God now gives more detailed instructions to Moses on Mt. Sinai, explicit, and long, as to who's to do what, and as to utensils, meeting places, the tent of meeting, the Ark of the Covenant, vestments for the participants for services. and the treatment of the food by which atonement is made. No stone tablets for this - surely Moses must have a monumental memory.
A bull is to be offered as a sin offering for atonement. A golden bull or calf often represents the gods (note plural) worshiped back then. These stories are often mixed in the telling, hence the sometimes singular "God" and the plural "gods". There have been fights between the Aaronites and the Levites, memories of old disagreements. But above them all, God has placed Moses as the intercessor, again and again. Moses, He says, will father a great nation.
Remember, this is Moses who sent off his wife Ziporah and his two sons without so much as a fare-thee-well. And yet he, not Abraham or Isaac, is God's chosen representative to carry out His commandments.
God tells Moses He is not happy with the people. He does not like their squabbling, their golden calf image, and He is really angry with them. Moses, again the intercessor, pleads on the peoples' behalf, and in a rare moment, God changes His mind about bringing disaster on the people.
Next comes the climax, the big MGM moment: Moses brings the stone tablets with the Big Ten down from the mount. Here he found the people reveling around and worshiping a golden calf they had made. He threw the tablets down and broke them demanding to know where the calf had come from. Aaron explained to him how upset and restless the people were, and how he had them take of all their gold jewelry and throw it in the fire, and "out came this calf."
R-r-right.
Anyway, Moses burned the calf in the fire, ground it to powder and made everyone drink it. Seems like an equitable solution.
Then---THEN-- he called together all those who were on the Lord's side, and all the Levites gathered around him. He told them the Lord had said for them to go throughout the camp and kill their brother, their friend or their son. When they did so, he told them "You have ordained yourselves for the service of the Lord." And he said he would try to get the Lord to forgive them of the great sin of worshiping the golden calf. Mind you, they killed 3,000 people that day. A puzzling portion of scripture, to be sure.
Moses again interceded for the people with the Lord. The Lord directed Moses to lead the people to the place where He had told him. At the end of His patience with this golden calf thing, He later sent a plague upon the people..
We are urged to remember that these are God's chosen people, not because they are perfect. From the beginning they made mistakes, but it was God's grace that set them apart.
submitted by Deenie Miller
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