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Exodus Chapter
Thirty-two
Exodus 32
Chapter Contents
The people cause Aaron to make a golden calf. (1-6) God's
displeasure, The intercession of Moses. (7-14) Moses breaks the tables of the
law, He destroys the golden calf. (15-20) Aaron's excuse, The idolaters slain.
(21-29) Moses prays for the people. (30-35)
Commentary on Exodus 32:1-6
(Read Exodus 32:1-6)
While Moses was in the mount, receiving the law from God,
the people made a tumultuous address to Aaron. This giddy multitude were weary
of waiting for the return of Moses. Weariness in waiting betrays to many
temptations. The Lord must be waited for till he comes, and waited for though
he tarry. Let their readiness to part with their ear-rings to make an idol,
shame our niggardliness in the service of the true God. They did not draw back
on account of the cost of their idolatry; and shall we grudge the expenses of
religion? Aaron produced the shape of an ox or calf, giving it some finish with
a graving tool. They offered sacrifice to this idol. Having set up an image
before them, and so changed the truth of God into a lie, their sacrifices were
abomination. Had they not, only a few days before, in this very place, heard
the voice of the Lord God speaking to them out of the midst of the fire, Thou
shalt not make to thyself any graven image? Had they not themselves solemnly entered
into covenant with God, that they would do all he had said to them, and would
be obedient? 7. Yet before they stirred from the place where
this covenant had been solemnly made, they brake an express command, in
defiance of an express threatening. It plainly shows, that the law was no more
able to make holy, than it was to justify; by it is the knowledge of sin, but
not the cure of sin. Aaron was set apart by the Divine appointment to the
office of the priesthood; but he, who had once shamed himself so far as to
build an altar to a golden calf, must own himself unworthy of the honour of
attending at the altar of God, and indebted to free grace alone for it. Thus
pride and boasting were silenced.
Commentary on Exodus 32:7-14
(Read Exodus 32:7-14)
God says to Moses, that the Israelites had corrupted
themselves. Sin is the corruption of the sinner, and it is a self-corruption;
every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust. They had turned
aside out of the way. Sin is a departing from the way of duty into a by-path.
They soon forgot God's works. He sees what they cannot discover, nor is any
wickedness of the world hid from him. We could not bear to see the thousandth
part of that evil which God sees every day. God expresses the greatness of his
just displeasure, after the manner of men who would have prayer of Moses could
save them from ruin; thus he was a type of Christ, by whose mediation alone,
God would reconcile the world to himself. Moses pleads God's glory. The
glorifying God's name, as it ought to be our first petition, and it is so in
the Lord's prayer, so it ought to be our great plea. And God's promises are to
be our pleas in prayer; for what he has promised he is able to perform. See the
power of prayer. In answer to the prayers of Moses, God showed his purpose of
sparing the people, as he had before seemed determined on their destruction;
which change of the outward discovery of his purpose, is called repenting of
the evil.
Commentary on Exodus 32:15-20
(Read Exodus 32:15-20)
What a change it is, to come down from the mount of
communion with God, to converse with a wicked world. In God we see nothing but
what is pure and pleasing; in the world nothing but what is sinful and
provoking. That it might appear an idol is nothing in the world, Moses ground
the calf to dust. Mixing this powder with their drink, signified that the
backslider in heart should be filled with his own ways.
Commentary on Exodus 32:21-29
(Read Exodus 32:21-29)
Never did any wise man make a more frivolous and foolish
excuse than that of Aaron. We must never be drawn into sin by any thing man can
say or do to us; for men can but tempt us to sin, they cannot force us. The
approach of Moses turned the dancing into trembling. They were exposed to shame
by their sin. The course Moses took to roll away this reproach, was, not by
concealing the sin, or putting any false colour upon it, but by punishing it.
The Levites were to slay the ringleaders in this wickedness; yet none were
executed but those who openly stood forth. Those are marked for ruin who
persist in sin: those who in the morning were shouting and dancing, before
night were dying. Such sudden changes do the judgments of the Lord sometimes
make with sinners that are secure and jovial in their sin.
Commentary on Exodus 32:30-35
(Read Exodus 32:30-35)
Moses calls it a great sin. The work of ministers is to
show people the greatness of their sins. The great evil of sin appears in the
price of pardon. Moses pleads with God for mercy; he came not to make excuses,
but to make atonement. We are not to suppose that Moses means that he would be
willing to perish for ever, for the people's sake. We are to love our neighbour
as ourselves, and not more than ourselves. But having that mind which was in
Christ, he was willing to lay down his life in the most painful manner, if he
might thereby preserve the people. Moses could not wholly turn away the wrath
of God; which shows that the law of Moses was not able to reconcile men to God,
and to perfect our peace with him. In Christ alone, God so pardons sin as to
remember it no more. From this history we see, that no unhumbled, carnal heart,
can long endure the holy precepts, the humbling truths, and the spiritual
worship of God. But a god, a priest, a worship, a doctrine, and a sacrifice,
suited to the carnal mind, will ever meet with abundance of worshippers. The
very gospel itself may be so perverted as to suit a worldly taste. Well is it
for us, that the Prophet like unto Moses, but who is beyond compare more
powerful and merciful, has made atonement for our souls, and now intercedes in
our behalf. Let us rejoice in his grace.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Exodus》
Exodus 32
Verse 1
[1] And
when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the
people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us
gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us
up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Up, make us gods which shall go before us.
They were weary of waiting for the promised land. They thought themselves
detained too long at mount Sinai. They had a God that stayed with them, but
they must have a God to go before them to the land flowing with milk and honey.
They were weary of waiting for the return of Moses: As for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of Egypt, we know not what is become of him - Observe
how slightly they speak of his person, this Moses: And how suspiciously of his
delay, we know not what is become of him. And they were weary of waiting for a
divine institution of religious worship among them, so they would have a
worship of their own invention, probably such as they had seen among the
Egyptians. They say, make us gods which shall go before us. Gods! How many
would they have? Is not one sufficient? And what good would gods of their own
making do them? They must have such Gods to go before them as could not go
themselves farther than they were carried!
Verse 2
[2] And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the
ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto
me.
And Aaron said break off the golden ear-rings — We do not find that he said one word to discountenance their proposal.
Some suppose, that when Aaron bid them break off their ear-rings, he did it
with design to crush the proposal, believing that, though their covetousness
would have let them do it, yet their pride would not have suffered them to part
with them.
Verse 3
[3] And
all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and
brought them unto Aaron.
And all the people brake off their ear-rings — Which Aaron melted down, and, having a mold prepared, poured the melted
gold into it, and then produced it in the shape of an ox or calf, giving it
some finishing strokes with a graving tool.
Verse 5
[5] And
when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation,
and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
And Aaron built an altar before it, and
proclaimed a feast — A feast of dedication; yet he calls it a
feast to Jehovah; for, as brutish as they were, they did not design to
terminate their adoration in the image; but they made it for a representation
of the true God, whom they intended to worship in and through this image. And
yet this did not excuse them from gross idolatry, no more than it will excuse
the Papists, whose plea it is, that they do not worship the image, but God by
the image; so making themselves just such idolaters as the worshippers of the
golden calf, whose feast was a feast to Jehovah, and proclaimed to be so, that
the most ignorant and unthinking might not mistake it.
Verse 6
[6] And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and
brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose
up to play.
And they rose up early on the morrow, and
offered sacrifice to this new made deity. And the people sat down to eat and
drink of the remainder of what was sacrificed, and then rose up to play - To
play the fool, to play the wanton. It was strange that any of the people,
especially so great a number of them, should do such a thing. Had they not, but
the other day, in this very place, heard the voice of the Lord God speaking to
them out of the midst of the fire, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven
image? - Yet They made a calf in Horeb, the very place where the law was given
It was especially strange that Aaron should be so deeply concerned, should make
the calf and proclaim the feast! Is this Aaron the saint of the Lord! Is this
he that had not only seen, but had been employed in summoning the plagues of
Egypt, and the judgments executed upon the gods of the Egyptians? What! And yet
himself copying out the abandoned idolatries of Egypt? How true is it, that the
law made them priests which had infirmity, and needed first to offer for their
own sins?
Verse 8
[8] They
have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made
them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and
said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land
of Egypt.
They have turned aside quickly — Quickly after the law was given them, and they had promised to obey it;
quickly after God had done such great things for them, and declared his kind
intentions to do greater.
Verse 9
[9] And
the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a
stiffnecked people:
It is a stiff-necked people — Unapt to come under the yoke of the divine law, averse to all good, and
prone to evil, obstinate to the methods of cure.
Verse 10
[10] Now
therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may
consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
Let me alone —
What did Moses, or what could he do, to hinder God from consuming them? When
God resolves to abandon a people, and the decree is gone forth, no intercession
can prevent it. But God would thus express the greatness of his displeasure,
after the manner of men, who would have none to interceed for those they
resolve to be severe with. Thus also he would put an honour upon prayer,
intimating, that nothing but the intercession of Moses could save them from
ruin, that he might be a type of Christ, by whose mediation alone God would
reconcile the world unto himself.
Verse 11
[11] And
Moses besought the LORD #1# his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot
against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with
great power, and with a mighty hand?
And Moses besought the Lord his God — If God would not be called the God of Israel, yet he hoped he might
address him as his own God. Now Moses is standing in the gap to turn away the
wrath of God. Psalms 106:23. He took the hint which God gave
him when he said, Let me alone, which, though it seemed to forbid his
interceding, did really encourage it, by shewing what power the prayer of faith
hath with God.
Verse 12
[12]
Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them
out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the
earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
Turn from thy fierce wrath — Not as if he thought God were not justly angry, but he begs that he
would not be so greatly angry as to consume them. Let mercy rejoice against
judgment; repent of this evil - Change the sentence of destruction into that of
correction, against thy people which thou broughtest up out of Egypt - For whom
thou hast done so great things? Wherefore should the Egyptians say, For
mischief did he bring them out - Israel is dear to Moses, as his kindred, as
his charge; but it is the glory of God that he is most concerned for. If Israel
could perish without any reproach to God's name, Moses could persuade himself
to sit down contented; but he cannot bear to hear God reflected on; and
therefore this he insists upon, Lord, What will the Egyptians say? They will
say, God was either weak, and could not, or fickle, and would not compleat the
salvation he begun.
Verse 13
[13]
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by
thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of
heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and
they shall inherit it for ever.
Remember Abraham —
Lord, if Israel be cut off, what will become of the promise?
Verse 14
[14] And
the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
And the Lord repented of the evil he thought
to do — Though he designed to punish them, yet he
would not ruin them. See here, the power of prayer, God suffers himself to be
prevailed with by humble believing importunity. And see the compassion of God
towards poor sinners, and how ready he is to forgive.
Verse 15
[15] And
Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony
were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side
and on the other were they written.
On both their sides —
Some on one table and some on the other, so that they were folded together like
a book, to be deposited in the ark.
Verse 16
[16] And
the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven
upon the tables.
The writing of God —
Very probably the first writing in the world.
Verse 19
[19] And
it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf,
and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his
hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
He saw the calf, and the dancing, and his
anger waxed hot — It is no breach of the law of meekness to
shew our displeasure at wickedness. Those are angry and sin not, that are angry
at sin only. Moses shewed himself angry, both by breaking the tables, and
burning the calf, that he might by these expressions of a strong passion awaken
the people to a sense of the greatness of their sin. He broke the tables before
their eyes, as it is Deuteronomy 9:17, that the sight of it might
fill them with confusion when they saw what blessings they had lost. The
greatest sign of God's displeasure against any people is his taking his law
from them.
Verse 20
[20] And
he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it
to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink
of it.
He burnt the calf —
Melted it down, and then filed it to dust; and that the powder to which it was
reduced might he taken notice of throughout the camp, he strawed it upon the
water which they all drank of. That it might appear that an idol is nothing in
the world, he reduced this to atoms, that it might be as near nothing as could
be.
Verse 21
[21] And
Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought
so great a sin upon them?
What did this people unto thee — He takes it for granted that it must needs be something more than
ordinary that prevailed with Aaron to do such a thing? Did they overcome thee
by importunity, and hadst thou so little resolution as to yield to popular
clamour! Did they threaten to stone thee, and couldest not thou have opposed
God's threatenings to theirs?
Verse 23
[23] For
they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this
Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is
become of him.
They said, make us Gods — It is natural to us to endeavour thus to transfer our guilt. He likewise
extenuates his own share in the sin, as if he had only bid them break off their
gold, intending but to make a hasty essay for the present, and childishly
insinuates that when he cast the gold into the fire, it came out either by
accident, or by the magic art of some of the mixt multitude (as the Jewish
writers dream) in this shape. This was all Aaron had to say for himself, and he
had better have said nothing, for his defence did but aggravate his offence;
and yet as sin did abound, grace did much more abound.
Verse 25
[25] And
when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto
their shame among their enemies: #1#
The people were naked — Stript of their armour, and liable to insults.
Verse 26
[26] Then
Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? let
him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto
him.
Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, the
place of judgment; and said, Who is on the Lord's side? - The idolaters had set
up the golden calf for their standard, and now Moses sets up his in opposition
to them.
Verse 27
[27] And
he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword
by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay
every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his
neighbour.
Slay every man his brother — That is, Slay all those that you know to have been active for the making
and worshipping of the golden calf, though they were your nearest relations or
dearest friends. Yet it should seem they were to slay those only whom they
found abroad in the street of the camp; for it might be hoped that those who
were retired into their tents were ashamed of what they had done.
