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Golden calf and the prophet’s role in rebuking sin and bringing repentance
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. “They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. “Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
Exodus 32:7–10 NASB95
Moses confirms the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by declining God’s proposal to start the covenant again with him. A key point of the Torah reading כי תשא Ki Tisa (“when you take”; Exodus 30:11–34:35) is Moses willingly interceded for the people and accepted the blame for what they had done, yet he did not let the people off the hook or wink at the “ignorance” of the people for what they had done against God.
Moses knew that the people deserved to have God’s hammer of wrath come down on them, but Moses said he would accept God’s wrath for their sake. This is a profound foreshadowing of the Messiah Yeshua, who, although completely blameless, accepted the blame for the sins of the people. He is going to accept all of the vitriol that is passed down that would be passed down to Israel. He said I will take it upon me instead.
One might wonder if this story is an example of God’s changing His mind. Or is it an example of God’s testing the prophet as much as He was testing the people who were receiving the prophet’s message?
We see later with the prophet Jonah that God gave him an explicit message to send to the city of Nineveh. It was a very wicked city and the capital of a nation that hated the Israelites. Jonah went to Ninevah and warns the people that in 40 days, God is going to “overthrow” their city (Jonah 3:4). The Hebrew word to describe that — הָפַךְ hafakh — strictly means “to turn, to put on the other side.”1 Depending on the context, it can mean to destroy or to change to a different view —repentance (Psa. 105:25), compassion (Hos. 11:8) or rebellion (Ex. 14:5).
In Jonah’s proclamation, there was no “if” clause. He simply said that in 40 days, the city would be overturned. What did the people do? Well, over the course of the 40 days, they repented, they turned back to the Source of all — תְּשׁוּבָה teshuvah. Jonah records that they were in such a state of repentance that they were even putting on sackcloth and ashes, which is an ancient form of debasing oneself from an esteemed position to being beggars, to being the people of death, that of dirt. They made even their livestock wear sackcloth and fasting. (Jonah 3:5-7)
Nineveh repented, and Adonai spared the hammer that was going to fall on them.
Now, going back to God’s conversation with Moses in Exodus 32, He told Moses to get out of the way so He can destroy all the people and start over, but Moses stands in the way and tells God to pour His wrath on Him. Moses is not making light of what the people have done, Moses is not soft pedaling anything. Moses knew that what the people had done was absolutely egregious.
Moses is on the mountain receiving the pattern for the tabernacle, while the people are concerned about his absence and want something to represent God’s power that took them out of Egypt. God had introduced Himself in the Ten Commandments:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Exodus 20:2–6 NASB95
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
The people respond to The Elohim’s command not to have any other elohim (gods) before Him by creating a representation of elohim (gods) and saying, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:8).2
Oils, incense, Sabbath: Instructions for the Tabernacle
God not only gave them specific instructions on how to make the tabernacle, He provide specific details about many other items that were to be a part of the tabernacle including items such as the type of anointing oil and incense that were to be a part of the ceremonies.
God’s instructions for both the anointing oil and the incense were, you’re not going to use this items for common use. The incense and anointing oil recipes recorded in the Torah was sacred and only to be used for the tabernacle ceremonies. This special aroma to the Lord was made so that the people who visited the tabernacle would have that physical memory and connection to the house of God. Fragrances trigger memories and smelling that fragrance in another place would cause confusion and even apostasy in the people.
After this, God inserts another reminder of the Passover and then the Shabbat and the Feast of Weeks, in that order. This seems like a non-sequitor, as though the recipes for the anointing oil and incense have nothing to do with the Shabbat but this is not the case.
The LORD created everything we have around us, everything that He has given them to create His tabernacle, He created first. The trees, the precious stones, the water are all His creation, the people of the nations worship these things, which are futile for people to worship. The One who created them is the only one worthy of worship.
With the splitting of the Red Sea, God established His power as the Creator and the ultimate governor of the created order. The created order has to follow its Creator. At this time, in Canaan, the people there worshipped various deities, called ba’als, the word means, lord, master or husband. There many of these false deities who the people of Canaan worshiped. The Ba’al was a storm god and was in a fight against the deity of the sea, which was called Yam. According to the Canaanite mythologies of the time, Yam conspired with Ba’al father to win a cosmic battle against Ba’al. Does the Torah describe God like this?
But what was the lesson then of the splitting of the sea? The Creator of heaven and earth, and the seas and all that are in them, just spoke and the waters separated. There’s no negotiation, no deals, no backroom handshakes or bribes. The created order response to the One who created it has to follow its master, the creator of heaven and earth. Yes, so, there is no reason for having any sort of war between or debate between who is in charge and who is not.
