mh_parser/vol_split/2 - Exodus/Chapter 32.xml

<div2 id="Ex.xxxiii" n="xxxiii" next="Ex.xxxiv" prev="Ex.xxxii" progress="46.31%" title="Chapter XXXII">
<h2 id="Ex.xxxiii-p0.1">E X O D U S</h2>
<h3 id="Ex.xxxiii-p0.2">CHAP. XXXII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ex.xxxiii-p1">It is a very lamentable interruption which the
story of this chapter gives to the record of the establishment of
the church, and of religion among the Jews. Things went on
admirably well towards that happy settlement: God had shown himself
very favourable, and the people also had seemed to be pretty
tractable. Moses had now almost completed his forty days upon the
mount, and, we may suppose, was pleasing himself with the thoughts
of the very joyful welcome he should have to the camp of Israel at
his return, and the speedy setting up of the tabernacle among them.
But, behold, the measures are broken, the sin of Israel turns away
those good things from them, and puts a stop to the current of
God's favours; the sin that did the mischief (would you think it?)
was worshipping a golden calf. The marriage was ready to be
solemnized between God and Israel, but Israel plays the harlot, and
so the match is broken, and it will be no easy matter to piece it
again. Here is, I. The sin of Israel, and of Aaron particularly, in
making the golden calf for a god (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.1-Exod.32.4" parsed="|Exod|32|1|32|4" passage="Ex 32:1-4">ver. 1-4</scripRef>), and worshipping it, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.5-Exod.32.6" parsed="|Exod|32|5|32|6" passage="Ex 32:5,6">ver. 5, 6</scripRef>. II. The notice which God
gave of this to Moses, who was now in the mount with him,
(<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.7-Exod.32.8" parsed="|Exod|32|7|32|8" passage="Ex 32:7,8">ver. 7, 8</scripRef>), and the
sentence of his wrath against them, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.9-Exod.32.10" parsed="|Exod|32|9|32|10" passage="Ex 32:9,10">ver. 9, 10</scripRef>. III. The intercession which
Moses immediately made for them in the mount (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.11-Exod.32.13" parsed="|Exod|32|11|32|13" passage="Ex 32:11-13">ver. 11-13</scripRef>), and the prevalency of that
intercession, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.14" parsed="|Exod|32|14|0|0" passage="Ex 32:14">ver. 14</scripRef>. IV.
His coming down from the mount, when he became an eye-witness of
their idolatry (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.15-Exod.32.19" parsed="|Exod|32|15|32|19" passage="Ex 32:15-19">ver.
15-19</scripRef>), in abhorrence of which, and as an expression of
just indignation, he broke the tables (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.19" parsed="|Exod|32|19|0|0" passage="Ex 32:19">ver. 19</scripRef>), and burnt the golden calf,
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.20" parsed="|Exod|32|20|0|0" passage="Ex 32:20">ver. 20</scripRef>. V. The examination
of Aaron about it, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.10" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.21-Exod.32.24" parsed="|Exod|32|21|32|24" passage="Ex 32:21-24">ver.
21-24</scripRef>. VI. Execution done upon the ring-leaders in the
idolatry, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.11" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.25-Exod.32.29" parsed="|Exod|32|25|32|29" passage="Ex 32:25-29">ver. 25-29</scripRef>.
VII. The further intercession Moses made for them, to turn away the
wrath of God from them (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.12" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.30-Exod.32.32" parsed="|Exod|32|30|32|32" passage="Ex 32:30-32">ver.
30-32</scripRef>), and a reprieve granted thereupon, reserving them
for a further reckoning, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.13" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.33-Exod.32.35" parsed="|Exod|32|33|32|35" passage="Ex 32:33-35">ver.
33</scripRef>, &amp;c.</p>
<scripCom id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.14" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32" parsed="|Exod|32|0|0|0" passage="Ex 32" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.15" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.1-Exod.32.6" parsed="|Exod|32|1|32|6" passage="Ex 32:1-6" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Exod.32.1-Exod.32.6">
<h4 id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.16">The Golden Calf. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p1.17">b. c.</span> 1491.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ex.xxxiii-p2">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 <i>as for</i> this Moses, the man that brought us up
out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.  
2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which
<i>are</i> in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your
daughters, and bring <i>them</i> unto me.   3 And all the
people brake off the golden earrings which <i>were</i> in their
ears, and brought <i>them</i> unto Aaron.   4 And he received
<i>them</i> at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool,
after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These <i>be</i>
thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
  5 And when Aaron saw <i>it,</i> he built an altar before it;
and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow <i>is</i> a feast
to the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p2.1">Lord</span>.   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.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p3">While Moses was in the mount, receiving the
law from God, the people had time to meditate upon what had been
delivered, and prepare themselves for what was further to be
revealed, and forty days was little enough for that work; but,
instead of that, there were those among them that were contriving
how to break the laws they had already received, and to anticipate
those which they were in expectation of. On the thirty-ninth day of
the forty, the plot broke out of rebellion against the Lord. Here
is,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p4">I. A tumultuous address which the people
made to Aaron, who was entrusted with the government in the absence
of Moses: <i>Up, make us gods, which shall go before us,</i>
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.1" parsed="|Exod|32|1|0|0" passage="Ex 32:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p5">1. See the ill effect of Moses's absence
from them; if he had not had God's call both to go and stay, he
would not have been altogether free from blame. Those that have the
charge of others, as magistrates, ministers, and masters of
families, ought not, without just cause, to absent themselves from
their charge, <i>lest Satan get advantage</i> thereby.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p6">2. See the fury and violence of a multitude
when they are influenced and corrupted by such as lie in wait to
deceive. Some few, it is likely, were at first possessed with this
humour, while many, who would never have thought of it if they had
not put it into their hearts, were brought to follow their
pernicious ways; and presently such a multitude were carried down
the stream that the few who abhorred the proposal durst not so much
as enter their protestation against it. <i>Behold how great a
matter a little fire kindles!</i> Now what was the matter with this
giddy multitude?</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p7">(1.) They were weary of waiting for the
promised land. They thought themselves detained too long at mount
Sinai; though there they lay very safe and very easy, well fed and
well taught, yet they were impatient to be going forward. They had
a God that staid with them, and manifested his presence with them
by the cloud; but this would not serve. They must have a god to go
before them; they are for hastening to the land <i>flowing with
milk and honey,</i> and cannot stay to take their religion along
with them. Note, Those that would anticipate God's counsels are
commonly precipitate in their own. We must first wait for God's law
before we catch at his promises. He that believeth doth not make
haste, not more haste than good speed.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p8">(2.) They were weary of waiting for the
return of Moses. When he went up into the mount, he had not told
them (for God had not told him) how long he must stay; and
therefore, when he had outstayed their time, though they were every
way well provided for in his absence, some bad people advanced I
know not what surmises concerning his delay: <i>As for this Moses,
the man that brought us up out of Egypt, we wot not what has become
of him.</i> Observe, [1.] How slightly they speak of his
person—<i>this Moses.</i> Thus ungrateful are they to Moses, who
had shown such a tender concern for them, and thus do they walk
contrary to God. While God delights to put honour upon him, they
delight to put contempt upon him, and this to the face of Aaron his
brother, and now his viceroy. Note, The greatest merits cannot
secure men from the greatest indignities and affronts in this
ungrateful world. [2.] How suspiciously they speak of his delay:
<i>We wot not what has become of him.</i> They thought he was
either consumed by the devouring fire or starved for want to food,
as if that God who kept and fed them, who were so unworthy, would
not take care for the protection and supply of Moses his favourite.
Some of them, who were willing to think well of Moses, perhaps
suggested that he was translated to heaven like Enoch; while others
that cared not how ill they thought of him insinuated that he had
deserted his undertaking, as unable to go on with it, and had
returned to his father-in-law to keep his flock. All these
suggestions were perfectly groundless and absurd, nothing could be
more so; it was easy to tell <i>what had become of him:</i> he was
seen to go into the cloud, and the cloud he went into was still
seen by all Israel upon the top of the mount; they had all the
reason in the world to conclude that he was safe there; if the Lord
had been pleased to kill him, he would not have shown him such
favours as these. If he tarried long, it was because God had a
great deal to say to him, for their good; he resided upon the mount
as the ambassador, and he would certainly return as soon as he had
finished the business he went upon; and yet they make this the
colour for their wicked proposal: <i>We wot not what has become of
him.</i> Note, <i>First,</i> Those that are resolved to think ill,
when they have ever so much reason to think well, commonly pretend
that they know not what to think. <i>Secondly,</i>
Misinterpretations of our Redeemer's delays are the occasion of a
great deal of wickedness. Our Lord Jesus has gone up into the mount
of glory, where he is appearing in the presence of Gold for us, but
out of our sight; the heavens must contain him, must conceal him,
that we may live by faith. There he has been long; there he is yet.
