Day 27. Exodus 31-33

Exodus 31-33

Exodus 31

God talks to Moses:

²See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:

Bezaleel is the master smith. He's good in gold, silver and brass. Which makes you wonder how he got to be that way, when we're just led to believe that the only thing the Hebrews did while they were in Egypt was make bricks.

⁶And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee;

Aholiab is going to be Bezaleel's assistant. Together, they will make the tabernacle, the ark, the furniture, the candlestick and the garments.

God continues... sort of rambling...

¹³Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.

¹⁴Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Then he gives Moses the testimony.

¹⁸And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Written with the finger of God.

Exodus 32

¹And 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.

Moses is gone for 40 days, the people think he's dead, so they demand something to worship.

²And 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.

So, the people had earrings. The people hadn't started the creation of the tabernacle and the rest of the stuff yet, so they still had some gold available.

⁴And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Aaron was apparently skilled enough to make a golden calf.

Aaron them makes the next day a feast day. Aaron must be a master engraver. It only took him about a day to do it. Remember, according to Exodus 24:18 Moses was on the mount for 40 days and nights. So on the 39th day, Aaron completed the building of the calf. On the 40th day, was to be the feast.

⁷And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

They corrupted themselves. It's not the fault of the god who was talking with only one person giving his law, it's the fault of the people who had time to themselves.

⁸They 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.

It only took thirty some days for them to realize they wanted a new god.

¹⁰Now 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.

God tells Moses that he will kill all the Hebrews and he will make him, MOSES, be the father of the people. Instead of being Israel, it will be Moses.

Moses intercedes. There are two great intercessions, they were by Moses and Samuel. There was one intercession that would fail, so god didn't let it happen, and that was by Jeremiah.

Moses basically tells god that he didn't bring the people out of Egypt to kill them in the wilderness.

¹⁴And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

God wanted to do evil. God repented. Who does god repent to?

¹⁵And 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.

¹⁶And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

There is a lot of mythology regarding the tablets. That the lettering was the same on both sides. That it wasn't sentences, but only one letter, representing each of the laws.

¹⁹And 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.

Moses comes down, and breaks the first set of commandments.

²⁰And 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.

Moses made goldschlager.

Aaron then says it wasn't his fault.

²⁶Then 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.

Remember, the boy Levi and his brother Simeon were the ones who killed everyone in the city of Shechem, back in Genesis 34.

²⁷And 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.

²⁸And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

God wanted to kill the people, Moses said no, don't do it... I'll do it.

³¹And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.

³²Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

Moses is kind of emo... take me, not them.

³⁵And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

Funny verse, because they made the calf, which Aaron made. Aaron winds up coming out relatively blameless in the whole ordeal.

Exodus 33

¹And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it:

The Land of Milk and Honey.

²And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

The people are promised that the current inhabitants will be evacuated.

⁷And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

So the tabernacle had already been created. That's weird. The mercy seat was where Moses and Aaron were to minister to the lord. Why did Moses have to go to the mount?

⁹And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

Moses put on a show, whenever he'd go talk to the lord, there would be a cloudy pillar that descended. Or, he was so doped up on the anointing oil, that he just assumed that it happened.

¹¹And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

Here, Moses talks to god face to face. Remember this...

²⁰And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Really? Seriously? You just said they spoke face to face, and now you claim you can't see his face?

²²And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

²³And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

You can't see god's face, but you can see the holy hiney!

Points to ponder:

1. Why did Aaron get away with building the calf? Not only was he the one who pronounced the calf the god who brought the people out of Egypt, but he also set a feast for it. Yet he still maintained the role of chief priest.

2. How good a builder was Aaron? In the desert, with less than 40 days to accomplish the feat, he managed to create a golden calf from earrings.

3. Why is Moses talking to god face to face in one verse, then in that conversation, he's told he can't see god's face?