Exodus 34: 11-26

¹¹Your responsibility is to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then I will surely drive out all those who stand in your way--the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

¹²"Be very careful never to make treaties with the people in the land where you are going. If you do, you soon will be following their evil ways. ¹³Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash the sacred pillars they worship, and cut down their carved images. ¹⁴You must worship no other gods, but only the LORD, for he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.

¹⁵"Do not make treaties of any kind with the people living in the land. They are spiritual prostitutes, committing adultery against me by sacrificing to their gods. If you make peace with them, they will invite you to go with them to worship their gods, and you are likely to do it. ¹⁶And you will accept their daughters, who worship other gods, as wives for your sons. Then they will cause your sons to commit adultery against me by worshiping other gods. ¹⁷You must make no gods for yourselves at all.

¹⁸"Be sure to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days, just as I instructed you, at the appointed time each year in early spring, for that was when you left Egypt.

¹⁹"Every firstborn male belongs to me--of both cattle and sheep. ²⁰A firstborn male donkey may be redeemed from the LORD by presenting a lamb in its place. But if you decide not to make the exchange, you must kill the donkey by breaking its neck. However, you must redeem every firstborn son. No one is allowed to appear before me without a gift.

²¹"Six days are set aside for work, but on the Sabbath day you must rest, even during the seasons of plowing and harvest. ²²And you must remember to celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the first crop of the wheat harvest, and celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the harvest season. ²³Three times each year all the men of Israel must appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. ²⁴No one will attack and conquer your land when you go to appear before the LORD your God those three times each year. I will drive out the nations that stand in your way and will enlarge your boundaries.

²⁵"You must not offer bread made with yeast as a sacrifice to me. And none of the meat of the Passover lamb may be kept over until the following morning. ²⁶You must bring the best of the first of each year's crop to the house of the LORD your God.

"You must not cook a young goat in its mother's milk."

Points of Interest:

· ‘Your responsibility is to obey all the commands I am giving you today’—once again, God clearly stipulates what each party is agreeing to do in this covenant: they are to follow his instructions, and he is to drive their enemies out of the land.

· ‘make no gods for yourselves at all’—in light of what happened with the golden calf, this second time through the covenant, God elaborates extensively on the subject of idols. He makes abundantly clear that they are not to make them. Instead, they are to break them, smash them, and cut them down; they are also to stay far away from anyone who would tempt them into idol worship. ‘Don’t even come close to flirting with other gods,’ is the LORD’s clear message to them.

Avoiding the worship of idols is the major test they will face on their quest to show the world what it is like to be the LORD’s people. They’ve already failed once, and it nearly doomed the whole mission. Now we will see if that first failure has helped them to learn their lesson.

· ‘cause your sons to commit adultery against me by worshiping other gods’—this is, of course, metaphorical. The covenant is like a marriage: once they’ve covenanted together, God doesn’t want the Israelites fooling around with any other gods. It might also be meant literally: prostitution or sex acts may have been part of the worship rituals associated with neighboring fertility goddesses (Illustrated Bible Dictionary 1289).

· ‘Be sure to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread’—the first time they entered into a covenant with one another, God gave the Ten Commandments to the people. This second time through, God’s instructions are based on the Ten Commandments, but they are customized to address more specifically the Israelites’ weak points. So, God elaborates on his prohibition of idols. He also highlights the Festival of Unleavened Bread and the redemption of the firstborn, both of which are ways of remembering the night when they escaped from Egypt. When the Israelites worship the golden calf, they say, ‘These are your gods, who brought you out of Egypt.’ It seems like God is highlighting these celebrations because he wants them to remember how it really happened.

· ‘you must rest’—God has to command his people to rest and to party. It will be tempting for them to worry and overwork, particularly during busy times like spring planting and fall harvest—or at times when they think an enemy might attack them. God wants them to know that the abundance they experience in the land will not be because of their own maximum effort or maximum vigilance, but because of his provision and protection. Their job is to worship God, to remember his goodness, and to avoid worshipping idols. God’s job is to provide them with an abundant harvest and with protection from their enemies.

· ‘You must not cook a young goat in its mother's milk’—this instruction seems a bit out of place with the rest. We don’t really know why God says it here. Perhaps he prohibits this mode of cooking because it was used in Canaanite religious rituals, or perhaps he simply considers it inhumane (Bible Background Commentary 103).

