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Okay, you can turn to chapter 
32. Our focus will be 15 to 35, but I'll begin reading in verse 
1. So remember that the basic flow of the book, we have deliverance, 
demand, and dwelling. So chapters 1 to 18, God delivers 
his people out of bondage in Egypt. And then in 19 to 24, 
he commands them or makes demands of them in terms of his covenant. 
And then from 25 to the end, we see the emphasis on dwelling. 
Now in chapter 25, we begin the revelation of God's word in terms 
of building the tabernacle. So those instructions carry on 
from chapter 25 to chapter 31. 32 to 34 are a bit of an interruption 
in the narrative in terms of the tabernacle building, but 
it shows or demonstrates one of the needs for the tabernacle, 
namely the sinfulness of the people. So 32 is the sin or the 
idolatry of Israel. 33 and 34 speak more of restoration 
after that act of sin. And then from 35 to 40, we have 
the construction of the tabernacle. So I'll read beginning in verse 
1 in chapter 32. Now when the people saw that 
Moses delayed, coming down from the mountain, the people gathered 
together to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us gods that 
shall go before us. For 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. 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 his 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 a 
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 this 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, and 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. And 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. Well, the last time we were together, 
it was two weeks ago. Last week was the Pro-Life Talk. Two weeks ago we saw the first 
14 verses, and basically we have the idolatry of Israel in verses 
1 to 6, and then the intercession of Moses in verses 7 to 14. Now, 
notice specifically at verse 1. Now, when the people saw that 
Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, Moses goes up to 
the mountain at the end of chapter 24. And in chapter 24, verse 
18, it tells us that he was up there for 40 days and 40 nights. Well, at that particular time, 
the children of Israel had no way of knowing how long Moses 
was going to be up there. God didn't say, hey Moses, I 
want you to come up here for 40 days and 40 nights. So they 
did not know, and in their lack of faithfulness, and in their 
antsiness, and in their desire to want to get back on track 
and get to the promised land, they tell Aaron to make us gods 
that shall go before us. Now, the specific idolatry in 
view here is the violation of not just the first commandment, 
but the second commandment. Remember that the first commandment 
defines for us the object of worship. You shall have no other 
gods before me or besides me. The second commandment demands 
that we worship the true God in the correct manner. And so 
they are predicating of these gold calves, or of this gold 
calf, that it is Yahweh. They are predicating of the true 
God something that is false, and thereby are engaged in the 
sin of idolatry. It is, as Moses reports later, 
a great sin. It is a vile transgression of 
the law of God Most High. Unfortunately, Aaron is complicit 
in this. Aaron goes along with it. His 
feeble excuse that we'll see tonight, notwithstanding, he 
was right there alongside of the people engaged in this act 
of idolatry. So the idolatry is in verses 
1 to 6, and then the intercession of Moses in verses 7 to 14. God tells Moses what's happening 
in chapter 32, beginning in verse 7. and then God tells Moses that 
his wrath is hot against them and that he is going to consume 
them and make a great nation from Moses. Now Moses declines 
this, Moses denies this, Moses intercedes on behalf of the people 
in verses 11 to 14, and we see that God relents. This is spoken 
in the manner of men. It's an improper predication. 
God doesn't change. There's no variation. There's 
no shadow of turning with them, but it's written for our understanding. 
The Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to 
His people, verse 14. So God and Moses deal on the 
mountain And now we pick up the narrative with Moses coming down 
from the mountain. And I would title this section, 
15 to 35, the judgment of God. So we've got the idolatry of 
Israel in verses 1 to 6, the intercession of Moses in verses 
7 to 14, and now the judgment of God in verses 15 to 35. There's 
four particular points here. First, the anger of Moses in 
verses 15 to 21. Secondly, the response of Aaron 
in verses 22 to 24. Third, the judgment on Israel 
in 25 to 29. And then finally, again, Moses 
intercedes in verses 30 to 35. So his anger, the response of 
Aaron, the judgment imposed on Israel, and then the intercession 
of Moses in verses 30 to 35. So let's pick up the anger in 
verses 15 to 21. Notice his descent from the mountain. Moses is carrying the two tablets. Remember, he goes up there to 
receive the law of God, from God, and in verses 15 to 16, 
we see his descent, and then we see the uniqueness of the 
tablets. Notice how detailed the description 
is in verses 15 and 16. Moses turned and went down from 
the mountain and the two tablets of the testimony were in his 
hand. Now the testimony is that covenant between God and man. 
