Christ in all the scriptures Christ the Mediator

 Christ in all the scriptures

Christ the Mediator  Exodus 32

The travesty of the golden calf worship

This chapter is without doubt one of the most astonishing chapters in the bible, which carries a warning to every generation.  The events in the narrative are quite breath taking.

The redeemed people of Israel descended into rank idolatry and moral profligacy.

God threatened to annihilate them, in His anger against them.

Moses interceded and God repented.

Moses separated the faithful Levites who slew the leading culprits and 3000 died.

Moses offered himself as a substitute but God refused, saying He would visit them in time. 

All this within 3-4 months of their deliverance from Egypt!  We have to ponder that this was the action of  those who had been released from a 400 year slavery; had been showered with benefits; had been given the hope of a new life in the promised land.  By mighty Divine miracles in Egypt they had been set free from the tyranny of the greatest power on earth; they had escaped the pursuing armies which threatened to recapture them by the opening up of the Red Sea.  This was the largest migration ever taken, consisting of over 3 million people with all their livestock.  This is the same people who, in Exodus 15, sang praises to God for the wonder of their salvation.  These were the chosen people, whom God called "a peculiar treasure unto me above all peoples...a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation"-Exodus 19v5-6.  We ask ourselves, is it really possible that such people could be so ungrateful, so forgetful of all the blessings?  We recall the New Testament sounds a warning to the church age, "Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning" (instruction)". Again, referring to the history of Israel, "Now these things were our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things..."Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall"-1st Corinthians 10v6-12.  The propensity in the human heart, even redeemed hearts, is to rebel and depart from the living God.  Israel fell from great heights to incredible lows in their crass idolatry and consequent depravity.  We are warned that the same propensity is within us today.  There are many lessons we can learn from this, but first we must observe the reality of what happened.

We begin by stating the overall picture, which is that of the generation who departed Egypt. only two males, over 20 years of age, Joshua and Caleb, as well as some women and children, and the tribe of Levi, entered the promised land-Numbers 14v26-35.  Association with God demands reverence to Him, those redeemed should live in His fear.

Israel's rebellion  v1-6  Moses delayed to descend from the mount, and the people took drastic action.  In the course of this we will see that most people are easily led in a bad way.  "The people gathered themselves together..." this was against Moses leadership (and by implication, God's leadership).  They demanded that visible, tangible gods be made whom they could follow, they could no longer stand an invisible God or an absent leader.  The seeds of this discontent had been sown in their murmuring about lack of food and water.  Two revealing things must be observed; firstly Aaron, Moses brother, encouraged the rebellion by facilitating their demands in ultimately creating the figure of a golden calf, using the melted down gold from the women's earrings.  Did Aaron sense an opportunity to replace Moses as leader?  There are plenty of such power seekers in religious life today.  Aaron was weak, self-seeking, and in denial when later challenged.  He went as far as building an altar before this man-made god, to sacrifice before it, and he proclaimed a feast on the morrow to take place.  This was in direct opposition to God, for the image of the golden calf  was one of the gods of Egypt.  In Exodus 12v12, on the very day of the Passover, God said," Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment, I am the Lord".  Now a few months later, the whole camp of Israel, assisted by Aaron, are worshipping the very god whom the Lord condemned.  All Israel had sunk into open idolatry, idolising the very godless regime from which they had been delivered!  Secondly, we note that there is no record of one dissenting voice to the treacherous spectacle.  The silent majority , by their failure to protest, have become collaborators in the evil.  Failure to speak in a situation of rank evil, is tantamount to supporting it.  An example of this is found in Revelation 2v20, where the risen, exalted Jesus challenged the church at Thyatira, "Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants---"-the word sufferest is to suffer without protest, to remain silent when evil is perpetrated.  The word is also translated allow or permit; by turning a blind eye, or by saying nothing, we subscribe to the evil.  A quotation attributed to Edmund Burke, an Anglo/Irish politician, of the 19th century, and used by many famous men, is that "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing!"  It is a worthy thing to desire peace and unity, which is the usual excuse for silence, but not when those are based on evil.  The idolatry of heart led to excess in body-"The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play".  The play involved naked dancing as is evident from the narrative.  Idolatry issued in licentious behaviour and that in public in the sight of their enemies.