Repentance and the golden calf: Israel’s disobedience
We see a repeat of the confrontation at the Golden Calf in 1Kings 18. At this time in the Northern nation of Israel, her neighbors in Sidon and Tyre worshipped many flavors of ba’als and this worship was imported into Israel with Jezebel, who brought many ba’al priests and prophets into Israel with her when she marred Ahab. Elijah confronted these false prophets on Mt. Carmel, which represents a battle between the ba’als and God.
The first tablets were carved and written by God’ Himself, while at the same time, the people were also down at the foot of the mountain carving and fashioning something in gold in direct opposition and challenge to God’s explicit command not to carve or make anything that would represent Him. The people of Israel had decided that the first and second commandments were suggestions and not requirements. They were carving and fashioning a golden calf, that they had created using the gold from their own earrings, and proclaiming that this golden bull calf was the deity who rescued them from Egypt.
What will happen when they finally enter the land of Canaan? They will see more bull calves, more false deities. So, how will they know which deity delivered them from the house of bondage if they all look the same? Will they give credit to Ba’al Zebul (Beelzebub)? How about Ba’al Tzephon or something else?
We see the juxtaposition of God carving into stone and the people carving into gold. They had to decide if they would follow the instructions carved on the tablets or would they eat, drink, and rise up to play as the pagans would do and just make up their practice as they went along and give some false god credit for their liberation from Egypt.
When Moshe confronted Aharon, Aharon told Moshe that he took the gold and stuff from the people and the golden calf just came out, as though they had no control over it, as though it had just come about from some sort of divination.
The calves were commonly used in this time period to represent deities. By the time that Eliyahu was up on the mountain of Carmel, the northern kingdom of Israel, they had not just one golden calf, they had two of them. One in the far north and in the south. Because why calves and bulls are commonly used to represent a deity why? Because of their strength. They were the bulldozers, the tractors of the time. Any successful farmer had to have one to plow their fields to grow crops.
When Moses ground up the golden calf and made the people drink it, the act of them consuming the golden calf was an act of dominance over the deity. In the Ancient Near East, it was a common ritual to destroy the deities of the conquered people and consume them as an act of domination. It was also an act symbolizing taking the power of that deity into oneself. But this was also done to them as a stern warning.
John records Yeshua making a similar connection when he said that those who follow Him would eat his flesh and drink his blood. This is both a physical and spiritual act.
The creator of Heaven and Earth did not ask to be worshipped as the nations worship the demons and false gods. He does not want them to accept the pagan practices into their worship of Him because incorporating these false practices can easily lead them astray.
Moshe asks God to reveal His glory, and God responds by making all His goodness pass before him. God’s name is revealed as “Lovingkindness, Steadfastness,” and this name represents what God does, and they don’t need a physical representation of Him. This points to Messiah Yeshua, who fully revealed God’s character.
Several degrees of separation
The priests were to wash their hands and feet before entering the holy place. Why? So they would not die. Is having dirty feet a death penalty offense? No, but disrespecting God is. The priests were to be mindful of the separation between the holy and the common and washing their feet before entering the holy place was a practice to be mindful of that separation. They were also to be mindful of the fact that God cannot be contained within the walls of the tabernacle. When the priests started to forget the holiness of God by bringing in imperfect animals for sacrifice, no longer bringing Him the best of the animals and produce, the people picked up on this irreverence and the society declined as a consequence.
The High Priest has to go in behind the veil, to the Holy of Holies once a year to minister before the Ark of the testimony. He must take this incense and make a cloud as a covering. According to the book of Revelation, this cloud of the covering represented with prayers of the holy ones, that the prayers of the congregation of the Lord, which act as a shroud that shields us, that covers us as we go into the presence of God. The prayers of the people of God covers us as we enter His presence. This is a beautiful picture of how God washes us, enlightening us, empowers us and covers us as we come closer to Him, not because of how good we are but because of how good He is. How can anyone presume to waltz into the presence of God?
Drought, prophets, and altars: Elijah on Mount Carmel
When we look at the prophet Elijah’s confrontation at Mt. Carmel, the events of Mt. Sinai come to mind.
In modern Israel, the city of Haifa is the nearest major city to Mt. Carmel. From there, you can see the Golan Heights, the valley of Megiddo and even into southern Lebanon. This area was historically part of the northern kingdom of Israel.
If you read into 1Kings 19-20, you will read about how Elijah fled Israel because he had killed 450 of Jezebel’s favored priests who she had brought in to corrupt the people.