It's between God and Israel. It says the tablets were written 
on both sides. On the one side and on the other 
they were written. Now it's not the case that you 
had the first four commandments on one tablet and then the latter 
six on the other tablet. We typically talk of the two 
tables of the law. The first table, commandments 
one to four, is our duty to God. The second table, our duty to 
man, is commandments five to ten. We typically think that 
the ten commandments were written that way. You had the first four 
here, and then you had the latter six here. That's not it. You 
had the entirety of both on both. In other words, all ten were 
on one, and all ten were on the other. These were the copies 
of the covenant parties involved in this particular arrangement. 
Similar to what we do today. If you make a transaction, you 
go to buy a car, you sign a contract, you get a copy of those documents, 
and they keep a copy of those documents for safekeeping. Well 
that's precisely what the two tablets of the law represent. 
That's why it's referred to as the testimony. You've got one 
copy that represents God, the suzerain or the king, and then 
you've got the other copy that represents the vassals or the 
Israelites. And then those two copies are 
placed into the Ark of the Covenant for safekeeping. So all of this 
was typical, not only for Israel, but ancient Near Eastern peoples. 
So Moses has these and notice again the tablets were written 
on both sides, on the one side and on the other they were written. 
And then in verse 16, now the tablets were the work of God 
and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. 
Typically when we refer to the Decalogue or the moral law of 
God, the Ten Commandments, we see specifically that they're 
written with the finger of God. Not that he's not responsible 
for the judicial law in 21 to 23, not that he's not responsible 
for the ceremonial law in 25 to 40, but there's a special 
significance about the Ten Commandments. It's trans-covenantal. the Ten 
Commandments are operative for all mankind at every place in 
life wherever he finds himself. Whether you're in the Old Covenant 
or you're in the New Covenant, the law of God vis-a-vis the 
Ten Commandments are binding over us. Now why this description 
of the two tablets in verses 15 and 16. Well, practically 
to show that this covenant transaction has been completed for the most 
part by God with Moses as he descends from the mountain. But 
I think as well it highlights the gravity of the situation 
when he casts those unique tablets down and breaks them. And when 
he casts these unique tablets down and he breaks them, he's 
not doing this based only on his anger. The text says that 
he's angry, but this wasn't a fit of rage. This was a highly symbolic 
act, and basically what it suggests is that the very covenant they 
had sworn faithfulness to in Exodus 24, they've already broke 
it. They've already trashed it. They've 
already basically reneged on their specific commitment 
to the God of heaven and earth. So as he comes down the mountain, 
he sees their sin. Notice in verse 17, Joshua heard 
the noise of the people as they shouted. He said to Moses, there 
is a noise of war in the camp. Back in chapter 24, verse 13, 
we see that Joshua, the successor, ultimate successor of Moses, 
at that time was his attendant. Joshua goes up the mountain with 
Moses, but he doesn't go all the way. Only Moses goes to the 
summit. Joshua probably goes up about 
halfway. He doesn't hear what's going 
on between God and Moses. He doesn't hear specifically 
what's going on in the camp of Israel. He knows that something's 
going on, and being a military-minded man, that's how he interprets 
it. Notice, there is a noise of war in the camp. So verse 
18 at Moses' descent, when it says in verse 18, he said it 
refers to Moses. Moses says it's not the noise 
of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, 
but the sound of singing I hear. And then in verse 19 he gets 
a view of what's happening in terms of the camp of the Israelites. 
So it was as soon as he came near the camp that he saw the 
calf and the dancing. And so this was the problem. 
Now it wasn't that they were dancing. biblical example of 
dancing, where dancing isn't necessarily condemned by God. 
