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Chapter 32. Last week we did 
a bit of a comprehensive move through the chapters dealing 
with the construction of the tabernacle. So in chapter 25 
beginning in verse 1 all the way to chapter 31 verse 18 you 
basically have instructions for the building of the tabernacle. We have a bit of an interruption 
in chapters 32 to 34. And then the emphasis on the 
tabernacle will recommence in chapter 35 to 40. So in 25 to 31, you have the 
instructions for building the tabernacle. And then in chapters 
35 to 40, you have the actual construction of the tabernacle. But as I said, you have a bit 
of an interruption here. in chapters 32 to 34. Basically 
what you see is the need for Israel for the tabernacle. This section teaches or emphasizes 
their need for blood atonement so that they may indeed maintain 
a relationship with a thrice holy God. And chapter 32 does 
seem to underscore what we sang in the hymn, prone to wander, 
prone to leave the God that I love. So they had sworn fidelity to 
God in chapter 24 in terms of their covenantal obligations, 
and just a few months, not even a few months later, they're departing 
from that. engaged in transgression of the 
second commandment. So I want to read chapter 32. 
We'll take up the first half of it tonight, and then, God 
willing, the second half in two weeks' time. So, beginning in 
32.1. And Aaron said to them, break 
off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, 
your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all 
the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their 
ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from 
their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and 
made a molded calf. Then they said, this is your 
God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. So 
when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made 
a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. Then 
they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and 
brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat 
and drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, Go, 
get down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of 
Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly 
out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves 
a molded calf, and worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and 
said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land 
of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, 
and indeed it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let me 
alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume 
them, and I will make of you a great nation. Then Moses pleaded 
with the Lord as God and said, Lord, why does your wrath burn 
hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land 
of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should 
the Egyptians speak and say, He brought them out to harm them, 
to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the 
face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath, 
and relent from this harm to your people. Remember Abraham, 
Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own 
self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as 
the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken 
of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. 
So the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do 
to his people. And Moses turned and went down 
from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were 
in his hand. The tablets were written on both 
sides, on the one side and on the other they were written. 
Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the 
writing of God engraved on the tablets. And when Joshua heard 
the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There 
is noise of war in the camp. But he said, it is not the noise 
of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, 
but the sound of singing I hear. So it was, as soon as he came 
near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses' 
anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands 
and broke them at the foot of the mountain. Then he took the 
calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it 
to powder. And he scattered it on the water and made the children 
of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, What 
did those people do to you that you have brought so great a sin 
upon them? So Aaron said, Do not let the anger of my Lord 
become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For 
they said to me, Make us gods that shall go before us. As for 
this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, 
we do not know what has become of him. And I said to them, whoever 
has any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me, 
I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out. Now when 
Moses saw that the people were unrestrained, for Aaron had not 
restrained them to their shame among their enemies, then Moses 
stood in the entrance of the camp and said, Whoever is on 
the Lord's side, come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered 
themselves together to him. And he said to them, thus says 
the Lord God of Israel, let every man put his sword on his side, 
and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, 
and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and 
every man his neighbor. So the sons of Levi did according 
to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men 
of the people fell that day. Then Moses said, Consecrate yourselves 
today to the Lord, that he may bestow on you a blessing this 
day. For every man has opposed his son and his brother. Now 
it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, 
You have committed a great sin, so now I will go up to the Lord. 
Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. Then Moses returned 
to the Lord and said, O these people have committed a great 
sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold. Yet now, if you 
will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray, blot me out of your 
book which you have written. And the Lord said to Moses, whoever 
has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. Now 
therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have 
spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, 
in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon 
them for their sin. So the Lord plagued the people 
because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. Amen. So as I said, a bit of an interlude 
or interruption in terms of the tabernacle narrative. And in 
some ways, it is sort of an anti-tabernacle narrative. The tabernacle was 
to be the visible representation of the dwelling place of God. 
Now, they obviously wanted the golden calf as a visible representation 
of the living and true God. That's their emphasis, so that's 
the sin that we see in this particular section. And as I said, it shows 
the necessity for the tabernacle and the emphasis on blood atonement 
for their acceptance with God and for the maintenance of their 
relationship with God. When we get to the book of Leviticus, 
we will see that emphasis. It's not only a matter of the 
Day of Atonement each year, but there were laws concerning cleanliness 
and ceremonial purity, and a way by which the people of Israel 
were to maintain that relationship with a thrice holy God. So tonight, 
as I said, we're going to take up the first half of the chapter, 
verses 1 to 14, under two considerations. First, the idolatry of Israel 
in verses 1 to 6, and then secondly, the intercession of Moses in 
verses 7 to 14. So we've got the idolatry of 
Israel, and then we've got the intercession of Moses. So let's 
look first at the idolatry of Israel in verses 1 to 6. Now 
before we get to verse 1, we need to remember the background. 
