GraceLife Thoughts – Train to Reign (Part 27)

Grace Thoughts

GraceLife Thoughts – Train to Reign (Part 27)

God’s training of Israel to ‘reign’ with Him was not a straight line. It had a lot of ‘bumps’ along the way; many ‘ups and downs,’ ‘twists and turns.’ One of the biggest problems Israel had during their training experience was ‘Training Principle #1’ –

God is the One True God (Monotheism)

Remember the first of the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses?

And God spoke all these words, saying: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ‘You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:1-3

That seems pretty clear, but read on –

You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. Exodus 20:4-5

That also seems clear. God is the One True God. The other ‘gods’ that Israel had experienced in Egypt and would in the future as they entered Canaan were ‘carved’ (made by hand). Keep in mind that God gave Israel these commandments just a couple of months after He destroyed all of the Egyptian ‘gods’ and led them miraculously from slavery to freedom.

Israel and Idols

The people of Israel were afraid of God, so they ‘stood afar off’ while Moses ‘drew near the thick darkness where God was’ (Exodus 20:21). That’s where God gave Moses the ‘Ten Commandments,’ many other commandments, and instructions about how the children of Israel would serve and worship Him. What do you think the ‘children of Israel’ did while Moses was receiving the commandments from God?

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, ‘Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for 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.’ And Aaron said to them, ‘Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’ So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ Exodus 32:1-4

What were they thinking? They fashioned an idol of gold and said, ‘This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’? Crazy, right? But notice who led the people in making the ‘carved idol?’ Aaron! Moses’ brother! The man God would choose to become Israel’s High Priest! (Exodus 28:1)I find it remarkable that Aaron would do such a thing, but he did. The people went to Aaron to ask him to ‘make us gods that shall go before us.’ Aaron told them to gather gold earrings and bring it to them. Aaron took the gold ‘from their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.’ The people of Israel were thrilled with what Aaron did for them –

So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, ‘Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.’ Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Exodus 32:5-6

Did see that? After building the ‘gold calf’ idol (false god), Aaron proclaimed that the next day would be a feast day ‘to the Lord’ where the people would offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. What was wrong with Aaron? Was he afraid of the people? Did he agree with them that something had gone wrong with Moses’ meeting with God? Was Aaron a ‘closest’ worshipper of false gods? Remember that Aaron would have had a lot of experience with false gods in Egypt. The fact that he so was able to so quickly make the ‘gold calf’ may be because he was experienced at making false gods in Egypt. I’m not saying he did, just asking questions at this point.

God Reacts

The One True God ‘knows’ everything (Omniscience), so how did he react to what He knew Israel was doing?

And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation. Exodus 32:7-10

Moses ‘pleaded with the Lord his God’ not to kill the people –

Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. Exodus 32:12-14

God often expressed Himself in the Old Testament in ways that are similar to ‘human’ responses – like expressing anger verbally and threatening to kill His people. That’s part of ‘training to reign.’ How we respond to a higher-ranking officer (God in this case) demonstrates our character, in addition to how well we’ve been trained. I think that may have been the case here.

Moses Reacts

Just because Moses pleaded with God not to kill the children of Israel didn’t mean that what the people had done didn’t bother him. He was trying to save the nation from divine destruction, but Moses was ready to take action against those responsible –

So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, ‘What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?’ So Aaron said, ‘Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.’ Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, ‘Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me! And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. And he said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. Then Moses said, ‘Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother. Exodus 32:19-29

This is just my personal take based on many years of managing people. I think Aaron threw the children of Israel ‘under the bus’ to take the heat off himself – ‘Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.’ He may have been afraid of what Moses would do to him, not knowing what God had just told Moses on the mountain about how Aaron and his sons would be priests to God.

What Moses did next might seem ‘sharp’ or even ‘heavy-handed,’ but it was the right way for him to deal with the problem. Having served in the military during a time of war, I understand what’s at stake when training fighters. God said He was ready to kill everyone, but Moses asked God to let him handle the situation. The way Moses dealt with it was more ‘targeted.’ Yes, three-thousand people died, but the nation was saved.

Moses told the people that they had committed a ‘great sin.’ He said he would ‘go up to the Lord’ to see if he could ‘make atonement’ for their sin. Here’s how God responded to Moses –

And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.’ So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. Exodus 32:33-35

I suggest you read Exodus chapters 33 – 40 to see what God did next, how He renewed His ‘covenant’ with Israel, and how the people responded to their ‘training’ to that point.

Free eBooks

You can download the first 13 chapters of this series here.

You can download chapters 14 – 24 of this series here.

Next Time

Leviticus is one of the more difficult Books of the Pentateuch for many people because of all the ‘legal’ language in it. However, there are some important lessons for anyone who wants to ‘train to reign’ with God. We’ll find out what those lessons are in the next part of our series – Train to Reign.

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Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts