Bible Readings
Reading 57: The first major rebellion against Yahweh in the desert
Read Exodus 32:1–33:6.
Earlier, the people had asked Moses speak to Yahweh for them and then report what God said.
But after Moses spent 40 days on the mountain with Yahweh, the people grew impatient and falsely claimed they didn’t know what had happened to Moses. They insisted that Aaron, Moses’ brother, make them some gods.
Aaron should have reminded them that Moses was mediating for them, but he didn’t. Instead, he made a calf idol and called it Yahweh! The people lied to themselves, saying it was the calf idol that led them out of Egypt. These people had seen Yahweh work miracles for them by sending 10 judgment plagues upon Egypt and rescuing them through the Red Sea. But now they rejected God and wanted to pretend they had been saved by the calf idol!
On the mountain, God told Moses that the people had turned against Him. As the Creator-Owner-Ruler of the universe, Yahweh had every right to be angry with the people. He was the One who rescued them, not a lifeless, handmade, man-made calf idol. In righteous anger, Yahweh said He would destroy them.
Moses reminded God that Israel belonged to Him and His plan was to use Israel to show the world who He is by the way He interacted with Israel. Moses argued that God could not destroy them or the peoples of the world would get the wrong idea about Him. Then he reminded God of His covenantal promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he knew God would not break.
Because of Moses’ intercession, Yahweh decided not to eliminate the people. Why did He listen to Moses? Actually, God was teaching Moses about prayer. He was showing Moses that He allowed and in fact, wanted genuine interaction with mankind. And He would respond.
After this, Moses went down and upon seeing the people celebrating and worshipping the calf idol, he smashed the stone tablets containing the 10 Commandments which God had written, showing that the people had broken the contract.
Then Moses confronted Aaron who lied, saying he threw the gold from the people into the fire and the calf miraculously appeared. He was trying to make it look like he wasn’t responsible for making the idol.
Moses also confronted the people. He commanded those who were loyal to God to kill everyone who had worshipped the idol. The loyal tribe of Levi responded and because of their loyalty that day, God chose the tribe of Levi to be His priests, to represent Him to the people.
The next day, Moses went up the mountain again to plead for God’s mercy. God kept His promise not to eliminate Israel but He sent a plague to punish them.
Then Yahweh told Moses to lead the people into the land He had promised to Abraham. But He would not go with them personally because they had rebelled against Him. Instead, He would send His angel. The people were alarmed at this. So God told them to remove their jewellery as a sign of remorse.
Instead of a warm, loving relationship, the people now had a tense and strained relationship with Yahweh.
There are many lessons we can learn from this account. Here are three:
1. The people knew the truth about Yahweh, that He was their rescuer. But they chose to deceive themselves that the calf idol was their rescuer.
Similarly, it is God who counts us as righteous through our faith and saves us from eternal separation from Him. But some Christians like to think that it’s because they are good people that God saved them. Instead of attributing to God what He did, they turn the focus on themselves. They lie to themselves and choose to believe their own made-up “truth”.
When we pray and God answers our prayers, do we sometimes give credit to something else or our own abilities or say it’s a coincidence? Let’s not forget what God has done and continues to do for us.
Some Christians diligently keep a prayer journal or record how God responded to their prayers. This way, they can remember what God has done for them and thank Him.
2. God invited Moses to genuinely engage with Him in prayer. Moses didn’t need to act nice or pious. God was teaching Moses that He can handle hard conversations.
When we go to God in prayer, we can engage with Him in an authentic way when we know His character well. Moses knew that Yahweh is a promise-making, promise-keeping God, so he appealed to God’s character and asked for compassion upon Israel.
How well do we know Yahweh? Let’s determine to learn more about His character and what He’s like and then take up His invitation to have a deeply personal, intimate prayer life with Him.
3. God holds people accountable for their actions. As God of all, Yahweh has every right to punish people when they go against Him and His standards of righteousness.
Let us examine our hearts daily and check our attitude towards Yahweh and His words. Will we be like Moses who was loyal to Him? Or will we be like Aaron and the people, and make up our own truth?