The background with reference to where we've been and where 
we are now relative to our study in the book of Exodus. Remember 
the emphasis on the deliverance by God of the children of Israel 
from bondage in Egypt. That takes place in chapters 
1 to 18. And then we have the demand for 
obedience by God, beginning in chapter 19. You have the revelation 
of the moral law of God, Revelation 20. You have the revelation of 
the judicial law of God, chapters 21 to 23. Then you have the ratification 
of the Old Covenant, chapter 24. And then chapter 25 and following, 
you have the revelation of the ceremonial law of God. But in 
terms of the ratification of the covenant, you can turn back 
there, specifically to chapter 24. This was, in fact, a covenant 
of works God makes with the children of Israel. They understand the 
obligations imposed upon them, and they swear fidelity to God 
Most High. They do that twice in this ratification 
ceremony. Notice in chapter 24 at verse 
3. So Moses came and told the people, 
Excuse me, all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And 
all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words 
which the Lord has said, we will do. And then dropping down to 
verse 7, then he took the book of the covenant and read in the 
hearing of the people and they said, all that the Lord has said, 
we will do and be obedient. Now the chapter ends at chapter 
24 verse 18 with Moses went up into the midst of the cloud and 
went up into the mountain and Moses was on the mountain 40 
days and 40 nights. So in the period of time that 
Moses was up on that mountain, since they had sworn fidelity 
to the covenant Lord, they are now engaged in a breach of that 
covenant at the point of the second commandment. They are 
worshipping or attempting to worship the true God in the wrong 
way. Remember that the first commandment 
demands that the object of our worship be God Most High. The first commandment demands 
that we're not supposed to worship Baal, we're not supposed to worship 
Moloch, we're not supposed to worship, you know, sex, drugs, 
or rock and roll, we're not supposed to worship money, we're supposed 
to worship the true and living God. So the first commandment 
demands the who we worship. The second commandment demands 
how we worship the true who of commandment number one. And so 
when they say, this is your gods, or rather, chapter 32 looking 
at 34 here, when they say, this is your God, O Israel, that brought 
you out of the land of Egypt, they are attempting to worship 
the true God, Yahweh, in a way that is forbidden by the second 
commandment. And so that's the primary breach 
in terms of their covenant obligation in this section. So in terms 
of the background, As one man said, the deliverance from Egypt, 
the awe-inspiring giving of the law at Sinai, and the solemn 
ratification of the covenant were all quickly forgotten. It 
goes right out the window, 40 days later, after saying, all 
that the Lord has commanded we will do and be obedient, They 
are reneging on their covenant vow in such a way as to invoke 
or provoke the wrath of God Almighty. Now, that brings us to the demand 
that we see in chapter 32, verses 1 to 4a. Now, before we actually 
get into the text, what are some of the reasons, or probable reasons, 
for their idolatry? Well, I would suggest there are 
two, theological reason and then second, practical reason. Theological 
reason, the doctrine of total depravity, the doctrine of total 
inability. As Calvin said, our hearts are 
like idol factories. We will seek out anything and 
everything other than the true and living God to worship. And 
this is a problem not just with the completely dead sinner, the 
one who is in a state of total depravity, but it's also a persistent 
problem amongst the professing people of God. 1 John chapter 
5, the apostle ends his epistle on the note, my little children, 
keep yourselves from idols. This is not something that just 
made its way into hymnody, prone to wander, prone to leave the 
God that I love, but it's always a challenge for God's people 
to resist that perennial sin of idolatry. Jesus cautions against 
it in Matthew chapter 6. You can't worship God and mammon. You'll either love the one and 
hate the other, or love the other and hate the one. You can't entertain 
these two sort of rival allegiances in your heart. So the theological 
rationale is very clear. They're sinful men and they're 
sinful women. But in terms of some practical 
reasons, I'd offer up four things to consider here. Before we look 
at these four things, when it says, verse 1, now when the people 
saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, this 
does not mean every single one of the people involved. Paul 
tells us in 1 Corinthians 10, 7, and do not become idolaters 
as were some of them. And he's pointing to this particular 
issue or situation in Exodus chapter 32. So it wasn't the 
case that it was a universal and comprehensive defection into 
idolatry on the part of Israel, but there were a lot of people 
involved in this particular sin. Now in terms of some practical 
reasons, I'd offer up first their experience. Their experience 
in the past, they had been idolaters. They had been in an environment 
where there were a whole host of gods. And in their recent 
history, they were new to monotheism. They hadn't been involved with, 
you know, this Yahweh in terms of this formal of a covenant 
and these stipulations in terms of the first and second commandments. 
Now I would argue that these things are present before the 
giving of the law in Exodus chapter 20, but for the garden variety 
Israelite, they grew up in a world where there were lots of gods. 
And it was their custom and it was their, again, perennial challenge 
going forward in redemptive history to not try to engage in the worship 
of a whole plethora of gods. One commentator, Stewart, says, 
they had all grown up in a society devoted to the religious system 
and way of life known as idolatry. They were understandably, though 
by no means excusably, not yet used to the rigorous anti-idolatry 
demands of Yahweh's covenant with them. Because the attractions 
of idolatry for them were so strong, and their recent stance 
against it so derivative and new, they were, in fact, not 
at all genuinely committed to its eradication in their beliefs 
and practices, as the present passage demonstrates all too 
clearly. So when we come to a passage 
like this, we go, wow, I can't believe they're doing that. It's 
kind of like that's what they had always been doing. Again, 
it doesn't make it true, or it doesn't make it good, it doesn't 
make it authorized, doesn't legalize it, but it is nevertheless at 
least an understandable thing in terms of their experience. 
But as well, notice their impatience, and that's where the text seems 
to focus in 32.1. Now, when the people saw that 
Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered 
together to Aaron and said to him, Now, with reference to Moses 
in 24.18, or at the time when Moses ascended up into the mountain, 
there was no communication as to how long he would be there. 