Taking it home:

· For you: God warns the Israelites that idolatry is their vulnerable spot, the place their enemies will try to exploit. What’s your weak point? For almost all of us, there’s at least one area of our lives in which we are vulnerable to temptation; perhaps it’s an area in which we’ve repeatedly failed, or an area in which we’ve failed only once, but spectacularly. The devil will try his hardest to exploit that weakness. Often our weak spots are deeply entrenched and may even involve addictive behaviors; so defending them is no easy task, and it may take some persistent hard work to get the upper hand. But in this passage, God offers two strategies that at least help us begin to defend against attacks at our weak points: knowing what they are, and praising him. When we recognize and admit our weak points, we can do better at avoiding them. And praising God by remembering his goodness gives us the strength to say, ‘No!’ to temptation.

· For your six: God makes clear in this passage that he wants to provide people with true rest: stillness combined with a complete sense of safety, security, and well-being. Pray that God would give your six the gift of a moment of such beautiful rest today.

· For our church: The LORD stresses here the importance of holidays as times to remember and celebrate God’s faithfulness. Pray that God would make us good at throwing such holy parties. The Lenten experience has become one of these annual festivals for us. Set aside some time to reflect on ways God has met you during this time. Also pray that our upcoming Easter service will be an especially fun and worshipful celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.

Exodus 34: 1-10

¹The LORD told Moses, "Prepare two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you smashed. ²Be ready in the morning to come up Mount Sinai and present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain. ³No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is allowed anywhere on the mountain. Do not even let the flocks or herds graze near the mountain."

⁴So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the LORD had told him, carrying the two stone tablets in his hands.

⁵Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and called out his own name, "the LORD," as Moses stood there in his presence. ⁶He passed in front of Moses and said, "I am the LORD, I am the LORD, the merciful and gracious God. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness. ⁷I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. Even so I do not leave sin unpunished, but I punish the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations."

⁸Moses immediately fell to the ground and worshiped. ⁹And he said, "If it is true that I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, then please go with us. Yes, this is an unruly and stubborn people, but please pardon our iniquity and our sins. Accept us as your own special possession."

¹⁰The LORD replied, "All right. This is the covenant I am going to make with you. I will perform wonders that have never been done before anywhere in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people around you will see the power of the LORD--the awesome power I will display through you.

Points of Interest:

· ‘Prepare two stone tablets like the first ones’—after the golden calf, in his anger God proposes a ‘do over’: he would destroy the people of Israel and form a new nation out of Moses’ family. Now, in his mercy, he proposes a different sort of ‘do over.’ He will start over from the beginning in forming the covenant with Israel, complete with another trip to Mount Sinai, another set of tablets, a repeat of the laws, and a renewal of their agreements with one another. The people were waiting to see what God would do with them. Now they know: he’s going to do what he had originally planned, and enter into a covenant with them. The heroic journey to be God’s people looked like it was over, but now—through Moses’ prayers and God’s grace—it has been revived. There’s hope that they just might succeed after all.

· ‘I am the LORD, I am the LORD, the merciful and gracious God . . . ‘—when Moses first encountered God at the burning bush, God revealed his name, ‘I AM,’ or, ‘the LORD.’ Now, when Moses asks to see God’s glorious presence, God says his name again; this time it’s as if, now that they know one another better, God is willing to tell Moses his full name, including all of verses 6 and 7. God’s full name includes the most important characteristics of who he is: mercy, grace, patience, love, faithfulness, generosity, and justice. These qualities are so much a part of God’s identity that they form his very name. Now, if anyone ever asks Moses who this god is whom he serves, he can say, ‘It’s the LORD, the one who shows mercy and grace.’

· ‘slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness’—the people are experiencing God’s patience, love, and faithfulness very tangibly right now, in his willingness to re-engage in a covenant with them.

· ‘then please go with us’—this has been a refrain from Moses recently. Maybe what he’s saying here is, ‘Now that I’ve seen you even more clearly, I REALLY want you to go with us.’

· ‘Yes, this is an unruly and stubborn people’—Moses’ request doesn’t rest on the people deserving it; they don’t. It rests on the characteristics of mercy, grace, patience, love, and faithfulness which God has so powerfully proclaimed.

· ‘that have never been done before’—presumably, this would include the things God has already done for Israel. The power he displayed in rescuing them from Egypt and the mercy he has shown in accepting them despite their rejection of him are small in comparison to both the power and the mercy he will show through them in the future.

· ‘I do not leave sin unpunished’—God is not an over-indulgent parent who lets his children get away with anything. He notices and corrects sin. But his love is far more vast than his punishment; in fact, his love sets the context for the punishment. It is out of his love for them that he doesn’t allow them to continue to sin.

