The Golden Calf
32:1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. 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.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, 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, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O 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? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 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 sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. 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.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord‘s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” 33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
35 Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made. (ESV)
26 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him. 27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ” 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
Talk about Zeal for the Lord these Levites were on fire. They were killing brother,friend and neighbor for the Lord because God had commanded the Levites through Moses. I wonder what our response would have been back then? Would we be with Levites or would we be with Israelites partying in the desert denying the existence of God? Its hard to imagine. How many of us obey the commands of our leaders at Compass Bible Church. How many times has Pastor Bobby encouraged us to be on SOTD? How many times has he encouraged us to pray for at least ten minutes a day? Are we doing it? Its easy to read about the sinful Israelites and think we would have been with the Levites on that day. But if I can’t obey God in the simple things, how am I going to obey him in the really tough times? Lord please give me the strength to carry out your commands.
Here we go SOTD! The first of three chapters that really show us a lot about who God is and how we should relate to him. First lesson: Don’t have any idols before God! I know we may not be tempted to bow down to a golden calf today. But what about a little ball or a musical instrument or money or a boyfriend/girlfriend or what other people think about us. These are our idols! Let’s make sure we are not turning away from the Lord to sin by giving ourselves to something else.
29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
The sin of the people produces horrific consequences of some of them getting killed. Notice here how Moses is congratulating the Levites, the ones who did the killing. This shows how seriously God takes defending his own glory. I thought it was so interesting that they were especially commended for being “against your own sons and brothers.” This is one of the great tests of our relationship with God. Will we put it above all others including our closest family and friends? Jesus said it this way in the New Testament:
Luke 14:26 – “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life- he cannot be my disciple.”
Hey True North! I am praying that God will be pleased with us when he looks down on our hearts today! Let’s make sure we have no idols (other people) who come before the Lord!
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
This is a shocking opening to chapter 32! The same Israelites in Exodus 19:8 said, “We will do everything the LORD has said.” However, due to their impatience and lack of faith they have forsaken God and turned to worship idols. When I read this I was angry at the Israelites and thought, “Are these people stupid? God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, saved them from the Egyptian army, gave them manna from heaven, and was physically present with them day and night. Whay have they turned to worship a silly golden calf after Moses was gone for 40 days?” Then I started thinking how we do the same thing to God! We go to church and listen to Pastor Bobby’s sermon and think, “Yes, I am going to go home and do what he says.” Then we turn to the idols in our lives like school, sports, relationships, and other activities and do not do what God has asked us to do. It is my prayer today that we would not be like these foolish Israelites. We must be people of faith who are true to our pledge to obey God!
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
I totally agree with Beth’s comment. When we read about the Israelites turning away so quickly from God to an idol we say “tisk tisk” and shake our heads. But we do the same thing! We sit in great sermons at True North and say, “Amen” but totally forget about it all week because we’re living for school or living for our sport or living for our friends. We exchange God for idols and it is foolish and God does not like it.
Make sure you utilize the fact that you have a small group to maximize your application of the weekend sermon–keeping your heart focused on and following the Lord instead of turning side to “idols” the rest of the week!
Here we go is right…I think everytime I read this chapter about the idols that the Israelites made I am quick to think “how stupid”. But then I am humbled very quickly when I realize that I too can make an idol just as easily; it may not be of gold or bronze or shaped as some odd animal but it has taken the place of God in my life as I have spent more time thinking about it, mastering it, or have loved it more than God Himself. Would I ever say that I have an “idol” probably not but when you really think about it is God in His rightful place in your life? What do you spend the most time thinking about, doing, and what or who do you love the most??
Let us take a lesson from the Israelites and repent of any false worship to idols in our lives and put God in His rightful place!
Verse 5 tells us something very interesting when Aaron says, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.” The Israelites still thought they were worshipping the one true God! In fact, the Israelites did something like this a lot with their idol worship. They would try to put together a false, idolatrous religion with the worship of God. This never works! They were very deceived.
We also need to be careful that we are not deceiving ourselves and entertaining idols or immorality while claiming to worship the one true God. As we can tell from this chapter, God hates that.
I totlay agree wtih Christa most of us probably read this chapter and think how bad they are for having idols. Even though some of us have idols and we may not realize it.
