Message 175
Scripture Reading: Exo. 32:7-14, 19-29
In the foregoing messages we considered the breaking of the law and the principle of the golden-calf idol. Now we shall go on to see how Moses dealt with the idol and with the idolaters.
Moses was not the first to know that the children of Israel were practicing idolatry at the foot of the mountain. It was God who told Moses about this: “And Jehovah spoke to Moses, Go! Get down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves” (v. 7). God specifically told Moses that the people had corrupted themselves.
Do you believe that there are groups of Christians on earth today who have not corrupted themselves? The elements used by the enemy of God to corrupt Christians are the idols. Idols are corrupting factors. Nothing corrupts us more than idols. Whatever you love more than God is an idol, and that thing corrupts you. Once you have been corrupted by an idol, many sinful things will come in. If we love a certain thing more than God, that will become a factor of our corruption. This will be followed by sins. Therefore, we need to be careful not to corrupt ourselves by having idols, by having things that we love more than God.
Concerning the idolatrous people, the Lord went on to tell Moses, “They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have bowed themselves down to it and have sacrificed to it; and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (v. 8). The children of Israel had been under God’s dealings and training for approximately a year. They had seen many miracles performed by God. It is difficult to believe that they could have so quickly turned aside from God’s way.
What is the situation of today’s Christians regarding God’s way? Christians have the Bible, but very few take God’s way. Instead, many have turned aside by making a golden calf and worshipping it.
According to verse 9, the Lord also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.” This means that the people were stubborn and were not willing to be subdued or convinced to have a change. Not only was their neck stiff, but their entire being was unbending. This is also the condition of many Christians today. Who can subdue those Christians who are worshipping a golden calf? Who can convince them to act otherwise? If you try to speak to them, they may condemn you as being heretical.
In verse 10 the Lord went on to say, “And now, let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make you into a great nation.” This word indicates that God was considering that He would wipe out the children of Israel. He certainly would not have spoken this way to Moses to threaten him. The Lord surely meant what He said. He was thinking of preserving Moses and his family and of making of Moses a nation to fulfill His purpose and to fulfill His promise to the forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In 32:11-13 we have Moses’ petition for the idolatrous people. Verse 11 says, “And Moses appeased the face of Jehovah his God, and he said, O Jehovah, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?” The Hebrew word rendered “appeased” means to mollify, entreat the favor of. The literal meaning is to make the face of anyone sweet or pleasant. God had an angry expression on His face, and Moses was trying to appease God’s face, to make His face happy. Moses was trying to cause God to be in favor of the idolatrous people. This was Moses’ petition.
It seems that Moses was not tempted by God’s word about making him into a great nation. The Lord was saying that the people were hopeless, that He would consume them, and that He would make of Moses a great nation. If I had been there, I probably would have been tempted by this situation. It would be easy for us to say, “Amen, Lord. Whatever You say, Lord,” humbling ourselves somewhat. However, Moses did not give in to this kind of thought. Instead, he appeased God’s angry face for the favor of the idolatrous people.
In verse 7 the Lord said to Moses that the people were his people and that he had brought them out of the land of Egypt. But in verse 11 Moses asked the Lord, “Why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?” Here Moses seems to be saying, “Lord, You say that these are my people and that I brought them out of Egypt. But, Lord, this is Your people, not mine. You brought them out of the land of Egypt, not I. I did not have the strength to do that.” Moses was a true mediator, an ancient attorney, as he made his petition to God.
Then Moses continued, “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, With evil intent He has brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce anger and repent concerning this evil toward Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself, and You spoke to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your seed, and they shall possess it forever” (vv. 12-13). Moses told the Lord that if He consumed His people, the Egyptians would slander Him. It was necessary for the Lord to take care of His name and not to allow Himself to be slandered by the Egyptians.
After saying this, Moses urged the Lord to repent, and then he reminded Him of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Moses had a strong ground on which to pray. He stood upon God’s faithful word, the unchanging promise, that He had given to Moses’ forefathers as a covenant. Moses seemed to be saying, “Lord, if You consume this people, You will break Your word. You will break the covenant You made with our forefathers. Not only would You give ground to the Egyptians to slander You, but You would act contrary to Yourself. You are the faithful God, and You cannot swallow Your words.”
Verse 14 indicates that Moses’ appeal was effective: “And Jehovah repented concerning the evil which He spoke of doing to His people.” We would never expect God to repent. But Moses was a very able petitioner. He was able to convince God that He should repent. Therefore, God changed His mind and decided not to consume the people. The expression in the Lord’s face changed from one of anger to one of pleasantness.
If we had been Moses, we would have acted differently. Once we heard words of anger spoken by the Lord, we might have run down to the bottom of the mountain to deal with the idolatrous people. But before Moses came down, he appeased the Lord. He settled the case in the heavenly lawcourt. Only then did he come down to deal with the idol and the idolaters.
