God Punishes Idolatry

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AStudying God’s Word

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Introduction

We have followed the Israelites out of Egypt to the base of Mt. Sinai. It has been about two months since they left Egypt, and God has spoken to them, giving them his commands. Moses had gone up on the mountain when they arrived, receiving instructions from God. Then God spoke to the people after a time of consecration, delivering the Ten Commandments from the cloud that covered the mountain (Exodus 19–20).

Exodus 24 tells us that Moses received other commands that he delivered to the people. These were written in the Book of the Covenant, and the people covenanted with God to obey him through blood sacrifices, sprinkling the blood on the people as a sign (Exodus 24:1–8). After this, the elders went up the mountain with Moses and ate a meal in the presence of God. God revealed himself, in some sense, to the elders (24:9–11). This is an example of one of the appearances of God to man—a theophany.

• We referred last week to the two tablets of stone. What did those tablets represent? The tablets had the Ten Commandments written on them. Elsewhere they are called the “tablets of the testimony” (Exodus 31:18) and the “tablets of the covenant” (Deuteronomy 9:9). The tablets were a sign of the covenant that Israel made with God. They were kept in the ark as a reminder of the covenant.

  Today, we are going to look at how Moses got the tablets and at an amazing account of how the people turned away from the God they had just made a covenant with.

While Moses Is Away

We are going to look at two sections of Scripture. The first is just a quick look at how Moses got the tablets and additional commands. Then we will look at what was happening while he was away.

Let’s read Exodus 24:12–18 together. Have someone read the passage aloud.

• Who went up the mountain? Moses and Joshua.
• Whom did Moses leave in charge? Moses left the elders under the charge of Aaron and Hur.
• How was God’s presence evident? There was a cloud over the mountain for six days, and then the glory of God appeared like a devouring fire.
• Who saw the cloud and fire? All the people of Israel could see it from the base of the mountain.
• When did Moses go up the mountain? He was near the base for six days with Joshua. Then the Lord called him up on the seventh day.
• How long was he on the mountain? Forty days and nights.

Let’s turn ahead to Exodus 31:18. Have someone read the passage aloud.

• What did God give Moses? The two stone tablets of the testimony.
• Who wrote on them? They were written with the finger of God.

  What follows in chapters 25–31 is a description of the instructions for building and serving in the tabernacle, which we will look at more closely next week.

Let’s turn ahead to Exodus 32:1–14 together. Have someone read the passage aloud.

• Who wanted the gods to be made? The people came to Aaron, asking for gods.
• What were they concerned about? Moses had been gone, so they wanted other gods to go before them.
• Whom did the people attribute their exodus to? They said that Moses had brought them out of Egypt.
• How did Aaron respond to their request? He asked for their gold earrings.
• Where did these earrings come from? While the text doesn’t say explicitly, these had probably been taken from the Egyptians as the Israelites had left Egypt. It is unlikely that slaves would have had the luxury of owning gold earrings.
• How did the calf come to be? Aaron cast it in the fire and shaped it with an engraving tool.
• What did the people say about the calft? These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
• What other act of worship did Aaron do before the calf? He constructed an altar and told the people to prepare for a feast the following day.
• Who was the feast for? Aaron called it a feast to the Lord , to Yahweh.
• What does this tell you about how Aaron viewed the calf? He identified the calf as representing the Lord.
• What command did he violate? The second commandment forbade the making of idols of anything on the earth to worship. This was a carved image of a creature that was worshipped, a direct violation of the command God had given them a matter of weeks before.
• How did the people offer worship to the calf? They burned offerings on the altar Aaron had built. They also feasted on food and “rose up to play.”

