Exodus 32:7-20
Jealous – anger caused by rivalry and unfaithfulness.
Historical Context
Time
1446 B.C.
Culture
People were slaves delivered from oppression and slavery in Egypt.
Since they were slaves they were dependent on a Master/Leader.
Author
Moses
Audience
The Jewish People
Purpose of Book
Exodus is a narrative that testifies about God revealing His nature.
Literary Context
Order(Time Based)
God had just finished giving Moses the new covenant on Mount Sinai. God gave Moses the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.
Role within Section
The verses 7-20 shows God’s righteous anger against the Jewish People because they constructed an abominable and detestable idol. God was wrathful to the extent that His anger burned against them and He intended to destroy the people. It also shows how Moses then interceded with God to spare His people. Then it shows how Moses acted as an agent of God’s anger and completely destroyed the false idol, grounding it to dust and scattering it on the water and making the Israelites drink it to show that it had absolutely no power whatsoever.
Role within the Book
In this chapter, The Golden Calf was an abomination against God created by the Jewish people. God’s own people created a *horrible* abomination against Him because they worshiped this idol instead of God. Even worse this sin took place after God had delivered his people from slavery in Egypt and was renewing His covenant that He made with Abraham with the Israelites through Moses and was intending to lead them to the promised land. He was after their hearts to set them aside and make them *His* holy people on earth, belonging to *Him*. But the people were so ‘stiff-necked’ in their ways they would not give their hearts to God. Instead they cast a false idol out of gold and gave their hearts to a completely worthless thing. It was an unimaginably horrible sin against God because God is so Holy and so deserving of worship that to worship this idol instead of God is a horrible abomination.
The sin of these people is so great that God being completely Holy and completely Just cannot stand for it. He must carry out His divine justice. He allows Moses to tell the Israelites “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me”, separating the people who were for God as God’s Holy people. These Israelites were then commanded to kill their sons and brothers who were evil and wicked and *against* God to carry out God’s divine justice. It was so that God’s justice could be carried out. It was to purify the Israelite nation for God purifying the Israelites’ hearts as they killed their own sons and brothers so that they could know the heart of God. It was so that they would know that God was completely Holy and completely Just. Then after they had done the will of God. Moses told them gravely “You have committed a great sin (the idol). But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” Then Moses asked God “please forgive their sin.” This parallels the act of repentance that people must go through to ask God for His forgiveness. This was why it was so important that Jesus Christ came to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins so that God’s righteous anger and justice could be appeased.
Content
Key words
State of Israel
People have become corrupt
Turn away from what I commanded them
*Idol*
Bowed down to it
Sacrificed to it
“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
Stiff-necked people
God’s Anger
Anger burn
Destroy them
Moses pleaded with God
Moses sought favor
Great power
Mighty hand
Fierce anger
Bring Disaster
Remember your servants
Land promised
Tablets of the Testimony
Tablets were the work of God
The writing was the writing of God
Moses Agent of God’s Anger
Anger burned
Threw tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces (God’s Anger)
Took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire
Ground it to powder
Scattered it on the water
And made the Israelites drink it
What’s happening
God is after these people’s hearts. He wants to set aside the Jewish people to be His holy people on the earth. He had rescued them from Egypt and renewed His covenant with them through Moses. He was intending to lead them to the promised land. He intended to make them His people for Him. After God rescued the Israelites out of Egypt from slavery, He gave the Israelites many commands through Moses. These commands were all intended to reveal God’s great love for His people, to show His power and nature to them so that they could know God and worship God. God was trying to reach the Israelite’s hearts. In Exodus 13: 14:16 in the consecration of the firstborn, It explains “when your son asks you what does this mean? Say to Him ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery… And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.’”
All the commands were to lead the Israelites to know what God did for them and through that to know God’s truly good loving character and then the only proper response would be to worship God, knowing that He is all powerful God that loves them His people. Then God could have a relationship with His people that His people need.
This is the context of what is going on.
In the passage
In the passage the Israelites commit a horrible sin against God. They actually craft an idol out of gold and worship it. At the time Moses is on Mount Sinai receiving God’s renewed covenant. The people see that Moses is long in the coming. They ask Aaron to make an idol for them to worship. Aaron makes the Golden Calf. Then the Israelites worship the idol and say “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
This was actually an unspeakable sin against God. This is because God was all along after the Israelite’s hearts and wanted them to know His character and His love so that they would then respond to worship Him. He reserved the Israelites for Himself that they would be His Holy people on the earth.
God had just delivered these people out of slavery in Egypt. He parted the red sea for them. Then He gave them commands to worship Him for their everlasting benefit. So these people knew full well what God had done and what He had commanded them. Knowing that what God had done for them, these people still refuse to give their hearts to God. Having been delivered out of Egypt they should have been thankful in their hearts to God, but instead they refused to recognize the Lord as God and their hearts were hard against Him.
