CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exodus 32:1. Zeh Mosheh häish = this Moses the man]. The Israelites, thinking that “the man” who brought them out of the land of Egypt had acted the part of a truant, and that they ought to fill up his place by substituting, not another “man,” but a deity, as a more reliable guide. Extravagant and foolish as the idea was, it is not evident that they contemplated wittingly to defy God’s commandment (Exodus 20:4), by demanding of Aaron to make them gods. That such was Aaron’s view of the case is quite clear from the words in which he defends his conduct (Exodus 32:23). When, however, they beheld the image, then all the evils with which the worship of it in Egypt, the land of their birth, was associated in their minds, seized upon their imaginations with such power that they lost all self-control, and “they said, These are thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:4). They were maddened with delight, and “when Aaron saw it” (Exodus 32:5), i.e., the effect the image of the golden calf had produced upon the people, he perceived that it was too late to reason with them; and, having weakly yielded to their first sinful demand, he had now no choice, probably, to prevent a mutiny or to save his life, if he manifested any signs of disapproval of their conduct, so he built them an altar “before it,” viz., the golden calf; and perhaps also, in his endeavour to stave off the evil of an idolatrous celebration, he proclaimed “a feast to the Lord” (= Jehovah) for the following day, and that too with the hope, by the mention of the name of Jehovah, of the people calling to mind His commandment against all image worship, and so affording them time to reflect upon it over night, and of Moses returning in the meanwhile.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 32:1-7
IDOLATRY
In consequence of the absence of Moses in the mount, the children of Israel are betrayed into an act of gross idolatry. Let us observe—
I. The crime of which they were guilty. That crime was not altogether forsaking God. It is quite evident that these Jews intended to recognise Jehovah in these emblems or this emblem. They wanted a visible representation of Jehovah, and Aaron made the calf as such. Their crime was in making any such visible representation; it was a culpable breach of the second commandment of the covenant words (Exodus 20:4). But is there not ever in us this tendency to obscure our vision of God by resting in natural things? The passion for gods in the text is a passion still active in our fallen nature. Is not much of the nature-worship of our age a similar sin? Men talk of honouring God in His works, but really they allow the works of God to hide the personal, spiritual, holy God of Revelation. Is not the worldliness of the age a similar sin? Do we not often think so much of human love, of material wealth, of social honour, of sensational pleasure, that we but feebly realise our spiritual nature, and our dependence upon a spiritual duty for the satisfaction of life? Is not much of the ritualism of the Church in our age a similar sin? We multiply forms and ceremonies, and attach to them a supreme importance. It is all the visible Church until you can hardly see the spiritual Jesus. God is a Spirit, and is to be loved, worshipped, served as such; but there is in us a sad tendency to sink into the worldly, the carnal, the material, and to forget the true and the living God.
II. The inexcusableness of this crime. It was regarded, as this chapter fully shows, as a great and unpardonable crime, and very dreadful was the punishment which followed it. Here we learn—
1. That the expensiveness of such idolatry does not excuse it. They gave their golden earrings—they sacrificed wealth and pride. Will-worship, creature-worship, is often costly, but this does not condone it (1 Corinthians 13:3).
2. That the superior nature of the object which comes between us and God does not excuse it. The god was gold. Thine may be no vulgar God,—nature, humanity—but however noble in itself may be the object which eclipses the vision of God, the sin is none the less.
3. That the beauty of the object does not lessen the fault. “The calf was fashioned with a graving tool”—artistically correct. A Church which comes between me and the spiritual Jesus, may be perfect in its architecture, pictures, robes, music, &c., but it is none the less a curse for that.
4. That religious ceremonies going with the idolatry does not justify it, Exodus 32:5-6.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Idol-Idiosyncrasy. Exodus 32:1-35.
(1.) Material idolatry has passed away among civilised nations in its literal import. As Macmillan says, the old worship of stocks and stones is now impossible among a professedly Christian people. But although the outward mode has passed away, the essence of the temptation remains the same. Human society is changed, but human nature is unchanged. The impulse which led Israel to seek the golden calf is as strong as ever, and images are set up and worshipped now as fantastic as any pagan fetish or joss. For what is idolatry! Is it not in its essence the lowering of the idea of God and of God’s nature, and the exaltation of a dead image above a man’s own living spirit! Is not an idol whatever is loved more than God, whatever is depended upon for happiness and help independent of God?