Hence unbelievers suggest that they know not what has become of
him; and ask, <i>Where is the promise of his coming?</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:2Pet.3.4" parsed="|2Pet|3|4|0|0" passage="2Pe 3:4">2 Pet. iii. 4</scripRef>), as if, because he has
not come yet, he would never come. The wicked servant emboldens
himself in his impieties with this consideration, <i>My Lord delays
his coming. Thirdly,</i> Weariness in waiting betrays us to a great
many temptations. This began Saul's ruin; he staid for Samuel to
the last hour of the time appointed, but had not patience to stay
that hour (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.13.8" parsed="|1Sam|13|8|0|0" passage="1Sa 13:8">1 Sam. xiii. 8</scripRef>,
&amp;c.); so Israel here, if they could but have staid one day
longer, would have seen what had become of Moses. <i>The Lord is a
God of judgment,</i> and must be waited for till he comes waited
for though he tarry; and then we shall not lose our labour, for he
that shall come will come, and will not tarry.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p9">(3.) They were weary of waiting for a
divine institution of religious worship among them for that was the
thing they were now in expectation of. They were told that they
must <i>serve God in this mountain,</i> and fond enough they would
be of the pomp and ceremony of it; but, because that was not
appointed them so soon as they wished, they would set their own
wits on work to devise signs of God's presence with them, and would
glory in them, and have a worship of their own invention, probably
such as they had seen among the Egyptians; for Stephen says that
when they said unto Aaron, <i>Make us gods,</i> they did, in heart,
<i>turn back into Egypt,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.7.39-Acts.7.40" parsed="|Acts|7|39|7|40" passage="Ac 7:39,40">Acts
vii. 39, 40</scripRef>. This was a very strange motion, <i>Up, make
us gods.</i> If they knew not what had become of Moses, and thought
him lost, it would have been decent for them to have appointed a
solemn mourning for him for certain days; but see how soon so great
a benefactor is forgotten. If they had said, "Moses is lost, make
us a governor," there would have been some sense in it, though a
great deal of ingratitude to the memory of Moses, and contempt of
Aaron and Hur who were left lords-justices in his absence; but to
say, <i>Moses is lost, make us a god,</i> was the greatest
absurdity imaginable. Was Moses their god? Had he ever pretended to
be so? Whatever had become of Moses, was it not evident, beyond
contradiction that God was still with them? And had they any room
to question his leading their camp who victualled it so well every
day? Could they have any other god that would provide so well for
them as he had done, nay as he now did? And yet, <i>Make us gods,
which shall go before us! Gods!</i> How many would they have? Is
not one sufficient? <i>Make us gods!</i> 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 further than they were carried. So
wretchedly besotted and intoxicated are idolaters: they are <i>mad
upon their idols,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.50.38" parsed="|Jer|50|38|0|0" passage="Jer 50:38">Jer. l.
38</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p10">II. Here is the demand which Aaron makes of
their jewels thereupon: <i>Bring me your golden ear-rings,</i>
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.2" parsed="|Exod|32|2|0|0" passage="Ex 32:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>. We do not find
that he said one word to discountenance their proposal; he did not
reprove their insolence, did not reason with them to convince them
of the sin and folly of it, but seemed to approve the motion, and
showed himself not unwilling to humour them in it. One would hope
he designed, at first, only to make a jest of it, and, by setting
up a ridiculous image among them, to expose the motion, and show
them the folly of it. But, if so, it proved ill jesting with sin:
it is of dangerous consequence for the unwary fly to play about the
candle. Some charitably suppose that when Aaron told them to break
off their ear-rings, and bring them to him, he did it with design
to crush the proposal, believing that though their covetousness
would have let them <i>lavish gold out of the bag</i> to make an
idol of (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.46.6" parsed="|Isa|46|6|0|0" passage="Isa 46:6">Isa. xlvi. 6</scripRef>), yet
their pride would not have suffered them to part with the golden
ear-rings. But it is not safe to try how far men's sinful lusts
will carry them in a sinful way, and what expense they will be at;
it proved here a dangerous experiment.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p11">III. Here is the making of the golden calf,
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.3-Exod.32.4" parsed="|Exod|32|3|32|4" passage="Ex 32:3,4"><i>v.</i> 3, 4</scripRef>. 1. The
people brought in their ear-rings to Aaron, whose demand of them,
instead of discouraging the motion, perhaps did rather gratify
their superstition, and beget in them a fancy that the gold taken
from their ears would be the most acceptable, and would make the
most valuable god. Let their readiness to part with their rings to
make an idol of shame us out of our niggardliness in the service of
the true God. Did they not draw back from the charge of their
idolatry? And shall we grudge the expenses of our religion, or
starve so good a cause? 2. Aaron melted down their rings, and,
having a mould prepared for the purpose, 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. Some think that
Aaron chose this figure, for a sign or token of the divine
presence, because he thought the head and horns of an ox a proper
emblem of the divine power, and yet, being so plain and common a
thing, he hoped the people would not be so sottish as to worship
it. But it is probable that they had learnt of the Egyptians thus
to represent the Deity, for it is said (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.20.8" parsed="|Ezek|20|8|0|0" passage="Eze 20:8">Ezek. xx. 8</scripRef>), <i>They did not forsake the
idols of Egypt,</i> and (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p11.3" osisRef="Bible:Exod.23.8" parsed="|Exod|23|8|0|0" passage="Ex 23:8"><i>ch.</i>
xxiii. 8</scripRef>), <i>Neither left she her whoredoms brought
from Egypt. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an
ox</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p11.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.106.20" parsed="|Ps|106|20|0|0" passage="Ps 106:20">Ps. cvi. 20</scripRef>), and
proclaimed their own folly, beyond that of other idolaters, who
worshipped the host of heaven.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p12">IV. Having made the calf in Horeb, they
<i>worshipped the graven image,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.106.19" parsed="|Ps|106|19|0|0" passage="Ps 106:19">Ps. cvi. 19</scripRef>. Aaron, seeing the people fond
of their calf, was willing yet further to humour them, and he built
an altar before it, and proclaimed a feast to the honour of it
(<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.5" parsed="|Exod|32|5|0|0" passage="Ex 32:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>), a feast of
dedication. Yet he calls it <i>a feast to Jehovah;</i> for, brutish
as they were, they did not imagine that this image was itself a
god, nor did they 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, any 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. The people are forward enough to celebrate
this feast (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.3" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.6" parsed="|Exod|32|6|0|0" passage="Ex 32:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>):
<i>They rose up early on the morrow,</i> to show how well pleased
they were with the solemnity, and, according to the ancient rites
of worship, they offered sacrifice to this new-made deity, and then
feasted upon the sacrifice; thus having, at the expense of their
ear-rings, made their god, they endeavour, at the expense of their
beasts, to make this god propitious. Had they offered these
sacrifices immediately to Jehovah, without the intervention of an
image, they might (for aught I know) have been accepted (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.4" osisRef="Bible:Exod.20.24" parsed="|Exod|20|24|0|0" passage="Ex 20:24"><i>ch.</i> xx. 24</scripRef>); but having set up
an image before them as a symbol of God's presence, and so changed
the truth of God into a lie, these sacrifices were an abomination,
nothing could be more so. When the idolatry of theirs is spoken of
in the New Testament the account of their feast upon the sacrifice
is quoted and referred to (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.5" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.10.7" parsed="|1Cor|10|7|0|0" passage="1Co 10:7">1 Cor. x.