27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ”
28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
The Levites had such an incredible faith in God that they were willing to go and kill people they had considered friends, family, and neighbors because God told them to. This reminds me of when we are challenged to give up friendships that are too close with non-Christians. Are we really letting these people influence us more than we influence them? Sometimes we have to do difficult things for the Lord, just like when Abraham when tested with Isaac and in this case when the Levites were asked to kill people they knew. I wonder how many of us would be willing to kill non-Christians we knew? What is our dad was sinning like the Israelites, our grandma, our neighbor, our friend in math class, etc… I think this is a reminder that we live for the Lord first and must always obey Him.
And I wanted to add that we are blessed to have Jesus die on the cross and that we aren’t asked to kill others today (just in case anyone though I meant we needed to kill non-Christians, because we don’t now). This verse was about a request from God against the Israelites making idols before Christ.
24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
This is a totally fishy statement. It is a partial truth, which is a distortion of the truth. In verse 4 it says “He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.” Aaron tries to dismiss his part in the sin with a lie. He is trying to convince Moses that he was not really involved in the idol worship and revelry. As if God didn’t know he is the one who made it. Let us not make the same mistake and try to explain away our sin and try to cover it up. Everything is laid bare before the eyes of the Lord (Hebrews 4:13) so let us be honest about our sin and confess it and turn away from it in repentance.
” ‘I have seen these people,’ the LORD said to Moses, ‘and they are a stiff-necked people.
Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.’ ”
Wow! How important this first of the Ten Commandments is! Because the Israelites-God’s own people-went against it, he is even willing to destroy them all (except Moses). This is a picture of just how serious it is to disobey the Lord’s commandments, and I know that I, at least, don’t take this seriously enough. Let us always be on the lookout for possible idols in our lives so that we won’t replace God.
He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.
23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’
24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
As is natural for us all to do, Aaron here is shifting the blame, even though it really does belong on him. I hope that when I sin, I will have the courage to own it, unlike what Aaron did there.
Also, I really think the Levites were truly exemplary in their zeal for the Lord. A great picture of what we should strive for.
27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ”
28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
34 Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
35 And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
These four verses show how seriously God takes sin. Because they worshipped another god three thousand were killed by their own people and then God sent a plague to punish them as well. I should be dead many times over if this was the punishment I had every time I put something else before God. God is a holy God and much to be feared. Yet He is a merciful God as well and has saved me from my sin! What an awesome God we serve.
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him
Nice comments everyone! This verse makes you wonder if the people were following God or Moses. When Moses is delayed the people request gods to lead them or go before them. I thought it was God who brought them out of Egypt. Let us never forget that God is the one who leads us and guides us. God worked through Moses; the people placed their faith in the mediator instead of the creator! We need to be thankful for the leaders God has placed in our lives but our faith should never waver if we were to lose one of them.
8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them…
After going on retreats, conferences, or even small groups, we are on this spiritual high, totally stoked on God and ready to live for him alone! The sad thing is, that fire doesn’t always last. AFter a while, that passion to live a life devoted to God fades away. We find other things consuming all of our time. This is why it’s so important to constantly be in God’s word and stay focused on him throughout the day through worship and prayer. Satan is always looking for the “sleeping Christian”, one he can make fall into temptation. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Today I pray that I keep God my #1 in all that I do!
11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?
13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ ”
WOW his boldness in approaching the Lord amazed me!! If i were in the same position, i would probably be too afraid to ask God to save them! These verses reminded me of how important prayer is, and how we shouldn’t take it so lightly! Prayer is powerful, and we should be talking to our Lord everyday to build our relationship with Him! :D
8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
Like Meisha said, I would be dead many times over if the same rule applied today where we were killed for idols!!!! God is so powerful and holy, He doesn’t except any sin in our lives, no matter how “small” it seems to us. It just reminds me of how much fear we really should have of Him! Just think, if you had just one idol in your life, you’d be dead right now! God can’t STAND sin so we continue to live as upright and holy lives as possible to be like our Heavenly creator! It was a HUGE reminder of how powerful God is, and how ridiculous it is that we sometimes think great of ourselves. We are so unworthy of any of the love that God has shown us! God I will praise your name forever!!!
This is just more proof that even people appointed to postitions by God sin. Sin is SOOOOOOOOOOO horrid in God’s eyes no matter how big or small it seems in our own eyes. Just because it happens every day doesnt make it any less huge than any other sin.