· ‘the third and fourth generations’—this is approximately the number of generations that would be alive at any one time (Bible Background Commentary 116). God is acknowledging that sin is not individual; it affects the whole family, and often it is engaged in by the whole family.

Taking it home:

· For you: Moses breaks out in worship when he understands just how huge God’s mercy is. Ask God to give you a new understanding of what it really means that he is merciful. Be prepared to worship him when he shows you.

· For your six: the LORD is a God of second chances. Do any of your six feel as if they’ve made a mistake in their life too big to overcome? Pray that God would give them a chance at a fresh start, and pray that they would have the faith to believe in such a gracious opportunity.

For our church: God isn’t satisfied with what he has already done for the Israelites in the past; he has plans for an even greater future for them. Pray that God would show the same generosity toward us, and pray for us that we would always be looking for new and better experiences with God, rather than looking back to some glorious past.

Exodus 33: 12-23

¹²Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, `Take these people up to the Promised Land.' But you haven't told me whom you will send with me. You call me by name and tell me I have found favor with you. ¹³Please, if this is really so, show me your intentions so I will understand you more fully and do exactly what you want me to do. Besides, don't forget that this nation is your very own people."

¹⁴And the LORD replied, "I will personally go with you, Moses. I will give you rest--everything will be fine for you."

¹⁵Then Moses said, "If you don't go with us personally, don't let us move a step from this place. ¹⁶If you don't go with us, how will anyone ever know that your people and I have found favor with you? How else will they know we are special and distinct from all other people on the earth?"

¹⁷And the LORD replied to Moses, "I will indeed do what you have asked, for you have found favor with me, and you are my friend."

¹⁸Then Moses had one more request. "Please let me see your glorious presence," he said.

¹⁹The LORD replied, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, `the LORD,' to you. I will show kindness to anyone I choose, and I will show mercy to anyone I choose. ²⁰But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live." ²¹The LORD continued, "Stand here on this rock beside me. ²²As my glorious presence passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed. ²³Then I will remove my hand, and you will see me from behind. But my face will not be seen."

Points of Interest:

· ‘you haven't told me whom you will send with me’—God has told him that he will send his angel. Perhaps what Moses means is something like, ‘You and I are friends, but I hardly know this angel. Do you really intend to send me on this mission with a stranger?’

· ‘I will personally go with you, Moses’—apparently, the personal request from Moses convinces God to change his mind about only sending the angel. It seems that it is personal concern for Moses that motivates him to change. When Moses expresses his worries about the angel plan, God quickly responds with comfort and assurance for Moses particularly.

· ‘If you don't go with us personally’—God has just said that he will go personally, but Moses wants to be absolutely clear on this point. Whether or not God personally goes with them is a very big deal to Moses. If God doesn’t go, neither will Moses. God has promised Moses that he will give them everything they want: they’ll get the land, and they’ll get help from the angel in driving out the Canaanites and the other nations. But, to Moses, God’s blessings are insufficient if they don’t come with his presence. Moses would rather be in the desert with God than in the promised land without him. Moses wants the people to be known as God’s special people much more than he wants them to be known as the people who live in the promised land.

· ‘your people and I have found favor with you’—Moses wants for the whole people what he already has: favor with God.

· ‘Moses had one more request’—after having succeeded in his request on behalf of the people, Moses goes on to a more personal one. What he wants is to see God. The previous passage already says that Moses speaks with God face to face, but here God says that no one can survive looking directly at his face. Apparently, there’s a whole new level of being able to see God’s face that Moses hasn’t yet experienced. Perhaps God has kept his face veiled in some way, or perhaps Moses is asking that God would somehow improve his eyesight, allowing for an even deeper or clearer perception. In any case, what Moses has already experienced of God’s presence makes him hungry for even more. God can’t give him everything he asks for, but he does give him as much as Moses could handle.

· ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you’—Moses asks to see God’s glory, and God responds that he will show his goodness. God’s goodness is his glory. In God’s own opinion, what’s most glorious about him is his incredible ability to show kindness and mercy.

Taking it home:

· For you: Moses gets a glimpse of God’s face, and it only makes him hungry for more. Cultivate that same hunger yourself. Boldly ask God to draw you deeper into his presence than you’ve ever been before.

· For your six: When given the choice between God’s provision and God’s presence, Moses chooses God’s presence. Pray for your six, that the Holy Spirit would awaken in them such a desire to be with God. Pray that God would richly provide for them, but in such a way that it leaves them dissatisfied with mere material provision.