God didn't say, oh, by the way, I'm going to have Moses for 40 
days. This man who has been intimately involved with every jot and tittle 
of your lives. This man who has led you. This 
man who has been the protector of you when the Amalekites raided 
at Rephidim and I gave victory to you as a result of this. So 
they had no clue how long Moses was going to be gone. And again, 
I'm not rationalizing this. I'm not justifying it. I'm simply 
suggesting that when you look at the text, there might be some 
evidences as to why, or indications as to why, they do what they're 
doing. So, when the people saw that 
Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, they wanted protection 
from their leader, they wanted guidance from a god, and they 
wanted as well life in the promised land. Remember, they're going 
to a particular place, a land flowing with milk and honey. 
They want to get, you know, make haste. They want to get there. 
They want to get to that land that has the good stuff. as well 
their vulnerability. They know they're vulnerable. 
They've just come out as a slave people from a nation. They don't 
have a lot of coping skills, like taking a house cat and then 
sending him outside. He doesn't have the skills to 
cope, the skills to function. These were not a military people. 
These were not a people that were skilled in warfare. These 
were a people that were skilled at being slaves and doing what 
they were told. So there's a certain sense of 
vulnerability. Again, they saw that in Exodus 
chapter 17, when they were converged upon by the Amalekites. And then, 
as well, their carnality. Their carnality. The fact that 
they walk by sight and not by faith. If you turn to Deuteronomy 
chapter 4, you see one of the rationales for the first and 
second commandment. Specifically, the second commandment. 
Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 15 and 16. Take careful heed to yourselves, 
for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out 
of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for 
yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness 
of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the 
earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the 
air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, or 
the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. 
And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, In other 
words, you're not supposed to try to conceive by sight the 
invisible and glorious God Most High. And so they are a carnal 
people. Notice specifically in verse 
1, come make us gods that shall go before us. We want to see 
them. We want to taste them, touch 
them, feel them. We want that sense, sort of perception, 
that they are present and among us. And again, this is why I 
suggest this is sort of an anti-tabernacle sort of a motif. God has provided 
or prescribed a dwelling place such that his glory is protected. They're not going to see any 
carnal image. But at the same time, it's a 
place where they can meet together. And yet they don't want that. 
They reject that. They want something that they can tangibly see and 
attest as their God who leads them. The Geneva Bible here says, 
the root of idolatry is when men think that God is not at 
hand, except they see Him carnally. That's a very important passage 
of Scripture. We're told by the comment on 
Scripture, Paul tells us in Corinthians that we walk not by faith, but 
by sight. The persons that need movies 
and sense perception and all those things are persons that 
are not operating by faith. When you have the Roman Catholic 
Church and its various approaches to try to carnalize the invisible 
deity, this is a people that aren't walking by faith. And 
so that's the emphasis here in this particular passage. Now 
notice the demand placed upon Aaron in verse 1. It says, come, 
or they say, they gather together to Aaron. He's the default leader 
now that Moses is gone. Moses is up on the mountain. 
Aaron is the default leader. So they say to him, come make 
us gods that shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man 
who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know 
what has become of him. So the nature of the demand indicates 
that they were looking for a visible God. Make us gods that shall 
go before us. So they want a visible God and 
they want a God to lead. This idea of going before us 
means just that. We want one to go before us to 
lead us, to protect us, to defend us, and to guide us ultimately 
into the promised land. And then notice the way they 
describe Moses sort of reflects a shifting allegiance. They're 
probably not all the way sold on the program at this point. 
But as for this man Moses, or as for this Moses, the man who 
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what 
has become of him. Boy, that's a pretty quick way 
to discard Moses after all that he has done in terms of God's 
use of him. I mean, that's just kind of an 
out-of-hand dismissal. As for Moses, we're just not 
sure what's happening here. We're not sure we can trust his 
program. We're not sure we can sign off on the dotted line. 
But as well, their sense of urgency trumped theological orthodoxy. 
I suspect this has been the cause for many a person to engage in 
idolatry over the history of the world. That sense of urgency, 
that sense for something right now has probably caused many 
a professed believer to turn from the invisible God that doesn't 
immediately act when we snap our fingers to that idol that 
at least gives the appearance of providing something tangible 
to us and benefiting us in some perceived practical way. So theological 
orthodoxy is often discarded quickly when there is this desire 
for something that we have a felt need for. Now notice the response 
of Aaron. He gives instruction to collect 
the gold. Verse 2, Aaron said to them, 
break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your 
wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. The very 
gold that was given by God's grace Remember in chapter 11, 
he says, you're gonna ask the Egyptians, after you see the 
destruction that I bring upon them in terms of the 10 plagues, 
you're gonna ask them for gold, you're gonna ask them for precious 
things, and they're gonna give it to you in abundance. And that 
happens exactly in Exodus chapter 12. After the death of the firstborn, 
they're basically throwing their gold, they're basically throwing 
their silver, they're basically throwing their good things at 
Israel to get them to leave. The longer you're here, the longer 
God is going to devastate our land. Take the stuff and get 
out. So now they take that gold and 
instead of using it for the glory of God, they're going to use 
it for this anti-tabernacle sort of approach to God. With reference 
to chapter 25, remember we saw the very beginning, it starts 
off with the things that the people are supposed to freely 
give. It was supposed to be freewill offerings to God for the construction 
of the tabernacle. So every step of the way here, 
you're seeing kind of just the opposite. You're seeing the anti-tabernacle. You're seeing the anti-Ark of 
the Covenant. You're seeing the anti-God that they want to lead 
them through their troubled times. And then notice that the people 
comply. Verse three, so all the people 
broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and 
brought them to Aaron. Listen to John Gill on this. 