Verse 28
[28] And
the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the
people that day about three thousand men.
And there fell of the people that day about
three thousand men — Probably these were but few in comparison
with the many that were guilty; but these were the men that headed the
rebellion, and were therefore picked out to be made examples of; for terror to
others.
Verse 31
[31] And
Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great
sin, and have made them gods of gold.
Oh, this people have sinned a great sin — God had first told him of it, Exodus 32:7, and now he tells God of it by way
of lamentation. He doth not call them God's people, he knew they were unworthy
to be called so, but this people. This treacherous ungrateful people, they have
made them gods of gold.
Verse 32
[32] Yet
now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of
thy book which thou hast written.
If not — If
the decree be gone forth, and there is no remedy but they must be ruined, blot
me, I pray thee out of the book which thou hast written - That is, out of the
book of life. If all Israel must perish, I am content to perish with them. This
expression may be illustrated from Romans 9:3. For I could wish myself to be an
anathema from Christ, for my brethren's sake. Does this imply no more than not
enjoying Canaan? Not that Moses absolutely desired this, but only comparatively
expresses his vehement zeal for God's glory, and love to his people,
signifying, that the very thought of their destruction, and the dishonour of
God, was so intolerable to him, that he rather wishes, if it were possible,
that God would accept of him, as a sacrifice in their stead, and by his utter
destruction, prevent so great a mischief.
Verse 33
[33] And
the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out
of my book.
Whosoever hath sinned, him will I blot out of
my book — The soul that sins shall die, and not the
innocent for the guilty.
Verse 34
[34]
Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto
thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I
visit I will visit their sin upon them.
My angel shall go before them — Some created angel that was employed in the common services of his
kingdom, which intimated that they were not to expect any thing for the future
to be done for them out of the common road of providence.
When I visit —
Hereafter he shall see cause to punish them for other sins, I will visit for this
among the rest. From hence the Jews have a saying, that from hence-forward no
judgment fell upon Israel, but there was in it an ounce of the powder of the
golden calf.
Verse 35
[35] And
the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.
And the Lord plagued the people — Probably by the pestilence, or some other infectious disease. Thus Moses
prevailed for a mitigation of the punishment, but could not wholly turn away
the wrath of God.
──
John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Exodus》
32 Chapter 32
Verses 1-6
Up, make us gods.
Idolatry
I. The very
essence of idolatry is not spiritual ignorance and obtuseness, but a wilful
turning away from the spiritual knowledge and worship of God.
1. This act of idolatry was in the very front of the majesty and
splendour of Jehovah revealed on Sinai.
2. With the idol before him, the priest proclaimed a feast unto the
Lord; and the people pleased themselves with the thought that they were
“fearing the Lord, while they served their own gods.” The real heart of
idolatry is here laid bare. It is, in plain terms, an effort to bring God
within reach; to escape the trouble, pain, and weariness of spiritual effort,
and substitute the effect of the eye, hand, and tongue for the labour of the
soul.
3. In God’s sight--i.e., in reality--this is a turning away from Him.
They meant this bull to be an image of God their leader. God saw that it was an
image of their own idolatrous and sensual hearts.
II. The contrast
between the prophet and the priest.
III. The central
principle of idolatry is the shrinking of the spirit from the invisible God. It
is the glory of the Incarnation that it presents that image of the invisible
God which is not an idol, that it gives into the arms of the yearning spirit a
Man, a Brother, and declares that Jesus Christ is the God of heaven. (J. B.
Brown, B. A.)
Lessons from the worship of the calf
I. The difficulty
to human nature of faith in the unseen.
II. The impatience
of man at God’s method of working. Moses delayed in the mount. The people would
not wait for the man with God’s Word.
III. That man will
have a god. Up, make us gods. They are often manufactured gods. The man who
would be popular must make gods to go before the people. It is the very height
of folly when men of science, art, or manufactures, say of their own works,
“These be thy gods, O Israel.”
IV. The effect of
slavish adherence to old ideas. In one sense, at least, they were not out of
Egypt--The sacred ox. See the importance of keeping the young from early
impressions of error. Let none expose themselves to false teaching, it may
bring them into bondage.
V. Their
extravagant expenditure fob the gratification of a fancy (Exodus 32:2-3). People often spend more
in superstition than Christians for the truth. Christians spend far more for
luxury, pleasure, fancy, than for Christ. Who amongst us is willing to do as
much for Jesus as these people did to procure a golden calf?
VI. How art is
desecrated to sinful purposes (Exodus 32:4). So in building at Babel; in
worship at Babylon, and Ephesus, and Athens. Abundant proof in our picture
galleries and museums, and also in our modern theatres, gin palaces, etc., etc.
VII. That if God is
dishonoured, man is misled, humiliated, ruined. (W. Whale.)
The golden calf of Aaron and the Lamb of God-an infinite contrast
1. The calf of gold was made of earth’s choicest valuables. The Lamb
of God was heaven’s greatest treasure.
2. The calf of gold was made to make God visible. Christ was God manifest
in the flesh.
3. The calf of gold was made to meet a seeming extremity. Christ came
when man was lost beyond hope.
4. The calf of gold was made to go before the children of Israel to
the land of promise. Christ is the way from sin and bondage to a land glorious
beyond the imagination of men to conceive. (Homiletic Monthly.)
The golden calf
I. The first fact
that asserts itself in these lines is this--that the greatest manifestations of
God s presence and power do not necessarily keep us from sin. We must rely on
Christian principle; or, if we say it in other terms, we must walk by faith,
not by sight.
II. Another lesson
which comes out of this painful history is the uncertainty of popular movements
in religion. They are very deceptive, and never more so than to-day, when the
democratic idea is carried over into the realm of Christian faith and made to
do duty where it has no place. The work of the tempter is seen not only on
individuals, but on whole communities, swaying them from the severe standard of
purity and truth. With the children of Israel the rule was the Ten Commandments
which they had just accepted from Jehovah and which left them no excuse for
idolatry. With us the standard is the whole Word of God.
III. Perhaps the
most pitiable figure in the world is a priest like Aaron who weakly succumbs to
the popular will and attempts to lower the unchanging and the spiritual laws of
God. It was convenient for the turbulent and idolatrous crowd at the foot of
the mountain to have an Aaron to do their wicked work. It made it look better
and soothed the outcries of conscience. It has often been convenient for
godless and cruel monarchs, like Henry the Eighth, to have a Wolsey to sanction
their wickedness.
IV. Lastly, we see
that the covenant was broken, but not annihilated, because there is forgiveness
with God our Father. The two tables were shivered to atoms, but the law that
was written on them by God’s finger is still in power. (E. N. Packard.)
Makeshifts
It was then a period of ignorance and superstition; but even now
the greater portion of humanity worship tangible gods. The cry is for something
which can be touched; and though men believe in an invisible God, yet they seek
to gather comfort from makeshift idols. Men see that gold will enable them to obtain
the comforts of life, and thinking that such comforts will give joy to the
soul, they say, “Oh, that we could get gold!” They work and slave, and bow
down, and sacrifice themselves for gold, as if it were a god. The fountain of
pure joy and rest can be given only by a living God; gold is a dead
thing, which does not know us and cannot sympathize with us. Men have an
instinct for religious worship and for holy conduct, and if they do not
exercise this sacred instinct in its true channels, they must have a makeshift
to satisfy them for the time being. Let us describe some of the makeshifts on
which men try to lean for comfort.
1. Some people make their intention to serve God to-morrow a
makeshift for goodness to-day. You use this intention as a makeshift for true
piety, and try to persuade your conscience to be content with it instead of the
genuine article.
2. Many people seek worldly satisfactions as makeshifts for spiritual
realities. Men say, “If I had this wealth, or that friendship, or his love, or
her affection, I should have a happy soul.” They think that earthly
satisfactions will be good makeshifts for blessings which none but God can
bestow.
3. Others seek in the approval of men a makeshift for the approval of
God.
4. Is it not true that many people consider the pleasures of sin a
makeshift for the joys of holiness? Can you find any of the men who have given
themselves to sin and profligacy who can truly say that they have enjoyed life?
5. Perhaps you have given up some sins, and make that fact a
makeshift for perfect cleansing. As a child is content with washing a part of
her face, leaving the crevices of the eyes and ears untouched, so you have put
away some of your sins, but have left your heart as it was.
6. Some people make attendance at church a makeshift for Divine
service. (W. Birch.)
Aaron’s sin
Aaron, formerly so courageous; fearlessly speaking to Pharaoh; who
was a mouth unto Moses his brother; called the saint of the Lord. Aaron, so
prompt in obedience to the will of God, listens to the people, and actually
leads them on in the way to destruction! In all probability he was afraid of
offending the people, who were assembled in numbers, and he had not courage to
resist their sinful desires. We have other instances in Scripture in which the
servants of God failed in that very grace for which they were most remarkable.
Simon Peter could declare his determination to go with his Master to prison and
to death; yet within a short time he cursed and swore, saying, “I know not the
man.” Elijah, who cut off four hundred and fifty of the prophets of Baal, was
intimidated by the threats of Jezebel, fled from his post of duty and
usefulness, and wished for himself that he might die. We may remark from this
that no sacredness of office or of character will keep man from sin. It is only
grace that can effect this for us. It is imagined by many that Aaron did not
intend to promote idolatry; that he merely gave the advice which he did give to
get rid of the difficulty, and that he did not expect the people would make the
sacrifice which he demanded, knowing their love for their ornaments and jewels.
But how unwise and unholy was such conduct: he was at any rate appearing to
sanction what he knew to be wrong; he was putting the most important interests
in jeopardy, and descending from the only ground which a child of God ought to
occupy in moral questions. But Aaron’s manner of defending himself with Moses
afterwards proves that he had given way in opposition to his conscience (Exodus 32:24). What need have we to pray
that ministers especially be not left to themselves! we are men, not angels; we
are compassed with infirmities, and subject to like passions with others; we
have need constantly to watch and pray, that your desires may not lead
us to say or do what would be injurious to your best interests. (George
Breay, B. A.)
Aaron’s flexible disposition
Of ready and eloquent utterance, he seems, like many who have been
similarly gifted, to have been of a pliant and flexible disposition. He bent,
like the sapling, to almost every breeze; his nature was receptive rather than
creative; he took impressions from others, but made little or no impression on
them in return; he floated on the current which others formed, but he rarely,
if ever, made a torrent which swept all opposition before it. He had little of
that formative power which is always the indication of the possession of the
highest greatness, and by which the individual moulds and fashions all who come
within the range of his influence. He had more of the soft impressiveness of
the melted wax than of the hardness of the die that stamps it. Hence he was
well enough in time of peace, and when everything was going smoothly; but when
a sudden emergency arose, when a mutiny was to be quelled, or, as in the
present instance, a fit of idolatrous madness was to be repressed, he proved
unequal to the occasion, and was found yielding, against his better judgment,
to the demand of the multitude. From a timid and pusillanimous regard to his
own safety, he would not oppose the wishes of the people; and so it happened
that the spark, which a moment’s firmness might have trodden out, became at
length a mighty conflagration, in the flames of which some thousands were
consumed. It was in his power, had he resisted the demand at the first, to have
prevented all this evil; and even if he could not have put down the idolatrous
revolt, it was still his duty to have offered to it the most uncompromising
opposition. Hence his conduct was not only condemned by Moses, but also in the
highest degree displeasing to God (Deuteronomy 9:20).
1. It is always wrong to do wrong. Aaron does not think for a moment
of denying that idolatry is a sin; but the whole drift of his reply to Moses
is, that his making of the golden calf was, as far as he was concerned, a thing
which he could not get rid of. The man who came home intoxicated last night,
saying that he could not help it, because he met some friends who insisted on
his going with them, and he could not get away; the family who are ruined by
reckless extravagance, and declare that they were under the necessity of
keeping up appearances; the merchant who, on the eve of bankruptcy, has
recourse to dishonourable expedients; the youth who helps himself to his
employer’s money, because he had to do something to pay his debts--all are in
the same category with Aaron.
2. The difficulty of doing right is always exaggerated by the timid.
The world’s own maxim is, “Grasp the nettle firmly, and it will not sting”; and
a deep knowledge of your own heart, or a large experience of the ways of men,
will convince you that, if with spirit and energy you do the right thing at the
right time, opposition will fall away from before you, and they who threatened
to persecute will in the end approve. Nor ought we to forget that God has
promised to be with those who stand up bravely for His cause. The stern eye of
an unflinching man will hold--so it is said--even the lion spell-bound; and
courage in the service of God, turning an unyielding eye on Satan, will send
him away from us for a season.
3. The consequences of wrong-doing are always more serious than the
wrong-doer at first supposed. I can imagine Aaron bitterly upbraiding himself
for his weakness when he saw the fatal fruits of it, but then it was too late
to repair the wrong. You cannot stay the shell midway in its flight; after it
has left the mortar it goes on to its mark, and there explodes, dealing
destruction all around. Just as little can you arrest the consequences of a sin
after it has been committed. You may repent of it, you may even be forgiven for
it, but still it goes on its deadly and desolating way. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
That most men have their weaknesses, by which they may be taken
I have never read of any island so impregnable but nature
has left in it some place or other by which it might be vanquishable; nor have
I ever met with any person so well armed, at all points, as not to leave some
way whereby he might be sometime surprised: this passion, that affection, this
friend or that kinsman, this or that delight or inclination. He is the
strongest who has the fewest accesses. As those places are the weakest which
lie open to every invader, so, certainly, he is the most subject to be overcome
whose easiness exposes him to be prevailed upon by every feeble attempt. And
however fertile he may be by nature, and of a good soil, yet, if he lies
unsurrounded, he shall be sure to be always low. At least he ought to have a
fence and a gate, and not let every beast that has but craft or impudence to
graze or dung upon him. (Owen Felltham.)