This is why casting the Golden Calf is such an atrocity against God. God wanted their hearts for Him, but the people were stiff-necked and hard hearted and would not give their hearts to God. But instead the people reserved for God gave their hearts to this worthless thing and worshipped it. It is so sinful because the idol is such a lowly piece of metal crafted from the earth and God is so completely Divine and Holy. God is so angry because He wants their hearts which are so precious to Him to be only for Him and not only would they not give it, but they gave it to something totally and absolutely worthless. God really loves them and wants that their hearts be His completely so it is really despicable that they not only reject God, but they worship this worthless idol. This is a horrible abomination of worship that God reserved for the people and Himself.
7 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down, because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it, and have said “these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt’”
God says the people have become corrupt. They have not only turned away from god’s commands which were intended to lead them to knowing God, but they also began to worship a false idol. The command God gave them to tell them that God brought them out of Egypt is now utterly disobeyed so that the Israelites now say that the idol brought them out of Egypt.
9“I have seen these people” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.”
In the passage, God rightly calls the Israelites ‘stiff-necked’ people, meaning they are stubborn and will not turn to God. God tells Moses that these people have hearts that are unyielding to Him.
10 “Now leave me along so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
The idol has now become a complete abomination to God and He cannot stand for it since God is so utterly Holy and so utterly Just. In addition, God had just renewed the covenant He made with Abraham with Moses on Mount Sinai and was intending to lead His people to the promised land a land of abundance where they would be His people and He would be their God. The fact that He had loved them so utterly and that they had so utterly turned away from Him to do something so despicable was so sinful that God was ready to destroy His people. His righteous justice would be carried out.
However at this point Moses intercedes for his people. He pleads with God to spare them reminding God of His servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel and the promise He made to them that their descendants would be given the land He promised them as an inheritance. Then God relented and did not bring disaster on His people. He remembered His love for Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and His promise to them so He relented.
Then Moses goes down the mountain. When he sees the calf, he becomes so angry that he throws the tablets down in anger, breaking them at the foot of the mountain. At this point Moses becomes the agent of God’s anger. It says that his anger burned and Moses then expresses how angry God is with His people so angry that he breaks the tablets in His anger against the people’s great sin. Moses takes the calf and burns it in the fire, grinds it into powder, and scatters it on the water, and makes the Israelites drink it. As if saying “This is what you think brought you out of Egypt?!” Moses acted as an agent of God’s anger and completely destroyed the false idol, grounding it to dust and scattering it on the water and making the Israelites drink it to show that it had absolutely no power whatsoever.
Main points
God is really jealous for our hearts. He wants our hearts so much to know Him and worship Him. He wants this because He loves us and knows that we were made to worship Him. When he sees us giving our hearts to something so worthless as idol it is really an abomination to Him and completely despicable to Him who is so Holy and Just and His anger and wrath will be incited. That is why it is so important that Jesus Christ came down to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins so that God’s wrath and righteous anger may be appeased and we can have a relationship with God through Christ.
Outline/flow
As God is still speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai making the new covenant, the people commit this grievous sin. God tells Moses he must go down because his people are being corrupt they have sinned greatly against God by making a false idol.
He tells Moses the people’s hearts will not yield to God and instead they are worshiping a worthless idol. The idol has become such an abomination that God’s anger threatens to destroy His people. God then tells Moses He intends to destroy His people.
Moses pleads to God not to destroy Israel. He pleads with Him to remember how He brought His people out of Israel. He pleads with God to remember His servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and His promise to them.
God remembers His love and He relents.
Moses goes down the mountain with the tablets. He sees the calf and becomes angry, breaking the tablets. He becomes God’s agent of righteous anger, and completely and utterly destroys the false idol and makes the people drink it showing them how worthless it really is.
Original Main Point(s)
God is really jealous for our hearts. He wants our hearts so much to know Him and worship Him. He wants this because He loves us and knows that we were made to worship Him. It is such a wonderful and beautiful relationship that God wants for us to have with Him. And it is a Holy relationship we have with Him. This is God’s jealous love for us that we are meant for the reserved purpose of worshipping Him alone and nothing else.
Application
Absorption
God wants to reserve our hearts for Him.
Prayer
God you can have my whole heart. My heart belongs to you. May nothing else claim my heart ever again. As you are jealously after my heart, you can have it and keep it. May all false idols be completely destroyed. Let my heart be for the reserved purpose of worshipping you.
Faith
God wants to keep my heart pure for Him and will go to any lengths to keep my heart pure for Him. I can trust in Him because He is jealously after my heart.
Spirit’s conviction
God will keep my heart for Him.
Your life
I will give my all for God. He holds my heart. May He keep my heart always.
Response
I am cut to the heart by how much God loves me and the extent he would go to for me. This is the extent of His love for me and knowing this, I love Him.