7</scripRef>): <i>They sat down to eat and drink</i> of the
remainder of what was sacrificed, and then <i>rose up to play,</i>
to play the fool, to play the wanton. Like god, like worship. They
would not have made a calf their god if they had not first made
their belly their god; but, when the god was a jest, no marvel that
the service was sport. Being <i>vain in their imaginations,</i>
they became vain in their worship, so great was this vanity. Now,
1. 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, <i>Thou shalt not make to
thyself any graven image?</i> Had they not heard the thunder, seen
the lightnings, and felt the earthquake, with the dreadful pomp of
which this law was given? Had they not been particularly cautioned
not to make <i>gods of gold?</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.6" osisRef="Bible:Exod.20.23" parsed="|Exod|20|23|0|0" passage="Ex 20:23"><i>ch.</i> xx. 23</scripRef>. Nay, had they not
themselves solemnly entered into covenant with God, and promised
that all that which he had said unto them they <i>would do, and
would be obedient?</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.7" osisRef="Bible:Exod.24.7" parsed="|Exod|24|7|0|0" passage="Ex 24:7"><i>ch.</i> xxiv.
7</scripRef>. And yet, before they stirred from the place where
this covenant had been solemnly ratified, and before the cloud was
removed from the top of Mount Sinai, thus to break an express
command, in defiance of an express threatening that this
<i>iniquity should be visited upon them and their
children</i>—what shall be think of it? It is a plain indication
that the law was no more able to sanctify than it was to justify;
by it is the knowledge of sin, but not the cure of it. This is
intimated in the emphasis laid upon the place where this sin was
committed (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.106.19" parsed="|Ps|106|19|0|0" passage="Ps 106:19">Ps. cvi. 19</scripRef>).
<i>They made a calf in Horeb,</i> the very place where the law was
given. It was otherwise with those that received the gospel; they
immediately <i>turned from idols;</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.9" osisRef="Bible:1Thess.1.9" parsed="|1Thess|1|9|0|0" passage="1Th 1:9">1
Thess. i. 9</scripRef>. 2. It was especially strange that Aaron
should be so deeply implicated in this sin, that he should make the
calf, and proclaim the feast! Is this Aaron, the saint of the Lord,
the brother of Moses his prophet, that could <i>speak so well.</i>
(<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.10" osisRef="Bible:Exod.4.14" parsed="|Exod|4|14|0|0" passage="Ex 4:14"><i>ch.</i> iv. 14</scripRef>), and yet
speaks not one word against this idolatry? 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? With what face could they say, <i>These are thy gods</i>
that <i>brought thee out of Egypt,</i> when they thus bring the
idolatry of Egypt (the worst thing there) along with them? Is this
Aaron, who had been with Moses in the mount (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.11" osisRef="Bible:Exod.19.24 Bible:Exod.24.9" parsed="|Exod|19|24|0|0;|Exod|24|9|0|0" passage="Ex 19:24,24:9"><i>ch.</i> xix. 24; xxiv. 9</scripRef>), and knew
that there was no manner of similitude seen there, by which they
might make an image? Is this Aaron who was entrusted with the care
of the people in the absence of Moses? Is he aiding and abetting in
this rebellion against the Lord? How was it possible that he should
ever do so sinful a thing? Either he was strangely surprised into
it, and did it when he was half asleep, or he was frightened into
it by the outrages of the rabble. The Jews have a tradition that
his colleague Hur opposing it the people fell upon him and stoned
him (and therefore we never read of him after) and that this
frightened Aaron into a compliance. And God left him to himself,
[1.] To teach us what the best of men are when they are so left,
that we may <i>cease from man,</i> and that he who <i>thinks he
stands may take heed lest he fall.</i> [2.] Aaron was, at this
time, destined by the divine appointment to the great office of the
priesthood; though he knew it not, Moses in the mount did. Now,
lest he should be <i>lifted up, above measure,</i> with the honours
that were to be put upon him, a messenger of Satan was suffered to
prevail over him, that the remembrance thereof might keep him
humble all his days. He who had once shamed himself so far as to
build an altar to a golden calf must own himself altogether
unworthy of the honour of attending at the altar of God, and purely
indebted to free grace for it. Thus pride and boasting were for
ever silenced, and a good effect brought out of a bad cause. By
this likewise it was shown that <i>the law made those priests who
had infirmity, and needed first to offer for their own
sins.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.12" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.7-Exod.32.14" parsed="|Exod|32|7|32|14" passage="Ex 32:7-14" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Exod.32.7-Exod.32.14">
<h4 id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.13">The Intercession of Moses. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p12.14">b. c.</span> 1491.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ex.xxxiii-p13">7 And the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p13.1">Lord</span>
said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou
broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted
<i>themselves:</i>   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 <i>be</i> thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out
of the land of Egypt.   9 And the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p13.2">Lord</span> said unto Moses, I have seen this people,
and, behold, it <i>is</i> a stiffnecked people:   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.
  11 And Moses besought the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p13.3">Lord</span> his God, and said, <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p13.4">Lord</span>, 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?   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.   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 <i>it</i> for ever.   14 And the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p13.5">Lord</span> repented of the evil which he thought
to do unto his people.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p14">Here, I. God acquaints Moses with what was
doing in the camp while he was absent, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.7-Exod.32.8" parsed="|Exod|32|7|32|8" passage="Ex 32:7,8"><i>v.</i> 7, 8</scripRef>. He could have told him
sooner, as soon as the first step was taken towards it, and have
hastened him down to prevent it; but he suffered it to come to this
height, for wise and holy ends, and then sent him down to punish
it. Note, It is no reproach to the holiness of God that he suffers
sin to be committed, since he knows, not only how to restrain it
when he pleases, but how to make it serviceable to the designs of
his own glory. Observe what God here says to Moses concerning this
sin. 1. That they had <i>corrupted themselves.</i> Sin is the
corruption or depravation of the sinner, and it is a
self-corruption; <i>every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of
his own lust.</i> 2. That they had <i>turned aside out of the
way.</i> Sin is a deviation from the way of our duty into a
by-path. When they promised to do all that God should command them,
they set out as fair as could be; but now they missed their way,
and turned aside. 3. That they had 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. <i>They soon forgot his
works.</i> To fall into sin quickly after we have renewed our
covenants with God, or received special mercy from him, is very
provoking. 4. He tells him particularly what they had done: <i>They
have made a calf, and worshipped it.</i> Note, Those sins which are
concealed from our governors are naked and open before God. He sees
that which they cannot discover, nor is any of the wickedness in
the world hidden from him. We could not bear to see the thousandth
part of that provocation which God sees every day and yet keeps
silence. 5. He seems to disown them, in saying to Moses, They are
<i>thy people whom thou broughtest up out of the land of Egypt;</i>
as if he had said, "I will not own any relation to them, or concern
for them; let it never be said that they are my people, or that I
brought them out of Egypt." Note, Those that corrupt themselves not
only shame themselves, but even make God himself ashamed of them
and of his kindness to them. 6. He sends him down to them with all
speed: <i>Go, get thee down.</i> He must break off even his
communion with God to go and do his duty as a magistrate among the
people; so must Joshua, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p14.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.7.10" parsed="|Exod|7|10|0|0" passage="Ex 7:10"><i>ch.</i> vii.
10</scripRef>. Every thing is beautiful in its season.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p15">II. He expresses his displeasure against
Israel for this sin, and the determination of his justice to cut
them off, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.9-Exod.32.10" parsed="|Exod|32|9|32|10" passage="Ex 32:9,10"><i>v.</i> 9,
10</scripRef>. 1. He gives this people their true character: "<i>It
is a stiff-necked people,</i> unapt to come under the yoke of the
divine law, and governed as it were by a spirit of contradiction,
averse to all good and prone to evil, obstinate against the methods
employed for their cure." Note, The righteous God sees, not only
what we do, but what we are, not only the actions of our lives, but
the dispositions of our spirits, and has an eye to them in all his
proceedings. 2. He declares what was their just desert—that his
wrath should <i>wax hot against them,</i> so as to consume them at
once, and <i>blot out their name from under heaven</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Deut.9.14" parsed="|Deut|9|14|0|0" passage="De 9:14">Deut. ix. 14</scripRef>); not only cast them out
of covenant, but chase them out of the world. Note, Sin exposes us
to the wrath of God; and that wrath, if it be not allayed by divine
mercy, will burn us up as stubble. It were just with God to let the
law have its course against sinners, and to cut them off
immediately in the very act of sin; and, if he should do so, it
would be neither loss nor dishonour to him. 3. He holds out
inducements to Moses not to intercede for them: <i>Therefore, let
me alone.</i> What did Moses, or what could he do, to hinder God
from consuming them? When God resolves to abandon a people, and the
decree of ruin has gone forth, no intercession can prevent it,
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p15.3" passage="Eze 14:14,15:1">Ezek. xiv. 14; Jer. xv.