• What does the phrase “rose up to play” mean? The phrase is a Hebrew idiom for sexual immorality, likely involving drunkenness. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:6–7, uses this as a negative example, as well as a later incident recorded in Numbers 25.
• How did Moses learn about the calf? He was told by God what the people were doing.
• What is striking about how God described the people to Moses? God called them “your people” and the people Moses had led out of Egypt.
• How did God describe their actions? They had corrupted themselves and turned away from his commands quickly. He also called them a stiff-necked people, a phrase that will be used many times of the Israelites.
• What threat did God make? He threatened to let his wrath burn hot against the Israelites to consume them.
• How did Moses identify the people as he interceded? He said that they were the people God had brought out of Egypt by his mighty hand.
• What reason did Moses give God to not kill the people? He told God that the Egyptians would accuse God of evil, that he had led the people out just so he could kill them.
• What did Moses ask of God? He asked God to turn from his anger and relent in destroying the people.
• If God killed the Israelites, could he still fulfill his promise to Abraham? Yes, he could start over with Moses as he suggested in verse 10. (The only wrinkle here is that it seems that the Messiah was promised from the line of Judah and Moses was of the line of Levi.)
• What promise did Moses appeal to? He appealed to God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, promising to make a great nation out of them and give them the Promised Land.
• Did the Lord listen to Moses? Yes. He relented of the disaster he had threatened.
• What word(s) is used to describe God’s change? Various translations use “relented” or “changed his mind” to describe the reversal.

Discover the Truth

A matter of weeks after the Israelites had made a covenant with God to obey his commandments, seeing his frightening presence inhabiting the mountain where Moses had gone, they sinned against him. God told them to not make any idols or bow down to them, but they quickly turned away from him to do just that. They were used to the idolatry of Egypt, but they had seen firsthand how the Lord was so much more powerful, as demonstrated in the ten plagues.

We might look at their unfaithfulness and become astonished that they would turn away so quickly to a statue of a calf made out of their own earrings. After all, this doesn’t seem like much of a temptation for us today. But if you did not grow up in the church, you might look back to the things in your former life that brought you happiness or comfort and seek to return to those things. And even if you have grown up in the church, there are still things that we seek that are replacements for God, our one object of worship. We will discuss those ideas a bit more in our activity in a few minutes.

Another interesting part of this account is that it seems that God changed his mind. This is often used by skeptics to challenge the existence of God, and it might even be a question you have wrestled with. He said he was going to wipe out the Israelites, and then Moses persuaded him to stop.

• What attribute of God does this appear to violate? Immutability, that God does not change.
• How can we understand this passage in light of the unchanging character of God? The passage does not say that God’s character changed, but that his course of action changed in response to Moses’ intercession. It may be that God was using this threat to draw Moses into intercession for his people. God never says in this passage that there is no way to avoid this destruction, but he shares the possibility of the action.

  There are several instances in Scripture where God changes his course of action based on the repentance or change in those who face his judgment (the repentance of Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah is a good example). God’s character does not change, but his actions may change in response to prayer, intercession, or repentance of his people.

Idolatry Judged

Let’s look now at how Moses and God responded to the idolatry in the camp of the Israelites.

The remainder of chapter 32 describes what Moses did as he came down from the mountain. Have someone read the passage aloud.

• What did Moses take with him as he left the mountain? The two tablets of the testimony—the work of God (v. 16).
• How are the tablets described? They are called the “tablets of the testimony,” marking their importance as a reminder of the covenant the Israelites had made with God. The tablets were of stone and written on both sides. The tablets themselves were made by God.
• Whom did Moses encounter as he came down the mountain? Joshua was still there waiting for Moses.
• What did Joshua think of the noise coming from the camp? He thought it was the sound of war.
• What did Moses acknowledge the noise was? God had told him, so he knew it was their singing as they worshipped falsely.
• How did Moses respond to seeing what was happening in the camp? His “anger burned hot,” and he threw the tablets and broke them.
• Whom did Moses blame for the false worship in the camp? He looked to Aaron as the one responsible since Moses had left him in charge. He asked Aaron how the people had led him astray.
• How did Aaron describe how the calf was made? Did he take responsibility for making it? No. He said the people gave him their gold, he threw it into the fire, and a calf came out.

  Aaron’s version of the story was not the whole truth. He blamed the people and made it sound like the gold had formed itself into a calf and popped out of the fire!