(2.) Sooner or later, as Moses pounded the calf and gave the Israelites the dust to drink in punishment of their idolatry, will all such moral idolaters have to drink the dust of their idols. Our sin will become our punishment, our idols our scourges. God is a jealous God, and every soul that turns aside from His love to the lying vanities of the world must drink the bitter water of jealousy, filled with the dust of the bruised and mutilated idols of spiritual idolatry: “This shall ye have at My hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.”
“Thou art the man within whose heart’s deep cell
All evil sleeping lies;
Lust, in a dark hour waking, breaks the spell,
And straightway there arise
Monsters of evil thoughts and base desire.”
—Greok.
Israel’s Insurrection! Exodus 32:1-6. SCENE
I.—The Camp of Insurrection.
1. Infidelity of the people (Exodus 32:1) may be illustrated by the glacier and crevasse, and of Aaron by the story of Arnold Winkelreid.
2. Idolatry of the people (Exodus 32:4). Breaking the law may be illustrated by the familiar figure of a chain-link which holds a person up, being broken, or by Samuel and Saul’s disobedience as to sacrifices; and making the calf by the homely idea of the Great Eastern having a wooden engineer to pilot her over the ocean waves. Mosaic Intercession! Exodus 32:7-14. SCENE II.—The Mount of Indignation.
1. Indignation of Jehovah (Exodus 32:7) at Israel’s folly may be illustrated by the story of a father going to New Zealand, leaving his children with certain commands till his return: or by the natural figure of a lamp hung up by a chain being broken in its fall.
2. Intercession of Moses (Exodus 32:14) for Israel’s forgiveness, with his pleas of God’s
(1) perfections,
(2) partiality towards,
(3) purpose in, and
(4) promises to Israel, may find simple illustrations, if any are needed, in a mother’s intercession with the father for her offending boy’s pardon; or by the Queen’s intercession at Calais with her husband, King Edward, on behalf of its citizens. Levitical Intervention! Exodus 32:15-29. SCENE III.—The Valley of Intervention.
1. Indignity (Exodus 32:15) resented by breaking of stone tablets, and by causing Israel to drink of powdered wood and gold. Allusions might be appropriately made here to Dagon, Achan, Saul, or the story of the Chinese boy and the gods.
2. Integrity (Exodus 32:25) of the Levites contrasts with the fear, folly, and falsehood of Aaron. Apt references might be found in the histories of Melancthon and Luther, and in the noble tale of the boy stopping the leak in the Dutch dyke.
“Rain and sunshine doth combine,
One side dark, the other bright;
Thus, by nature’s grand design,
In one rainbow both unite.”
—Maguire.
Self-will! Exodus 32:1.
(1.) It was but a little boy crying, as he limped towards his father on the rough common. Yet what a lesson it taught! His father had promised to take him to a lovely scene across the stony waste if he would promise to be led by the hand, and not be rebellious or impatient. And he had promised, as boys will promise, and failed, as boys will fail. Hardly had he set out than he began to murmur at the length of the walk. When the father seriously reminded him of the promise to obey and exercise patience, he was silent and submissive. But presently he let go of the strong, wise hand, turned aside from the path, struck his foot against a rugged rock, and straightway cried out with pain. The scar remained till death.
(2.) Israel was God’s wayward, self-willed child. They thought that they could do without the Father’s hand, though they had promised to be guided by Him, who was able and ready to conduct them to the green fields of Eden. And so they wander aside, stumble against the rough flints, experience the misery of self-sufficiency and disobedience, and learn that the way of transgressors is hard. On Israel’s national life the scar was visible, even to the hour when Titus shivered its massive structure.
“Therefore, O man, remember that thy heart
Will shed its pleasures as thine eye its tears;
And both leave loathesome furrows.”
—Bailey.
Sinful Self-Sacrifice! Exodus 32:2-3. Whale says, People often spend more in superstition than Christians for the truth. To gratify self they do not mind making many sacrifices. To have his golden calf of ambition or popular adulation the man of the world will freely scatter largesses on all sides with bounteous hand. With what lavish magnificence did the ancient heathen adorn their temples of superstition! With what profuse prodigality will some modern men of science, or some wealthy student of atheisim, spend his riches to gratify his selfish—it may be sinful—motives! Who amongst us is willing to do as much for Jesus as these Israelites did to have self gratified in the golden calf? At the present time, in our own country, a man of great wealth spends his whole fortune in the issue of infidel tracts and pamphlets, which are disseminated broadcast over the world. Atheism is his idol-deity. He worships the golden calf of blank atheism. He devotes his immense riches to its exaltation. There are few Christians willing to make such supreme sacrifices for their God.