8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
It’s sad that these people turned away to God and had idols. This reminds me of some people that claim to be Christians, but do not really read their Bibles or don’t even go to church because they have something else they do instead. Well I don’t want to be hyprocritical, sometimes I don’t go to both services or small groups to go do my activity, I still go to at least one service of church on the weekend. It also doesn’t take away from my Bible reading either.
It reminds me of this one kid on my volleyball team though, he used to go to church and read his Bible. His dad is the founder of quicksilver, and now he misses church or doesn’t read his Bible anymore cause of volleyball. It’s sad, I’ve tried to talk to him about going back to church, but he changes the subject and tries not to talk about it.
10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation
Not to many people think that God is like this. God is just. People just saw oh God’s is so loving, it doesn’t matter how much I sin, He’ll forgive me (I hear that all the time)…that’s not the truth though. He has to punish sin, if He didn’t than He wouldn’t be perfect as He is! It’s true that God is loving, sent his son on the cross to die for our sins so that if we respond by repentance and faith that we can be in His kingdom and not endure the sufferring we deserve in hell.
16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.
Wow Moses breaks the “work of God” as verse 16 describes, the tablets that God engraved after all the anger he had against the Israelites. Moses had a right to be mad, cause we are supposed to hate sin and cling on to good as it talks about in Proverbs. I pretty sure it’s Proverbs 7, I’m not to sure…
32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
33 The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.
I like this response that the Lord says, He’s talking about the “Book of Life” which is also talked about in Revelation. Shows that the Lord of the O.T. is the same as the N.T.
34 Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
35 And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made
This was a very serious chapter. These verses goes to show us that we are punished for our sins, no matter how big or little they may seem. This is a motivation for me to strive to sin less.
CST
9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.
God was talking about the Israelites and how they were so quick to change from God fearing people to Idol worshipers. God feels the same way about me and all the other sinners in this world. We only care and acknowledge God when we are in need of him, instead we need to love God unconditionally like he loves us. We can’t just turn our backs on God the second something doesn’t go our way. The Isrealites turned their back on God instantly when they had little faith. The faster we turn away from God, the farther our relationship with Him gets pushed away. I know that I need to trust God more often, and not be so quick to turn to my own ways.
33 The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
When we sin against God we are asking for eternal death. Plain and simple. God hates sin, man sins, man dies. However, Jesus did come to earth for a reason, he came to give us a chance to repent and be forgiven. If Gods one and only son was never sacrificed, we would NEVER be forgiven. In verse 33-34, God talks about people whom he will punish in the end. “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. “(v33), Gods wrath targets those who blatantly sin against him. We are all sinners. In Romans 3:23-24 it says; “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Since God has now given us a second chance, we need to accept Gods free gift, repent of our sins, and follow Christs example.
This chapter is interesting! Many people take sin so lightly, yet it is so serious and we need to take it seriously as well. We need to make sure we are in God’s word daily and striving to please and glorify him! We need to not stray away or lose sight of what is important. As Christians, our mission is to make disciples of Christ and to live for him everyday! We need to have the right attitude for what we need to do, and obeying The Lord in all we do!
14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
Here we are givin a glimpse of the Lords great mercy. He had every reason to punish the people, yet he didn’t and he forgave them.
24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
i remember when Pastor John talked about the verse at Compass Night a while ago. i love how Aaron tries to make it seems like the calf miraculously jumped out of the fire, when really, like Dan said, Aaron fashioned it himself.
35 And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
here is recurring theme all over the OT, and that is Israel’s turning away from God, which led also to the 40 years in the wilderness and not in the Promised Land. throughout the OT we see how God punishes His people because even after all His great deeds, they still reject Him. we also see this is the NT, because the Jews reject the Messiah and eventually sentence Jesus Christ to death. In verses like John 1:11 and Romans 1:16 we see that the Jews rejecting leads to the salvation of the Gentiles
33 The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
Bobby did not lie about this chapter. It is beyond intense how angry God got. Luckily for the Isrealites, Moses was able to mediate for them in God’s presence. I don’t know about you but it would take a lot of courage for me to stand up before God and try to persuade His mind. The bottom line is that the Isrealites truely tested God;s patience to the end. I can think twice now when I feel irritated with someone or something because if I was God they would have been severley punished. Luckily I am not God though because I wouldn’t do so good. We are so lucky that we have an amazing, loving, merciful, and patient God.