You see it in the Psalter, you see David dancing before the 
Ark of the Covenant. It wasn't that God is necessarily 
anti-dancing, and I'm not here to defend dancing, but the point 
is not that they were dancing. The point is that they were dancing 
in front of this golden calf. Last time I mentioned that it 
wasn't necessarily the case that they were engaged in any sexual 
immorality, but it's highly probable that in fact they were. When 
we compare this passage with, say, Numbers 25, there is suggestions 
that they were not engaged in absolute chastity and purity 
in this particular scene. So they're dancing before the 
calf and then notice the response of Moses according to verse 19b. So Moses' anger became hot and 
he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot 
of the mountain. Again, I think it's easy for 
us to sort of interpret this as a reactionary move on the 
part of Moses. He's so upset, he's so angry 
with them that he takes these tablets and he throws them down 
in frustration. I think that's the wrong way 
to read the passage. I think there's more going on 
with him casting the tablets out of his hands and breaking 
them at the foot of the mountain. I think Stuart explains this 
well. He says, was this action simply 
a hasty, angry, impulsive move on Moses' part? One specific 
way we know that it wasn't is that God never condemns him. 
God never rebuffs him. Remember when he is told to speak 
to the rock so that the water will be yielded, but he strikes 
the rock. It is that that God sanctions 
him. He can't enter into the promised 
land as a result of that. God doesn't sanction him for 
breaking these tablets. So he says, let me read that 
again. Was this action simply a hasty, 
angry, impulsive move on Moses' part? One that he might have 
regretted at a later time of greater personal calm? We suggest 
that such an explanation is unlikely. Instead, Moses' breaking of the 
tablets was an important symbolic act done carefully, deliberately, 
and openly for the benefit of the Israelites because of the 
way violation of a covenant is routinely described in the ancient 
Semitic world as a breaking of that covenant. So what better 
way to picture that than to actually break the tablets of the covenant. He says Moses broke the tablets 
at the proper place, the foot of the mountain, where it was 
a worship site. where the Israelites could see 
him do it as a public act signifying the breach of the covenant and 
the impending imposition of the consequences thereof, that is, 
punishment of the violators. So this is a highly charged symbolic 
act by Moses. It actually happened, it actually 
was factual, but there was a message communicated. These people had 
sworn fidelity to God, they had signed on the dotted line as 
it were, and now they had engaged in the greatest offense against 
those commandments. Have you ever wondered how David 
could be considered a man after God's own heart? You ever think 
about that? 1 Samuel chapter 16, God says, 
or 13 and then 16, God says with reference to Saul's dynasty, 
it's not going to happen. God wants a man after his own 
heart. You get to 2 Samuel chapter 11, 
David doesn't look much like a man after God's own heart. 
David engages in adultery, and David then engages in conspiracy 
to murder in order to cover up the adultery that he had committed. 
And yet the Bible tells us that he's a man after God's own heart. 
I suggest that the meaning is that David was not a perfect 
man, obviously, but David was never an idolatrous man. David 
was never a man that corrupted himself to the point where he 
reneged on his faithfulness to the Lord God Most High. Not that 
he was perfect, not that he was wholly harmless and undefiled, 
but that he never did corrupt himself by going astray relative 
to his duty to God. I'm not suggesting that it's 
okay to break the second table of the law. I'm not suggesting 
it's okay to engage in any sin whatsoever. But I am suggesting 
there is something specifically heinous about the act of idolatry. When you read through scripture, 
you'll notice that God has a real axe to grind against those who 
engage in idolatry. And so, Moses' anger became hot, 
he cast the tablets out of his hands, and he broke them at the 
foot of the mountain. And then he goes on to do, he 
burns the golden calf according to verse 20, grinds it down into 
powder. I'm not sure about the process 
here. And then he sprinkles it on water and then he makes the 
children of Israel drink it. I think this does two things. 
First of all, it destroys the idol. Get rid of that thing that 
is corrupt. But secondly, it was judgment 
upon the Israelites. Later, under Josiah, during his 
time of reformation, in 2 Kings chapter 23, he does something 
similar with an asherah pole. He doesn't sprinkle it on the 
water and make them drink from it, but he does burn this particular 
item, or idol, so that it's no longer operative. As well, this 
drinking of the water with this powder sprinkled into it is reminiscent 
of Numbers chapter 5. Numbers 5, if you've never read 
it, is probably one of the more interesting passages of scripture. I won't get into the details 
here specifically, but it's an occasion or a case where a priest 
is called to adjudicate in a particular matter. And he takes this water, 
and there's this bitter water, and a party involved in this 
particular matter has to drink it. And if this person is guilty, 
this bitter water will affect them in a very negative way. 
