Exodus 32 – Moses takes a long time conferring
with God on the mountain (40 days), and the people become restless and anxious.
Throughout the wilderness journey,
they express the same anxieties.
Back on earth,
down the mountain, life is full of human frailty. So the people go to Aaron and ask him to “make us a god
who will be our leader” (32:1). One of the commandments – the FIRST one by
the Catholic count, is specifically NOT to make any such representation. The Lord, seeing what is going on, tells
Moses “Go down at once to your
people, [not his any more, note] for they have
become depraved” (32:7).
God threatens to “consume them” but
Moses pleads with Him on their behalf—this is his other “hat” a prophet
wears—the role of being a pleader for his people. The prophet not only represents God’s voice to
the people. He represents the people’s
voice to God. He is a two way intermediary. Moses reasons with God as he might
have with some proud potentate and tries to get Him to see how the fate of His
people ultimately reflects on Him. He reminds God of the promise he made to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and exhorts Him to the faithfulness He swore to them
on more than one occasion. I guess we all need to be reminded once and a while.
Moses meets up
again with Joshua and returns to the camp with the tablets, but when he sees
himself what they have done, his anger flares up so much [he does have a temper---remember 11:8] he throws the
tablets down and breaks them. He takes
the golden calf, melts it down, grinds up the gold, throws it on the water and
makes the people drink it. Then he turns
to Aaron, appropriately enough, and asks him an unexpected question—not what
have you done? Or even what have my people done? but “What did this people ever do to you that you should lead them into so
grave a sin?” (32:21)
Aaron, of
course, blames the people—he was just their pawn or he just did what he did to
keep them from doing something even worse.
“I told them, ‘Let anyone who has gold jewelry take it off,’ They gave
it to me, and I threw it into the fire,
and this calf came out.” [Is this supposed to be funny??]
Moses, seeing
what he is confronted with, takes charge.
He has those who are “for the Lord” come to him. Only the Levites rally to him, and he
instructs them to slay their kinsmen—about 3000 [a
stylized number often used in the Bible] are slain. And this becomes the
basis for their being seen as dedicated to the Lord in a special way!!
The next day,
Moses leaves them again and returns to the mountain to “make atonement” for
them (32:30). Only when he is there do we see him as a pleader for his people
once again.
Early Christian Writers
Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) – First Apology
What Christ Himself Taught
15 – Concerning Chastity: Jesus said such things as this –
“Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart before God.” If you marry a woman who is divorced from
another, this is also adultery.
Many believers
who have been “Christ’s disciples from childhood” remain pure for their whole
lived. And it isn’t just a few who can live by this standard. “Christ called
not only the just and the chaste to repentance, but the ungodly, and the
licentious and the unjust.” Our heavenly
Father would rather have the repentance of the sinner, not his punishment.
Christians love all people. “He taught. . .’if ye love them that
love you, what new thing do ye?’” “Pray for you enemies and love them that hate
you.”
“Lay not up
for yourselves treasure upon earth. . . but lay up for yourselves treasure in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.” Be kind and merciful; take
no thought what you shall eat or put on.
16 – Concerning Patience and Swearing: “[C]oncerning our being patient of
injuries, and ready to serve all, . . . free from anger, this is what He said:
‘To him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other; and him that
taketh away thy cloak or coat, forbid not. And whosoever shall be angry is in
danger of the fire . . .”
“’And let your
good works shine before men, that they, seeing them, may glorify your Father which
is in heaven.’” He comments that he’s seen many times people won over to the
gospel by the witness of Christians’ lives.
As to not swearing and always speaking
the truth, he quotes
Jesus: “’Swear not at all; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; for
whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.’”
Worship the
Lord your God and serve Him only with all your heart.
“[L]et those who are not found living
as [Jesus] taught, be understood to be no Christians, even though they profess
with the lip the precepts of Christ;
for not those who make profession, but those who do the works, shall be saved,
according to His word.”
17 – Concerning Civil Obedience: He notes that Jesus taught his
followers to pay whatever taxes were owed to those in civil authority over
them. While God alone is whom we worship, “in other things we gladly serve you,
acknowledging . . .kings and rulers of men” and we pray that “with your kingly
power you [also] be found to possess sound judgment.”
Everyone will
be judged by God in the end anyway.
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