What was the point of the calf it only brought them trouble there is only one God and that is Jesus. there should be no other gods before Him.
It is so important that we take sin SERIOUSLY just as God does. It is not something we take seriously enough and though we sometimes don’t think we have idols because we are not bowing down to statues, many things in our lives are idols such as tv, friends,etc. When I die or if Jesus comes back before then I want Him to say well done good and faithful servant. I’m praying that all of us at true north will become more like Christ everyday and resist sin and temptation that come our way.
2 Timothy 4: 7-8
27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ”
28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
The Levites feared God and not man as they obeyed His command to kill their family and friends. Are we willing to do ANYTHING for the sake of Christ? Are we willing to step on some toes and boldly share the gospel? Are we willing to give up friendships we shouldn’t have, or boyfriends/girlfriends we shouldn’t be dating? Put the Lord before others and don’t be afraid to “offend” people if you’re sharing the truth in love. You may lose relationships, but I am much more concerned about offending God than other people.
4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
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7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.
This is not good; they should not be making an idol. And then God calls them a stiff necked people because they never should have went against what God said. And then they made sacrifices to it and called it their God. That’s like them just completely losing faith in God not being there so they had to make up their own God. This is probably one of reasons why there are different religions because people lost faith in God, so they made their own. I hope that we never end up like this.
27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ”
28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
This just really shows God that we need to be willing to do ANYTHING the Lord commands us to do. We need to be putting the Lord first, not ourselves and others. I totally agree with Julia!
28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
God takes the sin of idolatry very seriously. he ordered the deaths of over 3000 Israelites who had turned away from Him and put the worship of something else before Him. If we do the same thing in our own lives, we should expect the consequences to be extremely severe as well. We need to view this chapter as a warning to examine our own hearts and make sure we do not have a divided heart!
27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ”
28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
I agree with Angela and Julia, we should be willing to give up everything to follow Christ. God ordered these people to kill their own families and friends, and they listened and because of this, God blessed them. God should always come first, even before our families, and following him could lead us to having to leave some friends or family. BUt we should always be willing ot do what God wants all of the time.
2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”
3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
These couple of verses just make me think a little bit of experiences at home. These people brought their golden earrings, probably something very special and important to them, to Aaron right away! What if we did exactly what our parents told us to do right when they asked. I definitely have a huge problem with this. Doing what they say right away with honor and respect for them would mean so much to them. And even a bigger reward in Heaven. If your parents want you to turn off your video games, then turn them off right away, and not wait till your done with the level or something. If your in the middle of a tv show, turn it off right away. This is both pleasing to your parents and to God, and can make an example on others.
25 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.
this is why the world thinks of us Christians as a joke~because we become hyprocrites and fall short in serving and praising the Lord. Life is hard, and if we buck up, and stand against the evil of the world; conquering in God’s name (evangelizing), and just serving him with all you mind, heart, soul, strength; we will get our reward at the end.
I agree with what mike said in his comment on not having a divided heart. we cant be both hot and cold, good and evil cant mix~and definitely cant mentos and coke mix without giving you a stomachache.
8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people
29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
WOAH STRONG MESSAGE!!! For sometimes we can get so caught up into what we are doing whether it is sports or xbox or friends etc. that they turn into the idol and drag you away from God. For I know this that if you make something else a priority over God you will start to ‘worship it” like a god. For only God deserves to be worshipped and He is my #1 priority.
We need to give up everything and anything we have to follow the Lord and his commands. No matter what it is God should be 1st.
8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
Idols these days can be in many different forms. We can end up putting our idols before God without noticing it. Such as sport practices where we might go to a practice or game instead of church. We need to put God first before anything else.
12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.
13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ ”
14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
Darn, we need more people to post!!!!! Come on guys, I thought it was amazing when we hit 30, but imagine what it will be like with 100!!!!! Strive for that!!!!!!! Okay, I’m going to post on something a little different that everyone else. In this verse we see the unrelenting power of prayer. Moses prayed to GOD not to destroy the israelites and GOD came through. Moses’ prayer changed the course of history. We may not be in the same sort of glorified position as Moses, but our prayers can still make a difference. Now remember, prayer is a weapon. The bible describes prayer as a sword, so the old saying that says to be careful what you wish for can come into play. Sometimes, praying in spite can do dangerous things. Just as you wouldn’t point a loaded gun at someone, do not pray against anyone, lest it come true. I find people loose much of the respect for prayer that we once had. we no longer see at as our most valued tool and possesion. Talking to GOD is a blessing, and should not be slandered, mocked or defaced. GOD calls slandering the spirit (and also prayer) an unforgivible sin. Never, never treat your link with GOD with irreverance.