So some have seen a link between this water with this gold dust 
sprinkled in it from the idol and that in Numbers chapter 5. 
You can look that up later. The idea is that Moses is destroying 
the idol and Moses is sanctioning the people for what they have 
done relative to their reneging on the covenant. And then notice 
that Moses questions Aaron. And notice the supposition. Moses 
said to Aaron, what did this people do to you? What did these 
people do to you? He gives him the benefit of the 
doubt. He doesn't say, I can't believe you let this lot do whatever 
it is they wanted to do. He gives him the benefit of the 
doubt. Remember that Aaron is his older brother. When Aaron 
responds, he definitely defers in a very gracious and kind manner 
with reference to his younger brother. So he asks the question, 
what did those people do to you that you have brought so great 
a sin upon them? Now that brings us to the response 
of Aaron. Well, before that, he mentions 
it as being a great sin. He does that here, and then he 
does that later down in verse 31. And Gill makes this observation, 
a great sin as idolatry is, than which no sin can be greater. It being not only a breach of 
the first table of the law, but directly against God, against 
the very being of God and His honor and glory. It is a denial 
of Him and setting up an idol in His room and giving to that 
the glory that is only due to His name. Again, don't think 
this is something confined to Israelites in the ancient world 
dancing before their calf in Exodus chapter 32. The Apostle 
Paul gives us a very vivid description of idolatry in the Roman Empire 
in the first century. Romans chapter 1, he speaks concerning 
idolatry. Remember when Paul goes to Athens 
and he's waiting for his companions, and he looks at the city, and 
his spirit is provoked within him. Why? Because the city was 
given over to idols. 1 John 5, the apostle is writing 
to Christians, born again believers, blood-bought children of God. 
He's writing about truth. He's writing about righteousness. 
He's writing about love. He's writing about obedience 
to God. He ends the epistle on this note. He says, My little 
children, keep yourselves from idols. We would never end a letter 
that way. We'd write sincerely, or in Christ, 
or grace and peace to you. He writes, signs off his letter 
by saying, My little children, keep yourselves from idols." 
Why is that? Because the tendency of our hearts, 
we sing it in the hymn book sometimes, prone to wander, prone to leave 
the God that I love. Calvin says that our hearts are 
a perpetual idol factory. And it's not just, you know, 
golden calves. It's not just poles. It's not 
just rocks. It could be good things. Money, for instance. I mean, 
money's not good or bad. It's amoral. It's whatever the 
sinner who's using it does with it. But we can take a good thing, 
a non-good thing, an amoral thing, like money, and turn it into 
an idol. Isn't this what Jesus condemns in Matthew chapter 6? 
You can't serve God and mammon. We can take any good gift from 
God and make it an idol. If we give all of our attention, 
our time, our effort, our money to that particular venture, that's 
become an idol in our lives. So let's not go to the scriptures 
and say, wow, I'm glad we don't dance around golden calves. Oh, 
we just might, but it might not look like a golden calf. In fact, 
turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Where I think Paul 
illustrates probably the biggest idol that any of us have ever 
encountered. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Specifically in verse 12. He says, For we do not commend 
ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our 
behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in 
appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, 
it is for God, or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For 
the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if 
one died for all, then all died, and he died for all. Now notice 
the purpose clause in verse 15, that those who live should live 
no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and 
rose again." Your golden calf may look just like you. Your 
golden calf may be the person you look at in the mirror every 
day. Your golden calf may be that person you give all your 
time, all your energy, all your attention to. Self-love, there 
is something biblical about that. Love your neighbor as yourself. 
I don't purposely ingest poison. I don't stand on train tracks 
actively when trains are coming. You don't either. There's a self-love 
that all of us have. But there's a self-love that 
goes beyond that. There's a self-adoration, a self-deification, 
a self that becomes all-encompassing. And one of the purposes for the 
cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ, He died for all that 
those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for 
Him who died for them and rose again. So your golden calf may 
look just like you. And while we want to condemn 
rightly these Israelites dancing around their golden calf, we 
need to be careful that we're not, like those Israelites, dancing 
around the golden calf of self. So, Moses asks Aaron what happened. So, what does Aaron do? He does 
what typically men do. They blame everybody else, right? 