· For our church: Moses has a special relationship with God, but it does not cause him to look down on anybody else. In fact, there’s nothing he wants more than to see the whole people experience the same special relationship. He doesn’t want to be God’s favored one at the expense of anyone else: he wants the whole people to be God’s favorite. Ask the Holy Spirit to give us the same humility and generosity as Moses demonstrates here. Ask God to protect us from the temptation to compare with others or to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, and pray that we would use whatever intimacy with God we have to bless others.

Exodus 33: 1-11

¹ The LORD said to Moses, "Now that you have brought these people out of Egypt, lead them to the land I solemnly promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I told them long ago that I would give this land to their descendants. ²And I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ³Theirs is a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not travel along with you, for you are a stubborn, unruly people. If I did, I would be tempted to destroy you along the way."

⁴When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and refused to wear their jewelry and ornaments. ⁵For the LORD had told Moses to tell them, "You are an unruly, stubborn people. If I were there among you for even a moment, I would destroy you. Remove your jewelry and ornaments until I decide what to do with you." ⁶So from the time they left Mount Sinai, the Israelites wore no more jewelry.

⁷It was Moses' custom to set up the tent known as the Tent of Meeting far outside the camp. Everyone who wanted to consult with the LORD would go there.

⁸Whenever Moses went out to the Tent of Meeting, all the people would get up and stand in their tent entrances. They would all watch Moses until he disappeared inside. ⁹As he went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and hover at the entrance while the LORD spoke with Moses. ¹⁰Then all the people would stand and bow low at their tent entrances. ¹¹Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, stayed behind in the Tent of Meeting.

Points of Interest:

· ‘But I will not travel along with you’—in the first half of chapter 32, Moses reminded the LORD of his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and of his expressed intention to bring the people from Egypt to Canaan. Here God reaffirms his commitment to those promises. Even though the people have broken their part of the agreement so egregiously, God will keep his part. However, you get the impression that his heart isn’t quite in it anymore. He’s willing to do what it takes to get the Israelites their land, but his own enthusiasm for the project has dried up.

This cooling of God’s feelings toward the people and the plan to give them the land is terrible news. The very thing that makes the Israelites distinct, the magic elixir that Moses had gone to the mountain to get for them, is genuine connection with a powerful and loving God. The Israelites’ betrayal of God in the golden calf affair has put that special relationship in real, imminent danger of being lost completely.

The heroic adventure of the Israelites was to be a priestly nation, a showcase for the rest of the world of what it is like to be God’s special possession. Now, it looks like that adventure is over, before it had really even begun; the Israelites have failed; their relationship with God is broken; and it appears that there’s nothing left to do but to return to ordinary life (the only difference being they’ll live in Canaan rather than Egypt).

· ‘If I did, I would be tempted to destroy you’—in a way, putting some distance between himself and the people is an act of mercy on God’s part. He wants to remove from himself the constant temptation to destroy them. Sadly, this strategy shows just how sick God is of the sight of the Israelites.

It’s easy to see God’s punishment of the people and his removal of his presence from them as a harsh, though just, response to the fact that they broke the rules. But God isn’t behaving so much like a judge here as like a lover who’s been betrayed. He seems hurt and angry that his people would so quickly and easily decide to have a fling with another god.

· ‘the tent known as the Tent of Meeting’—recently, Moses has been meeting God on the mountain. Now that they are moving on, Moses creates a portable place for God and him to meet. Moses doesn’t want conversation with God to be only for special occasions; he wants to have daily access to the presence of God.

· ‘far outside the camp’—even before the incident of the golden calf, the people asked that God no longer speak to them directly for fear that they would die. In this passage, following the golden calf affair, God agrees: ‘If I were among you for even a moment, I would destroy you.’ So, in order to meet with God, Moses has to leave the rest of the people and go a safe distance away.

· ‘all the people would get up and stand in their tent entrances’—the last words they heard from God were a bit ominous: ‘until I decide what to do with you.’ So, each time Moses meets with God, they’re eager to know if God has reached a decision. They’re like a convicted criminal waiting for sentencing, or like a man waiting to hear if his wife is going to divorce him for cheating on her.

· ‘as a man speaks to his friend’—while God’s relationship with the rest of the people has grown more distant, his intimacy with Moses only continues to grow. God doesn’t treat Moses like a servant or an employee, but like a friend. It seems that their friendship has grown much like any other friendship: they spend a lot of time together; and they have a lot of shared interests and experiences. Moses and God spent 40 days together on the mountain, and they still get together frequently at the tent of meeting. Also, they’ve worked closely together, defeating Pharaoh and leading the people. God considers Moses to be like a friend because he knows that he can trust Moses and that Moses understands his hopes and the challenges he is facing.