4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
This just shows the complete foolishness of the people that they would think that an idol cast in the shape of a calf could bring them out of egypt. This is just so crazy. And what amazed me was the mercy and grace that God had towards these people. They were dowing down and making sacrifices to this idol and He said that He was going to take His wrath on them but moses told Him what He had promised. But the people were not let off free. They had to kill brother and father to survive. This is just a reminder that we need to see the seriousness of idolatry and make sure that there is not even a hint of it in our life seeing how seriously God takes it. We need to make sure that nothing is coming before God wehter school sports or just free time. Let us look at our lives and see if there is any faults in the way of idols and completely rid them from our lives!!!!
wow! this chapter is so intense! God hates hates HATES idolatry! it shows in this passage. the whole chapter is basically the consequences of having that golden calf! 3000 people were killed! wow! i need to make sure i dont have any idols! knowing how seriously God takes this!!!! kinda gives me goosebumps..
8.) They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them…
Some great comments on this verse already, just like they said, we need to make sure that we are constantly trying to apply what we have learned and not be like the “man that looks in the mirror then immediately forgets what he looks like.”
9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.
Now I can agree with God on this one. The Israelites were a very stiff-necked people. Making an idol out of gold earrings and ornaments, now thats just stupid. But haven’t we done the same thing? We claim that we worship God with our whole heart, and yet we let school and sports take first priority over God. How can we claim to even be a follower of Christ if we let other things come before him. I think True North as a whole, should work everything (school, sports) as if we are working for the Lord, so that we do not become entangled in idolatry. Everyone can do better to examine and destroy any hint of idolatry in their life trying to take the place of God.
15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.
This was great timing considering the idolatry that the people were just getting into! The people in this chapter were described as stubborn and rebellious, and I am sure that many of us can identify. However, we must be discerning so that we are not misled like the people were by Aaron. We need to test everything we hear against Scripture so that we can be strong and sure in our faith.
33 The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.
This shows how seriously God takes sin. If you sinned against God during this time, your name would be removed from the book of life. Their sin deserved death. All sin deserves death.
We are so fortunate to be alive after the death of Jesus. Jesus was the Ultimate sacrifice for sin. Through His death, we are able to be forgiven for all sin committed. But still, every time we sin, it makes us deserve death more and more. We have a gracious and merciful God. We were given eternal life through the death of Jesus and our sins being forgiven shouldn’t give us a license to sin more and more. We wore forgiven, our sins were paid for, but at a cost.
We need to keep in mind that it is Jesus that saves us. His Mercy and Grace is what sets us free from sin. There is no way we could possibly earn this salvation.
Sometimes we look for something else to thank or to be grateful to for our success – our friends, family, parents, luck, and even ourselves. Without even realize it we might start following something else because we either don’t feel like God is present within us anymore or we just forget and accredit what we have to something other than Him. What we need to remember is to not lose our focus from Him and to remember that He gives us everything and He DOES NOT leave us. Be careful not to give into the temptation of replacing God or following a leader that will take you down the wrong path.
That’s the message I get from this chapter (among many others…I could go on and on about the lessons in here!), because sometimes I like to thank myself for my hard work or a good friend for doing me a huge favor that gives me something I wanted or brings a good situation into my life. It’s not them, it’s not me, it’s God. And sometimes it’s really hard to fall into the pit of no longer only serving the Lord our God. Do not put ANY other gods before our One and Only!
28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
the leavites were loyal to Moses like we should be to our lord and savior. If God commands us to do sompthing we should do it with out a doubt in our mind like the leavites did with moses
22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.
This is a little hypocritical… I mean, Aaron didn’t hesitate to make the idol. He went right ahead and pleased the people. He didn’t even second guess and realize that what he was doing was wrong.
32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
This is how I interpreted this verse: I saw it like Moses loves these people… he’s attached to them. In order to save them all, he would go to hell himself. He pleaded with God to save them all and leave him to die eternally. Now that is amazing. God gave this man the love for all these people and it shows that he really cared what happened to them and their souls. He was ready to take eternal punishment for them. Very very very amazing. Then God, being the amazing God he is, told Moses that he would only blot those out of his book that were against him.
