When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. He threw the tablets [of the law] from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain.[1] Moses saw that the people were running wild, for Aaron had let them get completely out of control, causing derision from their enemies.[2]
King James’ translators painted a more vivid picture of how out of control the people were running wild. Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies).[3] Even in this translation Aaron’s role seems potentially passive. By conceding to their demands for a golden calf Aaron made them naked (euphemistically speaking) unto their shame among their enemies. John Nelson Darby[4] gave this verse a different twist in his translation: Moses saw the people how they were stripped; for Aaron had stripped them to [their] shame before their adversaries. This sounds more like Aaron as officiating priest commanded the people to strip for πορνεία,[5] the ritualized sexual worship they had practiced in Egypt.[6]
The translators of the NET do not believe that the Israelites engaged in such worship[7] in Exodus 32 (nor that the Greek word πορνεία[8] refers to it, as far as I can tell). The note on the word translated running wild and completely out of control reads: “The word is difficult to interpret. There does not seem to be enough evidence to justify the KJV’s translation ‘naked.’ It appears to mean something like ‘let loose’ or ‘lack restraint’ (Prov 29:18). The idea seems to be that the people had broken loose, were undisciplined, and were completely given over to their desires.” In 1 Corinthians 10:7, however, Paul’s quotation of Exodus 32:6—The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play—the note reads: “The term ‘play’ may refer to idolatrous, sexual play here, although that is determined by the context rather than the meaning of the word itself (cf. BDAG 750 s.v. παίζω).”
Whoever is for the Lord, come to me, Moses said. All the Levites gathered around him, and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Each man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”[9]
I have seen this people, the Lord had said to Moses on the mountain. Look what a stiff-necked people they are [Table]! So now, leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them [Table]…[10] With these words in his mind, though he had pleaded with the Lord to turn from your burning anger, and relent of this evil against your people,[11] when he saw their sin with his own eyes Moses formed an ad hoc militia or national guard. Here I can see the ministry that produced death (θανάτου, a form of θάνατος)[12] – carved in letters on stone tablets[13] functioning as the ministry that produced condemnation (κατακρίσεως, a form of κατάκρισις).[14]
Though I have considered whether Moses had a change of heart, I think it was the same Spirit, who through Moses’ words caused the Lord to relent over the evil that he had said he would do to his people,[15] who spoke the words through him, Each man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor. And He did this for the very same reason, to spare most of the people of Israel, to remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about I will give to your descendants, and they will inherit it forever.”[16]
The Levites did what Moses ordered, and that day about three thousand men of the people died.[17] The Levites were not included in the census of males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army.[18] Whether their number was comparable to the other clans (50,000) or half the size of the smallest clan (16,000), their campaign was not exceptionally ruthless. Apparently these deaths served no other purpose than to restore order, to bring a halt to the people’s play.
The deaths of three thousand men had provided no atonement (Exodus 32:30-32 NET).
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a very serious sin, but now I will go up to the Lord – perhaps I can make atonement on behalf of your sin.” So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has committed a very serious sin, and they have made for themselves gods of gold [Table]. But now, if you will forgive their sin…, but if not, wipe me out from your book that you have written” [Table].
In fact, Moses was unable to make atonement for those who sinned. And the deaths of three thousand men were not sufficient punishment (Exodus 32:33-35 NET).
The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me – that person I will wipe out of my book. So now go, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about. See, my angel will go before you. But on the day that I punish, I will indeed punish them for their sin.” And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf – the one Aaron made.
This is law. This is fear-based righteousness. It is not the fear of witnessing the catastrophic destruction of the Egyptian army. It is not the fear of hearing a voice from something like a volcano in full ash eruption. It is the fear of leaders (Moses and the Levites) using lethal force to uphold the law, and the fear of God as a potential enemy.
The Lord said to Moses, “Go up from here, you and the people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey.”[19]
It sounds wonderful. The Lord will lead and guide them into a land of plenty. But the fear must be ever present. But I will not go up among you, the Lord continued, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.[20]
Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.
And when Moses went out to the tent, all the people would get up and stand at the entrance to their tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent. And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people, each one at the entrance of his own tent, would rise and worship. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend.[21]
It may not have occurred to Moses to consider his exalted position the ministry that produced death or the ministry that produced condemnation, though he seemed to recognize it in respect to the Levites who followed him. “You have been consecrated today for the Lord,” he said to them, “for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today.”[22] But it did occur to him to seek something more from God, something we might call a ministry of the Spirit[23] or a ministry that produces righteousness.[24]
Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have been saying to me, ‘Bring this people up,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. But you said, ‘I know you by name, and also you have found favor in my sight.’ Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your way, that I may know you, that I may continue to find favor in your sight. And see that this nation is your people.”[25]
“All things have been given to me by my Father,” Jesus said. “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.” Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”[26]
And the Lord said [to Moses], “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And Moses said to him, “If your presence does not go with us, do not take us up from here. For how will it be known then that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not by your going with us, so that we will be distinguished, I and your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?”[27]