I think this is indicting. I think this is a, you know, 
you read the old boys, and they caught you to the quick. I mean, 
the modern commentators, they get some stuff right, but they 
don't get theology right, typically, and we're gonna see that as we 
move through this passage. There's a couple of sort of almost 
difficult situations here in terms of a theological approach 
to the reading. But the older guys say things like this, idolaters 
spare no cost nor pains to support their worship. Do you hear that? See, we have to harangue people 
and harass people and cajole people into coming to church. I'm not talking about anybody 
here. About giving and about all those sorts of things. It 
becomes, you know, pastors have to be scolders and pastors shouldn't 
be scolders. It's not the job of a pastor. 
That's what you have a mother for. They're supposed to scold. 
That's what you have a government for. The ecclesiastical government 
is to administer to you the healing gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. 
You shouldn't be scolded or cajoled or harangued. Now, the best of 
pastors at times scold and harangue and cajole, but listen to what 
he says. Idolaters spare no cost nor pains 
to support their worship and will strip themselves, their 
wives and children of their ornaments to deck their idols. which may 
shame the worshipers of the true God, who are oftentimes too backward 
to contribute towards the maintenance of his worship and service." 
I mean, come on! That's a pretty huge emphasis 
here. He says, break off the golden 
earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, your 
daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people broke off 
the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them 
to Aaron. Obviously, they had a felt need. Obviously, they 
thought this was the manner in which they were going to get 
some relief in terms of this felt need. If it meant coughing 
up their gold to construct this idol, they were all in. And then 
we see the fabrication of the molded calf in verse 4. He received 
the gold from their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving 
tool and made a molded calf. Now, this is not unique to this 
situation. The gold calf was something that 
was used not just in terms of Egypt, but it seems to have been 
a feature in a lot of idolatrous approaches to God and religion 
in the ancient Near Eastern world. Now, notice the sin of idolatry 
as it's expressed in chapter, or in verses 4b to 6. Notice 
in 4b, you've got the confession of faith. You've got an actual 
confession of faith. Then they said, this is your 
God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Just 
like a deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 6.4, Hear, O Israel, 
the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And based on that confession, 
then comes the response, you shall love the Lord your God 
with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Well, you see the 
same emphasis here. You've got the confession, you've got the 
worship and adoration, and then you've got the practical benefit 
as a result. But in terms of the confession 
of faith, I would suggest that the people did not for a moment 
believe that this golden calf that comes out of the furnace 
at the hand of Aaron was the actual God that delivered them 
from Egypt. I don't believe that at all. 
I don't think that for a moment. The people were representing 
Yahweh under the image of the golden calf. Look at verse 5. 
So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron 
made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast of what? 
It's a feast to Yahweh. It's a feast to the Lord. This 
is a second commandment violation. This is taking the true and living 
God, Yahweh, and picturing Him or imaging Him by this golden 
calf. A man by the name of Jeroboam, 
the son of Nebat, does the same thing in 1 Kings chapter 12. 
1 Kings chapter 12, it records the division of the kingdom. 
There is this revolt against Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. It is launched by this man called 
Jeroboam. So the kingdom of Israel splits. 
You've got now the northern tribes and you've got the southern tribes. 
Well, Jeroboam, as wretched a man as he was, was nevertheless bright 
and savvy. And he understood that in order 
to secure his hold on these northern Kingdomites, he couldn't have 
them go down to Jerusalem for worship, because if they went 
down to Jerusalem for worship, they might just realize, we've 
been hoodwinked by Jeroboam. Let's stay in Jerusalem and worship 
God there. So notice what Jeroboam does 
in 1 Kings 12 at verse 25. Then Jeroboam built Shechem in 
the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. And he went out 
from there and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, 
Now the kingdom may return to the house of David. If these 
people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, 
then the heart of this people will turn back to their Lord. 
Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back 
to Rehoboam, king of Judah." Again, a wretched man, but a 
savvy man. He's politically smart. He knows 
how he's got to keep a hold of his people. Therefore, the king 
asked advice, made two calves of gold and said to the people, 
it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your 
gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt. 
And he set up one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. Now 
this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before 
the one as far as Dan. He made shrines on the high places. 
He made priests from every class of people who were not of the 
sons of Levi. Jeroboam ordained a feast on 
the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was 
in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel. 
sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he 
installed the priests of the high places which he had made." 
So he had made offerings. Notice the verb made over and 
over and over and over and over again. This is man's attempt 
at false religion or man's attempt at religion. He's making it. 
He's fabricating. He's building. He's the one putting 
it together. rather than receiving from the 
hand of God the instructions and obeying consistently with 
that. So he made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth 
month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart, 
and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered 
sacrifices on the altar, and burned in sand." So the same 
sort of a thing. These are the gods that brought 
you out of the land of Egypt, which they knew was Yahweh. They 
had heard the stories. They understood all too well. 
And so again, with reference to the words of Aaron in verse 
5, tomorrow is a feast of the Lord. What they're doing is they're 
trying to worship the true God in consistency with the first 
commandment, but they're doing it in a bastardized way with 
reference to the second commandment. They're saying that this golden 
calf is in fact Yahweh of Israel. There is this objection to those 
who engage in idolatry under the auspices of Christianity. 