• What did Aaron actually do to make the golden calf? Look back in verse 4. He fashioned the gold with a graving tool to make the golden calf.
• How did Moses deal with the calf? He burned it and ground it to powder and mixed it with the drinking water for the people, forcing them to drink what they had worshipped.
• What does the phrase “broken loose” refer to in the actions of the Israelites? Various translations interpret this phrase as becoming unruly, unrestrained, or out of control. The sense seems to be that they were following their passions, likely including the sexual immorality they would have seen in the worship of the false gods in Egypt.
• What concern does the parenthetical comment in verse 25 indicate? This idolatrous activity would give their enemies a reason to mock the Israelites who had so quickly turned away from the God who had so dramatically delivered them.
• How did Moses call the people to account for their sinful actions? He stood in the gate of the camp and called the people to choose whether they were on Yahweh’s side or not.
• Who responded? Men from the tribe of Levi.
• What command did Moses give to these men? To go through the camp and kill “his brother and his companion and his neighbor.”
• Who gave the command to judge by the sword? While Moses communicated the words, he said that the command was from God (“thus says the Lord God of Israel”).
• Who was put to death? Moses did not specify who they were to kill. The text indicates that three thousand men died that day. There were surely more involved in the idol worship, as well as women, but it is not clear why only some were put to death. It may be that these were the ones who persisted in their worship even after the call to repent (as a similar account in Numbers 25 indicates).
• What did Moses mean when he told the Levites to kill their brothers, companions, and neighbors? He was calling them to not show any favoritism in executing God’s judgment.
• What was the result of the Levites’ obedience? They were ordained into the service of the Lord, having faithfully obeyed God’s command of judgment, even to the point of losing their own family members. In this they were blessed by God.
• What did Moses say to the people of Israel after the judgment? He told them directly of their sin against God and that it was a great sin.
• What did Moses plan to do for the people? Moses said that he would go to the Lord to make atonement for their sin. Moses recognized there had to be a covering for the sin.
• How did Moses appeal to God afterward? He acknowledged the sin of the people in making and worshipping the calf as a false god, and he asked God to forgive them.
• What action did Moses suggest for the forgiveness of the people? Moses was willing to be blotted out of God’s book for the forgiveness of the people—he offered himself as a substitute.

• How does this same idea come out in Romans 9:1–3? Paul says that he could wish that he himself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his fellow Jews—that they might be forgiven and receive God’s salvation in Christ.
• How did God respond to Moses’ offer? God acknowledged that each person is responsible for facing the judgment for his own sin.
• What action did God take to extend his judgment beyond the sword? He sent a plague on the camp to bring further judgment.
• What did God do to point Moses to the future? God told Moses to prepare to lead the people to a new land, the Promised Land.
• Who did God say would lead them? God said that he would send his angel ahead of them. This is the same angel we see in Exodus 14:19 and 33:2, generally identified as the Son of God leading his people.

Discover the Truth

What a sobering account this is on many levels. Sin sprung up so quickly as the people were seeking someone else to lead them. Aaron went along with them, even after seeing all that God had done through him and Moses. God was represented by a little bull calf made out of the gold that God had given them. And the list could go on. But this account shows us an important aspect of God’s character.

• What does the fact that God judged the sin of idolatry with death teach us? This is a clear example of how seriously God sees sin, especially idolatry. If God allowed this sin to go unpunished, then his character could be questioned. But God’s character is constant, and all sin is worthy of judgment. God’s justice was on display, as well as his holiness.
• What attribute of God is shown in not killing all of the Israelites who had sinned in this way? They all deserved his wrath and judgment, but many of them were spared. God showed them mercy.

  Moses was a prophet who proclaimed truth as he heard it from God. As we think about all of the prophets of the Old Testament, Moses is probably the most revered. This is true even for Muslims who consider Moses a great prophet, though they miss his importance. In interactions with him, Jesus’ contemporaries looked back to Moses as a great teacher and prophet of God.

  But Moses also acted as a priest, as he sought to intercede for the people and their sin. He went so far as to offer himself as a substitute if God would pardon their sin of idolatry. He stood in between the people of God and God to seek atonement for their sins. While this is a very noble act, Moses was not the one on whom God would place the blame for the sins of his people. But God did promise his people that another Prophet would come, even delivering that message through Moses (see Deuteronomy 18:15–19). That Prophet would speak and act perfectly on behalf of God—and that Prophet would provide the perfect atonement for God’s people.