Would you love to have a politician confess over COVID? Well, just 
one. You know, we stepped out of our 
lane. We made some mistakes. We were 
wrong. They will never do that. It's 
just the nature of man to pass the buck, to blame others. Remember 
when God comes to deal with Adam in the garden? Who told you you 
were naked? Who told you you could eat this 
fruit? He says, the woman you gave me. 
And he's blaming not just the woman, but he's blaming God. You know, everything was great 
down here when it was just me. I didn't have these kind of pesky 
women handing me fruit all the time. It's the woman that thou 
hast given me. So he throws her under the bus. 
And he tries to throw God under the bus instead of accepting 
responsibility. Well, Aaron does the same thing. 
It's those people. They're wicked. They're wretched. They're horrible. That's why 
you were supposed to lead them, Aaron. That's why you were supposed 
to say, no, we're not making a golden calf. No, we're not 
going to dance around it. No, we're not going to engage 
in idolatry. We're going to wait for my brother Moses and we're 
going to get instruction from God. But notice what Aaron says 
in verse 22. So Aaron said, Do not let the 
anger of my Lord become hot. You know the people that they 
are set on evil. Again, that's probably not surprising. That's not, you know, wow, I 
can't believe that is the possibility because look at what Moses already 
said in verse 21. What did this people do to you 
that you have brought so great a sin upon them? So he knows 
that the people aren't perfect. He's dealt with them for years. 
He's dealt with them with the various struggles and trials 
that they've had, or he's going to be dealing with them in even 
more detail. So this isn't surprising information. 
So when Aaron says, you know the people that they are set 
on evil, he doesn't say, well, you know what, I gave in, and 
I reneged, and I was a weakling, and I was a coward, and I went 
ahead and did this. No, he doesn't do that. And then 
he kind of blames Moses too. Look at what he says. 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." Now he's reporting factually 
what they had said to him in verse 2. But could there be a 
little bit of, you know Moses, had you been here, these things 
wouldn't have happened. If you wouldn't have tarried 
up on the mountain and you would have been present, they wouldn't 
have been languishing and waiting and restless and cajoled me into 
making this thing. So he blames them, he blames 
Moses, and then he blames chance. Notice in verse 24, 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, that's a pretty interesting 
explanation. Have you ever thought that you 
could throw gold into a fire and out would pop a calf? I don't 
know that any of us would suspect that. There's two ways to go 
with this particular statement. Some suggest that it's Satanism. Some suggest that the supposition 
is that Aaron just does what he's told, he takes this gold, 
he throws it in the melting pot, And then Satan and his forces 
take over and out come this golden calf and this is what leads the 
people away. I think it's far more likely 
that he just didn't want to admit what he did. I think it's far 
more likely that he knows exactly what he did and he doesn't want 
to cop to it. He doesn't want to own it. He's 
a coward and he doesn't want to fess it up. Matthew Poole 
said not that he meant or thought to persuade Moses that the melted 
gold came out of the fire in the form of a calf by accident 
without any art or industry of his, which was ridiculous conceit 
and easily confuted, but only he conceals his own sin and the 
forming and engraving of it and lays the whole blame upon the 
people. That's the point. He's trying to pass the buck. 
He doesn't want to own his sin. He doesn't want to own the fact 
that he's complicit. He wants to blame them. He wants 
to blame Moses. He wants to blame the melting 
pot. He doesn't want to take responsibility for his own sin. Now that brings us thirdly to 
the judgment imposed on Israel. The old King James has verse 
25, when Moses saw that the people were naked. I think unrestrained 
is probably a better interpretation, for Aaron had not restrained 
them to their shame among their enemies. What does that mean, 
to their shame among their enemies? I think it's simply this, that 
even the pagans were faithful to their gods. The prophet Jeremiah 
deals with Israel on that level in Jeremiah 2, specifically at 
verse 11. God, through the prophet, says, 
has a nation changed its gods? The Hivites and the Hittites 
and the Evirites, they all have their gods, but at least they're 
faithful to them. But you've exchanged me. You've gotten rid 
of Yahweh of Israel and have gone a-whoring after all these 
other gods. So I think the idea is that the 
pagans were more faithful to their gods than Israel was to 
their God, the true and living God. So I think that's the shame, 
that's the problem that is addressed here. Now notice he exhorts the 
people in verse 26. Now this is tough stuff. Moses is going to do something 
here that will no doubt offend our delicate sensitivities. No 
doubt would cause the people in our generation, at CNN or 
wherever, They would go nuts over what we're about to read 
in this particular section. Now, look at what Moses does. 