1</scripRef>. But God would thus express the greatness of his just
displeasure against them, after the manner of men, who would have
none to intercede 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
<i>reconcile the world unto himself.</i> That the intercession of
Moses might appear the more illustrious, God fairly offers him
that, if he would not interpose in this matter, he would <i>make of
him a great nation,</i> that either, in process of time, he would
raise up a people out of his loins, or that he would immediately,
by some means or other, bring another great nation under his
government and conduct, so that he should be no loser by their
ruin. Had Moses been of a narrow selfish spirit, he would have
closed with this offer; but he prefers the salvation of Israel
before the advancement of his own family. Here was a man fit to be
a governor.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p16">III. Moses earnestly intercedes with God on
their behalf (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.11-Exod.32.13" parsed="|Exod|32|11|32|13" passage="Ex 32:11-13"><i>v.</i>
11-13</scripRef>): he besought the Lord his God. If God would not
be called <i>the God of Israel,</i> yet he hoped he might address
him as <i>his own God.</i> What interest we have at the throne of
grace we should improve for the church of God, and for our friends.
Now Moses is standing in the gap to turn away the wrath of God,
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.106.23" parsed="|Ps|106|23|0|0" passage="Ps 106:23">Ps. cvi. 23</scripRef>. He wisely
took the hint which God gave him when he said, <i>Let me alone,</i>
which, though it seemed to forbid his interceding, did really
encourage it, by showing what power the prayer of faith has with
God. In such a case, God <i>wonders if there be no intercessor,</i>
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.59.16" parsed="|Isa|59|16|0|0" passage="Isa 59:16">Isa. lix. 16</scripRef>. Observe, 1.
His prayer (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.4" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.12" parsed="|Exod|32|12|0|0" passage="Ex 32:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>):
<i>Turn from thy fierce wrath;</i> not as if he thought God was not
justly angry, but he begs that he would not be so greatly angry as
to consume them. "Let mercy rejoice against judgment; <i>repent of
this evil;</i> change the sentence of destruction into that of
correction." 2. His pleas. He fills his mouth with arguments, not
to move God, but to express his own faith and to excite his own
fervency in prayer. He urges, (1.) God's interest in them, the
great things he had already done for them, and the vast expense of
favours and miracles he had been at upon them, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.5" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.11" parsed="|Exod|32|11|0|0" passage="Ex 32:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>. God had said to Moses
(<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.6" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.7" parsed="|Exod|32|7|0|0" passage="Ex 32:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>), They are
<i>thy people, whom thou broughtest up out of Egypt;</i> but Moses
humbly turns them back upon God again: "They are <i>thy people,</i>
thou art their Lord and owner; I am but their servant. <i>Thou
broughtest them forth out of Egypt;</i> I was but the instrument in
thy hand; that was done in order to their deliverance which thou
only couldest do." Though their being his people was a reason why
he should be angry with them for setting up another god, yet it was
a reason why he should not be so angry with them as to consume
them. Nothing is more natural than for a father to correct his son,
but nothing more unnatural than for a father to slay his son. And
as the relation is a good plea ("they are <i>thy people</i>"), so
is the experience they had had of his kindness to them: "Thou
<i>broughtest them out of Egypt,</i> though they were unworthy, and
had there served the gods of the Egyptians, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.7" osisRef="Bible:Josh.24.15" parsed="|Josh|24|15|0|0" passage="Jos 24:15">Josh. xxiv. 15</scripRef>. If thou didst that for them,
notwithstanding their sins in Egypt, wilt thou undo it for their
sins of the same nature in the wilderness?" (2.) He pleads the
concern of God's glory (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.8" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.12" parsed="|Exod|32|12|0|0" passage="Ex 32:12"><i>v.</i>
12</scripRef>): <i>Wherefore should the Egyptians say, For mischief
did he bring them out?</i> Israel is dear to Moses as his kindred,
as his charge; but it is the glory of God that he is most concerned
for; this lies nearer his heart than any thing else. 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, <i>Lord, what
will the Egyptians say?</i> Their eyes, and the eyes of all the
neighbouring nations, were now upon Israel; from the wondrous
beginnings of that people, they raised their expectations of
something great in their latter end; but, if a people so strangely
saved should be suddenly ruined, what would the world say of it,
especially the Egyptians, who have such an implacable hatred both
to Israel and to the God of Israel? They would say, "God was either
weak, and could not, or fickle, and would not, complete the
salvation he began; he brought them forth to that mountain, not to
sacrifice (as was pretended), but to be sacrificed." They will not
consider the provocation given by Israel, to justify the
proceeding, but will think it cause enough for triumph that God and
his people could not agree, but that their God had done that which
they (the Egyptians) wished to see done. Note, The glorifying of
God's name, as it ought to be our first petition (it is so in the
Lord's prayer), so it ought to be our great plea, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.79.9" parsed="|Ps|79|9|0|0" passage="Ps 79:9">Ps. lxxix. 9</scripRef>, <i>Do not disgrace the
throne of thy glory,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.10" osisRef="Bible:Jer.14.21" parsed="|Jer|14|21|0|0" passage="Jer 14:21">Jer. xiv.
21</scripRef>; and see <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.11" osisRef="Bible:Jer.33.8-Jer.33.9" parsed="|Jer|33|8|33|9" passage="Jer 33:8,9">Jer. xxxiii.
8, 9</scripRef>. And, if we would with comfort plead this with God
as a reason why he should not destroy us, we ought to plead it with
ourselves as a reason why we should not offend him: <i>What will
the Egyptians say?</i> We ought always to be careful that the name
of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed through us. (3.) He
pleads God's promise to the patriarchs that he would multiply their
seed, and give them the land of Canaan for an inheritance, and this
promise confirmed by an oath, an oath by himself, since he could
swear by no greater, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p16.12" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.13" parsed="|Exod|32|13|0|0" passage="Ex 32:13"><i>v.</i>
13</scripRef>. God's promises are to be our pleas in prayer; for
what he has promised he is able to perform, and the honour of this
truth is engaged for the performance of it. "Lord, if Israel be cut
off, what will become of the promise? Shall their unbelief make
that of no effect? God forbid." Thus we must take our encouragement
in prayer from God only.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p17">IV. God graciously abated the rigour of the
sentence, and <i>repented of the evil he thought to do</i>
(<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.14" parsed="|Exod|32|14|0|0" passage="Ex 32:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>); though he
designed to punish them, yet he would not ruin them. See here, 1.
The power of prayer; God suffers himself to be prevailed with by
the humble believing importunity of intercessors. 2. The compassion
of God towards poor sinners, and how ready he is to forgive. Thus
he has given other proofs besides his own oath that he has no
pleasure in the death of those that die; for he not only pardons
upon the repentance of sinners, but spares and reprieves upon the
intercession of others for them.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ex.xxxiii-p17.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32" parsed="|Exod|32|0|0|0" passage="Ex 32" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ex.xxxiii-p17.3" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.15-Exod.32.20" parsed="|Exod|32|15|32|20" passage="Ex 32:15-20" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Exod.32.15-Exod.32.20">
<h4 id="Ex.xxxiii-p17.4">Moses Breaks the Tablets of the
Law. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p17.5">b. c.</span> 1491.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ex.xxxiii-p18">15 And Moses turned, and went down from the
mount, and the two tables of the testimony <i>were</i> in his hand:
the tables <i>were</i> written on both their sides; on the one side
and on the other <i>were</i> they written.   16 And the tables
<i>were</i> the work of God, and the writing <i>was</i> the writing
of God, graven upon the tables.   17 And when Joshua heard the
noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, <i>There
is</i> a noise of war in the camp.   18 And he said, <i>It
is</i> not the voice of <i>them that</i> shout for mastery, neither
<i>is it</i> the voice of <i>them that</i> cry for being overcome:
<i>but</i> the noise of <i>them that</i> sing do I hear.   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.
