Exodus 33

In February 1879 in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia, the well-known Anglican minister Phillips Brooks gave a series of lectures later published as The Influence of Jesus. In his third lecture, he made this statement about serving God: To be a true minister to men is always to accept new happiness and new distress, both of them forever deepening and entering into closer and more inseparable union with each other the more profound and spiritual ministry becomes. The man who gives himself to other men can never be a wholly sad man; but no more can he be a man of unclouded gladness.

In the chapters before us, we see this principle vividly illustrated in the life of Moses. His delight in God on the mountaintop was interrupted by deep disappointment with his people. It was one of the most heartbreaking experiences in his entire career, and yet it brought out the best in him, which is what always happens when we love God and live by faith.

At least three times during the months at Sinai, the Jewish people had promised to obey whatever God told them to do (19:8; 24:3, 7; and see 20:19). The Lord knew that it wasn’t in their hearts to keep their promises (Deut. 5:28–29), and the tragedy of the golden calf proved Him right.

The great sin (32:1–6). Moses called what they did “a great sin” (vv. 21, 30–31), and his assessment was accurate. It was a great sin because of who committed it: the nation of Israel, the chosen people of God, His special treasure. It was great because of when and where they committed it: at Mount Sinai after they had heard God’s law declared and seen God’s glory revealed. They had promised to obey God’s law, but in making a golden calf and indulging in a sensual celebration, the nation broke the first, second, and seventh commandments. It was a great sin because of what they had already experienced of the power and mercy of God: the judgments against Egypt, the deliverance at the Red Sea, the provision of food and water, and the gracious leading of God by the pillar of cloud and fire. What they did was rebel against the goodness of the Lord. It’s no wonder their sin provoked God to anger (Deut. 9:7).

Why did Israel commit such an evil act at such a glorious time in their history? To begin with, they were impatient with Moses who had been on the mount with God for forty days and nights (vv. 11–12), and impatience is often the cause of impulsive actions that are sinful. Israel didn’t know how to live by faith and trust God regardless of where their leader was. Whether Moses was with them or away from them, they criticized him and ignored what he had taught them.

But Aaron and the tribal leaders were to blame because they didn’t immediately turn to God for help and warn the people what would happen. Aaron and Hur had authority from Moses to lead in his absence (Ex. 24:14), and though they were men who had seen God’s mighty acts, they failed God and Moses. Instead of restraining the people, Aaron went along with them and gratified the desires of their sinful hearts. Later, he offered a feeble excuse and tried to blame the people (vv. 22–24), but God knew better. God was so angry that He would have killed Aaron had Moses not interceded for him (Deut. 9:20).

Israel’s lust for idols was born in Egypt and still worked in their hearts (Josh. 24:14; Ezek. 20:4–9; 23:3, 8). Aaron fed that appetite by giving the people what they wanted. Much is being said these days about “meeting the felt needs of people,” but here was a nation that didn’t know what its needs really were. They thought they needed an idol, but what they really needed was faith in their great God who had revealed Himself so powerfully to them. Israel exchanged the glory of the true and living God for the image of an animal (Ps. 106:19–23), which means they acted like the heathen nations around them (Rom. 1:22–27). Many people can rise early to sin but not to pray.

The great test (vv. 7–14). In leadership, the difficult experiences with our people either make us or break us, and Moses was about to be tested. God called Israel “your people whom you brought out of Egypt,” as though the Lord were abandoning the nation to Moses, but Moses soon reminded Him that they were His people and that He had delivered them. Furthermore, God had made a covenant with their forefathers to bless them, multiply them, and give them their land (Gen. 12:1–3). Moses intended to hold God to His word, and that’s what God wanted him to do.

The Lord then took a different approach: He offered to wipe out Israel and make a new nation out of Moses’ descendants. A lesser man might have accepted this invitation, but not Moses. He loved his people, sinful as they were, and he wanted more than anything else to glorify the God of Israel and see Him fulfill His promises. Moses wasn’t worried about his own future; he was concerned about God’s reputation. What would the Egyptians say about God if they heard that the whole nation of Israel had been destroyed at Sinai?

God had a right to be angry at Israel’s flagrant sin of idolatry and sensuality (Ex. 32:10–12), but Moses convinced God not to destroy Israel. In writing this account, Moses used human terms to describe divine actions, which is why he wrote in verse 14 that God “repented.” The Hebrew word means “to grieve, to be sorry” (Gen. 6:6; 1 Sam. 15:29) and describes God’s change of approach in dealing with His people (Jer. 18:1–12; 19; 26). God’s character doesn’t change, but God does respond to the prayers and confessions of His people.

