The Sabbath Day is a very confusing issue for many people, but I believe that it is no longer binding.  Paul said:

 

“Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- {17} things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”  (Col 2:16)

 

(Rom 14:5 NKJV)  "One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.

 

 

(Exo 31:18) And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

 

From the mountain peak to the depths of the valley or plane below—this is our study tonight as we begin Exodus 32:

 

(Exo 32 NKJV)  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."

 

 

Where is their ability to think?  You cannot make something greater than you are, so how can you make an object to worship?  Rather than Aaron being an leader and refusing to do their bidding, notice what he says:

(Exo 32:2) 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." {3} "So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.

 

"So all the people:”  Everybody is guilty!

 

(Exo 32:4) 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!"

 

This is truly unbelievable!  Such an extravagant waste to blaspheme God Who had done so much for them.  It is no wonder that God is angry!

 

(Exo 32:5) 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."

 

Aaron is a very weak leader.  He is more afraid of the people than he is of God.  Sometimes people are like that, but it’s sad when that happens.

(Exo 32:6) 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.

 

All of this was to the wrong god, and for all the wrong reasons.  There was a dreadful price to pay as you might imagine.  Paul refers to this event in I Corinthians 10:

 

(1 Cor 10:5-7 NKJV)  But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. {6} Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. {7} And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."

 

“Now these things became our examples,”  A good reason to study the Old Testament.

 

(Ex 32:7) And the LORD said to Moses, "Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.

Isn’t it interesting how no one claims the people who get out of line. Now they are Moses’ people.

 

(Exo 32:8) "They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!'" {9} And the LORD said to Moses,

"I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! {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."

 

 

(Exo 32:11) 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?

 

(Exo 32:12) "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'? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people.

 

 

(Exo 32:13) "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 spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

 

 

(Exo 32:14) So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. (Exo 32:15) 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. {16} Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

 

 

(Exo 32:17) 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."

{18} 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."

{19} 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.

 

Adam Clarke makes this comment about Moses reaction:

“He probably did it emblematically, intimating thereby that, as by this act of his the tables were broken in pieces, on which the law of God was written; so they, by their present conduct, had made a breach in the covenant, and broken the laws of their Maker. [Clarke’s judgment] But we must not excuse this act; it was rash and irreverent; God’s writing should not have been treated in this way.” – Adam Clarke

 

 

(Exo 32:20) 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.

 

 

(Exo 32:21) And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?" {22} So Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.

 

(Exo 32:23) "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.'

{24} "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, -- [All true and factual to this point.  Then a fabrication:]

and this calf came out."

 

 

(Exo 32:4 NKJV)  And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.

 

(Exo 32:25 NKJV) Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained [?] (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies),

(Exo 32:25 KJV)  And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)

 

(Exo 32:25 NIV)  Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies.

 

“naked:” 6544. para', paw-rah'; a prim. root; to loosen; by impl. to expose, dismiss; fig. absolve, begin:--avenge, avoid, bare, go back, let, (make) naked, set at nought, perish, refuse, uncover.

 

 

(Exo 32:26) then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, "Whoever is on the Lord's side; come to me." [who knew how much difference this decision was about to make.]

And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

(Exo 32:27) 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.'"

{28} So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day.

 

 

They were guilty of idolatry.

They had rejected the invitation: "Whoever is on the Lord's side; come to me."

They are now to suffer the judgment of God:

(Exo 32:27) Thus says the LORD God of Israel:

 

(Exo 32:29} 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."

 

An initial judgment has taken place.  What now?

(Exo 32:30) 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."

 

 

 

Bible Study with Harley   Scripture quotations marked "NKJV™" are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.