  20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt
<i>it</i> in the fire, and ground <i>it</i> to powder, and strawed
<i>it</i> upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink
<i>of it.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p19">Here is, I. The favour of God to Moses, in
trusting him with the two tables of the testimony, which, though of
common stone, were far more valuable than all the precious stones
that adorned the breast-plate of Aaron. The topaz of Ethiopia could
not equal them, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.15-Exod.32.16" parsed="|Exod|32|15|32|16" passage="Ex 32:15,16"><i>v.</i> 15,
16</scripRef>. God himself, without the ministry either of man or
angel (for aught that appears), wrote the ten commandments on these
tables, <i>on both their sides,</i> some on one table and some on
the other, so that they were folded together like a book, to be
deposited in the ark.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p20">II. The familiarity between Moses and
Joshua. While Moses was in the cloud, as in the presence-chamber,
Joshua continued as near as he might, in the anti-chamber (as it
were), waiting till Moses came out, that he might be ready to
attend him; and though he was all alone for forty days (fed, it is
likely, with manna), yet he was not weary of waiting, as the people
were, but when Moses came down he came with him, and not till then.
And here we are told what constructions they put upon the noise
that they heard in the camp, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.17-Exod.32.18" parsed="|Exod|32|17|32|18" passage="Ex 32:17,18"><i>v.</i> 17, 18</scripRef>. Though Moses had been so
long in immediate converse with God, yet he did not disdain to talk
freely with his servant Joshua. Those whom God advances he
preserves from being puffed up. Nor did he disdain to talk of the
affairs of the camp. Blessed Paul was not the less mindful of the
church on earth for having been in the third heavens, where he
heard unspeakable words. Joshua, who was a military man, and had
the command of the train-bands, feared there was <i>a noise of war
in the camp,</i> and then he would be missed; but Moses, having
received notice of it from God, better distinguished the sound, and
was aware that it was <i>the voice of those that sing.</i> It does
not however appear that he told Joshua what he knew of the occasion
of their singing; for we should not be forward to proclaim men's
faults: they will be known too soon.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p21">III. The great and just displeasure of
Moses against Israel, for their idolatry. Knowing what to expect,
he was presently aware of the golden calf, and the sport the people
made with it. He saw how merry they could be in his absence, how
soon he was forgotten among them, and what little thought they had
of him and his return. He might justly take this ill, as an affront
to himself, but this was the least part of the grievance; he
resented it as an offence to God, and the scandal of his people.
See what a change it is to come down from the mount of communion
with God to converse with a world that <i>lies in wickedness.</i>
In God we see nothing but what is pure and pleasant, in the world
nothing but pollution and provocation. Moses was the meekest man on
the earth, and yet when he saw <i>the calf, and the dancing,</i>
his <i>anger waxed hot.</i> Note, It is no breach of the law of
meekness to show our displeasure at the wickedness of the wicked.
Those are <i>angry and sin not</i> that are angry at sin only, not
as against themselves, but as against God. Ephesus is famous for
patience, and yet <i>cannot bear those that are evil,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.1" osisRef="Bible:Rev.2.2" parsed="|Rev|2|2|0|0" passage="Re 2:2">Rev. ii. 2</scripRef>. It becomes us to be cool in
our own cause, but warm in God's. Moses showed himself very angry,
both by breaking the tables and burning the calf, that he might, by
these expressions of strong indignation, awaken the people to a
sense of the greatness of the sin they had been guilty of, which
they would have been ready to make light of if he had not thus
shown his resentment, as one in earnest for their conviction. 1. To
convince them that they had forfeited and lost the favour of God,
<i>he broke the tables,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.19" parsed="|Exod|32|19|0|0" passage="Ex 32:19"><i>v.</i>
19</scripRef>. Though God knew of their sin, before Moses came
down, yet he did not order him to leave the tables behind him, but
gave them to him to take down in his hand, that the people might
see how forward God was to take them into covenant with himself,
and that nothing but their own sin prevented it; yet he put in into
his heart, when the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered (as the
expression is, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.7.1" parsed="|Hos|7|1|0|0" passage="Ho 7:1">Hos. vii. 1</scripRef>),
to break the tables before their eyes (as it is <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.4" osisRef="Bible:Deut.9.17" parsed="|Deut|9|17|0|0" passage="De 9:17">Deut. ix. 17</scripRef>), that the sight of it might the
more affect them, and fill them with confusion, when they saw what
blessings they had lost. Thus, they being guilty of so notorious an
infraction of the treaty now on foot, the writings were torn, even
when they lay ready to be sealed. Note, The greatest sign of God's
displeasure against any person or people is his taking his law from
them. The breaking of the tables is the breaking of the <i>staff of
beauty and band</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.5" osisRef="Bible:Zech.11.10 Bible:Zech.11.14" parsed="|Zech|11|10|0|0;|Zech|11|14|0|0" passage="Zec 11:10,14">Zech. xi. 10,
14</scripRef>); it leaves a people unchurched and undone. Some
think that Moses sinned in breaking the tables, and observe that,
when men are angry, they are in danger of breaking all God's
commandments; but it rather seems to be an act of justice than of
passion, and we do not find that he himself speaks of it afterwards
(<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.6" osisRef="Bible:Deut.9.17" parsed="|Deut|9|17|0|0" passage="De 9:17">Deut. ix. 17</scripRef>) with any
regret. 2. To convince them that they had betaken themselves to a
God that could not help them, he <i>burnt the calf</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.7" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.20" parsed="|Exod|32|20|0|0" passage="Ex 32:20"><i>v.</i> 20</scripRef>), melted it down, and
then filed it to dust; and, that the powder to which it was reduced
might be taken notice of throughout the camp, he strewed it upon
that water of which they all drank. That it might appear that <i>an
idol is nothing in the world</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.8" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.8.4" parsed="|1Cor|8|4|0|0" passage="1Co 8:4">1
Cor. viii. 4</scripRef>); he reduced this to atoms, that it might
be as near nothing as could be. To show that false gods cannot help
their worshippers, he here showed that this could not save itself,
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.9" osisRef="Bible:Isa.46.1-Isa.46.2" parsed="|Isa|46|1|46|2" passage="Isa 46:1,2">Isa. xlvi. 1, 2</scripRef>. And to
teach us that all the relics of idolatry ought to be abolished, and
that the names of Baalim should be taken away, the very dust to
which it was ground was scattered. Filings of gold are precious (we
say), and therefore are carefully gathered up; but the filings of
the golden calf were odious, and must be scattered with
detestation. Thus the idols of silver and gold must be cast to the
moles and the bats (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.10" osisRef="Bible:Isa.2.20 Bible:Isa.30.22" parsed="|Isa|2|20|0|0;|Isa|30|22|0|0" passage="Isa 2:20,30:22">Isa. ii. 20;
xxx. 22</scripRef>), and Ephraim shall say, <i>What have I to do
any more with idols?</i> His mixing this powder with their drink
signified to them that the curse they had thereby brought upon
themselves would mingle itself with all their enjoyments, and
embitter them; it would enter into their bowels like water, and
like oil into their bones. <i>The backslider in heart shall be
filled with his own ways;</i> he shall drink as he brews. These
were indeed waters of Marah.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.11" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.21-Exod.32.29" parsed="|Exod|32|21|32|29" passage="Ex 32:21-29" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Exod.32.21-Exod.32.29">
<h4 id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.12">Moses Reproves Aaron; Destruction of the
Idolaters. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p21.13">b. c.</span> 1491.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ex.xxxiii-p22">21 And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this
people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?
  22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot:
thou knowest the people, that they <i>are set</i> on mischief.
  23 For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go
before us: for <i>as for</i> this Moses, the man that brought us up
out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.  
24 And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break
<i>it</i> off. So they gave <i>it</i> me: then I cast it into the
fire, and there came out this calf.   25 And when Moses saw
that the people <i>were</i> naked; (for Aaron had made them naked
unto <i>their</i> shame among their enemies:)   26 Then Moses
stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who <i>is</i> on the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p22.1">Lord</span>'s side? <i>let him come</i> unto me.
And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
  27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p22.2">Lord</span> God of Israel, Put every man his sword by
his side, <i>and</i> 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.   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.   29 For Moses had said,
Consecrate yourselves to day to the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p22.3">Lord</span>, even every man upon his son, and upon his
brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p23">Moses, having shown his just indignation
against the sin of Israel by breaking the tables and burning the
calf, now proceeds to reckon with the sinners and to call them to
an account, herein acting as the representative of God, who is not
only a holy God, and hates sin, but a just God, and is engaged in
honour to punish it, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p23.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.59.18" parsed="|Isa|59|18|0|0" passage="Isa 59:18">Isa. lix.