21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.
23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’
24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
Aaron was so quick to point fingers at others when he felt the convinction of his sins! It reminds me of Adam in the garden of Eden, practically say “Eve was the one who gave me the fruit, its all her fault.” We naturally don’t want to take the punishment or accept the blame for our mistakes. We need to make sure that when we do something wrong that we are humble and repentant about it, and appologize to those we have wronged and get right with God.
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.”
I think that was exremeley hypocritical. He did one thing and said another. Aaron was the leader and he shouldn’t have lead the people astray and organized the idea of worshipping a golden calf. Funny thing is that right after that he says there’s going to be a festival to God. Actions speak louder than words
Great comment Dan!
32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
Moses in this verse gives us a great example of true love, He was willing to die for his people so that God would not destroy them. This is the love we should have for eachother, a sacrifical love, that is willing at all costs to keep the other person from unrighteousness. No one showed true love better than Jesus, who being God, died for us sinners so that we can have eternal life. What Jesus did is true love, the “warm n’ fuzzies” we often feel are not, if we want to be like Jesus than we must have His love.
4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
This verse just reminded me That some times we make other idols like surfing,the computer,TV,sports,school and we can’t forget about God. We need to have God first in our lives and be 24 hour Christians. Don’t be swayed by the world
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
This verse really shows how quickly these people lost faith in the Lord and in Moses. They became greedy for unimportant things and made a golden calf idol just to have something to worship. This is like a slap in the face to God after he saved them from their terrible lives!!! CST
This Chapter was a real eye opener. Its crazy to think how easily these people turned away from God! and how they were punished for their sins. Its so true that every sin in Gods eyes is sooo bad!!! Every sin!!! from the smallest to the biggest! think of these peoples punishments for their sin, then think of how many times we all sin each day!!! God has given so much grace to everyone of us! and I praise him for that!
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
It saddens me to think how quickly the people gave up on God. I know many times i will have to chide for myself for not looking to God first. Just because He may be long in coming does not mean we should give up our faith. Just like Jesus in the desert we must face temptation with God’s word and believe in our Lord the Almighty.
13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ ”
I like this because Moses doesn’t try to cry or beg for forgiveness. He knows his (our) Lord is a righteous one who honors His covenants. So when God says something its going to happen. So when He says “repent and you shall be forgiven” we know that we are saved. Nice to know that even if we can’t keep our word God always will.
Lose this passage because it has so many great parts on so many different things. A part on God’s anger, His trustworthiness, His love, His forgiveness, His rewards. Just so much on the glory of OUR Lord :]
I, as well as many, thought that it was so foolish for them to make an idol! Seriously? The Lord leads them out of Egypt and then they go and sin against Him, doing what He told them not to do! Ugh! We need to follow what the Lord says because He saved us from eternity in Hell!
This chapter is SO intense!!
It just shows how serious God is about His people having other gods before Him… Its not a good thing!! He threatens to completely destroy them, then He changes His mind and decides that “just 3000″ (seems like alot to me!) will die and he puts a plague on all of the people still living! God’s not someone you mess around with… He is one to be feared!
The Israelites strayed from God. They tried to make an idol that they could worship rather than worshipping the God who had delivered them from Egypt. This is so sad. We need to be sure that we keep God as the #1 object of worship in our lives. But idols are not always as blatant as the calf that the Israelites made. An idol is anything that we place in front of God. This could be a sport, school, friends, etc. We need to be sure to keep God first.
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
Catholicism reads this verse and notes that a “priest” known as moses has gone before God for the people. They read this and disregard the fact that God has provided the ability to have an open line of two way communication. We are supposed to go before our God, The ultimate priest, to whom one day we must give an account, not some sinner going to God for another sinner. Although it is wise to often bring it forward to an elder instructed in God’s wisdom, God likes that we confess our sin to him. In fact, he demands it. Not only that, but this simple yet difficult task shoes and proves we have learned our lesson. So if we have to go to a priest if we are Catholic, does that mean he goes to a priest and that guy goes to another priest, and so on, and so on? hahaha
This chapter was amazing, i can’t wait for the next two!!