Taking it home:

· For you: Moses builds a friendship with God by spending time with him and by working side-by-side with him. Most of us tend to gravitate toward (at most) one or the other of these things. We focus on either ‘being’ or ‘doing.’ We can even look at these two ways of spending time with God as mutually exclusive, but Moses’ example shows that it’s really the two of these things together that make our relationship with God a potential friendship. Are you a ‘being’ person or a ‘doing’ person? Do you like deep conversation with God, or getting out there and doing something together? What would it take to add more strength to your weak hand—without losing what you’re already strong in?

· For your six: The Israelites’ experience in this passage an appropriate grief concerning their sin. It’s not a neurotic guilt, an attempt to somehow make it up to him, nor a callous disregard of their mistakes. Rather, it’s a sort of quiet sadness about their missed opportunity to enjoy a closer relationship with God. Ask the Holy Spirit to give your six the eyes to see and the ability to appropriately mourn any of their own missed opportunities to get to know God.

· For our church: As a church, we desire to be always becoming more like a place where people can come and know God more deeply. Pray that God would see fit to fulfill this desire, and that we would be a church community filled with “Joshuas,” people who love to linger in God’s presence..

Exodus 32: 15-35

¹⁵Then Moses turned and went down the mountain. He held in his hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. ¹⁶These stone tablets were God's work; the words on them were written by God himself.

¹⁷When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting below them, he exclaimed to Moses, "It sounds as if there is a war in the camp!"

¹⁸But Moses replied, "No, it's neither a cry of victory nor a cry of defeat. It is the sound of a celebration."

¹⁹When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing. In terrible anger, he threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashing them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰He took the calf they had made and melted it in the fire. And when the metal had cooled, he ground it into powder and mixed it with water. Then he made the people drink it.

²¹After that, he turned to Aaron. "What did the people do to you?" he demanded. "How did they ever make you bring such terrible sin upon them?"

²²"Don't get upset, sir," Aaron replied. "You yourself know these people and what a wicked bunch they are. ²³They said to me, `Make us some gods to lead us, for something has happened to this man Moses, who led us out of Egypt.' <sup>24</sup>So I told them, `Bring me your gold earrings.' When they brought them to me, I threw them into the fire--and out came this calf!"

²⁵When Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get completely out of control--and much to the amusement of their enemies-- ²⁶he stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, "All of you who are on the LORD's side, come over here and join me." And all the Levites came.

²⁷He told them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Strap on your swords! Go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other, killing even your brothers, friends, and neighbors." ²⁸The Levites obeyed Moses, and about three thousand people died that day.

²⁹Then Moses told the Levites, "Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Because of this, he will now give you a great blessing."

³⁰The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a terrible sin, but I will return to the LORD on the mountain. Perhaps I will be able to obtain forgiveness for you."

³¹So Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Alas, these people have committed a terrible sin. They have made gods of gold for themselves. ³²But now, please forgive their sin--and if not, then blot me out of the record you are keeping."

³³The LORD replied to Moses, "I will blot out whoever has sinned against me. ³⁴Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about. Look! My angel will lead the way before you! But when I call the people to account, I will certainly punish them for their sins."

³⁵And the LORD sent a great plague upon the people because they had worshiped the calf Aaron had made.

Points of Interest:

· ‘These stone tablets were God's work’—what a heartbreaking picture! God has given Moses this very special gift for his people, something he’s written with his own hands, like a hand-made card or a hand-written love letter. While Moses is in the midst of delivering it, the people do what would hurt God the most: they run off after another god. Moses’ destruction of the tablets is a statement that he no longer has anyone to deliver them to.

· ‘It sounds as if there is a war’—the party is so wild and chaotic that it sounds to Joshua (who is perhaps a bit naïve) as if there is a battle going on.

· ‘In terrible anger’—it was God who displayed terrible anger in yesterday’s passage. Here it is Moses. Perhaps Moses is now seeing for himself just how bad the situation is. Now that he sees it for himself, he can understand why God is so angry. This anger also shows what a perfect intermediary Moses is between God and the people. When Moses is with God, he takes the part of the people, calling for mercy from God for them; when he is with the people, he represents God, showing God’s anger and disappointment at their betrayal.

· ‘What did the people do to you?’—Moses can’t understand how Aaron could do such a thing. Aaron has led them so badly that, either mockingly or in earnest, he asks Aaron if led them into this sin in order to avenge himself for something they did to him. Aaron’s failure is so vast that it is impossible for him to see it as an accident—he must have done this to them on purpose for some reason.