  As we walk away from this passage, we need to be very mindful of how seriously God sees sin—especially the sin of idolatry—and the severity with which he will bring judgment.

A Jealous God Activity

We have talked about the sin of the Israelites in their camp, blending the pagan worship of carved idols with the worship of the God who stands outside of his creation in every way. But that could never happen in our day, right? Well, if we answer no to that question, we might be sheltered. Satan is always working to corrupt the true worship of God, and he is influencing even those in the church today.

In your Student Guide, you will find the activity titled, “A Jealous God.” In it are descriptions of several activities that are practiced by those in Protestant and Evangelical churches. I want you to consider how these activities relate to the way God has prescribed for us to worship him. Have the students work in groups to complete the activity.

Thinking through these passages helps us see how God’s character relates to our worship of him. Let’s discuss what you found in these passages.

• In Exodus 20:5, how does God describe himself? Jealous.
• Why is it appropriate for God to be jealous for his own worship? Since he has created us for his glory, it is right that he receives our worship. It is not one creature worshipping another, but the creature worshipping its Creator. To be jealous for the affections that are due to you alone is righteous (as a husband is jealous for his wife’s affection alone).
• How does God respond to the two types of people described in verses 5 and 6? He visits iniquity on those who hate him and shows steadfast love to those who love and obey him.
• What does it look like to take God’s name “in vain”? One way is to use God’s name in a casual way or as a curse (OMG and other crass or casual expressions). Other ways include claiming to be a child of God while doing things that are not fitting of a saint, or saying you are doing something in God’s name when it is really for your own benefit.

• How does Paul describe participation in pagan worship practices? Idolatry and pagan sacrifices are actually offered to the demons. To participate in these practices is to participate with demons.
• How does this passage relate to God’s character? Because God is holy and is our Creator, to participate in idolatry is to provoke him to be jealous for his own worship.

• In this passage, what is the key principle Paul is communicating to the Corinthian church? Paul tells them to not be involved in the spiritual practices of the pagans, yoking themselves together with the darkness. He wants them to have no fellowship with darkness, instead devoting themselves to the true worship of God.
• How does Paul describe pagan spiritual practices? He uses lawlessness, darkness, Belial (Satan), unbelieving, and a defilement of body and spirit to describe idolatry.
• Considering all of these passages, is there any practice or thought in your own worship (or within your church) that has been borrowed from a source outside of God’s Word? Discuss various answers. Consider things like prayer charms, superstitious objects or rituals, praying to saints, and others.
• How might practices like prayer labyrinths, prayer charms, and prayers to saints compare to how the Israelites looked to the golden calf as the one who delivered them from Egypt? If a practice comes from a pagan ritual, then to incorporate it into our worship is much like what the Israelites did with the golden calf—they called it Yahweh and offered sacrifices to it and did what the pagans of Egypt had taught them. Blending false worship like various prayers to the dead (an animistic practice) and other rituals with worship of God is to blend those practices used to worship demons with the worship of God.

Connect to the Truth

When we talk about the blending of different religious practices with Christianity, we use the word syncretism. Various practices are blended with Christian practices today. But God is jealous for his worship, and he will not accept false worship—worship blended with practices borrowed from pagans. Just as Jesus told the woman at the well, he desires those who worship him to worship in spirit and in truth. This is what we should seek to do, looking to his Word as the absolute authority and guide for how we offer worship to our holy God.

Application

As Moses was away on the mountain, the people felt like they had been abandoned. Moses had led them out of slavery, but now he was gone. They thought they had no connection to God without Moses. Falling back on what they had known from their captors, they wanted an image to look to. They did not trust in an invisible God, even though his presence was manifest in the cloud which covered the mountain they were camped under.