This really showed us how our God is a jealous God, and wants all of us. We can’t be putting other things before HIM. We definitely aren’t tempted to bow down to a golden calf right now, but we need to make sure that we are not allowing other things like sports, friends, sleep, time, and other things get in the way of our relationship with the Lord. All of those things are idols too, and we need to be constantly keeping God as number one.
The Lord wanted to destroy all of the people who bowed down to this calf. He was so angry at them that he killed 3000 and plagued the others. I do not want to be one to distress my Savior, i want to please Him.
(:
Keep your eyes on the Lord
9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.”
I would LOATHE(aka hate) if the LORD said that I am stiff-necked, but if we think about it, we are. I mean God sent His son to die for us and some of us so called “Christians” can’t even talk about it with our friends. We are to ashamed of our Father. I mean how is that embarrassing? HE LOVES US!!!!!! and we need to let others know that so they too aren’t stiff-necked people.
27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ”
The way I looked at this verse is that the sword is the truth(aka the Bible) and we need to take down/ destroy all the evil people and evangelize to them with the truth so that they may live life eternally with God in heaven, so we can have one BIG party! :D (ps:sorry about spelling errors, its not my area of expertise) :]
***SPREAD THAT GOOD NEWS AND FATHERLY LOVE AROUND!!!***
19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.
20 And 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.
I love the zeal that moses had when he sees the people worshiping something other than God. He makes the people drink water with powdered gold…. wow. I think we all need to make sure that God is the one only most important thing in our lives. If we aren’t…. prepared to face the serious consequences of God’s wrath!
8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
it is sad to see how these people had idols, they got easily distracted from the lord and starting having idols and worshiping other gods and stuff. we need to always be making sure we dont have idols in our life, sometimes we may have little things that will be taking us away from church or not letting us read our bibles..if thats the case and we are truely christians we should be waking up a extra hour so we may have time to read our bibles, or not attend smoething thats holding us back from going to church over the weekend ! awsome chapter
Very intense episode in history! I am always amazed at how quickly and eagerly the Irealites are to turn away from God, and to worship idols! The more you read the OT the more obvious the pattern is. It is easy for me to criticize the Isrealites because I am not melting my earrings and making little cows to worship. The seems silly to me and so rediculous of the Irealites to abandon God in this way. But then we are just like them! It is so easy to get caught up in a whim and shift our focus to something that causes us to abandon God to where he is not our first priority! Whether it is our children, our homes, our jobs, Boyfrinds, girlfriends, music, itunes, facebook, movies, shopping, books, (dont even get me started on Twilight-uh huh, you know who you are…)etc. We are SO like the Isrealites and we deserve the punishment that they received. We should always put God FIRST and never EVER take for granted the price that Jesus paid for us. We need to love Him with all of our hearts our minds and our souls. And we can show that love when we OBEY Him!
29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
God calls us to love him with intensity! We need to be “set apart”-out of this world and living for Godliness. God blesses us for loving him with so much intensity it is as though we “hate” our loved ones in comparison. As Christians, we show God our love for him through committed obedience.
7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.
This is exactly what happens to what we like to call “lost sheep”. When you stray awway from your sore group of christian friends and church you fall into a pit of sin. This is why it is sooooo iportant to come/invite people to small groups/church.
V. 9 Stiff-necked people.
This is a great illustration. We need to avoid this posture when we hear from God’s Word.
6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
These people had commitement, but unfortunately it was for a false god. In this verse, “The people rose early” totally reminds me of this weekends sermon. They didn’t say lets sleep in and wake up late, take our time because we need to go talk on the phone first, see a movie or hangout, instead they woke up early. They were willing to sacrifice times/sleep to worship the fake god. We need to have that mentality, but working hard for the one and only true God.
9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.
We see things that “satisfy” our earthly desires and deem them gods. The Lord himself said they were “stiff-necked” and that was thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, not much has change. We are stubborn and just a thorn in His side yet he has mercy on us after worshipping, acknowledging, some THING before Him, the creator of all. In the words of Ice Cube, check yo self before you wreck yo self!
26 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.
29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
It’s clearly evident in this chapter that those of us who claim to be “for the Lord” need to be truly set apart. Our lives should look radically different than those who are living for this world. We should be ready and willing to obey, not matter what the cost may be. Here in this chapter, God called the Levites to kill their own people because of their idolatrous hearts. Are we willing to do whatever it God asks no matter the cost? If we claim to be for the Lord, we should be ready and willing to do anything the Lord commands!