18</scripRef>. Now,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p24">I. He begins with Aaron, as God began with
Adam, because he was the principal person, though not first in the
transgression, but drawn into it. Observe here,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p25">1. The just reproof Moses gives him,
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p25.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.21" parsed="|Exod|32|21|0|0" passage="Ex 32:21"><i>v.</i> 21</scripRef>. He does not
order him to be cut-off, as those (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p25.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.27" parsed="|Exod|32|27|0|0" passage="Ex 32:27"><i>v.</i> 27</scripRef>) that had been the ring-leaders
in the sin. Note, A great deal of difference will be made between
those that presumptuously rush into sin and those that through
infirmity are surprised into it, between those that overtake the
fault that flees from them and those that are overtaken in the
fault they flee from. See <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p25.3" osisRef="Bible:Gal.6.1" parsed="|Gal|6|1|0|0" passage="Ga 6:1">Gal. vi.
1</scripRef>. Not but that Aaron deserved to be cut off for this
sin, and would have been so if Moses had not interceded
particularly for him, as appears <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p25.4" osisRef="Bible:Deut.9.20" parsed="|Deut|9|20|0|0" passage="De 9:20">Deut.
ix. 20</scripRef>. And having prevailed with God for him, to save
him from ruin, he here expostulates with him, to bring him to
repentance. He puts Aaron upon considering, (1.) What he had done
to this people: <i>Thou hast brought so great a sin upon them.</i>
The sin of idolatry is a great sin, so great a sin that the evil of
it cannot be expressed; the people, as the first movers, might be
said to bring the sin upon Aaron; but he being a magistrate, who
should have suppressed it, and yet aiding and abetting it, might
truly be said to bring it upon them, because he hardened their
hearts and strengthened their hands in it. It is a shocking thing
for governors to humour people in their sins, and give countenance
to that to which they should be a terror. Observe, in general,
Those who bring sin upon others, either by drawing them into it or
encouraging them in it, do more mischief than they are aware of; we
really hate those whom we either bring or suffer sin upon,
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p25.5" osisRef="Bible:Lev.19.17" parsed="|Lev|19|17|0|0" passage="Le 19:17">Lev. xix. 17</scripRef>. Those that
share in sin help to break their partners, and really ruin one
another. (2.) What moved him to it: <i>What did this people unto
thee?</i> He takes it for granted that it must needs be something
more than ordinary that prevailed with Aaron to do such a thing,
thus insinuating an excuse for him, because he knew that his heart
was upright: "<i>What did they?</i> Did they accost thee fairly,
and wheedle thee into it; and durst thou displease thy God, to
please the people? Did they overcome thee by importunity; and hadst
thou so little resolution left as to yield to the stream of a
popular clamour? Did they threaten to stone thee; and couldest not
thou have opposed God's threatenings to theirs, and frightened them
worse than they could frighten thee?" Note, We must never be drawn
into sin by any thing that man can say or do to us, for it will not
justify us to say that we were so drawn in. Men can but tempt us to
sin; they cannot force us. Men can but frighten us; if we do not
comply, they cannot hurt us.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p26">2. The frivolous excuse Aaron makes for
himself. We will hope that he testified his repentance for the sin
afterwards better than he did now; for what he says here has little
in it of the language of a penitent. If a just man fall, he shall
rise again, but perhaps not quickly. (1.) He deprecates the anger
of Moses only, whereas he should have deprecated God's anger in the
first place: <i>Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p26.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.22" parsed="|Exod|32|22|0|0" passage="Ex 32:22"><i>v.</i> 22</scripRef>. (2.) He lays all the
fault upon the people: <i>They are set on mischief, and they said,
Make us gods.</i> It is natural to us to endeavour thus to transfer
our guilt; we have it in our kind, Adam and Eve did so; sin is a
brat that nobody is willing to own. Aaron was now the chief
magistrate and had power over the people, and yet pleads that the
people overpowered him; he that had authority to restrain them, yet
had so little resolution as to yield to them. (3.) It is well if he
did not intend a reflection upon Moses, as accessory to the sin, by
staying so long on the mount, in repeating, without need, that
invidious surmise of the people, <i>As for this Moses, we know not
what has become of him,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p26.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.23" parsed="|Exod|32|23|0|0" passage="Ex 32:23"><i>v.</i>
23</scripRef>. (4.) He extenuates and conceals his own share in the
sin, as if he had only bidden them <i>break off their gold</i> that
they had about them, intending to make a hasty assay for the
present, and to try what he could make of the gold that was next
hand: 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 mixed multitude (as the Jewish writers dream), in this shape;
but not a word of his graving and fashioning it, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p26.3" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.24" parsed="|Exod|32|24|0|0" passage="Ex 32:24"><i>v.</i> 24</scripRef>. But Moses relates to all ages
what he did (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p26.4" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.4" parsed="|Exod|32|4|0|0" passage="Ex 32:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>),
though he himself here would not own it. Note, <i>He that covers
his sin shall not prosper,</i> for sooner or later it will be
discovered. Well, 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 he is not only spared, but preferred; as sin did
abound, grace did much more abound.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p27">II. The people are next to be judged for
this sin. The approach of Moses soon spoiled their sport and turned
their dancing into trembling. Those that hectored Aaron into a
compliance with them in their sin durst not look Moses in the face,
nor make the least opposition to the severity which he thought fit
to use both against the idol and against the idolaters. Note, It is
not impossible to make those sins which were committed with daring
presumption appear contemptible, when the insolent perpetrators of
them slink away overwhelmed in their own confusion. <i>The king
that sits upon the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with
his eyes.</i> Observe two things:—</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p28">1. How they were exposed to shame by their
sin: <i>The people were naked</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p28.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.25" parsed="|Exod|32|25|0|0" passage="Ex 32:25"><i>v.</i> 25</scripRef>), not so much because they had
some of them lost their ear-rings (that was inconsiderable), but
because they had lost their integrity, and lay under the reproach
of ingratitude to their best benefactor, and a treacherous revolt
from their rightful Lord. It was a shame to them, and a perpetual
blot, that they <i>changed their glory into the similitude of an
ox.</i> Other nations boasted that they were true to their false
gods; well may Israel blush for being false to the true God. Thus
were they <i>made naked,</i> stripped of their ornaments, and
exposed to contempt; stripped of their armour, and liable to
insults. Thus our first parents, when they had sinned, became
<i>naked, to their shame.</i> Note, Those that do dishonour to God
really bring the greatest dishonour upon themselves: so Israel here
did, and Moses was concerned to see it, though they themselves were
not; he <i>saw that they were naked.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p29">2. The course that Moses took to roll away
this reproach, not by concealing the sin, or putting any false
colour upon it, but by punishing it, and so bearing a public
testimony against it. Whenever it should be case in their teeth
that they had <i>made a calf in Horeb,</i> they might have this to
say, in answer to those that reproached them, that though it was
true there were those that did so, yet justice was executed upon
them. The government disallowed the sin, and suffered not the
sinners to go unpunished. They did so, but they paid dearly for it.
