Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank the Father for the day and his Word, asking for understanding, lessons learned, and heart-level application.
Read
Scripture Passage
The Gold Calf
1 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.”
2 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.” 3 So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 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!”
5 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.” 6 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.
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 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!’ ” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10 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.”
11 Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. 13 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.’ ” 14 So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.
15 And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. 16 Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.
17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”
18 But he said:
“It is not the noise of the shout of victory,
Nor the noise of the cry of defeat,
But the sound of singing I hear.”
19 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. 20 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. 21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”
22 So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 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.’ 24 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.”
25 Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), 26 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. 27 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.’ ” 28 So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. 29 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.”
30 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! 32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”
33 And the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. 34 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.”
35 So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ex 32
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
While Moses is on Sinai, Israel breaks covenant by worshiping a golden calf. Moses intercedes, smashes the tablets, destroys the idol, confronts Aaron's evasions, calls the faithful to the Lord's side, and again pleads for mercy. God judges idolatry yet does not abandon his covenant people.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Exodus 32:30
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
So now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.
Bryan and the child co-hosts do not announce a best-verse choice. Verse 30 is distilled because Moses' attempt to mediate for covenant breakers supplies the devotion's clearest connection to Jesus, the better mediator who truly atones and intercedes.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Reject idols, remember that disobedience has consequences, and ask the Spirit for loyal love toward the jealous covenant Lord. Trust Jesus, the mediator better than Moses, who identifies with his people, intercedes for them, and secures mercy.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
All right. Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions This is where every day you and I we get together a little bit of coffee, right? You guys all got your coffee. Yeah We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together and this year 2023 Lord willing we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus We decided to go ahead and start having the kids join us together for this And so why don't we have some coffee? We'll play and we'll jump into the Lord's Word Also, it's too hot. It's too hot for you to drink?
Okay. Well, I bet you'll enjoy it. Yeah. Okay. So we are at Exodus chapter 32. Oh, we forgot to pray. Oh, you finished your... Ellie's eating her breakfast. Go finish your breakfast. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word. Father, we pray that you would please help us to understand it, that we would learn the lessons from it, and that you would apply it to our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.
Okay, so we are at Exodus chapter 32. You guys want to go ahead and open there? Exodus, so Genesis, Exodus. Exodus 32. It's a long passage, but it's all one story. Exodus chapter 32. In some ways, it's one of the saddest stories in the whole Bible. Exodus chapter 32.
Okay, hey, you want to do coffee and devotions? All right. Ready? One, two, three. All right, you can sit right here next to Daddy and Bubba. All right, so, mm-hmm, you sit right between us. Okay, here we go. So I will read verses 1 through 10. Nathan, can you read 11 through 14? Yeah. Deborah, I'm going to have you read 15 through 21. And then we'll keep going after that. Okay, here we go. I'll do 1 through 10.
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.
Oh boy, so what's going on here? Where's Moses? Moses is up on Mount Sinai. Yeah, Moses is up on Mount Sinai. And what do the people want Aaron to do? Make us a god. Yeah, make us a god. And so he asked for their what? For their earrings, right, their gold earrings. They bring them all to him, and what does he do? He makes an idol.
That's right. But this is interesting. They said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Is that true? No, because they sell the crowns. So they were making an image of God. Or what they thought maybe God would look like. But can God be represented in an image like that?
So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah. 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. So who were they making sacrifices to? Who was the feast to?
Was it to an idol? Yes. Yes, but what were they saying the idol was? God. They were saying it was Jehovah. They were saying it was the Lord. But is that molded calf the Lord? Nope. No. No, this is what God had told them in the second commandment. You shall not make for yourselves any molded images or any carved image. But they hadn't read that. No, they had heard the Ten Commandments from the very voice of God. Moses and the elders were there at the base of Mount Sinai, and they heard that.
And here they're going against the Lord. And the Lord, Jehovah, 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 worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. And Jehovah 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 you a great nation.
How does the Lord know that this is going on? Because he's on the mountain. But isn't he on the mountain on Mount Sinai with Yeah, but he's the Lord. You all know that. Yeah, he's the Lord, so he knows what's going on with Moses and what's going on at the base of the mountain. And how does he feel about it? Not too happy. Not too happy. No. And so, he's going to punish them, right?
Oh, Nathan, why don't you read verse 11 through 14 and we'll see what Moses says. Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God and said, Why does your wrath fall on the heart against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and might? Why should the Egyptians speak? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, to drive them out from your home, and to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth, born from your fierce wrath, and they went from this home to your people? Remember Abraham, Isaac, Israel, and the Son of Man, whom you have sworn by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars in heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of I give to you. that I give to your descendants.
And they shall inherit it for ever. So the Lord did not say that he would do to me. Okay, so what does Moses say? Right, God says, leave me alone, I'm gonna kill them all. He's like, ah, nope. No, Lord, don't do that. Right, two reasons. One, what would who think? He promised to come back Yeah, he made a promise to Abraham. And what would the Egyptians think? Oh, we just brought them there to kill them. That's right. And so he brings up to God two different things. The Egyptians are going to think that you are not God, and you made a promise to Abraham. Is it good to remind God of his promises? Yeah. Oh, yeah. All right, Deborah, you want to read 15 and on?
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides, on the one side and on the other they were written. Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said, Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. But he said, it is not the noise of the shout of victory, or the noise of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear.
So it was, as soon as he came near to the camp, 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, ground it to powder, and then he scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.
