The scene shifts now and we see what was happening in the Israelite camp while Moses was in the heights of Sinai receiving the instructions for the Israelites' worship. The people were apostatizing and were devising their own form of worship.504
"Throughout the remainder of the Pentateuch, the incident of the worship of the golden calf cast a dark shadow across Israel's relationship with God, much the same way as the account of the Fall in Genesis 3 marked a major turning point in God's dealing with humankind."505
It has always been hard for God's people to wait for Him (cf. 1 Sam. 8:4-5). When Moses lingered on the mountain, the people decided to worship a new god (v. 1) and make a new covenant. They did not wait for guidance from God. This reflects a shallow commitment to Him and their leader, Moses. Evidently they concluded that Moses had perished in the fire on Mt. Sinai and decided to select a new leader. Moses was a god to Israel in the sense that he was their leader (4:16). Now they turned from Moses as their leader to Aaron.
Some commentators have interpreted Aaron's instruction that the Israelites should sacrifice their jewelry and ornaments (v. 2) as designed to discourage their rebellion.506If this was his intent, he failed (v. 3). It seems more probable that Aaron approved of their plan.
Aaron could have intended the golden calf to represent a god other than Yahweh or Yahweh Himself.
"In the present passage the term gods, or rather god[Elohim], represented in the golden calf, seems to be understood as an attempt to represent the God of the covenant with a physical image. The apostasy of the golden calf, therefore, was idolatry, not polytheism. Indeed, throughout Scripture Israel was repeatedly warned about the sin of idolatry."507
"It is precisely the attempt to worship Yahwehby means he has already declared totally unacceptable that makes the sin of the golden calf so destructive, far more so than a simple shift of allegiance to other' or foreign' gods."508
The calf provided a visible symbol that the Israelites could and did identify as their deliverer. The English word "idol"derives from the Greek eidolon, meaning "something to be seen."The Apis bull was such a symbol in Egyptian religion. The Egyptians viewed this animal as the vehicle on which a god rode in power, and as such they identified it as divine itself. Sacred bulls or calves were common in the ancient Near East because of this identification.
"The bull seems to have had manifold meanings in the iconography of the Near East. It symbolized the god. It expressed attributes of a god. It represented a pedestal for the god. Each of these meanings is important in understanding the cult of the golden calves in Israel's religious experience."509
The altar and feast that accompanied the construction of the idol (v. 5) support the contention that Aaron was leading the people in a celebration of a new covenant. His disobedience to the second commandment (20:2-6), which he had received by this time, resulted in his returning to an Egyptian form of worship that repudiated Yahweh. The "play"that followed the feast seems to have been wicked (cf. v. 25).
"The verb translated to play' suggests illicit and immoral sexual activity which normally accompanied fertility rights found among the Canaanites who worshipped the god Baal."510
"That the sin of Aaron and the people was tantamount to covenant repudiation is clear from the account of the making of the calf. The calf was hailed as the god . . . who brought you up out of Egypt' (Ex. 32:4), the exact language of the historical prologue of the Sinaitic Covenant in which Yahweh described the basis of His authority to be Israel's God (20:2). Moreover, Aaron built an altar for the purpose of covenant affirmation and ceremony (v. 5), precisely as Moses had done previously on the people's commitment to the covenant arrangement (24:4). Aaron's proclamation concerning a festival and its implementation on the following day (32:5-6) was again identical to the celebration that attended the mutual acceptance of the covenant terms under Moses (24:11)."511
Many years later Israel's King Jeroboam I re-established worship of the golden calves, and this practice became a great stumbling block to Israel (1 Kings 12:28-31).
"The calf represented Yahweh on theirterms. Yahweh had made clear repeatedly that he would be received and worshiped [sic] only on histerms."512
God's recounting the news of the golden calf to Moses gives the reader the divine perspective on Israel's sin. Moses stressed three points in this pericope.
"These three points--idolatry of the golden calf, Israel's stiff-necked refusal to obey, and God's compassion--provide the basis of the subsequent narratives and God's further dealings with this people. Though a great act of God's judgment follows immediately (vv. 27-35), the central themes of the subsequent narratives focus on God's compassion and a new start for Israel."513
God called the Israelites Moses' people (v. 7) probably because they had repudiated the covenant and God was therefore no longer their God. God regarded the Israelites' sacrificing before the calf as worship of it (v. 8).
God offered to destroy the rebellious Israelites and to make Moses' descendants into a great nation (v. 10). He may have meant that He would destroy that older generation of Israelites immediately. God was proposing action that would have been consistent with His promises to the patriarchs and the conditions of the Mosaic Covenant (cf. Num. 14:12). This offer constituted a test of Moses' ministry as Israel's mediator. Moses passed the test. He did not forsake his people but urged God to have mercy on them.
