Our daily reading for today January 28, 2011 is Exodus 32 – 34.

There is much to learn from these chapters; and I will be brief.  It was the leadership of Aaron which led the children of Israel to form this “golden calf” after the pattern of Egyptian worship, not the pattern which God had already given them through Moses’s leadership and time spent with the LORD.

“And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.  And 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.  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 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.”  Exodus 32:3-6 (KJV)

This was probably the most grievous error and sin of Aaron.  He calls it worshipping the LORD (v. 5);  God calls it false worship, spiritual adultery, rebellion, sin.

The LORD God has prescribed the means of worship and we are to practice worship with God’s prescription; not our own.  Just putting the name of God on or in worship does not make it right worship.

Chapter 33 shows us that God has been greatly offended by Israel;

“And 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: Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.  And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.  For the LORD had said unto Moses, ‘Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.’  And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.”  Exodus 34:2-6

Moses then receives a fuller revelation of the LORD God.  In all of this Moses even has cried to the LORD, “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence”.  Then God said, “…For thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name”.  God’s offense of previous actions has found grace.

In Chapter 34 we find that Moses has been an intercessor for Israel.  He has plead for grace for Israel, gone back onto Mount Sinai, and then returns with new tablets of the Ten Commandments.  Moses has plead for and received God’s grace and mercy for Israel.  God gives Moses instructions and sends him back to the people with God’s glory all over him.  So much glory the people cannot stand to look on his face, and Moses covers his face before the people, but uncovers his face to appear before the LORD.

We find in the New Testament that Moses is not covering his face to hide it but to keep the people from seeing the glory fade away (2 Corinthians 3:13-15).

May the veil be taken from our eyes to see clearly the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember to read Exodus 32 – 34

-Tim A. Blankenship