Roman Catholics do this. They say something like this. 
Images are in common use in the Catholic Church. The object of 
images is to set Christ, the Virgin, and the saints before 
our eyes. We do not worship the images 
themselves, the honor which we give these objects being referred 
to the persons whom they represent." Oh, we're not worshiping them. 
They're just aides. They just assist us. They just 
help us. Listen to Turretin. He's dealing 
with the statement, I worship not this visible thing, but the 
divinity dwelling there invisibly. He says, neither would the Israelites 
have been idolaters to the golden calf, which they did not suppose 
to be God. For who can believe them to have 
been so stupid as to believe the work of their own hands to 
be that of God who had led them out of Egypt? They intended merely 
to form for themselves a representation of Him that they might worship 
the true God in this image. That's the crime. That's the 
sin. That's the breach. It's the second 
commandment. This is Yahweh, this golden calf 
that Aaron had fashioned. He's the God that brought you 
out of the land of Egypt. He is the one that's going to 
go before you, and He is going to be the one that delivers you 
from your enemies. So that's Yahweh. Now notice, 
so we see this confession of faith in verse 4b, but then there's 
the act of worship and adoration in verses 5-6a. It follows, doesn't 
it? If this is our God, how do we 
respond? We respond with These are acts 
of worship and adoration. This is taking seriously their 
idolatry. If they believe that this gold 
calf is Yahweh who led them out of Egypt, then this is appropriate 
and it's fitting for them to adore and to worship. But then 
notice the practical benefit that they achieve. See, people 
don't worship idols for no reason. People don't engage in love of 
money and love of, you know, whatever it is that takes their 
affection from God for no reason. There's some practical benefit 
involved. And look at what it is. And the 
people sat down to eat and drink. excuse me, and rose up to play. There was something pleasing 
in all of this. There was something pleasurable 
in all of this. Now, the reference could be employed 
in a sexual way. It's not that you don't see Israel 
worshiping using those methodologies that the pagans used all the 
time. You see it in Numbers chapter 
25, specifically 1 to 3. But later on, the text doesn't 
seem to indicate that it was a sexual sort of a sin, but it 
was just a general revelry. It was just a letting loose. 
It was just a dancing and whooping it up and having a good old time. 
Look at verse 18. He said, It is not the noise 
of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, 
but the sound of singing I hear. So it was as soon as he came 
near the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing. Now again, 
brethren, there might have been some sexuality involved in that, 
but the bottom line is they had fun. They enjoyed it. There was 
practical benefit associated to the worship of this gold calf. 
Just like there's practical benefit for us as we worship the true 
and the living God. The only difference is it's not 
always as immediate. It's not always as right now. 
It's not always as sort of pleasant or pleasurable as we might conceive 
it ought to be. It's a very interesting thing 
that the type of God that man fabricates is the exact opposite 
to the true and living God. Think about this. Stuart, I think, 
is right here. He says, since God himself had 
chosen his ways of personal manifestation in the past, fire, smoke, pillar, 
overpowering voice, the people's choice of a dumb idol who could 
do none of these things over the living God was also a rejection 
of his methods of demonstrating his presence. What they could 
see and touch at their convenience was what they wanted. A God who 
would let them live as they wished and have a good time when they 
wanted to and would not impose his covenant requirements on 
them. Theirs was a foolish choice reflecting 
badly on any people so self-absorbed and self-destructive as to make 
it. Do you hear that? They picked 
just the opposite. They pick the God that can be 
seen, the God that doesn't speak, and the God that lets them dance 
and have fun. Now, I'm not suggesting the true 
and living God doesn't let you dance and have fun from time 
to time, but that's the primary emphasis associated to their 
worship service. They confess their God, they 
worship and adore their God, and on the heels of that, they 
sit down to eat and drink, and they rise up to play. Now that 
brings us to the intercession of Moses in verses 7 to 14. This breaks down into two sections. 
First, the anger of God, which is the background in verses 7 
to 10, and then the actual intercession of Moses in verses 11 to 14. 
So notice that God instructs Moses to leave the mountain. 
So verse 7a, the Lord said to Moses, go, get down. And then 
notice, for your people, some see their God distancing himself 
from the Israelites. There might be some of that, 
but interchangeably throughout the Pentateuch you see these 
references. They're God's people, they're Moses' people. The idea 
is that God delivers them His primary means and use is through 
Moses. So there might be something there. 
I tend not to think it's that big of a deal. Later on Moses 
is going to say, refer to them as your people. And God doesn't 
say, well I'm done with them and they're your people. So I 
don't know that we need to read too much into that. But go get 
down for your people. I mean, there might be something 
like, you know, the father or the mother, when the mother says, 
you know, your son has got some problems and needs some attention. 
Your son needs some correction or some discipline. Maybe there's 
a little bit of that going on, but I don't suspect that's the 
emphasis. So there is this command to get 
down from the mountain, and then God gives the reason why. Notice 
in verses 7b to 8, first the people have corrupted themselves. The people have corrupted themselves. The second commandment is not 
some sort of a, you know, general approach to, you know, a better, 
happier religious life. No, it is the means by which 
many a soul has corrupted themselves. There's that bit in Acts chapter 
17 when the Apostle Paul comes to the city of Athens. And when 
he's looking around at the city of Athens, guess what he sees? 
