Exodus 32 tells us the events that took place surrounding the golden calf incident.  There are literally hundreds of messages and points that could be made from this short chapter.  The messages that are most interesting to me occur on top of the mountain and down below with the calf.  Moses had gone up to the top of Mt. Sinai (Ex. 19:20).  God began to instruct Moses on laws and details for making a tabernacle.  Moses stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, (Ex. 24:18).  The people down below got restless.  They figured Moses would not be coming back, (Ex. 32:1), so they directed Aaron to make them some gods who would go before them.  Aaron instructed them to take off their gold and he used that gold to make a calf and presented it to the people as their god.

Meanwhile, Moses is still receiving the instructions on all that God has planned for His people.  In Exodus 32:7 we find that God has stopped giving instructions and starts giving the command for Moses to get out of His sight because the people down below had committed a terrible sin.  The first word that jumps out at me is found in this verse.  God told Moses, “Go down, because “YOUR” people, whom “YOU” brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt.”  God was angry!  God wanted Moses out of the way so that He could destroy every one of the people down below and rid the earth of them completely.  I gain a whole lot of respect for Moses from this simple verse.  Remember when it all began for Moses?  Exodus 3 starts by telling us Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law.  Moses wasn’t looking for something to do.  Moses was doing his job and minding his own business.  Next thing you know, a bush starts on fire and doesn’t burn up and God speaks to Moses and tells him everything He wants him to do.  Exodus 3:7 God tells Moses that He has “indeed seen the misery of “His” people in Egypt”.    God goes on to tell Moses, “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring “MY” people the Israelites out of Egypt”.  Moses immediately comes up with every excuse in the book to get out of doing what God was calling him to do.  It didn’t work.  The passage is filled with God making statements concerning “His” people.  We find that the Israelites are led out of Egypt and everything that God said would happen did happen and eventually they all end up at the foot of Mt. Sinai.  Moses leaves to talk to God and the people commit a terrible sin.  It is then that God tells Moses, “Go down because “YOUR” people whom “YOU” brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt”.  It wasn’t that God forgot that it was Him who brought the people out it was just that the people had broken the covenant and therefore He would no longer be their God.  I love how Moses handled the situation.  He didn’t blow up and set the record straight by screaming at God how he never wanted to be a part of the silly plan in the first place.  Moses didn’t shout out the facts of everything he had been put through because he was obedient to God.  Moses simply turned and put everything right back where it belonged when he said, “O Lord, why should Your anger burn against “YOUR” people, whom “YOU” brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?”.  So subtle and simple and powerful.  It wasn’t Moses “setting God straight”.  It was Moses simply seeking the favor of His Lord by asking a question that kept everything in perspective.

One final message that jumps off the pages from this event is found in Exodus 32:19-20.  Moses comes down off the mountain and sees the people committing this terrible sin and he is angry.  He is so angry that he throws the tablets down and breaks them to pieces.  The deal is off.  The covenant has been broken,  and now all that remains is for the people to pay for their sin.  What Moses does is quite disturbing in one way and quite ingenious in another.  Verse 20 says, “he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.”  Why don’t I remember this scene from the movie with Charlton Hesston playing Moses?  I’m sure it would have never left my mind if I would have seen it.  To see Moses having the golden calf put into the fire and melting it down and then grinding it into a fine powder and scattering it over the water.  His point was to show the Israelites how foolish they were to think that this physical object could take the place of the almighty God.  Then it was time to drive the point home of how terrible it was that they had committed this sin.  The god they had created was dissolved right before their eyes then ground up and scattered on the water and Moses “made” them drink it.  I’m not sure what the side effects would be for drinking such a potion of ground up gold and silver and ashes.  One thing I know for sure is that it certainly wasn’t pleasant.  Moses had mixed the perfect potion of punishment.  What a perfect way to get the point across of how terrible it was to commit such a great sin before God.  It makes me even more thankful today that the grace that comes through Jesus Christ continues to cover all of God’s people.  Can you imagine what it would be like if we had someone like Moses mixing the potions of punishment made specifically from the sins we commit?  Not a pleasant thought at all!  Hebrews 9:25 tells us that Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.  “Just as man is destined to die once and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”  I know I am waiting for him.  I pray that you are too.