“I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might’st ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead.
I gave My life for thee;
What hast thou given for Me?”
—Havergal.
Sin’s Deceit! Exodus 32:3-6. There is a beautiful picture of a female with a sweet but melancholy expression of countenance. She kneels on the top of the rock, and is singing to a harp, which she strikes with her graceful fingers. Below is a boat with two men in it—the one old and the other young. The boat is rapidly hearing the rocks, but both the men are utterly unconscious of their danger. The old man has ceased to hold the helm—the young man has dropped the oars. Both are fondly stretching out their hands towards the deceiving spirit—wholly entranced with her song. A few moments more, and their boat will be a wreck. Israel was thus captivated. Lured on by the weird melody of a craving for visible worship, they were now on the wide river borne onwards toward the jagged rocks of destruction.
“The fruit of sin, goodly and fair to view,
Deceives us in its beauty. Pluck’d, it turns,
To ashes on our lips.”
—Webster.
Bull-Worship! Exodus 32:4.
(1.) From the earliest times the Egyptians adopted certain animals as representatives of their deities. The symbolism of these selections has been entirely lost, inasmuch as the deities were lost sight of in the creatures by whom they were symbolised. It was so with Apis-adoration: an animal most sacred in the later age of Egypt. It is supposed that the Israelites borrowed their idolatrous idea of the calf from this form of bull-worship, which they had observed in Egypt.
(2.) Sir Gardner Wilkinson, however, says that they borrowed their notion of the “golden calf”—not from Apis-adoration, but from the worship of Mnevis. This was the sacred ox of Heliopolis. At his worship were offerings, dancing, and rejoicings. And it is supposed that the Israelites adopted these; or rather, resumed them as religious revelries in which they had joined during their sojourn in Egypt. Satan
“Moved Israel and their timid priest to carve
Their idol god, and interweave with songs
Their naked dances round the golden calf:
Vision of horror and of grief.”
—Bickersteth.
Aaronic Action! Exodus 32:4-5.
(1.) Among the high Alps, the traveller is told in certain places to proceed as quietly as possible. On the steep slopes overhead, the snow hangs so evenly balanced that the sound of the voice, the crack of a whip, the report of a gun, or the detachment of a snow-ball may destroy the equilibrium and bring down an immense avalanche that will overwhelm everything within reach in ruin.
(2.) The Israelites were in such a position. Their moral character was unstable—their principles unfixed. They were so evenly balanced between good and evil that a word from Aaron in the wrong direction threw them down into the abyss of idolatry. Had Aaron stood firm—stiff and silent as the rocks around, the tumultuous heaving would have ceased.
(3.) Are there not souls around us hanging so nicely poised on the giddy slopes of temptation, ready, on the least encouragement or yielding on our part as Aaron did, to come down in terrible avalanches of moral ruin, crushing themselves and others in their fall? To stand firm, says Richter, may save a world.
“Be great in act! So shall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviour from the great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntless spirit of resolution.”
—Shakespeare.
Visible Gods! Exodus 32:5.
(1.) Adam Clarke says there is one pretence that Roman Catholics have for the idolatry of their image-worship. Their high priest, the Pope, collects the ornaments from the people, and makes an Image—a crucifix—a Madonna. The people worship it; but the Pope says that it is only to keep God in remembrance. But of the whole, God says, “They have corrupted themselves.” He will have nothing to do with visible media through which He is to be worshipped. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must do so in Spirit and in truth.
(2.) Therefore, as Hallam says, any image substituted for the living and loving God, who is invisible, is a portentous shadow projected from the slavish darkness of an ignorant heart. It is as much idolatry to worship God under a visible symbol, as it is to worship the image of a false divinity. Both forms of idolatry deceive the soul, harden the heart, and drag their votaries into complete alienation from God.
“The heart surrendered to the ruling power
Of some ungoverned passion, every hour
Finds by degrees the truth that once bore sway,
And all their deep impressions wear away,
So coin grows smooth, in traffic current passed,
Till Cæsar’s image is effaced at last.”