He sees pomp and glory. He sees splendor. He sees the 
effects of intellect and money and art and all that sort of 
thing. But he also sees a great deal 
of idolatry. And it says that his spirit is 
provoked within him. Why? Because when you see that, 
it's the indicator that man has corrupted himself. Idolatry is 
a bad thing. We ought to be provoked within 
ourselves when we witness the idolatry all around us. This 
was never God's intent for man. Our purpose was to glorify God 
and to enjoy Him forever, not to corrupt ourselves by violating 
the second commandment. But then notice as well, the 
people have turned aside quickly. They have turned aside quickly. 
Brethren, never underestimate the power of remaining sin. In 
this case, it's probably reigning sin for the most of them, but 
there might have been the faithful remnant that got caught up in 
it because of their remaining corruption. Don't underestimate 
that. There is this propensity in us 
to not only corrupt ourselves, but to turn aside quickly out 
of the way which I commanded them. And then the people have 
made themselves a molded calf. the making of which inevitably 
led to the worship of it, and sacrifice to it, and the confession 
that the calf was the one who delivered them from Egypt." So 
notice, they have made themselves a molded calf, worshipped it, 
and sacrificed to it, and said, this is your God, O Israel, that 
brought you out of the land of Egypt. Now God reveals His wrath 
to Moses in verses 9 to 10. And this shouldn't surprise us. 
Our God is holy. Our God is righteous. Romans 
1, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against 
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth 
in unrighteousness. That's the logical reflex, the 
logical response of God, a holy God, to sin and rebellion and 
idolatry. So notice, verse 9, God describes 
the nature of the people. Now this is intriguing. The Lord 
said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked 
people. It is a stiff-necked people. 
G.K. Beale has a book on idolatry. 
It's a biblical theology of idolatry. The title is, We Become What 
We Worship. And that's the central thesis 
in the book. He says, what you revere, you 
resemble, either for ruin or redemption. Okay, let me read 
that again. What you revere, you resemble. You take on the characteristics 
of that, you worship, right? Either for ruin, if you worship 
the devil, that doesn't turn out well. You're going to ruin 
your life. But if you worship God, redemption. We become godly. We become godlike. Not in the 
sense that we have deity, but we become like God. So what you 
revere, you resemble, either for ruin or redemption. He makes 
the interesting observation in a passage like this. Notice, 
I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people. How many times in the Old Testament 
does God apply this to the children of Israel? Stephen, in Acts chapter 
7, before he's martyred to death, he says the same thing. You stiff-necked 
and uncircumcised of heart. Guess what else has a stiff neck? 
A bull calf. You have to put a yoke on it 
to make sure that it does what you want it to do. So they have 
taken on the characteristic of that which they are worshipping. 
Now Beale doesn't just make up that proposition, what you revere 
you resemble, either for ruin or redemption, because he's some 
sort of a wordsmith. He gets it from Psalm 115. In 
Psalm 115, the psalmist is mocking the idols of men. He says they 
have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they don't 
hear. They have mouths, but they don't talk. They have noses, 
but they don't smell. And then in 115.8, he makes this 
statement. Those who make them, idols, are 
like them. So is everyone who trusts in 
them. What you revere, you resemble, 
either for ruin or redemption. These people had taken on the 
characteristic of the bull calf that they are worshiping. They've 
become stiff-necked. They have become stubborn. They 
have become incorrigible against the living and the true God. 
And then notice the revelation of his wrath. So he reveals the 
nature of the people in verse 9, but then the revelation of 
his wrath in verse 10. Now, therefore, let me alone, 
that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, 
and I will make of you a great nation." Now, the command to 
leave him alone, this is all spoken in what I'm going to argue 
is the manner of men. And what I mean by that is that 
God is creator and we're creature. And in a sense, all of scripture 
is an accommodation to us. In other words, we need God to, 
in the language of Calvin, function like a nurse lisping to a little 
baby. Because if he doesn't do that, 
we don't get things. We need God to speak to us in 
language that we can understand, that we can appropriate. And 
so when he says, now therefore let me alone, I think this is 
an implication, or it does rather imply his graciousness. And what 
I mean by that is this, is that it is a commentary on the reality 
that man can and does successfully prevail with God in prayer. I 
mean, Moses does that in this very passage. Moses does this 
in Numbers chapter 14. As well, Deuteronomy chapter 
9 is a rehearsal of this same sort of thing. Abraham, in Genesis 
chapter 18, remember what he does? He intercedes on behalf 
of Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, if there's however many 
people, please don't destroy it. He has to whittle it all 
down to, you know, there's basically nobody there, so God's going 
to spend his wrath on that. So this, let me alone, I think 
is an implication or rather implies the graciousness of God Almighty. But then it goes on to express 
his just judgment against the sinful people. He says that my 
wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. Our God 
is a consuming fire. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 24, 
Hebrews chapter 12 verse 29. That's the reality. You mess 
with God, God is a consuming fire. And then notice the proposal 
that he makes to Moses. I will make of you a great nation. Imagine that. If Moses was a 
wretch, if Moses wasn't the humblest man on the face of the earth, 
if Moses was in it for himself, he might just be ready to say, 
yeah, that sounds good. Get rid of all these incorrigible 
Catholic wretches and let's start afresh. Moses doesn't even entertain 
that. Moses doesn't even think about 
that. Moses just continues to go on. So God reveals His wrath. Now notice how Moses intercedes 
in verses 11 to 14. This is masterful. If you want 
to be an intercessor, it is good for you to read the prayers of 
Moses here and in Numbers chapter 14. And I'm gonna suggest Psalm 
74 in a moment. But notice how Moses goes to 
God with reference to a desire that God does not destroy the 
nation of Israel. He first gives him a reminder 
of the Exodus. Not a reminder in the sense that, 
you know, God, it's been, you know, some months now and you 
might have forgotten. No, he's just reminding God with 
reference to his power. Notice in verse 11, then Moses 
pleaded with the Lord, his God, and said, Lord, why does your 
wrath burn hot against, notice, your people, whom you have brought 
out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty 
hand? So he reminds them that they are God's people, and he 
reminds them that they were delivered by God's hand. In other words, 
this is your project, God. You've done this. It's a blessed 
and a wonderful thing. Notice, he then invokes the possible 
ridicule of the Egyptians. God, you don't want to be ridiculed 
by the Egyptians. You don't want to destroy the 
people out here and have the Egyptians say, well, you know, 
they couldn't handle it in the mountains. Verse 12, why should 
the Egyptians speak and say, he brought them out to harm them, 
to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the 
face of the earth? See what he's saying? God, it's 
about your glory. The deliverance of your people, 
the salvation of your people, the preservation and well-being 
of your people reflects upon you. They're your people, you 
delivered them. If you kill them now, then the 
Egyptians are gonna celebrate and say, Yahweh's just like all 
the other gods, he's a failure too. He wasn't able to preserve, 
he wasn't able to bless, he wasn't able to keep them. And then notice, 
there is this remembrance of his covenant. Well, let me back 
up for just a moment. Look at verse 12. We need to 
deal with some theology here. Why should the Egyptians speak 
and say he brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the 
mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Notice, 
turn from your fierce wrath and relent from this harm to your 
people. John Gill says not that there 
is any turning or shadow of turning with God or any change of his 
mind or any such passions and affections in him as here expressed. But this is said after the manner 
of men concerning him. when he alters the course of 
his dealings with man according to his unalterable will, and 
does not do the evil threatened by him and which the sins of 
men deserves. When he says he speaks in the 
manner of man, the tactical language for this is an improper predication. A proper predication of God is 
when we say that God is holy. God is righteous. That's a proper 
predication. He is righteous and holy. It's 
an improper predication to say that God relents. Doesn't mean 
that it doesn't teach us truth, but it doesn't mean that properly 
God changes. There's too much other Bible 
that tells us God doesn't change, God can't change. But it's spoken 
in the manner of men so that we can learn something from the 
God who lisps to us the way that a nurse does to a baby. It's 
spoken in the manner of men. More on this in a moment. Notice 
he then points God to the covenant, remembrance of the covenant. 
So he says, verse 13, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your 
servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 
I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all 
this land that I have spoke of, I give to your descendants, and 
they shall inherit it forever. So he invokes the covenant. You 
see what he says? He reminds God of his power and 
the deliverance of his people. He reminds God that the ridicule 
of the Egyptians is a potential. And he reminds God concerning 
the covenant. And in Psalm 74 20, the psalmist 
says the same sort of thing when he's pleading with God. He says, 
have respect to the covenant, for the dark places of the earth 
are full of the haunts of cruelty. I love what Spurgeon says on 
that passage. I loved it so much I wrote it 
in the margin of my Bible. He says, here is the master key. Heaven's gate must open to this. Have respect to the covenant. 
Here's the master key. Heaven's gate must open to this. 
God had sworn that he would do X and Y for Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob. And so Moses brings that to bear 
with reference to his intercession. And then that concludes or brings 
us to this conclusion in verse 14. So the Lord relented from 
the harm which he said he would do to his people. Again, this 
is an improper predication. God does not change. He's always 
purposed, always decreed, always the plan of God that he wasn't 
going to kill the people in this instance in Exodus chapter 32. 
But it's using the language that we can understand. God is angry 
with his people God doesn't follow through with what He said He 
was going to do, so therefore He relented. Nothing wrong with 
seeing it that way, but understand that God doesn't change. He doesn't 
actually relent. He doesn't have this sort of 
movement from one state to another because God is immutable. That 
means He's unchangeable. And God is impassable. That means 
He doesn't have passions. Now, for a good explanation of 
this, Genesis 6-6 is also in the Bible where it speaks of 
God having repented or relenting because he had made sinful man 
on the face of the earth. In fact, Matthew Poole's commentary 
on Exodus 32-14 basically says, go look at what I said at Genesis 
6-6. So he says this, properly God 
cannot repent. Now, when I use that language 
of proper and improper, I don't mean like cuss words and not... 
Proper means that which is true of God without qualification. God is holy. Improperly, God 
is... Relenting. He doesn't move from 
one state to another, so it's an improper predication. So he 
says, properly God cannot repent, Numbers 23, 19, 1 Samuel 15, 
11, 1 Samuel 15, 29, because he is unchangeable in his nature 
and counsels, Malachi 3, 6, James 1, 17, and he is perfectly wise 
and constantly happy and therefore not liable to any grief or disappointment. But this is spoken of God after 
the manner of men by a common figure called Anthropopathia. This is called Anthropopathism. You've probably heard of Anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is when the 
Bible ascribes physical features to God. The Bible says God's 
mighty right arm. Do we believe that there's an 
actual right arm in heaven that can be borne out and seen by 
all the nations? No, it's an anthropomorphism. 