Lack of decision of character
“A man without decision,” writes John Foster,”can never be said to
belong to himself; since, if he dared to assert that he did, the puny force of
some cause about as powerful, you would have supposed, as a spider, may make a
seizure of the hapless boaster the very next moment, and contemptuously exhibit
the futility of the determination by which he was to have proved the
independence of his understanding and his will. He belongs to whatever can make
capture of him; and one thing after another vindicates its right to him by
arresting him when he is trying to go on, as twigs and chips floating near the
edge of a river are intercepted by every weed and whirled in every little eddy.
Having concluded on a design, he may pledge himself to accomplish it, if the
hundred diversities of feeling which may come within the week may let him. His
character precluding all foresight of his conduct, he may sit and wonder what
form and direction his views and actions are destined to take to-morrow; as a
farmer has often to acknowledge that next day’s proceedings are at the disposal
of its winds and clouds. This man’s notions and determinations always depend
very much on other human beings; and what chance for consistency and stability
while the persons with whom he may converse or transact are so various? A
succession of persons whose faculties were stronger than his own might, in
spite of his irresolute reaction, take him and dispose of him as they pleased.
Such infirmity of spirit practically confesses him made for subjection; and he
passes like a slave from owner to owner.”
A disappointing development of character
How surprised sometimes is the naturalist who, after carefully
preserving a chrysalis, and awaiting day by day the appearance of the beautiful
butterfly, of which it is the coarse and mysterious envelope, sees a crowd of
flies emerge in place of it! This is through the work of the echinomyia, a
genus of insects which derive their nourishment from flowers. They deposit
their eggs on caterpillars, and the young larvae on hatching penetrate their
bodies and feed on their viscera. How surprised sometimes is the kind father of
a family who, after carefully watching the growth of a child, and anticipating
the development of a noble character, sees to his dismay an exhibition of all
the gross and common vices instead of it. This is the work of various bad
associates, such as servants, tutors, or others who, whilst deriving their
livelihood from tending children, have deposited in their minds--perhaps
unintentionally, but nevertheless effectually--vicious ideas which have only waited
the opportunity for a horrible unfolding. The victory of these vicious ideas is
so insidious that forethought is disarmed. The embryo is placed where even
ingenuity might search in vain. When those ideas develop they are as certain to
destroy a beautiful character as the echinomyia are to destroy the most lovely
butterfly. (Scientific Illustrations, etc.)
We must not be persuaded to sin
Then there was John Bunyan, who, under the despotic and
profligate reign of Charles II., was sent to the Bedford gaol. True, they
offered to release him, and allow him to go back to his wife and four children
(one of them blind), but it was at the sacrifice of his convictions, and he
scorned that. He was a man every inch of him, and in reply to the offer he
said, “Before I will do that, I will stay in the gaol until the moss has grown
around my eyebrows.” Brave John Bunyan!
Sat down to eat and to
drink.
Epicurism described and disgraced
I. Who did this?
The people; who had impiously presumed to set up a worship against God. Whence
note that feastings and idleness are the undivided companions of idolatry. The
counsel, then, of the apostle, upon this ground, is not unseasonable (1 Corinthians 10:7). Be not
idolaters, as they were. But we are the people of God, and baptized in the name
of Christ; there is no fear we should be idolaters. The Jews were God’s people,
yet set up the golden calf.
II. When they did
this. Even when their case was most miserable, then were they most insensible;
for--
1. They had robbed themselves and made themselves poor, in that the
ear-rings and jewels which God had given them from the Egyptians they bestowed
upon an idol.
2. They had committed an horrible sin, aggravated sundry ways. They
had turned the glory of an incorruptible God into the similitude of a calf that
eateth hay.
3. For this fearful sin they lie under a heavy punishment: they were
now naked, and God was coming to revenge upon them; and after He was entreated,
at the instance of Moses, to spare them, yet, for example, three thousand of
them were presently slain.
III. But is it not
lawful to eat and drink? Yes, it is not lawful only, but necessary to nourish
our life, to repair strength decayed, and enable us to our duties and calling.
Nay, more: we may use the creatures, not only for necessity, but for delight.
God hath given us leave liberally to use His mercies, and furnished us with
variety far beyond necessity. He hath not given bread only to strengthen the heart,
but oil to make the face shine. What, then, did this people other? They failed
in many things.
1. Whereas the chief end of eating and drinking is to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31), the end of
this eating and drinking was to dishonour God and honour the calf.
2. Whereas eating and drinking should fit us to our duties and
callings, both general and special, they by eating and drinking made themselves
fit for nothing but play and wantonness.
3. Whereas men ought to eat and drink according to the call of
nature, in sobriety and moderation, the text noteth an intemperate waste both
of time and creatures, addicting themselves to the creature and nothing else.
4. Whereas feastings are seasonable in times of joy and gladness,
these feast in a time when God’s judgments are coming on them for their sin,
and so the deepest sorrow would better beseem them, as also did they in Noah’s
time. They ate and drank, etc. (and Isaiah 5:12), not considering the work of
God. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
Rose up to play.--
On recreation
If we be ruled by God in our sports and rejoicings, we must listen
to His directions.
I. First, our
choice must be of sports in themselves lawful. We may not play with holy
things, suppose Scripture phrases; we must fear the holy name of Jehovah, not
play with it. Neither on the other side may we play with sin, or things evil in
themselves, viz., to make one drunk or swear, or to laugh at such persons. It
is a matter of sorrow to see God’s image so defaced. So in other sinful
merriments. Or if we have not warrant for them, by general rules of the Word,
if the laws of the land prohibit them as unlawful. Here pause on that rule (Philippians 4:8). And Christian wisdom
will also guide us to the choice of the best sports. A spiritual mind will
choose spiritual recreations, as a carnal mind will use carnal.
II. Secondly, when
we have chosen warrantable sports, we must beware we sin not in the use of
them. And to keep us from sin in our recreations we must look to our neighbour,
to ourselves.
1. For our neighbour two rules must be observed: one of wisdom, the
other of justice.
2. We must look carefully to ourselves. First, for our affection,
that it be moderate. We may use lawful sports, but not love them. Secondly, for
our ends. Our ends must not be to pass the time, which passeth whether we will
or no, and we ought to redeem our time, and not let it pass without gaining
something better than itself; nor yet to maintain idleness as men that cannot
tell what to do with themselves else. Again, the end of sport is preservation
of our health, both of soul and body, and not to impair the health of either,
as many by watching at play, and forgetting or foregoing their diet and rest
for play, destroy their health and call in numbers of diseases on themselves,
and oftentimes untimely death. Lastly, seeing nothing can be lawful wherein
some glory accrues not to God, therefore, if the end of our sports be not to
enable us with cheerfulness in duties of religion and Christianity, it will all
be returned as sin in this reckoning. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
The right use of amusements
Remember our amusements and recreations are merely intended to fit
us for usefulness. I hope that none of you have fallen into the delusion that
your mission in life is to enjoy yourselves. Pepper and salt and sugar and
cinnamon are very important, but that would be a very unhealthy repast that had
nothing else on the table. Amusements and recreations are the spice and the
condiment of the great banquet. But some of you over-pleasuring people are
feeding the body and soul on condiments. We are to make these recreations of
life preparations for practical usefulness. We must make our amusements a
reinforcement of our capacity. Living is a tremendous affair, and alas! for the
man who makes recreation a depletion instead of an augmentation. Once when the
city of Rome was besieged by Hannibal’s army there was a great shout of
laughter inside the walls, and it strangely frightened the besieging army, and
they fled in wild precipitation. That is a matter of history. But no guffaw of
laughter will ever scatter our foes, or lift our besiegement, or gain our
victory. It must be face to face, foot to foot, battle-axe to battle-axe, if we
achieve anything worthy. Can you imagine any predicament worse than that which
I now sketch? Time has passed, and we come up to judgment to give our account
for what we have been doing. The angel of the judgment says to us: “You came up
from a world where there were millions in sin, millions in poverty, millions in
wretchedness, and there were a great many people, philanthropists and
Christians, who toiled themselves into the grave trying to help others. What
did you do?” And then the angel of the resurrection, the angel of the judgment
will say: “Those are the women who consecrated their needle to God and made
garments for the poor.” The angel of the resurrection, the angel of the
judgment facing the group of pleasurists: “What did you do?” “Well,” says one
of them, “I was very fond of the drama, and spent my evenings looking at it.”
May the Almighty God forbid that you and I should make the terrific mistake of
substituting merriment for duty! Pliny says that the mermaids danced on the
green grass, but all around them were dead men’s bones. Neither bat nor ball,
nor lawn tennis racquet, nor croquet mallet, nor boat, nor skate--although they
all have their uses--can make death, life, and eternity happy. (T. De Witt
Talmage, D. D.)
A sermon on play
Play is neither idleness nor folly. It is one of the many good
things which have come into your life from heaven. It is a gift from God. It is
a part of your life as truly as prayer is, as truly as the soul itself is. And
it is part of the life of children all the world over.
1. Now, the first thing I want you to see is that this playing of you
boys and girls is a pleasure to God. He is a God so kind and loving that He
delights in everything innocent that is a delight to you. Just as He delights
in the songs of birds and in the colour and fragrance of flowers, He delights
in the play of childhood.
2. God has made play a part of your life, because He wants you to be
strong. He has work waiting in the years to come for every boy and girl on the
earth. And although it is not all the same kind of work, all of it is work
which will want strength for the doing. Therefore He will not have you always
at tasks. He has divided the time for tasks with the time for play. He will
have you out in the open air. By your games He will have your body in endless
motion. You shall run and not be weary.
3. For another thing God wants you to have a happy gateway into life.
Nobody can tell beforehand whether your after-life will be happy. In games you
are joined together, just as we who are old are in our toils. The playground is
a little world. You cannot have any pleasure in any of its games unless you try
to have the others playing with you as happy as yourself. To be unkind, unjust,
unfair, or ungenerous in a game is to spoil it or bring it to an end. Surely
this is a new, rich addition to our knowledge of God when we discover that the
same kind Father, who gave His Son to die for us, that He might deliver us from
sin and death, made the joy and play of boys and girls in the streets and in
the house. May you carry something of the joy of it through life with you, and
may you remember that God has been so good to you that He has set your life
between two worlds of joy--the world of your happy childhood and the world that
awaits you in heaven! (A. Macleod, D. D.)
Verses 11-14
Moses besought the Lord.
The intercession
We find him in succession--
1. Highly privileged.
2. Deeply grieved.
3. Raised to a holy frame of mind.
4. Visibly answered.
5. Abundantly strengthened.
I. Many events
have taken place since Moses, at the Lord’s command, drove back the waters of
the Red Sea, and the song of deliverance voiced forth from heart and mouth of
many myriads. Amidst the sound of thunder and of trumpets, heaven has already
spoken to the earth, and Israel’s camp has now for weeks been gathered round
Mount Sinai, waiting patiently till Moses shall return. Return! Where is he,
then, you ask, and where can Amram’s son remain with more advantage than amidst
the people, who, as is already fully evident, cannot remain without his help
and guidance for another single day? Where? As if Moses could have been himself
had he been always living in the abject sphere in which this Israel moved; as
if a man to whom the Lord Almighty has vouchsafed a look into celestial
mysteries should hasten back to earth again! The story of those forty days is
written in heaven’s register; and if Moses were himself still here to give his
witness as to what occurred, perhaps he would repeat the words of Paul
regarding the most blessed hour of his experience, “Whether it took place in
the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell--God knoweth.” It is enough for us
that he receives the law there through the medium of angels; that at this time
he may have had withdrawn from him the cloud, which hitherto had quite
concealed from human eyes God’s counsel in its grand development, as now
revealed in these last times; that there is now made known to him, not merely
the grand principles of law to regulate the Jewish commonwealth, but God’s
express appointments as to everything relating to the life, both civil and
religious, of the chosen nation, even to minute details; that he is now allowed
(and this, the greatest privilege of all, I mention last) to pray in such a way
that he most truly lives in close communion with the Infinite. Oh, happy Moses!
who shall tell in what a stream of deep enjoyment you must then have bathed;
how much refreshment your soul must have drawn from the full cup of God’s
delights; and how oblivious you must have now become of all the troubles which
so often, like a leaden weight, oppressed your soul on earth? How high stands
this great man of God above the carnal Israelites, who long for nothing so
incessantly as for Egyptian flesh! Among those born of women, there has not
been one, belonging to the days of the Old Covenant, that stood in such an
intimate relation to Jehovah, except, it may be, Abraham alone: in this
respect, then, we look upon Moses as a happy man. But the greatest privilege
which Moses had at Sinai--confidential intercourse with God--is granted to each
one of us who know Him in His Son.
II. Yet do not
think that such a privilege exempts you from a multitude of struggles on this
earth; rather, when you but look at Moses’ case, and find how deeply grieved he
was, the contrary seems true. He is still standing in God’s holy presence,
raised above the dust of earth, when suddenly he hears the words addressed to
him, “Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land
of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” “Thy people”: these are bitter, cutting
words. Is it not just as if Jehovah meant to say, “A people such as this can no
more be accounted Mine”? What has occurred to rouse the Holy One to wrath?