—Cowper.
Revelry Rites! Exodus 32:6. The worship of Apis assumed a bacchanalian character, attended by the wildest and most extravagant revels. Herodotus says, that on the feast day of the gods all the Egyptians arrayed themselves as soon as the bull left his gilded asylum, and gave way to feasting and revelry. Hilarious processions formed an important feature of the Egyptian ritual; as might be expected in a country where the cloudless sky and the elastic air predispose men to mirth and indolence. Drumann remarks, that they were like orgies—that even women appeared in them—that they were followed by indecent songs and dances—and that they were accompanied by clamorous music and drunken feasts. There were also mimès and mummeries, like the Roman Saturnalia, in which the actors painted their faces, and ridiculed or struck the bystanders.
“Men are but children of a larger growth;
Our appetites are apt to change as theirs,
And full as craving too, and full as vain;
And yet the soul shut up in her dark room,
Viewing so clear abroad, at home sees nothing;
But like a mole in earth, busy and blind,
Works all her folly up, and casts it outward,
To the world’s open view.”
—Dryden.
Divine Omniscience! Exodus 32:7-8. Israel lost sight of the fact that though Moses could not see, God could. Creeping down stairs at night towards the orchard, the little boy forgot that while his father’s eyes were locked in slumbers deep, yet there was One whose eye neither slumbers nor sleeps. But when he stood beneath the favourite apple-tree—when he stretched forth his hand to the branch—when he lifted up his eye to the tempting, coveted, rosy-cheeked fruit; lo! a star twinkled its ray upon him, and seemed to say, “God sees.” And the little fellow shrank back—retreated from the garden—betook himself upstairs, repeating to himself the Scripture words “Thou God seest.” Ah! had Israel only remembered this, the sin had not been committed, and the dire mischief had not been wrought.
“Though all the doors are sure, and all our servants
As sure bound with their sleeps, yet there is ONE
That wakes above, whose eye no sleep can blind;
He sees through doors, and darkness, and our thoughts.”
—Chapman.
Self-Corruption! Exodus 32:7. “Thy people have corrupted themselves, i.e., as the original and English words imply, they have broken themselves up together.
(1.) Material disintegration! The clay and soil of our fields are caused by the oxidation or burning of pure metals. They are, in fact, the ashes of metals. The dirt that cleaves to our footsteps, as the emblem of all impurity, is produced by the disintegration of the brightest metals, or the most sparkling jewels.
(2.) Mental disintegration! Jehovah tells Moses that Israel had corrupted itself. A few days before they were as His jewels; now they had voluntarily entered upon a process of disintegration. Passion had broken loose from the law of cohesion to God; and they were fast becoming as mud—the foul product of the pure crystal under self-corruptive influences.
(3.) Moral disintegration! All sinful thoughts, and words, and deeds, have such corrupting effects. By this, man breaks the order and law of his existence, and his whole nature disintegrates in the atmosphere of sin. The whole being becomes vitiated, disordered, and corrupt. What was once more or less solid and valuable has become dust and ashes.
“The basis sinks, the ample piles decay,
The stately fabric shakes and falls away.”
—Crabbe.
Retribution! Exodus 32:2-8.
(1.) Yes, they were rebels taken red-handed in revolt against their king. Not only had they taken up arms against their liege lord, and entered into negotiations with his relentless foe, but they had endeavoured to induce many of their fellow-countrymen to join them in their rebellious and lawless course. To spare them from punishment would be to leave them opportunity of bringing wider ruin upon all and sundry. For the sake of the people, and especially the weak, it was necessary that retribution should overtake these red-handed communistic leaders.
(2.) Daniel Defoe, in his far-famed “Life of Robinson Crusoe,” and John Bunyan, in his widely-known allegory of the Holy War, have shown how this apparently severe treatment was in reality true charity and compassion. And is it not from the same cause that the lost angels and men are to be “for ever” shut up in darkness, and precluded from entering amongst the redeemed? It is often the greatest mercy to exercise strictest justice. Severity to one may save the many from temptation, nay, from ultimate destruction. Pity!
“I share it most of all when I share justice,
For then I pity those I do not know,
Which a dismiss’d offence would after gall?
And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another.”
—Shakespeare.