It's the predicating of or asserting something of God that is physical 
in nature. God is spirit. Jesus defines 
Him that way in John chapter 4. He doesn't have a body like 
man. So an anthropomorphism is the 
predicating of physical features to our God who's a creator, an 
immaterial God. Well, anthropopathism is taking 
human emotions, human feelings, things like relenting and repenting 
and changing and moving, and that sort of thing, and applying 
it to God in an improper way. It teaches us something true 
about God, and I think the take-home message here is that God is angry 
with the wicked. God is just and righteous in 
His desire to consume wicked sinners. That's the abiding truth. But it's not like He goes into 
this Thursday in a bad mood and comes out of this Thursday in 
a good mood. That's not God. He doesn't change. 
He's not got sort of this flux or emotional capacity that's 
creaturely, that He moves from one state to the other. So he 
says, this is spoken of God after the manner of men by a common 
feature, a figure called anthropopathism. So again, this manner of men 
simply means an improper predication. Improper predication, the eyes 
of the Lord are in every place. They run to and fro throughout 
the earth. The mighty right arm of God most 
high. Those are anthropomorphisms. 
They're spoken in the manner of men to teach us truth about 
God. The eyes of the Lord run to and 
fro throughout the earth. What do you think the take home 
message is? That he's omnipresent, that he's omniscient, he sees 
all things. Doesn't mean there's actually 
eyes of God sort of running through the earth. When it says he bears 
his mighty right arm before the nations, it's not to teach that 
he's got, you know, a big mighty right arm. It's to teach that 
he's powerful and he's capable and he's omnipotent. Well, the 
Bible does that with passions as well. And just because it 
predicates that of God doesn't mean that we have some sort of 
a contradiction, the God who can't change or doesn't change, 
and then we have the God who does change or can change. So 
back to Poole. This is spoken of God after the 
manner of men by a common figure called Anthropopathia. whereby 
also eyes, ears, hands, nose, et cetera, are ascribed to God. 
And it signifies, here's what it signifies, here's what this 
improper predication, here's what this speaking in the manner 
of men signifies, an alienation of God's heart and affections 
from men for their wickedness, whereby God carries himself towards 
them like one that is truly penitent and grieved, destroying the work 
of his own hands. Again, you may not get your mind 
wrapped all the way around this, but know this, that when you 
have an Exodus 32-14 that says, "...so the Lord relented from 
the harm which He said He would do to His people." It teaches 
us truth. It teaches us what's going on in this particular passage. 
But in terms of theology proper, it cannot be made to teach that 
there's flux in God, that there's change in God, or that there's 
movement from one state to another in God. There can't be, because 
God is perfect. If God got better, he wasn't 
perfect before. If God got worse, then he moves 
the place from perfection to a place of less perfection. So 
there is no change, no variation, no shadow of turning with our 
blessed God. So that's one of the ways that 
we deal with that sort of language in our Bibles. But all that to 
say, they messed up. God was right to be angry with 
them, they had departed from Him, they breached His covenant, 
and they had turned aside quickly and corrupted themselves by engaging 
in sins that were against the second commandment. One last passage and then we'll 
go. Psalm 106. Psalm 106. It's a history of Israel and 
the psalmist obviously rehearses this particular scene. And in 
Psalm 106 at verse 19 it says, They made a calf in Horeb, and 
worshipped the molded image. Thus they changed their glory 
into the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God their 
Savior, who had done great things in Egypt. wondrous works in the 
land of Ham, awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore he said 
that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen one stood 
before him in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he destroy 
them. And then notice in verse 41, 
he gave them into the hand of the Gentiles and those who hated 
them ruled over them. Now I suggest that this is probably 
one of the passages in the mind of the apostle as he writes Romans 
chapter one. In Romans chapter one, verse 
23, they change the glory of the incorruptible God into an 
image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals 
and creeping things. So there's this exchange of the 
glory of God for the non-glory of the corruptible image. And 
then in Psalm 106, 41, they were given over to the Gentiles. Doesn't 
Paul say that in 24, 26, and 28? Doesn't say to the Gentiles, 
he just simply says, God gave them up three times. So Romans 
1 has the background of Psalm 106, which has the background 
of Exodus chapter 32. There ain't nothing new under 
the sun. Idolatry looks as bad in Romans 
1 as it does in Psalm 106, as it does in Exodus 32, as it does 
in our own lives when we're not seeking, by God's grace, to keep 
ourselves from idols. Let us close in a word of prayer. 
Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you 
for the clarity of scripture on this point of idolatry. And 
God, forgive us that there is that proneness to wander and 
that proneness to leave the God that we love in our own hearts. 
Forgive us and restrain us and keep us by your sovereign grace 
and power. Bless all the brothers and sisters 
in our local church. Bless all of the faithful churches 
throughout this city. this nation and throughout the 
world, God. May your people glorify and honor 
you. And may we be content with the 
God of absolute sovereignty over all things. And we pray these 
things through Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, any comments or questions? There's a lot of material there. Sorry. Lots going on. Don't give up on theology proper, 
and proper predication, and manner of men. Once you see that, or 
once you get that, it's a hermeneutical way to avoid contradiction in 
scripture. Because the Bible that says, 
I, the Lord, do not change, has the word Atlantic, which obviously 
assumes change. So how do we explain that? How 
do we deal with that? We're not the first to be presented with 
this issue. The history of the church is 
very valiant, noble,