Today’s passage: Exodus 32
Helpful thoughts:
- In Exodus 24, when the people were joined together with the Lord as their God under the Old Covenant, they declared, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Then Moses went up to the mountain to receive the word of the Lord. And before he came back down…they “turned aside quickly.”
- While Moses was receiving instruction from the Lord on how to prepare and consecrate Aaron as High Priest, Aaron was fashioning a golden calf and building an altar to it for the people to worship.
- There was an effort to syncretize the worship. Aaron told the people the name of the golden calf was Yahweh!
- In Moses’ appeal to the Lord, he brought before God His promises made to the fathers of Israel and His glory in the earth.
- Moses’ anger didn’t burn until he saw the false worship (Betrayal against the Lord) with his own eyes. The Lord (In His omniscience and omnipresence) had already seen it.
- Moses displayed humility before the Lord. He had an offer to have a new nation come solely through him. Moses was more concerned with the glory and integrity of God than with his own fame or power.
Questions to consider:
- What was Aaron’s lie when questioned by Moses? How did he try to pass the blame? What would true repentance have caused him to say?
- What things do we learn about the hearts of people in this passage? What should we pursue to ensure our hearts are continually inclined to worship the one true God (2 Corinthians 3:12-18)?
- What did Moses hope to do when he returned to the mountain and to the Lord (Verse 30)? What is the only way for our sin to be atoned (Isaiah 53:5)?