“These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”
Oh, wretched nation, thus, when not much more than called to liberty, to
stretch their hands out for the fetters of unrighteousness, and, as it were,
before the eyes of that Jehovah who touched yonder mountain-top and made it
tremble, thus so quickly to transgress the first requirement of His holy laws!
But we may also readily imagine what unutterable grief it was to Moses in
particular, that even while in the immediate presence of his God, a dark cloud
rises on His face. Is this, then, the reward for all the faithfulness with
which he has devoted his whole energies to such an arduous work as Israel’s
deliverance? Is this the seal confirming what the people, scarcely forty days
before, declared, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do”? Where are the
songs of thanksgiving that echoed all along the shores of the Red Sea? They now
are changed into the shouts of a rebellious mob. Where is the spoil that the
dismayed Egyptians gave up? It has been spent on the adorning of an idol. Where
is the prospect now of national prosperity to be enjoyed if men observed the
ordinances of the Lord? “I have seen this people, and behold it is a
stiff-necked people; now, therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot
against them, and that I may consume them.” “Let Me alone!” How well we
recognize in these few words the living God, who glories in omnipotence
combined with faithfulness, and who will not even let His anger burn without
forewarning this His faithful servant of the dreadful work He is about to do.
But ye should be in something like a proper state to understand the depth of
this man’s sorrow--ye who had saved your dearest child from certain death, and
who, just at the very moment when you fancied all was safe, beheld the one whom
you had rescued rushing wilfully into the jaws of death. But which of us, my
fellow Christians, has not at some time had experience like Moses’ in that
memorable hour? We may have deemed ourselves blest in our fellowship with God,
when suddenly the harsh, discordant sound of sin was heard--the clash of
weapons in the struggle of this life. For the disciple always finds even yet,
as did his Lord of old, that the desert where he undergoes temptation
immediately adjoins the Jordan of self-dedication; yea, just in proportion as,
like Moses, we are placed in higher station, and more privileged than other
men, we often find our trials too are heavier. Like Moses, too, we often see
our noblest efforts for the good of men in general rewarded with most base
ingratitude; or, in a few brief hours, what we have raised by dint of sweat and
toil, continued through successive years and months, is broken down through
careless weakness on another’s part. In utter disappointment, we pour out our
grief before the ruins of the edifice we reared so carefully; and when we would
continue to rejoice in hope that God will yet fulfil His promises, it seems as
if God hid His face from us, and we are terrified.
III. Would that we
all were but of such a holy frame of mind as was the servant of the Lord, whose
utter disappointment you have hitherto been witnessing. Does not the simple
fact that Moses, at a moment such as this, betakes himself to prayer say very
much for him? But which of us that suddenly perceives what deeply grieves us is
at once inclined to pray, and not, instead, disposed to cry out in despair, but
most of all disposed to silence and to utter inactivity? Now, it is well for
him that he still lingers at the top, not at the foot, of Sinai, for he is near
that God to whom he never called in vain. Moses pours out his supplications in
the quiet solitude--for whom? Is it for himself, that God may give him strength
to bear the burden of such oft rejection by the people? But wherefore should he
think about himself, when his heart is filled with the thought of Israel’s salvation?
Why should he think of men in their rejection of himself, when they so
shamefully provoked the Lord? Nay, here the lawgiver becomes a mediator,
interceding for his people in their sins, with but his prayers for an offering;
words fail me in attempting to describe his true nobility of soul, which comes
out in his prayers and pleadings here. Does it not seem as if love were
exhausting all its energies in trying to find out, not some slight palliations
of the shameful conduct which must be pronounced quite inexcusable, but some
good grounds for not requiring, in this case, full satisfaction for the vast
amount of guilt incurred? Now he reminds Jehovah of the great deliverance He
has already wrought for Israel, and asks Him if He really intends to bring
destruction upon His own handiwork. Then He points out to Him what the
Egyptians and the other nations well might say when they would learn that the
object of their hatred was destroyed. Again, he lays before Jehovah His own
promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he asks what must become of
that, if He do not turn from His wrath in time. And, finally, he earnestly
entreats the Lord, if it must even be so, to take away his life, if Israel’s
life, now forfeited, cannot be bought at any other price. In the full strength
of interceding love he can be quite oblivious of everything except the sinful
Israel; nor does he leave the mountain-top till he brings down with him the
promise that the sentence, merited even though it is, shall be delayed at least,
if not repealed. Does not a holy rapture seize you when you listen to a prayer
like this? Here, we deliberately say, there is one greater even than Abraham
when pleading in behalf of the guilty Sodom; for those wicked men had not
rejected Abraham, at least in person, and the patriarch did not express his
readiness to give his own life as an offering for sin. Who does not feel that
prayer like this truly deserves the name; while, on the other hand, so much of
what bears that fair name is little more than a mere mumbling over of some
forms, and that, too, in a way the most mechanical--if it be not: indeed, but
covert sin? Nay, it is not enough that you should cry to God for help whenever
your own want and misery oppress your soul; Moses calls loudly, “Pray for
others too”--and the more earnestly for them, as they are more unfortunate,
more sinful than yourselves, and more unthankful and unkind to you! Neither is
it enough that you present to Him your own and others’ miseries; for Moses says
again, “God’s honour must be made the one great object in your prayer”; woe to
the man whose prayer is but self-seeking who does not endeavour to extol God’s
majesty! Nor yet, again, is it enough that you should raise your heart at
special times in prayer, but soon abate your zeal; Moses cries out to every one
who strives on earth, “Continue, persevere in prayer; the faithful friends of
God are the best friends of men!”
IV. But does not
this still further and more plainly show itself when you perceive how Moses was
heard in prayer? There is (may I express it so?) something beyond description,
human or Divine, in these words found in Exodus 32:14 : “Then the Lord repented of
the evil which He thought to do unto His people.” Nay, what man could expect by
prayer to make God alter His decree? what godly man could wish to have such
power? God has determined at all times to show His grace to sinful men, but He
is gracious only to the humble prayer; and now, when Israel themselves neglect
to pray that He may take away impending judgments, Moses puts himself in the
position of the sinners; and no sooner does he venture on his intercession than
he obtains God’s pardon for them all. Moses has prayed for grace, but grace
does not in every case mean quite the same thing as impunity; and Moses himself
is fully conscious that the nation must atone for its own sins, even when it is
not visited according to its sins. “Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though
Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.” These words, penned by the
Psalmist, form the motto of God’s dealings with Israel. When God exterminates
some hundreds, He acts like the surgeon, sparing not the knife though it
inflicts much pain, nor hesitating to remove most precious, yea, important,
members, that the body may itself be saved from otherwise inevitable death.
Yea, what is it that prayer cannot do--humble, believing, fervent, persevering
prayer? It opens up the treasures hid in God’s paternal heart, and shuts the
flood-gates of His penal judgments; it brings blessings down upon the head
already laden with the curse of sin; nor has it lost its power, although the
mouth of him who offered it is long since silent in the dust of death. And is
the history of the Israel of the New Covenant less rich in illustrations of the
truth that God desires to have entreaty made to Him, not merely by, but also
for, His people, so that He may pity them? Run over, then, yourselves the
annals of Christ’s reign, and ponder specially the record made of your own
history. What keeps the sword from Peter’s head when that of James already is
removed? The Church sends up in his behalf a constant prayer that keeps the
rock from falling down. What has the Christian Church to thank for her great
teacher, Augustine? The prayer of Monica; because a child for whom so many
tears were shed could not by any possibility be lost. Christians! if you most
truly seek your brother’s and your own salvation, persevere in prayer!
V. “Your own
salvation”--yes; it is just here that our own interest, which we so fully
understand, combines most beautifully with our brother’s too. Come, look at
Moses, in the last place, fully strengthened after prayer. Let us once more
look to the sequel of the history. When you behold the man of more than eighty
years descending from the mountain of the Lord with all the fire of youth still
full in him, do you not recognize in that the power of fellowship with God in
heaven? What calmness in his eye, what firmness in his gait, what firm decision
in his actions, and what strength combined with moderation, as this very page
can testify! Surely you do not disapprove of what he did, when, in a boiling
rage, he cast away the tables made of stone, so breaking them, and strewed the
dust obtained by pounding down the golden calf upon the water used to quench
the thirst of Israel? “See my zeal for the Lord!” So Moses might have said with
better right than Jehu did in later times, for his was anger without sin. And
we confess that we would scarce have looked on him as Moses--yea, would almost
have despised him--had he not on this occasion cast a single glance of deepest
anger upon the abomination now committed by the Israelites. What would have
been the meaning of such intercession for a race of sinners if the intercessor
had esteemed the sin itself as trivial? Then, even though the world be all
opposed to us, the Lord, in His eternal faithfulness, remains upon our side;
though even our dearest friends may fall, the Friend who cannot die still
watches us; although the head may bend through weariness, the heart that still
can pray renews its youth. Behold in this the explanation of the mystery why
two men, both engaged in the selfsame life-struggle, may yet fight in ways so
utterly dissimilar, that while the one sinks under wounds he has received, the
other issues from the fight victorious; the one required to carry on the war at
his own charges, while the other had Omnipotence itself upon his side. On Sinai
Moses prays for a rebellious nation; on Golgotha you hear Jesus pleading for
His executioners when He was being crucified. Moses invokes God for His grace
towards Israel only; Jesus for that same grace to sinners of all tribes and
tongues, peoples and nations--yea, even towards you and me, in all our guilt.
Moses but offers to make his own life a sacrifice for sin, while Jesus actually
gives His life as a ransom for many. Moses obtains for Israel no more than
mitigation of the penalty, not full forgiveness; Jesus can bestow a full
salvation on all those who come to God by Him. Moses expires when he has
watched and prayed for forty years, seeking the good of Israel; but Jesus ever
lives, appearing in God’s presence for our interest. Nay, Israel, we do not
envy you of this your prayerful mediator; we thank God that we look unto a
higher One. (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.)
Verse 24
There came out this calf.
Aaron’s excuse
I. There never was
a speech more true to one disposition of our human nature than this of Aaron.
We are all ready to lay the blame on the furnaces. “The fire did it,” we are
all of us ready enough to say. “In better times we might have been better,
broader men, but now, behold, God puts us into the fire, and we came out thus.”
Our age, our society, is what, with this figure taken out of the old story of
Exodus, we have been calling it. It is the furnace. Its fire can set, and fix,
and fasten what the man puts into it. But, properly speaking, it can create no
character. It can make no truly faithful soul a doubter. It never did. It never
can.
II. The subtlety
and attractiveness of this excuse extends not only to the results which we see
coming forth in ourselves; it covers also the fortunes of those for whom we are
responsible. Everywhere there is this cowardly casting off of responsibilities
upon the dead circumstances around us. It is a very hard treatment of the poor,
dumb, helpless world which cannot answer to defend itself. It takes us as we give
ourselves to it. It is our minister, fulfilling our commissions for us upon our
own souls.
III. There is
delusion and self-deception in this excuse. Very rarely indeed does a man
excuse himself to other men and yet remain absolutely unexcused in his own eyes.
Often the very way to help ourselves most to a result which we have set before
ourselves is just to put ourselves into a current which is sweeping on that
way, and then lie still, and let the current do the rest, and in all such cases
it is so easy to ignore or to forget the first step, and so to say that it is
only the drift of the current which is to blame for the dreary shore on which
at last our lives are cast up by the stream.
IV. If the world is
thus full of the Aaron spirit, where are we to find its cure? Its source is a
vague and defective sense of personality. I cannot look for its cure anywhere
short of that great assertion of the human personality which is made when a man
personally enters into the power of Jesus Christ. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)
Shifting responsibility
I. Aaron blamed
society. Thus is it with men now. Yielding to the pressure of society, we do
not live out our highest convictions.
1. We defer to public opinion. Great is the tyranny of public
opinion, and many dare not brave it. Aaron dare not in the text, and thousands
still are overawed by it. We like to be talked about, but not against. We stay
short of being what we ought to be, of doing what we ought to do, for fear of
the adverse criticism of our neighbours, work-fellows, countrymen.
2. We defer to public custom. The Jewish rabble wanted images, such
as were in Egypt, and Aaron had not courage to resist the demand. So we often
bow to the questionable customs of society. Our convictions are otherwise, but
we have not the bravery to be singular--we cast a grain of incense on the
world’s altar when we ought to hurl a stone at its gods.
3. We defer to public violence. “They gathered themselves together
unto” (verse 1)--rather “against”--Aaron in a tumultuous manner, to compel him to
do what they wished. And Aaron was coerced by them. So we often fear the anger,
menace, violence of those around us, and act a consciously unworthy part. Aaron
in the text blaming “the people” is a picture of thousands of us to-day! We do
not wish to act thus and thus, but we are the victims of our social
surroundings. It is not I, but the people. We, none of us, are guilty; it is
the crowd behind which pushes us.
II. He blamed
nature. “I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.” As if it were
not his fault, but nature’s. He says nothing about the mould that he made;
nothing about the graving tool that he used (verse 4); but nature has done
it--it has done itself. So do we reason still.
1. We blame nature for our sins. We ignore the fact that we failed to
interpose our will; that we fed the fires of passion; that in making
preparation for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, we constructed the
mould.