· ‘Don't get upset’—with me, that is. Aaron shifts blame from himself to the people. He even goes to improbably lengths to make his actions seem accidental. He says, ‘I threw them into the fire—and out came this calf,’ when in reality he had carefully shaped it into a calf (see yesterday’s passage). ‘And all the Levites came’—that’s Moses’ (and Aaron’s) tribe. It can’t quite be that all the Levites came to Moses, because Moses instructs them to kill even their brothers, who would of course also be Levites. So, perhaps it means that as a whole the Levites came to Moses, or the majority of the people who came to him were Levites.

· ‘your brothers, friends, and neighbors’—while this translation says, ‘even your brothers, friends, and neighbors,’ other translations leave out the ‘even’ part. Perhaps Moses is asking the Levites to kill any of the Levites who have been involved in worshipping the golden calf. This would purify the tribe of Levi, which is supposed to become the tribe that will lead the rest of Israel in worship of the LORD. Many of things that God and Moses talked about during the 40 days on the mountain were God’s plan for the Levites and for Aaron’s family in particular.

· ‘three thousand people died that day’—this is tragic. It seems like what is happening here is crowd control. This festival has become an uncontrollable riot, and it takes desperate measures to bring back some semblance of order. In other words, the Levites are taking on the role of riot police.

· ‘if not, then blot me out of the record you are keeping’—God had suggested that he get rid of the people and start over with Moses; Moses offers that God punish him in order to save the people. It’s an offer God doesn’t accept.

· ‘I will certainly punish them for their sins’—God takes the people back, and restores his plans to lead them to the promised land, but there will still be consequences to this action.

Taking it home:

· For you: Aaron just doesn’t want to get into trouble—with the people, with Moses, or with God. His neurotic desire to avoid trouble actually brings down a world of trouble on everyone involved. When have you made staying out of conflict or trouble your highest goal? What have been the results? Ask God to forgive you for the times you’ve brought trouble down on others in an effort to escape it yourself. Pray that God would give you the courage to face your own mistakes and to speak boldly against plans that will certainly bring down trouble on others.

· For your six: In this passage, we see the Levites display a zeal for God (albeit in very intense, tragic, emergency circumstances). Pray that God would give your six opportunities (definitely less intense and tragic opportunities than this one) to step out and choose to stand on God’s side. Ask God to give them the faith and boldness to do so.

· For our church: During the past two passages, we’ve seen the Israelites behave at their worst. Ironically, we’ve also seen Moses’ love for and devotion to them grow to new levels. Pray that God would give us such a fierce love for New Haven and New Havenites—a love that only intensifies in light of New Haven’s faults and weaknesses.

Exodus 32: 1-14

¹When Moses failed to come back down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. "Look," they said, "make us some gods who can lead us. This man Moses, who brought us here from Egypt, has disappeared. We don't know what has happened to him."

²So Aaron said, "Tell your wives and sons and daughters to take off their gold earrings, and then bring them to me."

³All the people obeyed Aaron and brought him their gold earrings. ⁴Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded and tooled it into the shape of a calf. The people exclaimed, "O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt!"

⁵When Aaron saw how excited the people were about it, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD!"

⁶So the people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and indulged themselves in pagan revelry.

⁷Then the LORD told Moses, "Quick! Go down the mountain! The people you brought from Egypt have defiled themselves. ⁸They have already turned from the way I commanded them to live. They have made an idol shaped like a calf, and they have worshiped and sacrificed to it. They are saying, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.' "

⁹Then the LORD said, "I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. ¹⁰Now leave me alone so my anger can blaze against them and destroy them all. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation instead of them."

¹¹But Moses pleaded with the LORD his God not to do it. "O LORD!" he exclaimed. "Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and mighty acts? ¹²The Egyptians will say, `God tricked them into coming to the mountains so he could kill them and wipe them from the face of the earth.' Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you are planning against your people! <sup>13</sup>Remember your covenant with your servants--Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You swore by your own self, `I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. Yes, I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.' "

¹⁴So the LORD withdrew his threat and didn't bring against his people the disaster he had threatened.

Points of Interest:

· ‘When Moses failed to come back down’—as was mentioned yesterday, Moses has been up on the mountain with God for 40 days, receiving more detailed instructions from him on how to live a life that takes full advantage of his blessings.

· ‘the people went to Aaron’—Moses had instructed them to go to Aaron if they needed any guidance while he was gone. Aaron doesn’t lead them exactly in the direction Moses would have expected. In fact, rather than leading the people according to the covenant that they all just heard and agreed to, he allows them to lead him away from it.