Verse 26, he exhorts, Now, It almost sounds like the Levites 
were spotless and pure and holy and upright. John Gill argues 
that probably the only ones that died that day were the Levites. 
Okay? Maybe there were others. But 
think about this for a moment. When it comes to worship, now 
Moses had received this information on the mountain. So it has not 
been revealed to them yet that the Levites are going to be the 
clergy. The Levites are going to be the guys that are responsible 
for worship. But we see sort of that kind 
of activity even prior to Exodus chapter 28. So the Levites are 
brothers to Aaron. If Aaron is going to be the idol 
maker, perhaps he needs assistance with reference to not only manufacturing, 
but also to conduct the worship services. It probably wasn't 
an absolute frenzy. I don't think the pagans danced 
around their gods in absolute frenzy. There's always order, 
there's always liturgy, there's always structure. It's just a 
matter of the order of the liturgy of the structure. People come 
to our church or perhaps some of the Dutch churches in town, 
they say, man, it's so rigid, it's so liturgical. Well, charismatic 
churches, Pentecostal churches, they have a liturgy as well. 
You can't just wander into a Pentecostal church and do whatever it is 
you want. There's some sort of structure 
There's some sort of order, there's some sort of discipline imposed. 
Now, there might be the odd case here or there, but for the most 
part, I don't think I can wander into glad tidings and get to 
preach, or city life, or whatever it is. There's always some sort 
of liturgy. So, the reality that some of 
the Levites were most likely guilty. And so, 26, when it says, 
and all of the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him, It 
could have been in a manner of let's get as close to the right 
side as we can possibly get. Because we do not want to be 
on the opposite side here. And then notice when Moses tells 
them to kill. Don't spare your brother, okay? So it's not that the Levites 
were the holy, spotless, pure, sanctified persons here. They were as guilty, perhaps 
more guilty, and perhaps the only tribe that was guilty in 
terms of actual execution. So then notice, with reference 
to their overt siding with Moses at this particular point, Moses 
gives this instruction in verses 27 to 29. So verse 27, 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. I don't 
think that means in an offensive way, okay, you search out your 
brother, you search out your companion, you search out your 
neighbor, and you slaughter them. No, I think it's to be read this 
way. Don't let your personal connections cloud your judgment 
relative to executing the judgment of God. In other words, justice 
is blind. You're not supposed to go based 
on your brothers, based on your companions, and based on your 
neighbors. Well, this is my brother. This 
is my companion. This is my neighbor. I can't 
execute the judgment of God against him. That's why. It's not a, 
hey, I want you to go and wait behind the bush, and when you 
see your brother, lop his head off. That's not the point. The 
point is, is don't let those close associations affect you 
from carrying out the judgment of God Most High. So notice in 
verse 28, So the sons of Levi did according to the word of 
Moses, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. 
Now that wasn't all of the guilty parties, if you drop down to 
verse 30. Now it came to pass on the next 
day that Moses said to the people, you have committed a great sin. 