2. We blame nature for our miseries.
Lessons:
1. The childishness of this method of shifting responsibility.
2. The foolishness of it.
3. The uselessness of it. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Aaron’s apology
Aaron’s excuse is the standing excuse of at least one large class
among us. Servants use it every day. Who has not heard them plead? “Please,
ma’am, I couldn’t help it; it broke in my hands.” As if it were not they, but
the wilful jug or dish which was responsible for the fracture, or some malign
fate which mocks at human endeavour and care. “It was an accident” has been
their sigh ever since domestic service became an institution among us. But is
the plea confined to them? Do you not also hear it from the lips of every
child? “I didn’t do it”--they are all quite sure of that; though, if they did
not do it, it would be hard indeed to say who did. Here are two large classes,
then, to whom Aaron’s excuse is familiar; and to one of these classes we all
belonged in our time. But are there no more? Most of you will remember that
inimitable scene in “Adam Bede” in which Mrs. Poyser, while rating the clumsy
Molly for her broken jug of beer, herself drops a still more precious jug from
her angry fingers, and exclaims: “Did anybody ever see the like? The jugs are
bewitched, I think.” You will remember how she proceeds to argue that “there’s
times when the crockery seems alive, an’ flies out o’ your hand like a bird,”
and concludes, philosophically enough, that “what is to be broke will be
broke.” Possibly most of us have known mistresses who, while indignantly
repudiating the common excuse of their maids, have nevertheless condescended to
employ it in their own behalf. And what bankrupt tradesman, or broken merchant,
or fraudulent banker is there who does not plead the same, or a similar,
excuse? It is hardly ever their fault that they cannot pay twenty shillings in the
pound; it is their misfortune. “Things have gone against them.” “Circumstances
over which they have no control have been their ruin”--not their own rashness,
or dishonest discounts, or risky speculations. They put their capital into that
shop, that firm, that bank, and, lo, there came out this ugly calf of
bankruptcy! But you must not blame them; it is the furnace that was in fault.
And if mistresses no less than their maids, and men of business no less than
their wives, attribute to accident, mischance, or a malignant and mysterious
fate, results of which the cause might be found much nearer home, scholars no
less than men of business, men of science no less than scholars, Christian
commentators no less than men of science, too often betake themselves to the
same egregrious line of argument and excuse. There are illustrations and
repetitions and modifications of Aaron’s apology which touch us closer home.
The man who is a sinner--as which of us is not?--has it perpetually on his
lips. How often, when arraigned at the bar of Conscience or taken to task by
Authority, have we urged that we really could not help ourselves; that, to use
Mrs. Poyser’s word, we were “bewitched” by some evil and malignant power; that
it was impossible to keep the law we had transgressed, and that “what is to be
broken” will and must be broken? “A hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree.” With
passions so fierce and strong as mine, with a natural and hereditary bias to
evil, exposed to temptations so numerous and so nicely adjusted to my
temperament, why should I be blamed, why should I overmuch blame myself, if now
and then I have overleaped the cold and strict requirements of the law? Such as
I am, in such a world as this, with a passionate craving for immediate
enjoyment, exposed to forces so powerful and so constant in their operation,
hampered by conditions so inauspicious, how could I do otherwise than I have
done? Is it my fault that, with desire and opportunity conspiring against me, I
have sometimes been overmastered or betrayed by them, and broken a commandment
which no man has always kept?. . . Well, Aaron’s excuse for himself has
reminded us of a good many excuses as irrational and absurd as his which men
make to this day. And we have seen and acknowledged that there is some element
of truth in them; that what we call accident does play a certain part in our
life and the lives of our fellows. But though, in the abstract, we cannot
define this mysterious power, or determine exactly how far we are subject to
it, in conduct and practice we have no great difficulty in dealing with it. We
make allowance for our servants; we admit that even the most careful must meet
with an accident sometimes, and that there are times even when a small series
of such accidents are almost certain to tread on each other’s heels.
Nevertheless, if, after due trial, we find that a servant has contracted a
constant and incorrigible habit of breaking whatever is breakable, we promptly
dismiss her as too unfortunate for us, or as abnormally clumsy, or as wilfully
negligent. We make allowance, too, for the accidents of commerce; we confess
that now and then a man may fail honourably because he fails through no fault
of his own. But if we meet with a man who has failed in almost everything he
has undertaken, and who has spent half his time in the Court of Insolvency and
its purlieus, we are in no hurry to associate ourselves with him or to assist
him; nay, unless he can bring surprisingly good evidence to the contrary, we
set him down as a lazy vagabond or an unscrupulous rogue. Just so we make, or
ought to make, allowance for a man who is “overtaken by a sin.” And for
ourselves, my brethren, let us have done with this poor subterfuge, which we
know to be, for us at least, a mere refuge of lies even as we run into it. (S.
Cox, D. D.)
Excuses for sin
Here is a man all gross and sensual, a man still young who has
already lost the freshness, glory, and purity of youth. Suppose you question
him about his life. You expect him to be ashamed, repentant. There is not a
sign of anything like that! He says: “I am the victim of circumstances. What a
corrupt, licentious, profane age this is in which we live! When I was in
college I got into a bad set. When I went into business I was surrounded by bad
influences. When I grew rich, men flattered me. When I grew poor, men bullied
me. The world has made me what I am, this fiery, passionate, wicked world. I
had in my hands the gold of my boyhood which God gave me. Then I cast it into
the fire, and there came out this calf.” Another man is not a profligate, but
is a miser, or a mere business machine. “What can you ask of me?” he says;
“this is a mercantile community. The business man who does not attend to his
business goes to the wall. I am what this intense commercial life has made me.
I put my life in there, and it came out this.” And then he gazes fondly at his
golden calf, and his knees bend under him with the old long habit of
worshipping it, and he loves it still, even while he abuses and disowns it. And
so with the woman of society. “The fire made me this,” she says of her
frivolity and pride. And so of the politician and his selfishness and
partisanship. “I put my principles into the furnace, and this came out.” And so
of the bigot and his bigotry, the one-sided Conservative with his stubborn
resistance to all progress, the one-sided Radical with his ruthless iconoclasm.
So of all partial and fanatical men. “The furnace made us,” they are ready to
declare. Remember that the subtlety and attractiveness of this excuse, this
plausible attributing of power to inanimate things and exterior conditions to
create what only man can make, extends not only to the results which we see
coming forth in ourselves; it covers also the fortunes of those for whom we are
responsible. The father says of his profligate son, for whom he has never done
one wise or vigorous thing to make a noble and pure-minded man: “I cannot tell
how it has come. It has not been my fault. I put him into the world, and this
came out.” The father whose faith has been mean and selfish says the same of
his boy who is a sceptic. Everywhere there is this cowardly casting off of
responsibilities upon the dead circumstances around us. It is a very hard
treatment of the poor, dumb, helpless world which cannot answer to defend itself.
It takes us as we give ourselves to it. It is our minister fulfilling our
commissions for us upon our own souls. If we say to it, “Make us noble,” it
does make us noble. If we say to it, “Make us mean,” it does make us mean. And
then we take the nobility and say, “Behold, how noble I have made myself.” And
we take the meanness and say, “See how mean the world has made me.”. . . The
only hope for any of us is in a perfectly honest manliness to claim our sins.
“I did it, I did it,” let me say of all my wickedness. Let me refuse to listen
for one moment to any voice which would make my sins less mine. It is the only
honest and the only hopeful way, the only way to know and be ourselves. When we
have done that, then we are ready for the gospel, ready for all that Christ
wants to show us that we may become, and for all the powerful grace by which He
wants to make us be it perfectly. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)
Verse 26
Who is on the Lord’s side?
Who is on the Lord’s side
I. The conflict,
and which is the Lord’s side. The commands of God versus self-pleasing.
Holiness and right, against sin and oppression.
II. The Lord’s
friends, and what they must do.
1. They must own their allegiance openly (Exodus 32:29).
2. They should come out and rally to the standard. We do this by open
union with the Church, by boldly rebuking sin, by testifying for truth, by not
conforming to the world, and by conforming to Christ our Lord (2 Corinthians 8:5).
3. They must be willing to be in a minority.
4. They must become aggressive (Exodus 32:27).
5. Their zeal must overcome nature’s ties (Deuteronomy 33:9).
6. They must do what they are bidden (Exodus 32:28).
III. The Lord’s host
and its encouragements.
1. Their cause is that of right and truth.
2. It is God’s cause.
3. Christ Himself is our Captain.
4. The angels are with us.
5. Thousands of the best of men have been on this side (Hebrews 12:1).
6. It is the side of conscience and of a clean heart.
7. It is that side of the warfare which ends in heaven and victory.
IV. The question of
the text, and proposals for enlistment. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Who is on the Lord’s side?
I. This is a
divine question. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus,” etc.
II. A spiritual
question. Are we new men in Christ Jesus by the new birth?
III. A crisis question.
Truth cannot be divided; conduct cannot have two hearts.
IV. A vital
question. Treason is in God’s government, what it is everywhere, a capital
crime.
V. A determinate
question. Ithuriel’s spear disclosed whatever it touched. This inquiry settles
fixedly the state of each man for the eternity he is to enter.
VI. An experimental
question.
1. There are only two sides ever to be found.
2. There is great comfort in being on the right side.
3. It is unsatisfactory, profitless, and perilous to be upon the wrong
side. The soul will rest nowhere there. There will come no possible advantage
from rebellion; danger and destruction are directly in the path of one who
lifts himself against God.
4. Any one can know which side he is on, if he truly desires it. (C.
S. Robinson, D. D.)
On which side are you?
I. Decision.
1. It is “a decision upon the most sublime and important theme which
can ever come under a man’s notice. God and Satan, truth and falsehood,
holiness and sin.
2. This decision, so important and weighty, should be made as early
as possible. When Agesilaus came to the borders of Macedon he sent the laconic
message, “As friends or as enemies?” The answer was, “We must stop awhile, and
take advice.” His reply was, “While you advise, we march.” Wait not. Every hour
renders it more likely that you will make a foolish choice.
3. This is a decision of the greatest importance, for it will
influence every subsequent decision throughout life. True religion gives a
tincture to everything with which the man comes in contact.
4. As to this decision there ought to be no possible difficulty. A
man should decide for God, since He is his Creator, Redeemer, Preserver.
5. This decision involves but one alternative. There is no synagogue
of the undecided on earth, and no purgatory of middle men in the unseen world.
II. The avowal.
“Let him come unto me.” “For God--to me.”
1. A coming out from amongst the idolaters. Do not conceal your
religion.
2. They were to come to the leader. Follow the Lamb whithersoever He
goeth.
3. Those who were to come to Moses were, of course, to come to one
another. Do not birds of a feather flock together? If God has made you birds of
paradise, hasten to fly like doves to your windows.
III. Consecration.
1. Obey God’s will
2. Serve God actively and energetically.
3. Do this at all hazards and costs. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Only two sides
1. To be on the Lord’s side is, in the first place, to put
your whole weight on Christ Jesus as your personal Saviour.
2. To be on the Lord’s side is publicly to profess Him.
3. To be on the Lord’s side you must consecrate your life to Him.
4. Reasons for being on the Lord’s side.
Religious decision
We would enforce upon you the importance of coming to a
determinate and decided judgment on the great business of religion. Examine its
claims: if they be spurious or unfounded, then reject them; but if they be
true, if they agree with certain powers and feelings of your mind, then give to
religion the attention its importance demands. Do not play with so keen a
weapon; do not trifle on the most solemn of all subjects. Decision of character
is a highly valuable quality of mind. It gives to its possessor great
advantages over others in the ordinary affairs of life. This quality of mind is
needed in proportion to the difficulties which obstruct the attainment of any
end.
I. We address
ourselves to those who vacillate between God and the world, between religion
and irreligion. There is a class, and a numerous class of men, especially in
our own enlightened country, who may be considered in this condition.
II. To those who
entertain a scriptural hope of salvation, but have not made a public avowal of
their faith. This backwardness to associate with the professing people of God
results from various causes. In some it is the effect of mistaken views of what
is required in order to the fellowship of the Church. In other men, this
backwardness publicly to acknowledge the Saviour is the effect of a very lax
and unscriptural view of what religion requires. They suppose that if their
hearts are right with God it is not at all necessary that they should make a
public profession.
III. The language of
Moses is applicable to those who have made a profession of religion. That many
Christians are open to a charge of compromising their principles cannot be
doubted by any who are conversant with the transactions of daily life. (S.
Summers.)
Duty of being on the Lord’s side
I. What is implied
by being on the Lord’s side.
1. On the side of His truth.
2. On the side of His character.
3. On the side of His gospel.
4. On the side of His law.
5. On the side of His honour.
II. Why we ought
all to be on the Lord’s side.
1. The first reason which I shall offer why we ought all to be on the
Lord’s side is, that it is the side of truth and righteousness.
2. As another reason why you ought to be on the Lord’s side, let me
beseech you to consider seriously on what side you are if you are not on His.
3. Consider, further, why you ought to be on the Lord’s side, how
much the Lord has done for you.
4. Another reason why we ought to be on the Lord’s side is, that it
is the side of happiness.
5. Further: let me entreat those who are not yet on the Lord’s side
to consider that they have not one reasonable plea for being on the side of
Satan. (Preacher’s Treasury.)
