Exodus 32
Moses is up the mountain
receiving the laws of God, written in stone by God’s own hand.
Meanwhile the people of Israel
have got bored and decide the 10 commandments they heard with their own ears
really don’t apply and they encourage Moses brother, Aaron, to make them some
alternative gods.
Aaron takes their gold and melts
it down into a golden calf. Breaking the first 2 of the 10 commandments right
off, oh well, 2 down 8 to go!
Once they start ignoring God, it
seems that morality goes out of the window as well as “they indulge in eating,
drinking and revelry”
I think it is quite funny that
God then tells Moses in verse 7-8 that the people that he (Moses) bought out of
Egypt have become corrupt.
God then tells Moses to leave him alone and he will
destroy all the Israelites and form a new nation from Moses
Moses, it turns out, is another
of the people in the Bible who can negotiate with God on the basis of his
relationship. Moses pleads with God that in the eyes of Egypt it would look
like God was not able to carry through on his promise, and also the promises
God made to Abraham and Isaac.
In this case Moses actually
persuades God to spare all the people, though trouble will still happen.
Moses heads down the mountain,
meets up with Joshua and they hear the sounds coming from the Israelite camp.
Joshua thinks it sounds like war, Moses says it is not victory or defeat, but
singing.
Moses sees the calf and the dancing
and he throws the tablets (hand written by God no less) to the floor smashing
them to pieces.
He then melted the golden calf in
the fire, throws the ashes into water and made the people drink it.
Aaron then shows his iron will
and nerves of steel – “I threw the gold into the fire and a calf came out” sorry that should be jelly will and nerves of soft cheese!
Moses then calls out for
volunteers to serve God. His relatives (the Levites) rally and go through the
camp with swords and kill about 3000 people.
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