Well, the 3,000 were dead, but it wasn't just the 3,000. It 
was other persons. Again, I think Gil's right that 
the bulk of the deaths were with the Levites because they were 
primarily culpable and responsible. Now, the people were not guiltless, 
and Moses says as much there in verse 30, but the primary 
emphasis is upon this leadership class that had failed. And then 
notice as well in verse 29, then Moses said, consecrate yourselves 
today to the Lord. Can you imagine that? They've 
got bloody swords from 3,000 dead people in the camp of Israel. We don't think that consecration 
could possibly be joined with judgment. And yet God's Word 
says it most certainly can. Consecrate yourselves today to 
the Lord, and then notice, that He may bestow on you a blessing 
this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother. In other words, God will bless 
you for carrying out the judgment of God. Now, in terms of the 
actual scenario, again, I think Stuart is good here. He says, 
a modern person accustomed to the sentimentalism of Western 
liberal thinking might find the idea of killing idolaters impossible 
to justify. I'll go you one further. We think 
it's, you know, unjustifiable to kill pedophiles and rapists 
and murderers. We find it, you know, reprehensible, 
the thought of capital punishment or the death penalty. Brethren, 
the Bible upholds capital punishment. It upholds the death penalty, 
not just in Genesis 9, 6, but in Romans 13, 1-4. That civil 
government doesn't bear the sword in vain. That sword means that 
he has the authority to execute criminal offenders. So back to 
the quote, a modern person accustomed to the sentimentalism of Western 
liberal thinking might find the idea of killing idolaters impossible 
to justify. Listen to what he says. Moses, 
on the other hand, understood that leaving idolaters in the 
midst of Israel to influence others away from the opportunity 
for eternal life was impossible to justify. For Moses, it wasn't 
unthinkable to kill idolaters. For Moses, it was unthinkable 
to not kill idolaters because they were going to lead everybody 
else astray. He goes on to say, God revealed 
to him that a fight was underway over saving truth. If the idolatry 
was allowed to continue, many people in ancient Israel would 
turn from saving truth to condemning falsehood, from the promise of 
eternal life with God to destruction in hell. And since Israel was 
the repository of God's saving truth at this time, allowing 
the idolatry to continue might have affected the potential for 
eternal life of countless future generations of Israelites and 
Gentiles alike. I think he's right. What we perceive 
to be unthinkable was absolutely positively the will and the mind 
of God with reference to these idolatrous wretches that were 
gonna spread this cancer throughout the rest of the nation. Turn 
over to Numbers 25. I've already alluded to that. 
We're kinda reading, well we are reading that in our evening 
services. Numbers 25 is a very similar passage. We're not gonna 
get to the last section tonight. We're gonna close out here in 
just a moment. So we'll look at the intercession of Moses, 
God willing, next Wednesday night. But Numbers 25 is a passage somewhat 
similar with reference to the punishment of idolatry. Notice in 25.1, Now Israel remained 
in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with 
the women of Moab. This was instigated by Balaam. Sunday night I had mentioned 
that Balaam is a curious fellow. Balaam was a prophet for profit. P-R-O-P-H-E-T. He prophet as 
a prophet, but for profit. P-R-O-F-I-T. This is how the 
New Testament refers to him. He was a greedy wretch. He did 
what he did to get money. But God used him to communicate 
truth. God used him to communicate messianic 
prophecy. Kind of an interesting thing. 31.6 tells us it was at the instigation 
of Balaam that this transpired. And essentially what's happening 
is if you can't best Israel in battle, Get them to compromise 
their seed. Get them to compromise at the 
level of infidelity to Yahweh. So 25-1, Now that's not just 
the sexual emphasis, but when this happened, there was a religious or a spiritual 
emphasis. And I don't want to get too far 
afield here, but oftentimes it was the case that you had prostitutes 
that worked at temples so that there would be this sort of an 
idea that between the consorting of these two people, the gods 
would be inclined to do good things for the worshippers. They would worship in this manner. 
They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and 
the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was 
joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused 
against Israel. Then the Lord said to Moses, 
Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before 
the Lord out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord 
may turn away from Israel. So Moses said to the judges of 
Israel, Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal 
of Peor. It's an amazing passage, isn't 
it? Now, there's no New Testament 
equivalent for this. There's no, okay, in the church, 
you know, pastor, get your sword and cut off the head of anybody 
that engages in idolatry. That's not the way it works. 
The church does not bear the sword. The church bears the keys 
of the kingdom. They can excommunicate persons 
that engage in sin and they're unrepentant. It's the civil state 
that bears the sword. And right now, we thankfully 
don't have a civil state that is punishing heresy or punishing, 
well, they are, but just not the way that the Bible specifies 
it. So anyways, we don't have to 
worry about a numbers 25 scenario in the church. Hey, we had these 
five people. They danced around the calf. 
So this Sunday, instead of a baptism, we're going to have an execution. 
That's never going to happen. That's not a new covenant application. That is not something that obtains. But in this instance, as a theocracy, 
under God, this is the way they rolled. Now notice in verse 6, 
and indeed one of the children of Israel came and presented 
to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in 
the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who 
were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Can you 
imagine that? They're all weeping. They're 
all broken. And this guy comes parading his 
new dime from Midian, and he says, look what I got. Now when 
Phineas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw 
it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand. 