In verse 20 we see how Moses dealt with the golden-calf idol: “And he took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it until it was powder; and he scattered it upon the surface of the water, and made the sons of Israel drink it.” Aaron said that the calf came out of the fire (v. 24). Aaron had used fire to shape the golden calf. But Moses used fire to destroy the calf. After burning the calf with fire, Moses ground it until it was powder. Then he scattered it upon the surface of the water and forced the sons of Israel to drink it. What is the significance of this? This signifies that eventually those who worship an idol must drink the very idol they worship. This can be compared to the saying that we reap what we sow, or that we eat the result of what we do.
Certainly the water with gold powder sprinkled on it did not taste very good. Tea-water may be pleasant, but not gold-water. It is never pleasant for an idolater to drink the idol he worships. We can testify this from our experience. Whatever we worship as an idol eventually becomes the water we must drink. In the past, we all had idols, and eventually we drank of them. This drinking of our idols is not an enjoyment; it is a punishment. This is a principle. The idols we worship will always become the water that we must drink.
There is no record of God telling Moses to burn the golden calf, grind it to powder, scatter the powder on the water, and make the idolatrous people drink it. Nevertheless, Moses took this action according to God’s heart, and God was pleased with what Moses did.
In 32:21-24 Moses dealt with the idol-maker, Aaron. Then in verses 25-29 he dealt with the idol worshippers. Seeing that the people were broken loose “Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Whoever is for Jehovah, come to me! And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves to him” (vv. 25-26). Here Moses sounded a call for the overcomers. The worship of the golden calf caused division. Moses’ call did not cause a division; it produced a purification.
When the Levites gathered themselves to Moses, he said to them, “Thus says Jehovah, God of Israel, Every man put his sword upon his thigh; pass through and return from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor” (v. 27). Verse 28 says, “And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people on that day about three thousand men.” As a result, the sons of Levi were separated from their brethren to replace the nation of Israel for God’s priesthood (v. 29; Deut. 33:8-10). Deuteronomy 33:9 speaks concerning this: “Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant.” In other words, the Levites denied even their closest relationships with those who were worshippers of the golden calf.
These close relatives signify ourselves. Within us we have many “relatives” who are worshippers of the golden calf, and we must “kill” these relatives. Otherwise, we shall be counted among those who have lost the priesthood.
According to Exodus 19, God intended that the entire nation of Israel would be a priestly nation, a kingdom of priests. This means that, in God’s estimation, every one among them was a priest. But due to the worship of the golden calf, the majority of the children of Israel lost the priesthood. The priesthood was then given to a single tribe, the tribe of Levi, because the Levites were willing to kill the worshippers of the golden calf. The killing of the idol worshippers separated the Levites from their brethren and qualified them to have the priesthood of God. From that time onward only one tribe, not the entire nation, continued to be God’s priests.
Today there are millions of Christians. Are all of these Christians God’s priests? No, most of them are worshippers of a golden calf; they are partners in the practice of impure worship. God’s intention is that every believer in Christ, every child of God, would be a priest. Revelation 1:6 and 5:10 indicate this. Christ’s redemption has the goal of making all the believers priests of God. But through the centuries impure worship, the worship of the golden calf, has disqualified a great many Christians from serving God as priests. Impure worship has caused the majority of the believers to lose their priesthood. But we thank the Lord that just as there was one tribe in the Old Testament that kept the priesthood, so there is a minority today who are faithful to the Lord to kill the impure worship and thus to keep the priesthood.
I can testify that we have been faithful to the Lord for more than half a century. We have suffered persecution, opposition, slander, and libel because we are not willing to lose our priesthood. Because we have the priesthood, the Urim and the Thummim are with us. This is the reason we receive light from the Bible. Whenever we open up the Word of God, we are enlightened. This is the experience of the Urim and the Thummim, which are a great blessing to those who keep God’s priesthood.
Deuteronomy 33:8 and 9 say, “And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant.” Because the Levites were faithful to God and killed those who worshipped the golden calf, they received the right to have the priesthood with the Thummim and the Urim. God’s priesthood depends upon the Urim and the Thummim. Later, when the Levites became unfaithful, they also lost the Urim and the Thummim. When they lost the Urim and the Thummim, they lost God’s priesthood.
The crucial point here is that we need to be pure, and we need to kill the impure worship, the worship of the golden calf. For the sake of ourselves and for God, we need to kill the impure worship among today’s Christians. Then we shall be qualified to be God’s priests.
We should not read chapter thirty-two of Exodus merely as a story or as part of the history of Israel. We need to see the principles in this chapter. All these principles are applicable to our situation today. We need to eliminate self-beautification, and we need to kill the worship of the golden calf and that part of our being which participates in such worship. Then we shall preserve ourselves on the standing of God’s priesthood. If we do this, God will continue to have a minority of believers for the fulfillment of His purpose. May we all see these principles so that we may know the way that we must take.
Our way is not that of division; it is the way of purification. The Lord’s recovery is a purification, not a division. The recovery depends on a group of Levites who are faithful to God and who do not lose the qualifications to be God’s priests. Thank the Lord that we have God’s priesthood and that He gives us the Urim and the Thummim.