The Lord's reaction  v7-10  He was very angry as you would expect; His chosen people, the only people on earth He called His own, resorting to godlessness in the extreme.  He interrupted His communion to inform Moses, and in the process disowns them as His people.  He says to Moses, "thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt..."   He rehearses all they had done; from on high-the Lord knows all about us, He sees what we are doing, and knows the intent of our hearts.  He is so disgusted that He wants to annihilate them and make of Moses a great nation.  Throughout their history there were many occasions when His people sank into idolatry, and His forbearance was tried to the limit.  We have no Divine right to live and act as we please; we recall in the church age He threatened to remove the lampstand at Ephesus; He threatened the rebels at Thyatira with illness and even premature death; He wanted to vomit out the Laodiceans because of their sickening behaviour.  God's longsuffering is legendary, but there are limits.  He hates idolatry, we exist on His earth to worship Him alone.  He demanded of Israel, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me"-neither any likeness in heaven and earth-Exodus 20v1-4.  Indeed, such was His desire for humans to worship Him to the exclusion of all else, He laid down the pattern before us all, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might"-Deuteronomy 6v5.  This is quoted in the New Testament, and applies right down to the present day-refer Matthew 22v35-40; Mark 12v28-31, and is the fundamental principle of all living.  The answer to the question, what is this life all about? is here.  It is all about heart and soul worship, with all the energy we have, to the Sovereign Lord of all heaven and earth.  Instead we are bowing down to, and making icons of people, of animals, of the inanimate creation.  Here we have God's chosen worshipping a creation of their own hands.  How demeaning for God's highest creation, and, at that, the elite among them, to worship a golden calf formed from the molten gold of the women folks earrings!  We might well ask, where are we today, who demean humanity to this base level?

Moses intercession  v11-14  Moses and Samuel the prophet were the greatest intercessors before the Lord-Jeremiah 15v1.  These men stood between an angry God and a sinning people.  As such Moses is a type of Christ who intercedes for us when we go astray.  Consider the following before we look at the nature of his intercession: Isaiah 53v12, "And He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made (R.V continues to make) intercession for the transgressors; Romans 8v34, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us?";  Hebrews 7v25, "Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them".   Christ, then, intercedes for us continually before God.  The reality is that to one degree or another, even in redeemed lives, we will all sin.  All sin, no matter its extent, or who commits it, is hateful to God, and even more hurtful when being enacted by a believer.  Christ is our mediator, who comes between, and pleads the merit of His own life and sacrifice.  None of us know from what grief we have been saved due to His intercessory work on our behalf.  He makes our prayers and worship and service acceptable, as He maintains our communion with the Holy God.  Without Him there would be no possibility of fellowship with Him, as we read in 1st John 1-2v6.  We are here on His earth by His permission!

The intercession of Moses was unique, "Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?"  The Lord had said to Moses, "thy people whom thou hast brought out of Egypt"-Moses responds with thy people whom thou hast brought, with mighty power!  He focuses first on the Lord's relationship to them, and His powerful work on their behalf, that freed them from the tyranny of Egypt.  Next, he speaks of the testimony before the godless world around, particularly the Egyptians, who would mock at such judgment.  Then he reminds Him of His covenant promise to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the very honour of His word to them was at stake.  Relationship, reputation, honour; all these were involved in the perception of the Divine.  The intercession was decisive, and "the Lord repented of the evil He thought to do unto His people".   This is a most revealing characteristic of God.  It tells us God has emotion, why wouldn't He, for He created us as emotional beings.  He is not robotic, He has feelings, and sometimes His feelings transcend His intellect.  When He gave the law to Moses, God said, of graven images, and any likeness created by man, "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God..."-Exodus 20v5.  He is grieved when those on whom He has poured His blessing turn to worship lesser gods, He feels it intensely.  Amazing that the man Moses could be on such speaking terms with God, that he had such understanding of the Divine.  How much more has Christ, our mediator, for us!

Moses reparation  v15-29  Intercession with heaven is one thing, but reparation on earth is necessary.  Inaction is as bad as silence, in modern terms, "sweeping issues under the carpet", hoping the problems disappear.  I recall one brother saying of the problems in a certain church of which he was part, that so much had been swept under the carpet, he risked breaking a leg walking down the aisle!  Moses came down with the tablets of stone, written with the finger of God, which banned any form of idolatry, and broke them at the foot of the mountain.  He moved into the camp and dismantled the golden calf, ground it to powder, and mingled it with water, forcing the people to drink the bitter water.  He then called for a division in the camp, to which the tribe of Levi responded.  The call was "Who is on the Lord's side?", and that response meant they had to move through the camp and slay the leading culprits who failed to respond.  3000 died as the token judgment of God fell, instead of the whole camp being slain, as God had first said.  When evil comes among God's people, it has to be rooted out.  Unfortunately the modern trend is to pretend the Lord will overlook. Moses also remonstrated with Aaron for his part in the rebellion, but he was in denial, saying that he put the gold in the furnace and out came a calf! Enough said!

Divine retribution  v30-35  God was true to His word; token judgment had fallen, but the nation as a whole had been spared.  Moses offered himself as a substitute to save them any more punishment, but God could not accept him as that, for he was a sinner.  Only when a sinless man offered Himself , could God accept a substitute in our place.  This was to be the role of Christ who took our place, as Peter wrote, "Christ, once for all suffered for sins (R.V.), the Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God"-1st Peter 3v18.  Only a sinless sacrifice would be acceptable to God.  Israel had committed a great sin, and it must punished.  Until Christ came, the terms of communion with God was as written in Hebrews 2v2, "...every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward".  God had no choice but to bring retribution from time to time on the dissenters among them.  Today, we are blessed, not because we are better than they, but we have a perfect substitute.  We must avoid taking the grace of God for granted, or, as Jude put it, "turning the grace of God into lasciviousness".  We dare not presume God will not act, even in a day of grace, and the N/T abounds with examples to the contrary.