· ‘make us some gods’—it’s only been 40 days since they were in awe at the vision of God they had received, and as far as we know the cloud of God is still lingering on the mountain, but somehow the people have grown tired of worshipping him. They would rather follow an idol than this very real, awesome God. It’s easy for us to wonder what they were thinking, since worshipping actual idols is somewhat rare in our society, but the impulses that drive idolatry are very much still present today. Basically, they got tired of waiting for God; so they decided to make their own gods for more immediate gratification and for the security of knowing that their gods would be where they wanted them, when they wanted them. Then they said to these golden objects, ‘Lead us.’ It’s tempting for us to do the same thing. When following God feels scary, uncertain, or unpalatable, we turn to something else that’s safer, more immediate, and easier to control, and we ask that thing to lead us. It could be money, TV, food, education, or any number of other quick fixes that we turn to.

· ‘this man Moses’—not so long ago, they asked Moses to be their leader, passing along to them the words of God. Now, they are pretending that they don’t know him.

· ‘We don't know what has happened to him’—it’s possible that they are worried he has died or abandoned them, but this sounds a little suspicious. They all saw him climb into the cloud. Interestingly, as I mentioned in our discussion of Passover, the hero’s quest always involves the real or apparent death of the hero at the climax of the story. Of course, this is a dark moment in the story, when all seems like it may be lost. Well, we certainly have a dark moment here, and it’s connected to some speculation about the death of the hero. Perhaps the Israelite plan to make idols is their way of coping with the apparent failure of Moses’ quest. Moses was supposed to receive the law, and come back down to lead them to the promised land. Since Moses is not coming back, they look for some other way to move forward.

· ‘their gold earrings’—these earrings are part of the treasure that the Egyptians gave them to convince them to leave Egypt. They take the gift God sent them out of Egypt with, and they make an idol of it instead.

· ‘these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt’—40 days after they promised to follow all of God’s instructions, they break commandments number one and two, worshipping other gods and making idols. A case can be made that Aaron also takes the LORD’s name in vain by using it to declare a religious festival for the idols. If only Aaron made the idol on the Sabbath, he would have gone four for four in breaking the commandments having to do with God.

· ‘there will be a festival to the LORD’—perhaps Aaron is trying to do some PR spin here. Clearly they are worshipping an idol here, but he wants to clean it up a little by calling it a festival to the LORD.

· ‘Quick! Go down the mountain!’—as we might have guessed, Moses is not dead or missing. As we will find out in our next passage, he has indeed succeeded in getting the instructions from God he went up to the mountain to find. This is the moment in the story when the chase scene comes: will the hero be able to return to the people with the special equipment he has gained before it is too late? That’s a real question here. Even the LORD says to Moses, ‘Hurry!’

· ‘Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation instead of them’—God makes the astounding suggestion that he and Moses do a ‘do over.’ Like crumpling up a sketch that doesn’t look like you had envisioned, or pressing ‘start’ on a video game, God wants to start from scratch in building a people who will follow him. He seems to be wondering if these people are just too far off from what they need to be: starting over might be easier, or even the only way.

· ‘The Egyptians will say’—Moses reminds God that the world is watching what is happening here. The LORD’s aim was to prove to the Egyptians and to the rest of the world that he was a God both willing and able to save his people. His reputation is on the line. If he destroys the Israelites, he will make exactly the wrong statement as to what kind of God he is. Even though the Israelites probably deserve punishment—and perhaps even destruction would not be unjust—God’s faithfulness to his own nature requires that he hold back.

· ‘You swore by your own self’—Moses also reminds God of his promises. The people of Israel may have already broken their promises to God, but that does not mean that God should abandon his promises to them, or to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is God’s chance to show just how trustworthy his words are: even this monumental failure on the part of the Israelites should not get in the way of God fulfilling his promises.

· ‘So the LORD withdrew his threat’—Moses’ prayers and arguments apparently change God’s mind. Moses is so trusted by God and knows God’s character, plans, and words so well that he can speak almost at a peer level with God in this prayer, and persuade God to change his course of action.

Taking it home:

· For you: Ask the Holy Spirit to increase your boldness and power in prayer. May we all become people who pray like Moses, in full knowledge of God’s character and purposes boldly asking God to do what will most display his power and goodness.

· For your six: Pray that your six would have the patience to wait for God to come through for them. Pray that they would have the strength to resist the temptation to turn to cheap substitutes and quick solutions to meet their deepest needs.