The northern calf was located in the area of Tel Dan in the farthest northern region of Israel. This is where Jeroboam, the first king of the Northern kingdom had set up one of the two golden calfs he established to keep the people from worshiping God in Jerusalem and JEroboam’s design was roughly comparable to the design of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem.
The encounter on Mt. Carmel was a “battle” between the Baals and God, showing who actually had power over the land during a 3 year long drought Elijah had prophesied as judgment for turning to other gods. We live in California and we have just suffered through a 3 year drought ourselves, watching our reservoirs going down and nearly running dry. So the people of the northern kingdom did not only suffer from a literal drought but also a spiritual drought of the word of God.
Excavations at Tel Dan near Mount Carmel uncovered an altar and platform area that may have been a worship site for the golden calf, showing this was an historical event, not just imagined.
Elijah rebuilt an altar on Mount Carmel with 12 stones representing the 12 tribes, as a reminder to rebuild the nation that had fallen away from worshipping God alone.
Kingly requirements: Principles of Godly governance and obedience
There was a progression that lead to this point. What happened at Mt. Carmel did not happen in a vacuum. There were years, even generations of kings and leaders in both the kingdom Israel and the kingdom of Judah who did not regard God’s word as something worth following.
God placed four requirements on the kings of His people, that most of the kings ignored. There were four requirements God placed on kings of Israel (Deut. 17:14–20):
• Don’t multiply horses: Mimicking Mitzraim, mastering by might.
• Don’t multiply wives: Ruling through diplomatic marriages, welcoming voices that sway away from the LORD.
• Don’t multiply wealth: Ruling through taxation and tribute.
• Do write your own copy of the Torah: Seek understanding.
Solomon broke at least the first three. When spouses, friends, companies and countries drift apart, why does this happen? Usually it’s because the people have forgotten what brought them together in the first place. Or maybe you do revisit the source of your bond and realize what bonded you is no longer something you want to be joined to. Forgetting one’s past and original purpose can lead to drifting apart in relationships and losing sight of one’s legacy.
Remembering our origins: Legacy of connection with God
A legacy is not just about written laws on stone, but about the personal connection with God and the emotions and thoughts that come from that connection. A love for God’s word is one of the greatest blessings we can give to the next generation. One of the ways we can honor our mother and father is to tell them what lessons they have taught us that we have carried and applied to our own lives. Let them know that they have accomplished the mission that they set out to do in us. Of course, our parents weren’t perfect and they may have done somethings wrong but whatever things they have done right in us, we should share that with them. We should encourage our parents to remember their accomplishments.
Moses had a personal connection with God. His relationship with God was not written on stone, his relationship was with the One who wrote His words on the stone. That’s why he loved those words and was so upset that he broke them when he saw that the people had already disobeyed them so quickly. Moses was able to meet with God as one would meet with a friend, because he had God’s words in his heart.
Moses spoke with God face to face as one speaks to a friend – this prefigures Yeshua tabernacling among us as God in the flesh. The veil separating people from God’s presence was removed through Yeshua. In him, the Messiah is revealed, not concealed as before.
Transformation and future redemption
When Moses asked God to show His glory, Moses wasn’t asking for a fireworks show. He was asking for a personal testimony so he would know who God is. He went up to the mountain to get the testimony of the One he met with on the mountain. When the veil was removed, the Messiah was revealed. Moses talked with the Lord as one talked with a friend. The glow that Moses had was evidence of his contact with the Creator, of his ongoing presence with God.
Yeshua fulfilled the purpose of the Torah and covenants by taking our sins upon himself on the cross, so we can enter God’s presence without shame.
The Messiah Yeshua is the true glory of the lord, who was the one Haggai prophesied would enter the Temple and the gospels recorded when Yeshua entered the temple in fulfillment of Haggai’s prophesy. We look forward to the day when He returns on the earth. We will have the presence of God on earth and the King of Kings will reign in Jerusalem and all will go to Jerusalem to worship God at a temple that would have three entry points, not just one.
Through Yeshua, believers from all nations can have a personal relationship with God and be part of his spiritual temple
The entire city, the entire mountain will be holy, because the entire world will be transformed. We will be a new creation and there will be nothing to hide, no shame anymore. We anticipate the Messiah’s return and the renewal of Jerusalem, which will establish, once and for all, God’s ultimate sovereignty and redemption.
Summary: Tammy
- Koehler, Ludwig, Walter Baumgartner, and M. E. J. Richardson, eds. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT). 5 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2000. ↩︎
- The plural אֵלֶּה eyleh (“these are”) corresponds grammatically with plural אֱלֹהִים elohim (“gods”). Constructions for Adonai typically have a singular verb and the plural אֱלֹהִים Elohim. ↩︎