Decision of character
I. The text
clearly implies a solemn fact, that there is a side in antagonism to the
Lord’s--that there are interests, that there are opinions, that there are
principles, that there are lives that are in diametrical opposition to the side
of God, and truth, and of righteousness. No reflective mind can survey our
humanity without coming to this conviction: Surely all this unrighteousness,
all this living for self, all this oppression, this worldliness, cannot be on
the side of God’s moral government. There are questions of science, and of
politics, and of literature on which a man may assume a neutral position; but
in the great matter of your salvation, God’s claim to your love, there is and
there can be no neutrality. It is not a matter optional with you whether you
repent or not, whether you believe or not, whether you are the follower and
disciple of Christ or not. It is not a matter to you of utter indifference
whether or not you are known in this world to be a child of God and an heir of
glory.
II. What is it
truly to be on the Lord’s side ?
1. Let me remark, simply and emphatically, that to be on the Lord’s
side is to love Him. Love and hate to one and the selfsame being are emotions
not only incongruous, but impossible in the human breast. There are no two
properties in chemistry more opposite to each other in their nature and in
their operations than are these two emotions--love and hate.
2. To be on the Lord’s side is to be on the side of His truth. The
truth of God, next to His beloved Son, is the most precious thing that He
possesses. Declare yourself on the side of the gospel and on the side of God’s
truth; let there be no compromise; let there be no doubt whatever as to the
firmness and sincerity with which you hold it.
3. To be on the Lord’s side is, then, to be on the side of the Lord’s
people. If you are on the side of the Lord, you will not be ashamed of the
Lord’s people. You may find many of them in lowly life, you may find many of
them battling and struggling with its difficulties, you may find many of them
unlearned and ignorant as touching the lore of this world.
4. But to be on the side of holiness it is essential to be on the
side of the Lord. The Lord’s side is holiness in conflict with sin,
righteousness in antagonism with unholiness.
III. “Who is on the
Lord’s side?” There are many considerations with which one might enforce the
challenge, and press it upon your personal and solemn consideration. Let these
suffice--
1. It is the only right side.
2. I remark, in addition to this, that it is the only winning side. (C.
Winslow.)
Who is on the Lord’s side?
I. The text
implies an opposition.
II. The text
advocates a duty. It is the duty of being on the Lord’s side.
1. To be on the Lord’s side is to acknowledge Him as the only Lord.
2. To be on the Lord’s side is to render from the heart actually to
Him emotions of reverence, of admiration, and of gratitude, which are permanent
and supreme.
3. To be on the Lord’s side is to abandon and repudiate all refuges
which are false, in connection with the great principle of acceptance before
Him, and to rest entirely and implicitly upon the one method which He has been
pleased to propound, and which is found in the expiation and in the imputed
righteousness of His Son.
4. To be on the Lord’s side is to become practically conformed to His
commandments.
5. To be on the Lord’s side is to be diligent in the advancement of
His glory. Again: you are to observe what are the inducements to be on the
Lord’s side.
1. You should be on the Lord’s side because He possesses an
unimpeachable and absolute right to you.
III. The text
demands a declaration. “Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is
on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me.” God will not have His servants to
live in secret and in retirement; they are to proclaim and publish the fact
that they are for Him.
1. This declaration should be made by verbal announcement in the
intercourse of social life: “With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
2. This declaration is also to be made by union with the people of
God in the Church of His Son.
3. This declaration also is to be made by active and devoted
diligence in promoting the cause of God among the apostate and the rebellious
of your race. (J. Parsons.)
The Lord’s side
I. What is implied
in being “on the Lord’s side.” It implies--
1. A decided renunciation of the cause of sin.
2. Believingly to choose God as our portion.
3. Cheerful obedience to His commands.
4. An undaunted profession of His religion.
5. A consecration of all we possess to His honour and glory.
II. The advantages
arising from being on the Lord’s side.
1. It is the most honourable side.
2. It is the most happy side.
3. It is the most useful side.
4. It is the most safe side.
Application:
1. Congratulate those on the Lord’s side. Exhort them to
steadfastness and perseverance.
2. Invite poor ruined sinners to throw down their weapons and sue for
mercy.
3. Plead with the miserable backslider, that he may return to the
Shepherd and Bishop of his soul. “I will heal his backslidings,” etc., “saith
the Lord.” (J. Burns, D. D.)
On decision in religion
I. There are two
great interests in the world--God and Satan. No neutrality.
II. Some are
undecided about serving God. They wish to become Christians, and yet will not
give up their beloved sins. They have too much knowledge to enjoy the world,
and too great a love of the world to enjoy religion; and thus they halt between
two opinions.
III. All ought to
decide for God.
IV. The sin and
danger of remaining undecided. It is base ingratitude and the most presumptuous
rebellion.
V. We press
immediate decision. It is your duty to God, to yourself, and to the Church of
Christ; it is your privilege, and will be both to your honour and advantage.
VI. The way to show
your decision. (Evangelical Preacher.)
The right position
I. Great dancer of
delusion here.
1. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because you have been
baptized and confirmed. You may have broken the covenant and trampled upon its
mercies.
2. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because you attend the
Holy Communion. It cannot make a saint of a hypocrite.
3. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because you take
pleasure in religious services. Herod heard John gladly, but would not abandon
his vicious course of life.
4. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because you are
conscious of no hostility to Him. Few men, however depraved and guilty, really
believe themselves the enemies of Christ. Nothing special has occurred to call
forth their opposition.
5. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because you meditate
with delight upon His character. Such is the constitution of the human mind,
that it cannot help admiring a high degree of virtue. No doubt the conscience
of hell itself is with God.
6. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because you faultlessly
perform all your social duties. The young ruler.
7. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because you sometimes
experience slight compunctions for sin. Felix, Agrippa.
8. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because you cherish in
your heart an ardent desire of salvation. Who has not had such desires? Who
would not die the death of the righteous?
9. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because you show a
commendable zeal in the propagation of your religious opinions. The Jesuit is
more zealous than you. So are the Hindoo, Mussulman, Mormon.
10. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because you are
successful in your efforts to promote Christianity around you. Have you ever
equalled the success of the Arabian impostor or of the profligate saints of
Utah?
11. Think not that you are on the Lord’s side because your fair
exterior makes others regard you as a true servant of God.
II. What is it,
then, to be on the Lord’s side, and how are you to ascertain your true
position? What is implied in loyalty to God and an alliance with Jesus Christ?
It implies baptism, for this is the entrance into the Christian covenant. It
implies confirmation, for this is the public recognition and ratification of
that sacred compact with the Lord. It implies Holy Communion, for this is the
formal and frequent repetition of the believer’s oath of allegiance to his
King, the Captain of his salvation. But it implies much more, which is involved
in all these, and without which all these can make no man a thorough Christian.
If you are on the Lord’s side, you are for His Church, against all schism; for
His truth, against all heresy; for the faith of His saints, against all human
theories and speculations. (J. Cross, D.D.)
The Lord’s side
I. In outward
profession they are on the Lord’s side who have become partakers of the
peculiar ordinances which the Saviour has established for His Church. These
ordinances He has made imperative.
II. There is
another standard which looks far beyond all outward professions in a
determination of this question. There is a character which the power of man
cannot feign, and which accurately marks those who have enlisted themselves
under the banner of the King of saints. These evidences are to be presented,
not as the marks by which we may form an opinion of others, but as the
testimony by which we may examine ourselves.
1. They who are on the Lord’s side have been converted by the power
of the Holy Ghost from their natural state of blindness and enmity to God.
2. They who are on the Lord’s side in this division of the world make
it their object to live by faith in His promises and power, and as pilgrims on
the earth, to become prepared for a better country--that is, an heavenly.
3. They who are on the Lord’s side experience a daily conflict with
the principles of sin. While men are unconverted, this contest is unknown.
4. They who are on the Lord’s side are going on from grace to grace.
The mind of Christ is forming within them. (S. H. Tyng, D.D.)
The challenge of Moses
I. The truths
which the text teaches.
1. That there are two great interests in the world--a good one and a
bad one--God, the great eternal, on the one side, and Satan, the prince of
darkness, on the other. I should not say too much, I presume, if I venture to
affirm all belong to God by right. But Satan has usurped a dominion. All are on
one side or the other.
2. Some are undecided about serving God. Not from the want of
conviction; their consciences speak for God, but their wills rebel.
II. that it is or
the utmost importance for us to ascertain to which class we belong. What is
implied in being on the Lord’s side?
1. Enlightenment of mind. It is necessary for us to see both the
error and danger there is in being on the side of Satan and sin, and to
discover the excellency and superiority of Christ’s cause and gospel.
2. It is believingly to choose Christ for our portion.
3. It includes obedience to His truth. If we are on the Lord’s side,
we shall delight in His law.
4. It includes a determination of mind to sacrifice everything for
Him.
III. Point out some
of the advantages of being on the Lord’s side.
1. It is the most honourable side. It is not the side of the despot
or tyrant, but it is the cause and service of the God of love. It is not the
service of sin, but of purity.
2. It is the strongest side. And it is astonishing to see how fond
some persons are of being on the strongest side.
3. It is the most happy side. This cannot be confuted. For while
there is no peace for the wicked, the Christian hath peace with God--an inward
tranquillity, to which the world are strangers; the retrospect, and their
present experience as well as their future prospects, are fraught with
happiness and joy.
4. It is the most useful side. Sin injures others as well as
ourselves.
5. It is the most safe side. In fact, no other state is safe.
Learn--
1. The important question,”Who is on the Lord’s side?” We
congratulate those who are, and would say to them, “Be steadfast, unmovable” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
2. The sin and danger of remaining undecided. It deprives you of
present happiness, and, if grace prevent not, it will shut you out of heaven at
last.
3. That the way to show your decision is to come out from the world
and be separate. (W. Rose.)
Holding up the colours
I remember a story of the Crimean war, of that terrible day
at Inkerman in which our little wasted and dispirited army was suddenly
overwhelmed, in the mist and in the darkness of a thick November morning, by
vast masses of Russians. The men had to fight their way out as best they could.
There was one little company surrounded and hemmed in on every side by the
enemy, but there were a few gallant and brave men in their midst
fighting their way through hosts of foes that hedged them in on every side.
There was a voice heard by a spectator at a distance, “Hold up the colours”;
and still as they pressed on, and still as one and another fell, and still as
that little company became smaller, still the cry went up, “Hold up the
colours.” Holding up the colours, they fought their way through to life and
liberty and victory. Oh, it is a lesson to us; whatever else we do, hold up the
colours. Let men know what we are; let them know that we are Christ’s. On our
colours is engraven, “Christ and His salvation.” Hold fast the
colours--there is no fear of the victory. (G. Rogers.)
Are we on the Lord’s side?
“We trust the Lord is on our side, Mr. Lincoln,” said the speaker
of a delegation of Christian people to that good man, during one of the darkest
days of the American Civil War. “I do not regard that as so essential as
something else,” replied Mr. Lincoln. The worthy visitors looked
horror-struck, until the President added: “I am most concerned to know that we
are on the Lord’s side.” The right side is not my side or your side. The Lord’s
side is the place to which every one of us should rally. His banner has right,
truth, love, and holiness written on it. Be sure yon stand up for God’s banner,
even if you stand alone. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The choice to be made
Guizot, in his life of St. Louis of France, says that the latter
had many vassals who were also vassals of the King of England, and that many
subtle and difficult questions arose as to the extent of the service which they
owed to these kings. At length the French king commanded all those nobles who
held lands in English territory to appear before him, and then he said to them:
“As it is impossible for any man living in my kingdom and having possessions in
England rightly to serve two masters, you must either attach yourselves
altogether to me or inseparably to the King of England.” After saying this, he
gave them a certain day by which to make their choice.
Out and out for Christ
An Irish gentleman, pointing to a young man, once said: “Is
he an O. O.?” “What do you mean by O. O.?” “I mean,” was the reply, “is he out
and out for Christ?” This is what all ought to be who bear Christ’s name. When
all who belong to the Lord,” one says, “are willing to speak for Him, willing
to work for Him, willing to die for Him, then Christianity will advance, and we
shall see the work of the Lord prosper.”
Verse 27
Slay every man his brother.
Idolatry punished
I. the actors in
this idolatrous scene.
1. Their historical character.
2. The recent experiences through which they had passed.
3. In view of these facts what a revelation of human nature we have
here!
II. The punishment.
1. The opportunity to repent before the punishment was meted out (Exodus 32:26).
2. The fidelity of the sons of Levi.
3. The terrible slaughter (Exodus 32:27-28).
4. The condition of forgiveness (Exodus 32:29-30).
5. The tender-hearted intercessor (Exodus 32:31-32).
6. The result of the intercession (Exodus 32:33-35).
Lessons:
1. The plausible grounds on which men justify themselves in following
their inclinations.
2. The ease with which some leaders will fall in with a popular cry.
3. False leaders will lie to justify themselves.
4. What a power for good or evil is a great popular enthusiasm!
5. The contrast between the religion of man and the religion of God.
6. Sin is no less odious in God’s sight because it is committed in
the name of religion. God is ever ready to forgive the truly penitent. (D.
C. Hughes, M. A.)
Penalty a veiled blessing
When a thunderstorm is in progress, and torrents of rain are
falling, one might wonder why God allowed such a seemingly evil thing to
happen. But the farmer, who has been watching for weeks for some sign of rain,
knows that this sudden storm and downpour is a blessing in disguise. So the
penalties by which God preserved the Israelites from complete self-destruction
were veiled blessings. Frowning fortresses, heavy artillery, and iron-clad
ships are sometimes God’s best instruments in His sharp surgery of the nations.