Thus (said God) thou shalt <i>put the evil away,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p29.1" osisRef="Bible:Deut.13.5" parsed="|Deut|13|5|0|0" passage="De 13:5">Deut. xiii. 5</scripRef>. Observe here,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p30">(1.) By whom vengeance was taken—by the
children of Levi (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p30.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.26 Bible:Exod.32.28" parsed="|Exod|32|26|0|0;|Exod|32|28|0|0" passage="Ex 32:26,28"><i>v.</i> 26,
28</scripRef>); not by the immediate hand of God himself, as on
Nadab and Abihu, but by the sword of man, to teach them that
idolatry was an <i>iniquity to be punished by the judge,</i> being
a <i>denial of the God that is above,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p30.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.31.28 Bible:Deut.13.9" parsed="|Job|31|28|0|0;|Deut|13|9|0|0" passage="Job 31:28,De 13:9">Job xxxi. 28; Deut. xiii. 9</scripRef>. It was
to be done by the sword of their own brethren, that the execution
of justice might redound more to the honour of the nation. And, if
they must fall now into the hands of man, better so than flee
before their enemies. The innocent must be culled out to be the
executioners of the guilty, that it might be the more effectual
warning to themselves, that they did not the like another time; and
the putting of them upon such an unpleasant service, and so much
against the grain as this must needs be, to kill their next
neighbours, was a punishment to them too for not appearing sooner
to prevent the sin, and make head against it. The Levites
particularly were employed in doing this execution; for, it should
seem, there were more of them than of any other tribe that had kept
themselves free from the contagion, which was the more laudable
because Aaron, the head of their tribe, was so deeply concerned in
it. Now here we are told, [1.] How the Levites were called out to
this service: <i>Moses stood in the gate of the camp,</i> the place
of judgment; there he <i>displayed a banner,</i> as it were,
because of the truth, to enlist soldiers for God. He proclaimed,
<i>Who is on the Lord's side?</i> The idolaters had set up the
golden calf for their standard, and now Moses set up his, in
opposition to them. Now <i>Moses clad himself with zeal</i> as with
a robe, and summoned all those to appear forthwith that were on
God's side, against the golden calf. He does not proclaim, as Jehu,
"<i>Who is on my side</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p30.3" osisRef="Bible:2Kgs.9.32" parsed="|2Kgs|9|32|0|0" passage="2Ki 9:32">2 Kings ix.
32</scripRef>), to avenge the indignity done to me?" but, <i>Who is
on the Lord's side?</i> It was God's cause that he espoused
<i>against the evil-doers,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p30.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.94.16" parsed="|Ps|94|16|0|0" passage="Ps 94:16">Ps.
xciv. 16</scripRef>. Note, <i>First,</i> There are two great
interests on foot in the world, with the one or the other of which
all the children of men are siding. The interest of sin and
wickedness is the devil's interest, and all wicked people side with
that interest; the interest of truth and holiness is God's
interest, with which all godly people side; and it is a case that
will not admit a neutrality. <i>Secondly,</i> It concerns us all to
enquire whether we are on the Lord's side or not. <i>Thirdly,</i>
Those who are on his side are comparatively but few, and sometimes
seem fewer than really they are. <i>Fourthly,</i> God does
sometimes call out those that are on his side to appear for him, as
witnesses, as soldiers, as intercessors. [2.] How they were
commissioned for this service (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p30.5" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.27" parsed="|Exod|32|27|0|0" passage="Ex 32:27"><i>v.</i> 27</scripRef>): <i>Slay every man his
brother,</i> 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 own nearest relations, or dearest friends." The
crime was committed publicly, the Levites saw who of their
acquaintance were concerned in it, and therefore needed no other
direction than their own knowledge whom to slay. And probably the
greatest part of those that were guilty were known, and known to be
so, by some or other of the Levites who were employed in the
execution. Yet, it should seem, they were to slay those only whom
they found <i>abroad in the streets</i> of the camp; for it might
be hoped that those who had retired into their tents were ashamed
of what they had done, and were upon their knees, repenting. Those
are marked for ruin who persist in sin, and are not ashamed of the
abominations they have committed, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p30.6" osisRef="Bible:Jer.8.12" parsed="|Jer|8|12|0|0" passage="Jer 8:12">Jer.
viii. 12</scripRef>. But how durst the Levites encounter so great a
body, who probably were much enraged by the burning of their calf?
It is easy to account for this; a sense of guilt disheartened the
delinquents, and a divine commission animated the executioners. And
one thing that put life into them was that Moses had said,
<i>Consecrate yourselves to day to the Lord, that he may bestow a
blessing upon you,</i> thereby intimating to them that they now
stood fair for preferment and that, if they would but signalize
themselves upon this occasion, it would be construed into such a
consecration of themselves to God, and to his service, as would put
upon their tribe a perpetual honour. Those that consecrate
themselves to the Lord he will set apart for himself. Those that do
the duty shall have the dignity; and, if we do signal services for
God, he will bestow especial blessings upon us. There was a
blessing designed for the tribe of Levi; now says Moses,
"<i>Consecrate yourselves to the Lord,</i> that you may qualify
yourselves to receive the blessing." The Levites were to assist in
the offering of sacrifice to God; and now they must begin with the
offering of these sacrifices to the honour of divine justice. Those
that are to minister about holy things must be not only sincere and
serious, but warm and zealous, bold and courageous, for God and
godliness. Thus all Christians, but especially ministers, must
<i>forsake father and mother,</i> and prefer the service of Christ
and his interest far before their nearest and dearest relations;
for if we love our relations better than Christ we are not
<i>worthy of him.</i> See how this zeal of the Levites is
applauded, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p30.7" osisRef="Bible:Deut.33.9" parsed="|Deut|33|9|0|0" passage="De 33:9">Deut. xxxiii.
9</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p31">(2.) On whom vengeance is taken: <i>There
fell of the people that day about 3000 men,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p31.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.28" parsed="|Exod|32|28|0|0" passage="Ex 32:28"><i>v.</i> 28</scripRef>. 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 all others. Those that in the
morning were shouting and dancing before night were dying in their
own blood; such a sudden change do the judgments of God sometimes
make with sinners that are secure and jovial in their sin, as with
Belshazzar by the hand-writing upon the wall. This is written for
warning to us. <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p31.2" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.10.7" parsed="|1Cor|10|7|0|0" passage="1Co 10:7">1 Cor. x. 7</scripRef>,
<i>Neither be you idolaters, as were some of them.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Ex.xxxiii-p31.3" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.30-Exod.32.35" parsed="|Exod|32|30|32|35" passage="Ex 32:30-35" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Exod.32.30-Exod.32.35">
<h4 id="Ex.xxxiii-p31.4">The Intercession of Moses. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p31.5">b. c.</span> 1491.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ex.xxxiii-p32">30 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses
said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go
up unto the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p32.1">Lord</span>; peradventure I
shall make an atonement for your sin.   31 And Moses returned
unto the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p32.2">Lord</span>, and said, Oh, this
people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
  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.
  33 And the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p32.3">Lord</span> said unto
Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my
book.   34 Therefore now go, lead the people unto <i>the
place</i> 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.   35 And the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ex.xxxiii-p32.4">Lord</span> plagued the people, because they made the
calf, which Aaron made.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p33">Moses, having executed justice upon the
principal offenders, is here dealing both with the people and with
God.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p34">I. With the people, to bring them to
repentance, <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p34.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.30" parsed="|Exod|32|30|0|0" passage="Ex 32:30"><i>v.</i>
30</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p35">1. When some were slain, lest the rest
should imagine that, because they were exempt from the capital
punishment, they were therefore looked upon as free from guilt,
Moses here tells the survivors, <i>You have sinned a great sin,</i>
and therefore, though you have escaped this time, <i>except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish.</i> That they might not
think lightly of the sin itself, he calls it <i>a great sin;</i>
and that they might not think themselves innocent, because perhaps
they were not all so deeply guilty as some of those that were put
to death, he tells them all, <i>You have sinned a great sin.</i>
The work of ministers is to show people their sins, and the
greatness of their sins. "<i>You have sinned,</i> and therefore you
are undone if your sins be not pardoned, for ever undone without a
Saviour. It is a great sin, and therefore calls for great sorrow,
for it puts you in great danger." To affect them with the greatness
of their sin he intimates to them what a difficult thing it would
be to make up the quarrel which God had with them for it. (1.) It
would not be done, unless he himself <i>went up unto the Lord</i>
on purpose, and gave as long and as solemn attendance as he had
done for the receiving of the law. And yet, (2.) Even so it was but
a peradventure that he should make atonement for them; the case was
extremely hazardous. This should convince us of the great evil
there is in sin, that he who undertook to make atonement found it
no easy thing to do it; he must <i>go up to the Lord</i> with his
own blood to <i>make atonement.</i> The malignity of sin appears in
the price of pardons.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p36">2. Yet it was some encouragement to the
people (when they were told that they had <i>sinned a great
sin</i>) to hear that Moses, who had so great an interest in heaven
and so true an affection for them, would <i>go up unto the Lord to
make atonement</i> for them. Consolation should go along with
conviction: first wound, and then heal; first show people the
greatness of their sin, and then make known to them the atonement,
and give them hopes of mercy. <i>Moses will go up unto the
Lord,</i> though it be but a <i>peradventure</i> that he should
make atonement. Christ, the great Mediator, went upon greater
certainty than this, for he had lain in the bosom of the Father,
and perfectly knew all his counsels. But to us poor supplicants it
is encouragement enough in prayer for particular mercies that
<i>peradventure</i> we may obtain them, though we have not an
absolute promise. <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p36.1" osisRef="Bible:Zeph.2.3" parsed="|Zeph|2|3|0|0" passage="Zep 2:3">Zeph. ii.