And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust 
both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through 
her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel, 
and those who died in the plague were 24,000. Then the Lord spoke 
to Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron 
the priest, has turned back my wrath from the children of Israel, 
because he was zealous with my zeal among them, so that I did 
not consume the children of Israel in my zeal. Therefore say, Behold, 
I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him 
and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting 
priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement 
for the children of Israel. One final passage, Psalm 106, 
Divine Commentary on Phineas. Psalm 106 rehearses this same 
instance, and in the Psalter, in the songs of Zion, they would 
have sung about Phineas doing what he did. So in Psalm 106, 
28 to 31. They joined themselves also to 
Baal-Apeor, and ate sacrifices made to the dead. Thus they provoked 
him to anger with their deeds, and the plague broke out among 
them. Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague 
was stopped, and that was accounted to him for righteousness to all 
generations forevermore. So basically, the point that 
I want to close with is that idolatry is very, very bad. So 
when God commands Moses, Moses didn't just come up with this. 
Hey, let's just take the sword and walk from entrance to entrance 
and cut down everybody that's in, you know, that's guilty. 
This was of God. This is God's response to the 
idolatry of men. Numbers 25, same sort of an instance 
where we see God's response to the idolatry of men. So when 
we consider that, we get to 1 John 5, and that godly apostle ends 
his epistle with, my little children, keep yourselves from idols. We 
ought to take that very seriously and understand the propensity 
of our heart and the remaining corruption that we struggle with. 
It doesn't have to be a gold calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. It doesn't have to be, you know, 
prostitutes at Baal Peor. It doesn't have to be the various 
idols that the nations around us engage in. It could be a good 
thing. It could be us ourselves. Idolatry 
is a wretched thing, and may God grant us the grace and the 
presence and the power of his spirit to resist that temptation 
to engage in idolatry. Well, hopefully that brings some 
life out of 32 to our particular setting. Again, we don't take 
swords and cut down everybody that's engaged in idolatry, but 
we learn from here the gravity of the sin of idolatry. Well, let us pray. Our gracious 
God and Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for 
the consistency in both the Testaments concerning the sin of idolatry. 
We know that this is a great sin, as Moses reports here clearly 
in a couple of places. I pray that you would give us 
grace and strength and wisdom and all that we stand in need 
of to resist this temptation, and all temptation, and to seek 
to be faithful, to seek to pursue holiness without which no man 
shall see the Lord, and cause us always to stand in awe at 
what the Savior did on behalf of His people, who took the sin 
or the punishment that we deserve for our sin, He took it upon 
Himself, and then he was raised again the third day. We thank 
you for the Lord Jesus and the gospel of our salvation. Go with 
us now, watch over all our brothers and sisters in our church, and 
we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, any questions 
or comments about any of that material? Oh, no, I'm just amused at the 
notion of, first, Pentecostals noting the rigidness of Reformed 
worship and liturgy. I find that really dumb. Any time they come here, they, 
ugh, it's so boring. It's ugh. They can't stand it. But if I go there, there is some 
liturgy. Right, right. They have a liturgy. 
Right, but I'm saying I find that whole dynamic quite amusing. 
It is amusing. I think there would be a of God, okay? And what I found 
so powerful about that is that we, as sinful creatures, when 
we're exposed to that perfect law, well, we track for it, right? So in a sense, we're not in the 
presence of God, but yet we, I think, we're still reflecting 
on it. We still haven't tasted it on this side of eternity. Imagine if that veil was pulled 
back with that, what would we think? Oh yeah, oh yeah, for 
sure. Yet it's interesting, the last time, the way they make 
God is completely opposite to the way God reveals himself. 
You know, one of the emphases is don't manufacture. Don't manufacture. One of the 
emphases is, you know, don't lose your mind and dance around 
and, you know, get involved in everything God commands. And 
this is why I think that, in many ways, Exodus 32 is sort 
of the anti-Tabernacle chapter. Everything God is telling them 
with reference to the tabernacle and what they're supposed to 
do, that one goes out the window and they do just the opposite 
there in 32. It's really a breeze. All right. Well, hopefully next week we'll 
finish this chapter. And then for those of you who 
are waiting to get to the bloody end of the book of Lange,