· For our church: The people take the gifts God gave them, and they twist them into something to worship instead of God. God has given us as a church many wonderful things: huge dreams, good ideas for ministry, great programs, a wonderful new building, and much more. Pray that God would protect us from ever turning from a dependence on him to a dependence on those things.

Exodus 24

¹Then the LORD instructed Moses: "Come up here to me, and bring along Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of Israel's leaders. All of them must worship at a distance. ²You alone, Moses, are allowed to come near to the LORD. The others must not come too close. And remember, none of the other people are allowed to climb on the mountain at all."

³When Moses had announced to the people all the teachings and regulations the LORD had given him, they answered in unison, "We will do everything the LORD has told us to do."

⁴Then Moses carefully wrote down all the LORD's instructions. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain. He also set up twelve pillars around the altar, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵Then he sent some of the young men to sacrifice young bulls as burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD. ⁶Moses took half the blood from these animals and drew it off into basins. The other half he splashed against the altar.

⁷Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They all responded again, "We will do everything the LORD has commanded. We will obey."

⁸Then Moses sprinkled the blood from the basins over the people and said, "This blood confirms the covenant the LORD has made with you in giving you these laws."

⁹Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel went up the mountain. ¹⁰There they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there seemed to be a pavement of brilliant sapphire, as clear as the heavens. ¹¹And though Israel's leaders saw God, he did not destroy them. In fact, they shared a meal together in God's presence!

¹²And the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there while I give you the tablets of stone that I have inscribed with my instructions and commands. Then you will teach the people from them." ¹³So Moses and his assistant Joshua climbed up the mountain of God.

¹⁴Moses told the other leaders, "Stay here and wait for us until we come back. If there are any problems while I am gone, consult with Aaron and Hur, who are here with you."

¹⁵Then Moses went up the mountain, and the cloud covered it. ¹⁶And the glorious presence of the LORD rested upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from the cloud. ¹⁷The Israelites at the foot of the mountain saw an awesome sight. The awesome glory of the LORD on the mountaintop looked like a devouring fire. ¹⁸Then Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Points of Interest:

· ‘We will do everything the LORD has told us to do’—the people agree to the contract with God.

· ‘Moses carefully wrote down all the LORD's instructions’—not a bad idea. It’s well known that it’s easier to remember and enforce a written contract than a handshake agreement. If you don’t have it written down, the details can start to get a little fuzzy with time. Also, if you’re doing something you’ve never done before, it’s often helpful to have written instructions to follow.

· ‘He also set up twelve pillars around the altar’—the symbolism is clear. God will dwell in the midst of the twelve tribes of Israel.

· ‘This blood confirms the covenant’—it was usual for an animal to be sacrificed to conclude the making of a covenant (Illustrated Bible Dictionary, part 1, p.326). The two parties would eat the sacrificed animal together, thus sealing the deal.

· ‘Under his feet there seemed to be a pavement of brilliant sapphire’—I wonder if they noticed the floor in such detail because they found themselves looking down, in awe of the presence of God.

· ‘In fact, they shared a meal together in God's presence!’—in Wednesday’s passage, the people ask Moses not to have God speak to them anymore; they’re afraid that if they come into God’s presence, he will kill them. Here they find out what really happens when they meet God: he feeds them dinner. God hospitably welcomes them into his awesome presence.

· ‘the tablets of stone that I have inscribed with my instructions and commands’—this may be the same set of instructions Moses has just written down, but written by God’s own hand—which would, in fact, be pretty cool. But most likely it is more detailed instructions that follow from the Ten Commandments; these more detailed instructions are found in chapters 25 through 32 of Exodus (and possibly in the entire book of Leviticus as well).

· ‘Moses disappeared into the cloud’—Moses departs on another short hero’s journey. He is leaving the ordinary world of the camp and going to the special world of the mountain, to bring back to the people the tablets on which God has written his instructions.

Taking it home:

· For you: Israel’s leaders had the incredible privilege of seeing God and actually eating a meal with him—they got to hang out with God. In Revelation, the last book of the Bible, Jesus indicates that he is really very eager to do the same with us: ‘Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends’ (Revelation 3: 20). Spend a moment today taking Jesus up on his offer: invite him into your day; spend some time with him; and enjoy his presence.

· For your six: When God’s glory rested on the mountain, the Israelites got a special glimpse of just how awesome God is. Ask God to give your six a similar peek at God’s grandeur.

· For our church: Moses stayed with God on the mountain for 40 days and nights, seeing his glory and receiving more guidance from him. Pray for the remainder of our Lenten experience, that God’s presence would rest on our church like he rested on the mountain, allowing us to see more of him, to enjoy his presence, and to receive the guidance from him that we need.