It is hard to see how the visitation of a penalty is often an act of mercy; but
when Moses for his sin was denied an entrance into the Holy Land, was it, after
all, a great hardship that he was taken into God’s Paradise instead? (S.
S. Times.)
Verse 29
Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord.
Immediate devotedness to God
I. The nature of
this consecration.
1. We must recognize the claims of Jehovah.
2. We must concur as to the manner of our consecration.
3. We must be deeply anxious respecting this consecration.
4. We must earnestly and believingly give ourselves up to the Lord.
5. This act of consecration must be entire and for ever.
6. This act must be our own individual act.
7. This act must be effected and sustained by Divine grace.
8. This act must be immediate. “To-day” we have life, means,
promises. To-morrow all may be lost, and for ever. Now, let us urge you to this
immediate consecration--
II. By several
important considerations and motives.
1. It is rational.
2. It is improving.
3. It is felicitous.
4. It is consolatory.
5. It is saving.
Application:
1. Let me urge the text on all classes--the young especially.
2. Let me urge all now.
3. I urge by a countless number of considerations.
By the majesty and glory of the God who seeks your salvation, and
not death. By the Spirit within you. By the flight of time. (J. Burns, D. D.)
Consecrate yourselves to the Lord
If you say you are on the Lord’s side, prove it. If you are His in
one thing, be His in all things. There are a great many who call themselves on
the Lord’s side when they want daily bread or daily protection, who hesitate to
stand out against brother and neighbour when the time of trying division for
conscience’ sake comes. The reason why so many of us accomplish so little for
the Lord is, that we are only partially consecrated to the Lord. We are His for
Sunday and Wednesday evenings; or for Him in one line or another of thought or
conduct; or for Him in all lines but one. Mr. Moody has said that “the world
has yet to see the power of one man wholly consecrated to God.” Uncle Johnny
Vassar, or David Livingstone, or Martin Luther, or some such man as that, gives
us a glimpse of the possibilities of one who is consecrated to the Lord. What a
pity that such illustrations are so exceptional! “Consecrate yourselves to-day
to the Lord, that He may bestow upon you a blessing!” (H. C. Trumbull.)
Verse 31-32
If Thou wilt forgive their sin.
Moses interceding for the people
It was a very happy thing for Israel that they had an intercessor.
It is not that God needs it. God does not need the intercession of Jesus
Christ--Christ told us so. “I say not that I will pray the Father for you, for
the Father Himself loveth you.” And we believe that as the death of Jesus
Christ availed for the believers in the Old Testament so did His
intercession--that there was an anticipation of the intercession of Christ when
Abraham interceded, or Moses.
I. And first let
me give you three reasons why intercession is a very high duty.
1. It is a power given to every man to wield--a power of love, a
mighty instrument for which we are responsible.
2. St. Paul puts it very prominently. You will remember that, writing
to Timothy, he says, “I exhort that first of all supplications, prayers,
intercessions, giving of thanks be made for all men.” What would we give for
love that does not speak in prayer?
3. And you are never so exactly a copy of Christ as when you are
praying for a fellow-creature.
II. The privilege
of it is exceeding great. Let me mention one or two of the privileges.
1. It is such a beautiful way of giving expression to love.
2. It revives the spirit of prayer in ourselves.
III. Let me give you
one or two words of practical advice respecting intercessory prayer.
1. Like other prayer, it must have intensity.
2. It should be accompanied with thanksgiving.
3. Let me also suggest to you that without which no duty is ever well
performed--your method with your intercessory prayer.
Of course it must be left to every one’s own judgment how to do
it. Only, have method, and have a period of the day, one of your stated
prayers, which shall be, if not entirely, yet to a great extent, given to
intercession. The method will be helpful, and it will give strength to the
action, for what we do with design and plan we do always better than that which
is left to the feelings of the moment. And amongst the arrangements of prayer
it will be well to settle with yourselves when, and where, and how much shall
be given to intercession. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The forlorn hope
Moses was one of those who had greatness forced upon him,
not being capable of pursuing it--the meekest and most retiring of men by nature,
while appointed the leader of a rebellious multitude. Immovable as a rock,
courageous as David, where the honour of God was concerned, his own honour, in
the ordinary sense, was not his care, and for it he seemed to have no
sensibility. Happy those who learn to forget themselves, and to have God only
in their eye! And shall not God acknowledge and recompense the grace which,
flowing from Himself, turns its streams to Him again? Is it not fit that He
should distinguish those who withhold nothing from Him; who achieve no honour
that they do not cast forthwith at His feet?
2. Look at another attribute of a heaven-formed character. Where
among us are the men that have the gift of intercessory prayer in any measure
like the Lord’s servant Moses? Who are they, in a day of general defection and
rebuke, that, like Moses, uncontaminated with the sins, unseduced by the errors
of their generation, find it their part to ascend alone into the mount, if
peradventure they may make an atonement?
3. It has been conjectured by some that Moses here uses the language
of desperation, and invokes upon himself the irremediable sentence of final
perdition. But when we consider all that this includes in it, of eternal
separation from the Fountain of happiness, of alienation matured into enmity,
of abandoned association with the cursed and blaspheming spirits of the
infernal world, it is impossible that so revolting a wish entered his soul, or
that his heavenly spirit, held in the bonds of unchanging love, was violated by
the intrusion of so cruel and abhorred a sentiment. It is probable he refers to
the declaration made above, that in rejecting Israel God would make of him a
great nation. This interpretation is quite natural, for how could his heart
sustain the alternative? Could he, so true, so loyal an Israelite, separate his
lot from that of Israel? Could he, bereft and bespoiled of the fruit of years
of anxious toil, and of faith founded on inviolable promises, accept of this as
an indemnification for his loss, or consent to console himself with new
projects of happiness, or erect his name and found his greatness on the ruins
of forgotten Israel? No; rather let the grave yield him a refuge from such
parricidal honours. Life had cost him already too many pangs to leave him
energy to commence it anew. It was enough now to be allowed to share the common
desolation, and having sustained for a moment the dreaded consummation of his
woes, that his life and hopes should be extinguished together. Faithful Moses!
Thy interests as well as thy wishes were safe, left for decision at the
righteous tribunal of the heart-searching God. ( H. Grey, D. D.)
The training of the missionary spirit
I. The Church
contemplative.. Consider the communion of Moses on the mountain with God. No
wonder that Moses should delay to come down. When the sublime truths of the
Godhead find a lodgment and settled home in our hearts, so that we can treat
them as the familiar things of our faith, and not as passing imaginations, we
have great confidence towards God. Selfishness is purged out from us, and with
selfishness goes fear. The pure in heart see the Holy One; the unselfish see
the Eternal Son.
II. The Church
militant. The spiritual life is vast and varied; quietism alone cannot express
it, even though it be the fellowship of God’s own peace. The change which is
wrought in Moses is immediate and startling. He who, alone with God, can
venture on remonstrances with God, in the assurance that his pleadings will be
accepted; when he sees the turbulent levity of the people, and hears their
licentious singing, is transported with indignation. The degradation of
idolatry is illustrated in Israel’s transgression.
1. It is, first, a revelation of the profound unbelief of the people.
Moses was unto them instead of God. “Speak thou with us, and we will hear,”
they had said, amid the lightnings of Sinai; “but let not God speak with us,
lest we die.” Here was their first declining, and from this point the descent
was facile. Moses instead of God, and a calf instead of Moses.
2. Next, the fatuity of the people is exposed. Ignominious as is
their worship, still more ignominious is Aaron’s stupid account of it.
3. And then there is the people’s permanent demoralization. They are
unconvicted by the remonstrances of Moses, unmoved by his earnestness; fear and
the darkness of night alone could quiet them. “Even as they refused to have God
in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things
which are not fitting.” How different is the sight of sin from our hearing of
it: sin as it affects God seems so easily condoned; sin, when it affects
ourselves, appears so heinous.
III. The Church
sacrificial. The next day displays a new composure in Moses. A graver, wiser
man, his conflicting emotions steadied under the constraint of a solemn
purpose. He goes to commune with the Lord. The words declare his sense of the
wickedness of the people, his feeling that nothing can be said to abate the
heinousness of their transgressions. Submission is the only offering which
their intercessor can present, and out of the submission comes a trembling
hope. There is here the utmost tenderness of a human heart; there is also an
absolute resignation to the will of God. They are truly sacrificial words,
sacrificial in the self-devotion they bespeak, sacrificial in the force of
their appeal to heaven. Some sort of premonition that his sacrificial purpose
would not be ratified by God appears in Moses’ language. It does not mar the
sincerity of his self-offering, but the words halt upon his lips in which a
simple faith that he could be in the room of Israel would have been expressed.
“If Thou wilt forgive their sins--; and if not”--what? Not, blot me, instead,
out of Thy book which Thou hast written!--but, “blot me--that is blot me with
my people--let me share their forfeiture; I ask no destiny but theirs.” It
seems to me that one of the hardest lessons which saintly souls have to learn
to-day is that they cannot sacrifice themselves for the sins of the world. It
is hard, because the sympathy which impels them is so pure and deep; it has so
much of the spirit of Christ in it. To the sacrificial Church God is able to
reveal the true atonement, to makes us preachers of Him, in whom, “according to
the riches of His grace,” the world may have “redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins.”
IV. The mystery of
the Divine sacrifice. “He that is willing,” says Christ, “to lose his life for
My sake shall find it.” Moses was accepted for the people in a deeper sense
than he had thought of. He was reinstated in his post as leader, his passion of
self-devotedness transformed into faith and patience. The qualified blessing of
“an angel to go before him” was changed--as Moses, in his pleading for the
people, revealed his undaunted confidence in God’s fidelity, and his quenchless
affection for the people--into a larger promise: “My presence shall go with
thee; and I will give thee rest.” And when, emboldened by all the love from
God, he goes on to ask for more, there is more vouchsafed him. The Lord
declared that He would make all His goodness pass before His servant; and
intimated to him that beyond even this was a deep, unutterable secret, which
none might rend, but of which, if we could but rend it, we should see the
burden to be grace. To such surpassing heights of human efficiency do those
attain who are willing to give themselves away. The reward of the Church
sacrificial will be victory over the powers of evil. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)
The prayer of Moses
I. We are to
inquire to what book moses refers in the text. He says to God, “Blot me, I pray
Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.” I would observe that Moses
could not mean the book of God’s remembrance. The prophet Malachi speaks of
such a book. Moses must have known that there was not only a moral, but a
natural impossibility of God’s blotting his name out of the book of His
remembrance. God cannot cease to remember any more than He can cease to exist.
And there is another book of God, often mentioned in Scripture, which is called
the book of life, and contains the names of all whom He designs to save from
the wrath to come, and admit to heaven. It plainly appears by God’s answer to
Moses, that this is the book he meant.
II. What was the
import of his request, when he said to God, “Yet now, if Thou wilt, forgive
their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast
written.” Here are two things requested, and both conditionally. Moses prays,
if it were consistent with the will of God, that He would pardon the sin of His
people in making the golden calf. “Now if Thou wilt, forgive their sin.” He
prayed for the exercise of pardoning mercy towards the people conditionally,
because God had seemed to intimate that He intended to destroy them, by saying,
“Let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them.” Moses had reason to
fear that God would, at all events, withhold His pardoning mercy. And therefore
to render his intercession more prevalent, and to express his most ardent
desire for their forgiveness, he prays again conditionally: “And if not, blot
me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.” This was implicitly
saying, “O Lord, since Thou hast proposed to spare me and destroy Thy people, I
pray that Thou wouldest rather blot me out of the book of life, and spare them.
If Thy glory require that either they or I must be destroyed, I pray Thee spare
them and destroy me. Their salvation is unspeakably more important than mine;
and I am willing to give up my salvation, if it might be a means, or occasion,
of preventing their final ruin.”
III. Whether this
petition of Moses, taken in the sense in which it has been explained, is a
proper one.
1. It appears to have been perfectly acceptable to God. He did not
rebuke him for a rash request, but, on the other hand, plainly intimated that
He was highly pleased with his noble, disinterested desire. And since God did
not condemn it, we may safely conclude that it was highly acceptable in His
sight.
2. It was perfectly agreeable to the dictates of reason and
conscience, that Moses should have been willing to give up all his own personal
interests, to promote the glory of God and the future and eternal good of his
nation. He supposed that the glory of God was greatly concerned in the
preservation of His people from deserved destruction; and he plead this as the
most powerful argument to move God to forgive and spare them.
3. The petition of Moses was agreeable to the very law of love. God
requires all men to love Him with all their heart, and their neighbour as
themselves.
4. The request of Moses was perfectly agreeable to the spirit which
Christ uniformly expressed through the whole course of His life on earth. He
always gave up a less good of His own for a greater good of others.
5. That the prayer of Moses was proper, because it was agreeable to
the prayers and practice of other good men. Paul said, “My heart’s desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.” Yea, he did solemnly
declare, “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren,
my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
Improvement:
1. If the prayer of Moses in the text was proper and acceptable to
God, then true love to God and man is, strictly speaking, disinterested love.
Moses expressed a love which was not only without interest but contrary to
interest.
2. If the conditional prayer of Moses was proper, then it is
impossible to carry the duty of disinterested benevolence too far.
3. If the prayer of Moses was proper, then none ought to be willing
to be lost, only conditionally.