In his model intercessory prayer (vv. 11-13) Moses appealed to God on the basis of several things: God's previous work for Israel (v. 11), God's glory and reputation (v. 12), and God's word (v. 13).
The reference to God changing His mind (v. 14) has been a problem to many Bible readers. The expression implies no inconsistency or mutability in the character of God. He does not vacillate but always does everything in harmony with His own character. Within the plan of God, however, He has incorporated enough flexibility so that in most situations there are a number of options that are acceptable to Him. In view of Moses' intercession God decided to take a different course of action than He had previously intended.514
"In only two of the thirty-eight instances in the OT is this word used of men repenting. God's repentance or relenting' is an anthropomorphism (a description of God in human forms) that aims at showing us that he can and does change in his actions and emotions to men when given proper grounds for doing so, and thereby he does not change in his basic integrity or character (cf. Pss 99:6; 106:45; Jer 18:8; Amos 7:3, 6; Jonah 3:10; James 5:16). The grounds for the Lord's repenting are three: (1) intercession (cf. Amos 7:1-6); (2) repentance of the people (Jer 18:3-11; Jonah 3:9-10); and (3) compassion (Deut 32:36; Judg 2:18; 2 Sam 24:16)."515
Moses broke the tablets of the law (v. 19) symbolizing the fact that Israel had broken its covenant with Yahweh. He then proceeded to destroy the golden calf, the symbol of the illicit covenant into which they had entered (cf. 2 Kings 23:15). By treating the calf image as he did (v. 20) Moses was dishonoring as well as destroying it.
". . . the biblical description of the destruction of the Golden Calf constitutes an Israelite development of an early literary pattern that was employed in Canaan to describe the total annihilation of a detested enemy."516
Moses probably ordered the people to drink the polluted water for the following reason.
". . . to set forth in a visible manner both the sin and its consequences. The sin was poured as it were into their bowels along with the water, as a symbolical sign that they would have to bear it and atone for it, just as a woman who was suspected of adultery was obliged to drink the curse-water (Num. 5:24)."517
"In this manner the thing they had worshiped [sic] would become a product of their own waste, the very epitome of worthlessness and impurity."518
Some writers have suggested that this water with the gold dust suspended in it would have been red and is a type of the blood of Christ.519This view lacks support in the text. The writer said nothing about Moses offering it to the Lord to make atonement for the sins of the Israelites. The people drank it; they did not offer it to God (v. 20).
Verse 24 suggests Aaron may have formed the calf by casting it in a mold, but verse 4 gives the impression that he carved it out of a shapeless mass.520The best solution seems to be that Aaron made this calf like similar Egyptian idols. He probably built a wooden frame and then overlaid it with gold that he shaped.
Aaron tried to shift the blame for his actions to the people (cf. Gen. 3:12-13).
"A woman of society and fashion will say, I admit that I am not what I might be, but then look at my set; it is the furnace that did it.' A man will doubt God, question the Bible and truth, and excuse himself by saying, It is not I, it is the drift of modern tendency; it is the furnace that did it.' There came out this calf.'"521
The Levites were Moses' closest kinsmen. Perhaps it was for this reason, as well as their loyalty to the Lord, that they sided with Moses. Their decision and obedience (v. 28) demonstrated their faith in God. They chose to go the way of His appointed leader, Moses, instead of following their rebellious brethren.
God's punishment of the rebels was severe (v. 27) because of the seriousness of their offense. It was also merciful; only 3,000 of the 600,000 men died (v. 28).
The Levites' blessing was God's choice of their tribe as the priestly tribe in Israel (Num. 3:12-13). The nation as a whole forfeited its right to be a kingdom of priests (19:6) by its rebellion here.
"The idiom fill the hands' [the literal meaning of "dedicate yourselves,"NASB, or "you have been set apart,"NIV, v. 29] means institute to a priestly office,' install,' inaugurate,' and the like."522
To make atonement (v. 30) means to obtain a covering for sin.
We see Moses' great love for the Israelites as their mediator in his willingness to die for them (cf. Rom. 9:3). Being blotted out of God's book may refer to physical death. Alternatively the book could refer to the register of those loyal to Yahweh and thereby deserving His special blessing (cf. Ps. 69:28; Isa. 4:3; Ezek. 13:9; Dan. 12:1; Mal. 3:16).523God explained a principle of His dealings with people here. Individual sin brings individual responsibility that leads finally to individual judgment (cf. Ezek. 18:4). God was not saying that everyone will bear the punishment for his own sins precluding substitution, but everyone is responsible for his own sins. He chose not to take Moses' life as a substitute for the guilty in Israel since this would not have been just. Moses being a sinner himself could not have served as an acceptable substitute for other sinners in any case.
God promised Moses that He would not abandon His people for their sin (v. 34), but when their rebellion was full (at Kadesh Barnea, Num. 14:27-35) He smote those of them who remained (v. 35).