The great discipline (32:15—33:11). God in His grace forgives our sins, but God in His government allows sin to work out its terrible consequences in human life. We reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7–8). For example, God put away David’s sin, but warned him that the sword wouldn’t depart from his own household, and it didn’t (2 Sam. 12:1–14). What a tragedy it is to reap the consequences of forgiven sin!

Moses disciplined the people (32:15–29). As he came down the mountain, he asked Joshua to join him (24:12–13). One day Joshua would replace Moses, so he needed to learn how to handle these difficult matters. Moses was angry (32:19, 22), but it was anger tempered by love, which is anguish. The breaking of the stone tablets was a symbolic act: Israel had broken the covenant and would have to face discipline. But before he dealt with the people, Moses confronted Aaron, for the privilege of leadership brings with it both responsibility and accountability. Evangelist Billy Sunday said that an excuse was the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie, and Aaron’s feeble excuses didn’t convince Moses.

Then Moses turned to the people and asked, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” (See Josh. 24: and 1 Kings 18:21.) This was an opportunity for all Israel to repent and reaffirm their commitment to the Lord, but only the Levites responded to the call. Ignoring the ties of family and friendship (Matt. 10:34–39; Luke 14:26–27), they courageously killed all who were involved in the orgy, which was about 3,000 men. Centuries later, Paul used this event among others to warn Christian believers about rebelling against God (1 Cor. 10:1–12).

Moses then destroyed the shameful golden calf by burning it (it may have been made of wood overlaid with gold), grinding the gold to powder, throwing the powder in a nearby stream (Ex. 17:10), and making the people drink it (Deut. 9:21). By doing this he totally destroyed the idol and also forced the people to identify with their terrible sins.

Moses returned to God on Mount Sinai where for forty more days and nights he fasted and prayed for his people (Ex. 32:30–34; 34:28; Deut. 9:18–20). He told God he was willing to be killed if it would mean life for the Jews, but God rejected his offer. The Lord assured Moses that His angel would go before them and that Moses was to lead the people just as before. However, God would punish them in His own way and His own time. Had the Jews known all that Moses endured for their sake, they might have appreciated him more, but such is the price of faithful spiritual leadership.

God disciplined the people (32:35—33:11). God’s first discipline was to send a plague among the people, but we aren’t told how many were killed. The Levites had killed 3,000 men who were engaged in idolatrous worship and immoral practices, but God knew who all the guilty people were. Sometimes God passes the sentence of judgment immediately but then delays executing the penalty. However, whether in the Old Testament or the New, “there is a sin leading to death” (1 John 5:16–17 nkjv).

God’s second judgment was to refuse to go before Israel as they marched to the Promised Land (Ex. 33:1–6). God would keep the covenant promises He had made to the patriarchs, but instead of going before Israel in the person of His Son, the Angel of the Lord (23:20–23), He would appoint an angel to accompany the Jews. The reason? “You are a stiff-necked people” (32:9; 33:3, 5). If they had been a people who were suffering and afflicted, the Lord would have come to them in grace and mercy (3:7–10), but a stubborn people can only be disciplined. Better that God depart from them than that He come suddenly upon them and destroy them!

When Moses gave Israel this message, they responded by taking off their ornaments and mourning. Whether this was true repentance or not, only the Lord knew. Previously, they had contributed their gold ornaments to the making of an idol, and this had been their undoing. Perhaps they were starting to learn their lesson—the hard way.

The third judgment was to move Moses’ “tent of meeting” to a site outside the camp, where he would personally meet with God. This isn’t the tabernacle of the Lord, since the tabernacle had not yet been erected and dedicated. This was a special tent that Moses used when he wanted to consult with God. God graciously met with Moses and spoke with him face-to-face, the way friends talk together (Num. 12:1–8; Deut. 34:10). The cloudy pillar that led the nation on their journey would hover at the tent door, and the people would know that Moses and the Lord were in conference.

Sin is always costly, and Israel’s sin had not only led to the death of thousands of people, but it had robbed the nation of the presence of the Lord in the camp and on their pilgrim journey to the Promised Land. As Charles Spurgeon said, “God never permits His people to sin successfully.”