Wow!!! That was intense!! Just that God’s people totally went against him, forgetting their Lord in heaven that brought them out of Egypt; and instead give praise and glory to a golden calf? That is sooooo messed up! Its no wonder that about three thousand of the people died because of their lack of faith and trusting God. Its so sad that their finally free from slavery, bondage and punishment; and this is how they show their thanks and respect to God?? I dont blame God for being frustrated in anger striking them down. But its cool how Moses stopped Him; but Moses was also full of anger and threw the tablets down, burining the golden calf, mixing it in their water and making the isreallites drink it. Thats what you kinda get for worshipping idols. Only worship one God, our Lord in heaven who has done soooo much for us. Giving praise to another, an idol, just saddens God to see His children disobey Him. This makes me think that no matter how bad it gets in our lives we need to continue trusting in God and having faith that he will see us through. God is our number one priority, nothing else, especially an idol.
The thing that really hit me first about this chapter was how all of a sudden Israel is like oh ya our golden calf took us out of Egypt so lets worship it. I was like what!?!?! how in the world can they say that…but then I realized that we do the same kinda thing all the time in a less blatant way. There are times when we think that we studied hard for a test that we did well on and think that we earned some money that aloud us to get something, and we end up putting material, money, and even worse, ourselves as almost a “god” infront of God! We try to give glory to ourselves or to something where it doesn’t belong, all glory is God’s!!!! It is sinful to think otherwise!
16-17
God is a jealous god, and he doesn’t take it lightly when people turn from him to worship another god. When we sin, we are also turning away from God and worshiping the pleasures of this world. We need to be very careful not to turn against God, because as shown in these verses, the punishment is severe for those that did not return to him.
19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.
I can totally just picture this…. its pretty funny like a guy just being so angry and running in the middle of their big “party” and destroying what they were so excited about. But how could they be so….stupid (for lack of a better word)
8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them…….
Its so easy to turn away from God’s commands but lets all make sure that we are constantly reading his word and studying his law so that we know and understad his commands so that we can fulfill them out!!
Loving these comments, guys! Let’s keep it up!!
The Golden Calf chapter!
When Moses went up to talk to God, and didn’t come back down for a while, the Israelites got impatient and decided to build an idol. Sometimes, this can mirror our Christian walk. When we feel distanced and separated from God, we may find ourselves occupied with idols in our own lives. This can come in various things, but the bottom line is that in idol is something we obsess over enough that it becomes a number 1. As this chapter shows, God does NOT like that at all. As Christians, Christ MUST be our ‘number 1′, and nothing else should come before Him. If this happens, we need to check our hearts, and become convicted over this sin. My prayer is that no ‘golden calfs’ would have a place in our lives!
22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.
23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’
24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
almost immediately when confronted with his sin, Aaron looks for someone to throw under the bus. first he tries the israelites, in verse 22 and 23 but then after moses probably gave him that, “are you kidding me?” look, he tried to make it seem like not such a big deal.
its really easy to look at the isarelites and Aaron and dismiss them as being foolish and easily distracted from God’s providence, but so many times i find myself doing the same thing, just in not such obvious ways… our sinful nature wants anything for temporary satisfaction and overrides the patience in our hearts to trust in God’s sovereignty. too quickly we spend our time on temporary things like school, money, cars, entertainment, and just give God whatever’s left over at the end of the day. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” -matthew 6:33
22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.
23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’
24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
Like Aaron did, its easy to blame someone else. I like how he said he threw the gold in the fire and a golden calf spontaneously appeared. Our excuses can be pretty pathetic. Instead, we need to confess and repent of our sin right away and have a zeal for God/hate for sin like the Levites that we want nothing to with sin anymore but rather want to glorify God no matter the cost.
Exodus 32
7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.
We have a lot in common with the Israelites as evidenced by these verses. This world that we live in can easily entice and corrupt us. So many will hear the Gospel and profess to be a Christian but will be turned by evil. So often we are unable to let go of stumbling blocks in our lives due to rationalization like “It’s not that bad”. The Israelites went back to their old stumbling block of Idols due to their stubborn and unresponsive hearts. Unfortunately we do the same thing by going back to the idols in our life that ensnare us and lead us deeper into sin.
Ps 106:36 They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.
Let’s all take note of what God is showing us all here in this chapter and not put anything ahead of our Lord Jesus Christ because His anger will surely follow.