4. If the prayer of Moses was proper and sincere, then those who
possess his spirit are the best friends of sinners.
5. If the prayer of Moses was proper and sincere, then none can pray
sincerely for any good without being willing to do whatever is necessary on
their part to obtain it.
6. If the conditional prayer of Moses was proper and acceptable to
God, then the prayers of the people of God are always heard and answered. It is
their wisdom as well as their duty always to pray conditionally and
submissively; for then they may be assured that their prayers will be
graciously answered.
7. If the conditional prayer of Moses was acceptable to God, then the
prayers of sinners are always sinful and unacceptable to God. They are not
willing to be denied on account of God’s glory. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
The broken sentence
I. The problem
with which he had to deal.
1. Their idolatry. The great lawgiver and leader, acting on their
request, thereupon withdrew himself into the Divine pavilion, and was “absent
for about six weeks. At first, without doubt, the people were well content.
Better to be temporarily deprived of their leader, than be exposed to those
terrible thunderings. But, after a while, they became uneasy and restless. From
one to another the word passed, “Where is he? He did not take food enough with
him to sustain him for so long.” And then turning to Aaron, the man of words,
sure that neither he nor twenty like him could fill the gap which the loss of
Moses had caused, they cried, “Up, make us gods, which shall go before us.” We
may notice, as we pass, the essential nature of idolatry. For in this
marvellous chapter we have its entire history, from the first cry of the soul,
which betrays a mighty yearning for an idol, to the draining of the last bitter
dregs, with which, when ground to powder, the idolater has to drink its very
dust. It is an attempt on the part of the human spirit which shrinks from the
effort of communion with the unseen and spiritual, to associate God with what
it can own and handle, so as to have a constant and evident token of the
presence and favour of God. This was the case of Israel. It was only three
months since they had stood by the Red Sea, and seen its waters roll in pride
over the hosts of Pharaoh. Every day since then God’s love had followed them.
But notwithstanding all, they had been carried away before that imperious
craving of the human heart which cries out for a sensible image of its worship.
Their idolatry, then, was a violation, not of the First, but of the Second,
Commandment. They did not propose to renounce Jehovah--that was left for the
days of Ahab; but they desired to worship Jehovah under the form of a calf, and
in distinct violation of the emphatic prohibition which said, “Thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image, or the likeness of any form that is in heaven
above, or the earth beneath; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve
them.” This was the sin also of Jeroboam.
2. Their degradation. There can be no doubt that the worship of the
calf was accompanied with the licentious orgies which were a recognized part of
Egyptian idolatry. As much as this is implied in the narrative. “The people sat
down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.” It is an awful thing when a
single man throws the reins on the neck of inordinate desire, but how passing
terrible it must have been when a whole nation did it.
3. The claims of God. There was every reason to believe that God
would exact the full amount of penalty, not because He was vindictive, but
because the maintenance of His authority seemed to demand it. How could God
maintain His character with His own people without imperilling it with the
Egyptians? If He spared the people they would begin to think that neither His
threats nor His promises were worth their heed. And if He destroyed them, His
glory would be dimmed, and He might seem to have become unmindful of the oath
which He swore by Himself to His servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. It would
almost seem as if this proposal was like the suggestion made to Abraham that he
should offer up his only son Isaac. In each case God tried or tested His
servant. But there is this great difference between the temptations of the
devil and of God. The former seeks to bring out all the evil, and to make it
permanent, as the streams of lava poured from the heart of a volcano; the
latter seeks to bring out all the good, and to make it ours; for moral
qualities never become ours till we have put them into practice.
II. The emotions
with which his soul was stirred. In the mount he acted as intercessor. It was
not against the people, but against their sin, that his anger flamed out.
“Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake
them beneath the mount.” Those splintered bits leaping from crag to crag are an
apt symbol of man’s inability to keep intact the holy law of God. When he
reached the camp he seems to have strode into the astonished throng and broke
up their revelry, overturned their calf, ordering it to be destroyed, and the
fragments mingled with the water they drank. But as it would seem that this did
not avail to stay the inveterate evil, he was compelled to use more drastic
measures, and by the sword of Levi to extinguish the evil with the life-blood
of three thousand men. Then when the next day came, when the camp was filled
with mourning over those new-made graves, when the awful reaction had set in on
the people and himself, the tide seems to have turned. His indignation was
succeeded by bitter sorrow and pity. “Ye have sinned a great sin, and now I will
go up unto the Lord, peradventure I shall make atonement for your sin”; but he
did not tell them the purpose which was in his heart, nor the price which he
was purposing to pay.
III. The offer that
he made. He went quietly and thoughtfully back to the presence-chamber of God,
as the people stood beholding. “Peradventure,” he had said. He was not sure. He
felt that the sin was very great. He could not see how God could go back from
His solemn threatenings. He was convinced that if the merited judgments were
averted, it must be in consequence of an atonement. Yet, what atonement could
there be? Animals could not avail, though they were offered in hecatombs. There
was only one thing he could suggest--he could offer himself. And it was this
which made him say, “Peradventure.” He could not be sure that the ransom price
would be large enough. It may be asked how came he to think of atonement? But
we must remember that probably there had already been much talk between God and
himself about the sacrifices which the people were to offer. And Moses
confessed his people’s sin to God, and added: “Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive
their sin--“ He would not finish that sentence. He could not trust himself to
depict the blessed consequences that would ensue, if only God would forgive.
But the dark fear oppressed him that free pardon was too much to expect. Ah!
how little did he realize the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Of course,
the offer was not accepted. No one can atone for his own sin, much less for the
sins of others. Yet the people were spared. The passing by of their
transgression was rendered possible by the propitiation which was to be offered
in the course of the ages on the cross (Romans 3:25). (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Moses intercedes for Israel
Notice--
I. The sin of
Israel. This was a dreadful compound of ingratitude, folly, and impiety. Its
greatness will be easily imagined from the indignation which both God and Moses
expressed against it.
II. The
intercession of Moses.
1. He reminds God of His relation to them.
2. He reminds Him also of His promise to their fathers.
3. He expresses his concern respecting God’s honour among the
heathen.
4. He humbly confesses the greatness of their sin.
5. He wishes to be punished in their stead.
III. The reply of
God. He remits their punishment. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The godliness of Moses
The indication of an impetuous, fiery spirit in Moses, only
reveals the beauty of the meek patience which marked his life.
I. In the story of
the golden calf we see--
1. Man’s natural tendency to worship.
2. The Israelites employing the very tokens of their deliverance to
build a god for themselves. The very gifts of heaven--wealth, intellect,
power--men turn into idols.
2. In worshipping a golden calf the Israelites utterly degraded
themselves.
II. The godliness
of Moses manifested itself in self-sacrificing sympathy. Fronting death and its
mystery, he stood sublimely willing even to be cut off from God if the sin of
the people might thereby be forgiven.
1. His revulsion from their sin mingled with his own love for the
people. The holiest men ever feel most deeply the sin of their fellows--they
see its seeds in themselves; they find its shadow falling across their heaven.
2. He felt the promise of his people’s future. In them lay the germ
of the world’s history; through them might be unfolded the glory of Jehovah
before the face of all nations. Gathering these feelings together, we
understand his prayers. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
“Blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book
”:--There are various ways in which this passage may be
understood. You may take it quite literally, and say that Moses really would
sacrifice himself for a time, or fatally, but not sacrifice himself for ever.
Christ made Himself a curse, but not for ever. If it would be possible to make
myself a curse for a season for others, I should be within the pattern of
Christ--for He made Himself for a season a curse. But I should transgress the
boundary, I should go out into a sinful extravagance, if I wished to be
accursed for ever--for after all I am not to love another soul more than
mine--that is never commanded. And there is to be high measure of right
self-love, because the love of a fellow-creature is to be proportioned to the
self-love, and if I have no great self-love, I cannot have love to a
fellow-creature. Therefore, I must love myself greatly--in the right way. How,
then, are we to understand it? When Moses prayed that God would blot his name
out of the book, it may have been out of the register of those who were to
inhabit the earthly Canaan--that he would give up all the enjoyments of the
land flowing with milk and honey, all the promised blessings of Palestine, for
the sake of the forgiveness of the guilty Israelites. And if that was it--for
securing their eternal happiness he was willing to give up all happiness here,
I suppose he would not have been sinful. And I suppose our earnestness should
go to that point--that I would give up all earthly happiness so that my child,
my friend, my enemy, might be saved. Or, again, it may simply be the language
of intensity--the expression of exceeding feeling. But, whichever it be--if you
would intercede, it must not be in a light way, it must not be in commonplaces,
it must not be superficial and cold. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Intercession for others
Never think lightly of this matter of intercession. There is a
very light way in which people say, “Pray for me,” and a very light way in
which people answer, “Yes, I will.” Be careful as to asking the favour, or
promising to grant it. You may find it a good rule to promise, indeed, whenever
you are asked by any one to pray for them, but to promise with this
limitation--“I will do it once, I will do it the next time that I am on my knees
before God, I will remember to pray for you.” That you will be able to do. But
to undertake always to pray for all who ask it is a burden of the conscience--a
thing impossible. You will have those for whom, doubtless, you do pray
continually, and many; but as respects the ordinary request that you will pray,
I would suggest to you not to withhold the promise, but with the limitation
that you will pray once. For it is a blessed thing to have intercessors. And
how blessed a thing it is God seems to teach us in that He has revealed to us
that we have the Holy Ghost an intercessor, and the Lord Jesus Christ an
intercessor. We have an intercessor always within us, and one always above us.
“The Spirit maketh intercession for us [and in us] with groanings which cannot
be uttered.” And here is the comfort--that “He that searcheth the heart,” God
in heaven, “knows the mind of the Spirit” in the man. The Holy Ghost in the man
asks everything that is according to the will of God. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Effective intercession
Amongst the many touching and interesting incidents that occurred
in Stanley’s last journey, there are but few to equal the following:--Stanley
had much trouble with his men on account of their current propensity to steal,
the results of which brought upon the expedition much actual disaster. At last
he doomed the next man caught stealing to death. His grief and distress were
unbounded when the next thief was found to be Uledi, the bravest, truest,
noblest of his dusky followers. Uledi had saved a hundred lives, his own among
the number. He had performed acts of the most brilliant daring, always
successful, always faithful, always kind. Must Uledi die? He called all his men
around him in a council. He explained to them the gravity of Uledi’s crime. He
reminded them of his stern decree, but said he was not hard enough to enforce
it against Uledi. His arm was not strong enough to kill Uledi; some other
punishment, and a hard one, must be meted out. What should it be? The council
must decide. They took a vote. Uledi must be flogged. When the decision was
reached, Stanley standing, Uledi crouching at his feet, and the solemn circle
drawn closely around them, one man whose life Uledi had saved under
circumstances of frightful peril, stood forth and said: “Give me half the
blows, master.” Then another said, in the faintest accent, while tears fell
from his eyes, “Will the master give his slave leave to speak?” “Yes,” said
Stanley. The Arab came forward and knelt by Uledi’s side. His words came
slowly, and now and then a sob broke them. “The master is wise,” he said. “He
knows all that has been, for he writes them in a book. Let your slave fetch the
book, master, and turn its leaves. Maybe there is something that tells how
Uledi saved Zaidi from the white waters of the cataract; how he saved many
men--how many I forget--Bin Ali, Mabruki, Koni Kusi, others too; how he is
worthier than any three of us; how he always listens when the master speaks,
and flies forth at his word. Look, master, at the book. Then, if the blows must
be struck, Shumari will take half and I the other half.” Saywa’s speech
deserves to live for ever. Stanley threw away his whip. “Uledi is free,” he
said. “Shumari and Saywa are pardoned.”
Self-sacrificing devotion
An extraordinary act of devotion is described in the “Spirit of
Missions,” as it was related by Bishop Boone, while on a visit to this country.
He said: “I had a very valuable Chinese servant in my employ, upon whom I
leaned with implicit confidence, and one day he came to me and said: ‘I shall
be obliged to ask you to find some one to take my place, as in the course of a
few weeks I am to be executed in place of a rich gentleman, who is to pay me
very liberally for becoming his substitute’--such a mode of exchange, as the
reader may know, being in accordance with the law of the empire. I then
inquired what possible inducement there could be for him to forfeit his life
for any amount of money, when he replied: ‘I have an aged father and mother,
who are very poor, and unable to work, and the money that I am to receive will
make them comfortable as long as they live. I think, therefore, it is my duty
to give up my life for the sake of accomplishing this.’”
Pardoned, yet punished
The Lord may grant pardon, and yet there is a sense in
which He will still “plague the people” for their sin. The drunkard may give up
his sin and become a Christian, and yet come to a premature grave because of
his former evil course. The man who has squandered vast estates in evil.doing
may repent, but his repentance will not bring back that which he has lost. The
boy who spends foolishly the time in which he should be gaining knowledge and
virtue will feel the effects of that misspent time all his life. Some
opportunities which me have carelessly allowed to slip by unimproved will never
come again to us to all eternity. In that sense each of us must bear his own
iniquity. (S. S. Times.)
An example of intercession
Said a servant to President Bacchus, “The physician said, sir,
that you cannot live to exceed half an hour.” “Is it so? Then take me out of my
bed, and place me upon my knees; let me spend that time in calling upon God for
the salvation of the world.” It was done. He died upon his knees, praying for
the salvation of sinners.
──《The Biblical Illustrator》