no unworthy stretch of imagination to conceive their indignation at such a charge. The calf represented to Israel’s mind Him who is invisible, and Aaron applied the representation to Jehovah in so many words. It was, as it is said of all images, “a help to devotion,” “a symbol of the unseen,” and in this sense, the God who had brought them out of Egypt! But none the less had they really returned in spirit to paganism. They had “in their hearts turned back again into Egypt” (Acts 7:3939To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, (Acts 7:39)). They had broken God’s law and had lost everything under His covenant.
The peculiar blindness which follows upon disobedience to the plain letter of God’s Word is forcibly illustrated by the proclamation of Aaron, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Jehovah,” while to sanctify their “sin – the golden calf!” (Deut. 9:2121And 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. (Deuteronomy 9:21)) – he built an altar to God’s glory before it. The mixture of plain disobedience to God’s Word and human sanctification of the disobedience is still popular. Call the sin holy, and the abomination will be held in religious awe. The image was dedicated to God, who had commanded them to make no image, and to bow down to no image. Burnt offerings and peace offerings were “sacrificed” upon the altar “unto the idol” (See Acts 7:4141And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. (Acts 7:41)) in Jehovah’s name. The fast kept in defiance of Jehovah’s law was held ostensibly to His honor.
Calling the festival by Jehovah’s name did not touch its real nature. The foot will show itself, despite the garments of light which clothe the demon. It was kept in true pagan style; the camp rang with loud antiphonal songs, and was wild with voluptuous dancing. Israel thus practically grafted idolatry upon the worship of Jehovah, and in so doing brought down upon their camp the wrath of God.
Men still have their excuses for breaking God’s laws, and for rejoicing in profanities, which are called “holy” feasts, but god’s words respecting the mixture of paganism with His worship, and His utterance against Israel’s iniquity, are not to be forgotten; “They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto” (Ex. 32:88They 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. (Exodus 32:8)). God did not in any way say, “They have worshipped Me when they bowed to the image; they have sacrificed to Me when they built their altar, and offered their burnt offerings and peace offerings there.” No Israel had witnesses against them; the mount burning with fire, towering over them towards heaven, witnessed against them. God who is a consuming fire, recognized them no longer as His people (See Ex. 32:77And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: (Exodus 32:7)) above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them” (Ex. 20:4-54Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (Exodus 20:4‑5)) – a commandment which to this day is peculiarly the aversion of multitudes of religious people. Idolatry is ingrained in humanity. Idolatry brings Satan into the church. In this nineteenth century we are living out the episode of the golden calf, and the feast day in the valley at the foot of Sinai. The sin in the camp and the sin in the church are alike. And as the sword and the plague of Jehovah fell upon the camp, so “judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:1717For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)).
Had it not been for the presence of the mediator before Jehovah, him whose ascent to the glory of God and whose absence from their sight, was the occasion of Israel’s sin, the nation must have been consumed (Ex. 32:9-119And 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? (Exodus 32:9‑11)); and in like manner, were it not for the presence of the one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus before God in heaven for us, Christendom would be consumed for its idolatries.
While the anger of God was hot against Israel, they rejoiced in their calf of gold, danced and sang, and kept “holy festival” before their “holy” altar.
Bidden by Jehovah, Moses turned from His presence to descend the fiery mount, and Joshua with him. Moses’ heart was filled with God’s Spirit. In his hands were the immutable words graven by God on the stone tables, yet transgressed by man, even before being placed in human custody. From some parts of the top of Horeb the valley is unseen, but there are gaps in the cliffs through which voices in the valley come up clearly to the heights. Probably, in their descent, on coming to one of these gaps, the sound in the camp struck upon their ears. Moses had been no communicator of evil tidings to his attendant. Joshua heard the people as they shouted, and exclaimed, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” But Moses, aware of the dark reality, and too well acquainted with the chants of Egyptian worship, knew that the sound was neither the shout of the victor nor the cry of the vanquished, but was that of responsive religious singing. As they continued their descent they reached a spot where the camp was clearly visible.
The sin in its intensity stretched itself out beneath their feet! There stood the altar before the idol, and thousands of Israelites, “broken loose, for Aaron had let them loose” (Ex. 32:2525And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) (Exodus 32:25) RV), their outer garments cast off, dancing before it a revolting Egyptian dance. (These dances of the Egyptians before their half-human, half animal deities were, as might be expected, of an indecent nature. Israel had broken away from the ordinary restraints of humanity, and in their religious frenzy were swayed by the spirit of demons.)
How could the holy law of God be handed over to the trust of idolaters? Moses lifted up the tables of the ten commandments, and dashed them out of his hands; they fell upon the rocks at the foot of Sinai, and were broken to pieces.
Filled with divine energy he hastened to the camp, and seized upon the calf of gold, and burned it in the furnace. His first act was to clear Jehovah’s camp of the abominable emblem.
A certain time was necessary for the melting of the gold, and during this period Moses returned to the camp. Seeing that some of Israel were not ungirdled as the rest, he stood at the gate of the camp and cried, “Who is on Jehovah’s side unto me?” All Levi responded to the call. A terrible duty befell these loyal men. “Consecrate yourselves “fill your hands – “today to the Lord,” said Moses; “that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day” (Ex. 32:27-2927And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. 28And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. 29For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. (Exodus 32:27‑29)). And he gave them Jehovah’s message, Gird on your swords. Go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. By its own obedient swords the camp was judged for its sin, and the revelers were slain.
But the congregation as such had shared in the guilt. Israel as a whole was defiled, and as a people had to suffer the shame; so Moses made the god as contemptible as it was possible, in the eyes of all the camp. He had burned it in the fire, and he ground the ashes to powder, and put the powder upon the water of the rivulet that flows down from Sinai, and this he made the children of Israel drink. No remains of their god were to be reserved for future idolatry. So they drank up their deity! They consumed the object of their worship! The god to which they had bowed down, and in whose honor they had had their sacred feast came to its finality in corruption in the very bodies of its worshippers! No greater ridicule could be placed upon a deity, no greater contempt could be inflicted upon its devotees!
What a striking instruction for the present day lies here!
Thus was the covenant of Sinai broken, even before the people took one step towards the promised land.