During the second period of forty days and nights with God on Mount Sinai, Moses pled for the people and asked the Lord to restore His promised blessings to them.

God’s presence with the nation (33:12–17). Moses reminded the Lord of His promise to accompany the people on their journey. In fact, when the nation sang God’s praises at the Red Sea, they rejoiced in the promise of God’s victorious presence (15:13–18). Was God now going to go back on His word?

Moses based his appeal on the grace (favor) of God, for he knew that the Lord was merciful and gracious and that the people were guilty. If God gave them what they deserved, they would have been destroyed! The Jews were God’s people and Moses was God’s servant. They didn’t want an angel to accompany them, for there was nothing special about that. The thing that distinguished Israel from the other nations was that their God was present with them, and that’s what Moses requested. His heart must have leaped for joy when he heard God promise to accompany the people and lead them to the place of rest that He had promised.

Do God’s children have the right to “negotiate” with God as Moses did? It all depends on our relationship with God. Moses knew the ways of God (Ps. 103:7) and was the intimate friend of God, and therefore he was able to present his case with faith and skill. The godly Scottish minister Samuel Rutherford, who knew what it was to suffer for Christ, wrote, “It is faith’s work to claim and challenge loving-kindness out of all the roughest strokes of God.” That’s what Moses was doing for the people.

God’s glory revealed (33:18–23). The true servant of God is concerned more about the glory of God than about anything else. Moses and the Jews had seen God’s glory in the pillar of cloud and fire, as well as in the “storm” on Mount Sinai, but Moses wanted to see the intimate glory of God revealed to him personally. God did give Moses a guarded glimpse of His glory and he was satisfied. When God’s servants are discouraged and disappointed because of the sins of their people, the best remedy for a broken heart is a new vision of the glory of God.

God’s forgiveness granted (34:1–28). Moses had won God’s promise to accompany the people in their journey, but would He forgive the people for their sins? Would He accompany them like a policeman watching a criminal or like a Father caring for His beloved children? The answer came when the Lord ordered Moses to prepare two new stone tablets, for this meant He was going to replace the tablets that Moses had broken! God would renew the covenant! Early the next morning, Moses kept the appointment, the tablets in his hands.

But before He did anything with the tablets, God proclaimed the greatness of His attributes (vv. 5–7), a declaration that is basic to all Jewish and Christian theology. Moses repeated these words to God at Kadesh-Barnea (Num. 14:17–19), the Jews used them in Nehemiah’s day (Neh. 9:17–18), and Jonah quoted them when he sat pouting outside Nineveh (Jonah 4:1–2). We don’t read that Moses fell on his face when he saw the glimpses of God’s glory, but he did bow to the ground and worship when he heard God speak these magnificent words.

Faith comes by hearing and receiving God’s Word (Rom. 10:17), so Moses by faith asked God to forgive the people. The pronouns in this prayer are significant: “pardon our iniquity and our sin” (Ex. 33:9, italics mine). Though he wasn’t guilty of disobeying God, Moses identified himself with the sins of the people, as did Ezra and Daniel in their prayers of confession (Ezra 9; Dan. 9). The Lord had just declared that He forgave “iniquity and transgression and sin” (Ex. 33:7), and Moses laid hold of that truth.

The fact that God renewed the covenant is evidence that He forgave His people and gave them a new beginning. But God also repeated the essential elements of the covenant, especially the laws about idolatry (vv. 12–17). When Israel moved into their Promised Land, it would be very easy to compromise with the enemy, first by making agreements with them, then by joining in their feasts, and finally by intermarrying with them and adopting their pagan ways. It was important from the very beginning that Israel repudiate and destroy everything associated with idols and to realize that what adultery was to marriage, idolatry was to their covenant with the Lord.

We who live many millennia after these events can’t begin to comprehend how filthy Canaanite idolatry was when Israel conquered the land. It was unspeakably immoral, and like cancerous tumors in human bodies, the pagan temples and altars had to be removed and destroyed before the land could be healthy. God had called Israel to be the channel of blessing to the world, culminating in the birth of the Savior, and idolatry was the enemy that almost destroyed the nation. Humanly speaking, were it not for a faithful remnant after the captivity that struggled to be true to God, the world might not have had the written Scriptures and the birth of the Savior.

By the grace of God, Moses achieved his purposes: God promised to go with the people, God showed Moses a glimpse of His glory, and God forgave the sins of the nation. Moses could return to the camp with the second tables of the law and tell the people God had forgiven their sins.