And Moses said to Aaron, What did these people do to you? that you have brought so great a sin upon them. All right, so Moses and Joshua are coming down the mountain now. God has said he's going to relent from the harm he's decided to do to his people. And what does Joshua say as they're walking down the mountain? It's war in the camp. And what does Moses say? Nobody is safe. Yeah, and so they walk down and what do they see? Some dancing around the golden path. Yeah, there's people dancing around the golden path. And what's Moses' response? He's so mad he breaks stones. Imagine how heavy the stones are. A lot.
They usually have two tablets. Well, there are two stone tablets. But the tablets have one on the front and one on the back. Yeah, they're written on both the front and the back. Not just on the front. We always see them with just writing on the front, but it's the front and the back. It would be like a quarter of the commandments were on the back of one and a quarter of the commandments were on the top of that one. So that's a possibility, right? The first quarter of it, and a quarter of it, and a quarter of it, and a quarter of it. Maybe. It's not much to actually write on, right?
There's only ten commandments. Some people think that one stone had ten commandments front and back, and the other had the ten commandments front and back. So one was supposed to be for God, and one was supposed to be for the people. That's often how covenant treaties between a king and people were written. One for the king, one for the people. Or one for the king's vassal, one for the other vassal. Or one for the king's sovereign, the other for the vassals. People debate this, but that's fine.
The point is, what does Moses do when he sees all this? He breaks the stone. Breaks the stone tablets. And then what does he do? He burns the idol. He burns the idol, and does he leave it burnt? He grinds it to powder, throws it out in the water, and says drink it.
That's an expensive drink. Golden water. Right? Is that how angry he is? Is this a sinful anger or a righteous anger? Righteous. Righteous anger, that's right. Yep. Well, verse 22. Daniel, can you read verse 22? So Aaron said, Anger. That's a hard one. No. Evil. Do not let the anger of my Lord become hot. You know the people that 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.
I cast it in the fire, and out came this calf. What do you guys think? Is he taking ownership? What's he doing? He said, well, they don't want me to break it anymore. And so I was just going to throw it in the fire. But all of a sudden, it was like a little dragon boss. Pushed down on the floor. Yeah, right? What do you guys think? Do you think he's telling the truth? It's kind of like him telling, kind of like when you guys tell me a story, because you don't want to face the truth of what you really did.
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 the 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.
This is a bloody gross thing that's just gone on. What does Moses tell them to do? Indiscriminately? Like every single person should be killed? No. What do you think he's talking about? He kind of draws a line in the sand. And what does he say? Right? If you're going to worship the Lord, come stand on which line? Well, you didn't have tea next time. But if you're with the Lord, you're going to stand on this side. If you're not, you're going to stand on that side.
And he tells the sons of Levi, put on your swords. Why would he do this? Why do you think he would tell them to even put to death everybody who was going to worship a calf rather than worshiping the Lord? Because they would be so angry, all of them. Yeah, they could all be killed. That was a really great insight. They could all be killed, right? Yeah. But then Moses said, Some people who have not offended or hurt God don't kill the people. That's right. Nathan, can you read 30 through 32?
Now it came to pass in the next day that Moses said to the people, You have to mention the Gershom and So now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. And I will just return to the Lord and say, O these people have committed a great sin, and have made themselves a part of the Lord. And now a few will forgive their sin, but if No, I pray block me out of your book which you have written. Alright, so next day what does Moses say to the people?
I'm going to go up to God. He's going to go up to God and what's he going to do? He's going to try to make atonement for them. Well, he can't make atonement for them, but what can he do? Try to make God have mercy on them. He's going to plead that God would have mercy on them. And if God won't have mercy on them, what's he going to ask God to do?
No, just blot us out and turn us. Not blot us, blot me. But he doesn't want, if this is how God's going to treat his people, if he's going to cast them all out, he's going to go plead with God for mercy. And if he won't remember his promises, then he doesn't want to be a part of this. I wonder how the Lord's going to answer. Deborah, can you read 33 through 35?
The Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my midst. Now defer, or go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. For my angel shall go before you. Never go astray. 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. Alright, so what's the Lord say? Is he going to wipe them all out? No. What's he going to do? Let him punish them. Yeah, for those who have bowed down to the golden calf, would he honor them? And he's going to plague them for that.
I don't think it was fun at all. I probably got a really bad feeling. Maybe. What do you guys think? What lesson do you think you should take from this? One at a time, Nathan. Don't make idols for yourself. If you disobey, God will punish you. Alright, there is consequences for disobedience. What about you, Daniel? Well, I think that if you bow down to an idol, you'll get punished. You'll not just simply pass.
Yeah, does the Lord give his glory to another? No, the Lord is jealous for his worship. Right now, can someone change him? God is not jealous. Oh no, God is jealous like a husband. Is Daddy jealous for Mommy's love? Do I want Mommy to go loving other men? No, God doesn't want His church to go loving other gods either. And so God is jealous for our love, but can God change someone's heart from being like the Israelites?
Like somebody going and chasing after another person to being faithful to him? Yes. Yeah, he can. And I think Moses here is acting like Jesus. Does Moses count himself amongst the people? Yes, he does. And does he pray for the people? Yes, he does. And does he trust in God's promises? Yes, he does. I think we have somebody even better than Moses. We have Jesus who does those for us.
All right, you guys, let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for this hard story. And we pray that your Holy Spirit would make us loyal to you. Let us follow after you and love you, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, Lord. Bless you. I'll see you next time. Bye.