Exodus 32:25–35 (ESV)
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.
1. Who is on the Lord’s Side? (32:25-29)
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.”
We saw last time Aaron’s half-hearted (at best) confession. He was waffling between confession and pride. He was a blame shifter. I want to say there is nothing worse than a waffling spiritual leader. It was Aaron’s fault. The people wanted to sin and he enabled them to sin. He aided their rebellion.
When Moses gets back, he needs to deal with the people. They are out of control. He was gone 40 days and without his leadership they have returned back to their old ways.
the people had broken loose.
What was the result of the people being out of control? Israel’s enemies begin to laugh. The word derision comes from the Hebrew word that means whisper. They were being made fun of in gossip and whispers. God too was not being glorified and feared by the other nations. His people would rather worship a Golden Calf than Him.
It’s time to decide…who will follow Yahweh and who still wants idols? Here is the opportunity for repentance. Here is the opportunity for those involved to snap out of it and follow the Lord. What happens? The Bible tells us only the Levites come forward.
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.
The Levites rallied to Moses and gathered around him. They would become the tribe of priests, set apart for God’s service.
Moses begins to speak directly to the Levites.
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.’ ”
The Levites are to go throughout all the camps and kill all who worshipped the Golden Calf. We are not told details here but they obeyed the word of the Lord and did what Moses told them. So, that day, the Levites killed about 3,000 people who participated in the great rebellion of the Golden Calf.
We see in this first section there are two sides and only two. Those who are for God and those who are against Him. It was very clear here in this passage. Those who came forward and those who did not. For us, we are God’s children through Jesus Christ alone. All who come to Christ by faith are God’s people.
1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
God calls you to separate from the world and to come to Him. Are you following Christ today? Are you one who has determined to follow Christ no matter what? Are you devoted to Him and have you made a commitment to be involved in His Church? Or are you living your life with Christ at the center?
1 Kings 18:21 (ESV)
21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.
Have you come to Christ? Are you stuck between two opinions? It’s the same today. Will you follow Christ or will you follow an idol? You cannot serve both. You cannot serve two masters.
Matthew 6:24 (ESV)
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Why can’t you serve two masters?
2. Moses’ Offer is Rejected by God (32:30-35)
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.
Moses offers his life in exchange for God’s forgiveness granted to Israel. God said no. Moses seeks to serve as the mediator.
The direct participants in the act of the Golden Calf were put to death by the sword of the Levites. Aaron was not put to death but would live on and die later on Mount Horeb. The people who were not directly involved were still involved and God sent a plague upon them.
Moses here is determined to intercede for the Hebrews. He climbs the mountain again.
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.”
This is the next day after the 3,000 were put to death by the sword. Moses tells the people that their sin is great and perhaps he can make atonement for their sin.
Moses ascends to the top and meets with God…
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.
Moses does not do what Aaron did. He does not seek to minimize their sin. He states it plainly to God. They have sinned a great sin.
32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”
Moses’ attempt fails. God is not interested in Moses’ offer nor will God blot his name out of His book. This book mentioned by Moses is God’s register of the living. This book is referenced numerous places in the Bible.
Psalm 139:16 (ESV)
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
To be blotted out of this book means your life on earth is over and you have met death and your name blotted out of the Book of the Living.
It’s very important to note that God had given Moses eternal life. Moses cannot lose that life God has given him. No matter what happens to the Israelites, Moses will have this gift God gave him.
Punishment will come to the guilty.
33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
Those who were killed by the sword could not atone for the sin of the entire people. Moses’ life could not atone for the sin of the people.
Why was Moses’ offer rejected?
God did delay certain judgement. The people must realize punishment and judgement will come upon them eventually.
3. Atonement Only Through Christ
In Moses’ rejection, we must see why it could only be Jesus who could make atonement for sin.
Moses simply did not qualify to make the necessary sacrifice. He was a sinner himself. So, the Israelites had to bear their own punishment for their sins. I pray this fact makes us so thankful for the Atonement Jesus provides for His people.
The love of God as a cause of the atonement is seen in the most familiar passage in the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). But the justice of God also required that God find a way that the penalty due to us for our sins would be paid (for he could not accept us into fellowship with himself unless the penalty was paid). Paul explains that this was why God sent Christ to be a “propitiation” (Rom. 3:25 NASB) (that is, a sacrifice that bears God’s wrath so that God becomes “propitious” or favorably disposed toward us): it was “to show God’s righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins” (Rom. 3:25). Here Paul says that God had been forgiving sins in the Old Testament but no penalty had been paid—a fact that would make people wonder whether God was indeed just and ask how he could forgive sins without a penalty. No God who was truly just could do that, could he? Yet when God sent Christ to die and pay the penalty for our sins, “it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).
Therefore both the love and the justice of God were the ultimate cause of the atonement. It is not helpful for us to ask which is more important, however, because without the love of God, he would never have taken any steps to redeem us, yet without the justice of God, the specific requirement that Christ should earn our salvation by dying for our sins would not have been met. Both the love and the justice of God were equally important.
There are many differences between Jesus and Moses.
-Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience to God’s Law.
Christ had to live a life of perfect obedience to God in order to earn righteousness for us. He had to obey the law for his whole life on our behalf so that the positive merits of his perfect obedience would be counted for us. Sometimes this is called Christ’s active obedience.
Philippians 3:8–9 (ESV)
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
Romans 5:19 (ESV)
19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
-Jesus died the death we deserved
Jesus suffered to pay for the debt we owed God for our sin.
There was the terrible and unbearable pain of the cross as Jesus bore the penalty for our sin.
Scripture frequently says that our sins were put on Christ: “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6), and “He bore the sin of many” (Isa. 53:12). John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Paul declares that God made Christ “to be sin” (2 Cor. 5:21) and that Christ became “a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). The author of Hebrews says that Christ was “offered once to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:28). And Peter says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
The passage from 2 Corinthians quoted above, together with the verses from Isaiah, indicate that it was God the Father who put our sins on Christ.
-Jesus was abandoned by God
Here also there is a very faint analogy in our experience, for we cannot live long without tasting the inward ache of rejection, whether it be rejection by a close friend, by a parent or child, or by a wife or husband. Yet in all those cases there is at least a sense that we could have done something differently, that at least in small part we may be at fault. It was not so with Jesus and the disciples, for, “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). He had done nothing but love them; in return, they all abandoned him.
But far worse than desertion by even the closest of human friends was the fact that Jesus was deprived of the closeness to the Father that had been the deepest joy of his heart for all his earthly life. When Jesus cried out “Eli, Eli, lama sabach-thani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46), he showed that he was finally cut off from the sweet fellowship with his heavenly Father that had been the unfailing source of his inward strength and the element of greatest joy in a life filled with sorrow. As Jesus bore our sins on the cross, he was abandoned by his heavenly Father, who is “of purer eyes than to behold evil” (Hab. 1:13). He faced the weight of the guilt of millions of sins alone.
Romans 3:21–26 (ESV)
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Resources Used:
Wayne Grudem on the Atonement
Exodus by John Currid
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