And not even Aaron, a man who had worked miracles as God had empowered him, was able to obey God in this moment. He collapsed to the pressure of pleasing the people rather than calling them to worship God as God had demanded. The people pursued their own passions, even as they claimed they were sacrificing to and worshipping the Lord. They blended their worship with pagan practices in a way that brought God’s wrath. God is jealous for our worship—and rightly so. And we need to be aware of this type of syncretism in our own worship. The idolatry of the Israelites and God’s judgment of it serves as an example to us of how much God hates idolatry. He put thousands to death and sent a plague on others. God takes sin seriously, and we stand warned.

Moses had seen the great sin of the people and appealed to God to forgive them. Knowing that God is just, Moses even offered for himself to be blotted out as a substitute for the people if they could be forgiven. The Apostle Paul expressed the same sentiment, acknowledging that he wished he could be damned so that his kinsmen could be saved (Romans 9:1–3). And, of course, this is exactly what Jesus has done for us. He willingly offered himself as the substitute to make atonement for sinners. He absorbed the wrath of God against sin while he was on the cross, providing atonement so that those who repent and trust in Jesus will never face the just judgment of God. The perfectly just substitute stands in the place of the unjust, reconciling God and man (see 1 Corinthians 5:20–21). Moses couldn’t be that substitute because of his own sin, but Jesus could—he was the sinless God-man. And the Father has acknowledged the sufficiency of the Son’s sacrifice by raising him from the dead and then sealing his children with the Holy Spirit.

As great a man as Moses was, he did not die as a substitute for his people, and his bones are still in the grave. But the same is not true of Jesus. Jesus is our resurrected Prophet, Priest, and King. We have no need to look to substitutes in his creation to offer our worship to when we can give it to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who truly deserve it.

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  As we look around the world today, where do we see idolatry in worship? Discuss various answers where people offer prayer, praise, or other affection to creatures. This happens in Hinduism through yoga and prayers to idols. It happens in the prayers and worship given to the dead. It happens in animistic and pagan religions where trees and crystals and other parts of the creation are worshipped. It happens in Buddhism and others where offerings are left at temples.
• Have you ever felt like God is distant? What did you turn to as you looked for a remedy for this feeling (to God or to a substitute/idol)? Discuss various answers.
• Why is it unwise to put our faith in a person as a leader (as the Israelites looked to Moses or Aaron)? We have a tendency to be just like the people in Moses’ day. Sometimes we believe that we have no connection to God except through the “godly” people in our lives. We rely on others when we can go to God ourselves. From a different angle, we also have a tendency to worship other people and seek their approval, rather than trusting that God approves of us who are in Christ. We must ground our faith in him alone, not a parent, friend, pastor, or other person.
• How does understanding this passage about the golden calf help us to guard ourselves against idolatry or forms of false worship? Discuss the danger of looking to creatures rather than to the Creator. We see a people who had just experienced so much directly from God, but they turned away. If we think our hearts are any different, we are likely deceiving ourselves. Of course, as Christians we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, but we must be constantly walking in the Spirit so that we do not fulfill the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16–17).
• As we consider the topic of idolatry, we are probably not prone to praying to a statue. But more broadly, anything we give our heart and affections to above God can be thought of as idolatry. Paul even calls covetousness idolatry in Colossians 3:5. What types of things do we tend to worship in our culture, creating a type of abstract idolatry? Discuss various things like sports teams, education, health, success, boyfriends/girlfriends, entertainment, pleasure, and others.
• Which of these things might you have turned into an idol? Discuss various answers, encouraging repentance and a turning to Christ for forgiveness and to the Holy Spirit for the power to overcome such sinful attitudes.
• One of the arguments for a supernatural creation over six literal days comes in Exodus 20:11, which states that God created all thing in six days, resting on the seventh. Some have suggested that Moses just misunderstood or erroneously recorded the six days in the text. What did we learn today about that statement that undermines such arguments? The words on the tablets were written by God’s own finger, not Moses. God, not Moses, said that he created in six days. We have no reason to doubt that God recorded exactly how long it took.

Group Prayer

Be sure to pray with your class before you dismiss them.

• Praise God that he is worthy of our worship.
• Ask God for discernment to see any idols in our own hearts.
• Thank God that as we repent, he has provided for us a substitute to pay for our sin.