3</scripRef>, <i>It may be, you shall be hid.</i> In our prayers
for others, we should be humbly earnest with God, though it is but
a <i>peradventure that God will give them repentance,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p36.2" osisRef="Bible:2Tim.2.25" parsed="|2Tim|2|25|0|0" passage="2Ti 2:25">2 Tim. ii. 25</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p37">II. He intercedes with God for mercy.
Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p38">1. How pathetic his address was. <i>Moses
returned unto the Lord,</i> not to receive further instructions
about the tabernacle: there were no more conferences now about that
matter. Thus men's sins and follies make work for their friends and
ministers, unpleasant work, many times, and give great
interruptions to that work which they delight in. Moses in this
address expresses, (1.) His great detestation of the people's sin,
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.31" parsed="|Exod|32|31|0|0" passage="Ex 32:31"><i>v.</i> 31</scripRef>. He speaks as
one overwhelmed with the horror of it: <i>Oh! this people have
sinned a great sin.</i> God had first told him of it (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.7" parsed="|Exod|32|7|0|0" passage="Ex 32:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>), and now he tells God of
it, by way of lamentation. He does 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 for themselves gods
of gold. It is a great sin indeed to make gold our god, as those do
that make it their hope, and set their heart on it. He does not go
about to excuse or extenuate the sin; but what he had said to them
by way of conviction he says to God by way of confession: <i>They
have sinned a great sin;</i> he came not to make apologies, but to
make atonement. "Lord, pardon the sin, <i>for it is great,</i>"
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.25.11" parsed="|Ps|25|11|0|0" passage="Ps 25:11">Ps. xxv. 11</scripRef>. (2.) His great
desire of the people's welfare (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.4" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.32" parsed="|Exod|32|32|0|0" passage="Ex 32:32"><i>v.</i> 32</scripRef>): <i>Yet now</i> it is not too
great a sin for infinite mercy to pardon, and therefore <i>if thou
wilt forgive their sin.</i> What then Moses? It is an abrupt
expression, "<i>If thou wilt,</i> I desire no more; <i>if thou
wilt,</i> thou wilt be praised, I shall be pleased, and abundantly
recompensed for my intercession." It is an expression like that of
the dresser of the vineyard (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.5" osisRef="Bible:Luke.13.9" parsed="|Luke|13|9|0|0" passage="Lu 13:9">Luke xiii.
9</scripRef>), <i>If it bear fruit;</i> or, <i>If thou wilt
forgive,</i> is as much as, "O that thou wouldest forgive!" as
<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.6" osisRef="Bible:Luke.19.42" parsed="|Luke|19|42|0|0" passage="Lu 19:42">Luke xix. 42</scripRef>, <i>If thou
hadst known</i> is, <i>O that thou hadst known.</i> "But <i>if
not,</i> if the decree has gone forth, and there is no remedy, but
they must be ruined; if this punishment which has already been
inflicted on many is not sufficient (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.7" osisRef="Bible:2Cor.2.6" parsed="|2Cor|2|6|0|0" passage="2Co 2:6">2
Cor. ii. 6</scripRef>), but they must all be cut off, <i>blot me, I
pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written;</i>" that is,
"If they must be cut off, let me be cut off with them, and cut
short of Canaan; if all Israel must perish, I am content to perish
with them; let not the land of promise be mine by survivorship."
This expression may be illustrated from <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.8" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.13.9" parsed="|Ezek|13|9|0|0" passage="Eze 13:9">Ezek. xiii. 9</scripRef>, where this is threatened
against the false prophets, <i>They shall not be written in the
writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the
land of Israel.</i> God had told Moses that, if he would not
interpose he would make of him a <i>great nation,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.9" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.10" parsed="|Exod|32|10|0|0" passage="Ex 32:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>. "No," says Moses, "I am
so far from desiring to see my name and family built up on the
ruins of Israel, that I will choose rather to sink with them. If I
cannot prevent their destruction, let me not see it (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.10" osisRef="Bible:Num.11.15" parsed="|Num|11|15|0|0" passage="Nu 11:15">Num. xi. 15</scripRef>); let me not be
<i>written among the living</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.11" osisRef="Bible:Isa.4.3" parsed="|Isa|4|3|0|0" passage="Isa 4:3">Isa.
iv. 3</scripRef>), nor among those that are marked for
preservation; even let me die in the last ditch." Thus he expresses
his tender affection for the people, and is a type of the good
Shepherd, that <i>lays down his life for the sheep</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.12" osisRef="Bible:John.10.11" parsed="|John|10|11|0|0" passage="Joh 10:11">John x. 11</scripRef>), who was to be <i>cut
off from the land of the living for the transgression of my
people,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p38.13" osisRef="Bible:Isa.53.8 Bible:Dan.9.26" parsed="|Isa|53|8|0|0;|Dan|9|26|0|0" passage="Isa 53:8,Da 9:26">Isa. liii. 8; Dan.
ix. 26</scripRef>. He is also an example of public-spiritedness to
all, especially to those in public stations. All private interests
must be made subordinate to the good and welfare of communities. It
is no great matter what becomes of us and our families in this
world, so that it go well with the church of God, and there be
peace upon Israel. Moses thus importunes for a pardon, and wrestles
with God, not prescribing to him ("If thou wilt not forgive, thou
art either unjust or unkind"); no, he is far from that; but, "If
not, let me die with the Israelites, and the will of the Lord be
done."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ex.xxxiii-p39">2. Observe how prevalent his address was.
God would not take him at his word; no, he will not blot any out of
his book but those that by their wilful disobedience have forfeited
the honour of being enrolled in it (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p39.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.33" parsed="|Exod|32|33|0|0" passage="Ex 32:33"><i>v.</i> 33</scripRef>); the soul that sins shall die,
and not the innocent for the guilty. This was also an intimation of
mercy to the people, that they should not all be destroyed in a
body, but those only that had a hand in the sin. Thus Moses gets
ground by degrees. God would not at first give him full assurances
of his being reconciled to them, lest, if the comfort of a pardon
were too easily obtained, they should be emboldened to do the like
again, and should not be made sensible enough of the evil of the
sin. Comforts are suspended that convictions may be the deeper
impressed: also God would hereby exercise the faith and zeal of
Moses, their great intercessor. Further, in answer to the address
of Moses, (1.) God promises, notwithstanding this, to go on with
his kind intention of giving them the land of Canaan, the land he
had <i>spoken to them of,</i> <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p39.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.34" parsed="|Exod|32|34|0|0" passage="Ex 32:34"><i>v.</i> 34</scripRef>. Therefore he sends Moses back
to them to lead them, though they were unworthy of him, and
promises that his angel should go before them, some created angel
that was employed in the common services of the kingdom of
providence, 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, not any thing extraordinary. Moses afterwards obtained
a promise of God's special presence with them (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p39.3" osisRef="Bible:Exod.33.14 Bible:Exod.33.17" parsed="|Exod|33|14|0|0;|Exod|33|17|0|0" passage="Ex 33:14,17"><i>ch.</i> xxxiii. 14, 17</scripRef>); but at present
this was all he could prevail for. (2.) Yet he threatens to
remember this sin against them when hereafter he should see cause
to punish them for other sins: "<i>When I visit, I will visit</i>
for this among the rest. Next time I take the rod in hand, they
shall have one stripe the more for this." The Jews have a saying,
grounded on this, that henceforward no judgment fell upon Israel
but there was in it an ounce of the powder of the golden calf. I
see no ground in scripture for the opinion some are of, that God
would not have burdened them with such a multitude of sacrifices
and other ceremonial institutions if they had not provoked him by
worshipping the golden calf. On the contrary, Stephen says that
when they <i>made a calf, and offered sacrifice to the idol, God
turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven</i>
(<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p39.4" osisRef="Bible:Acts.7.41-Acts.7.42" parsed="|Acts|7|41|7|42" passage="Ac 7:41,42">Acts vii. 41, 42</scripRef>); so
that the strange addictedness of that people to the sin of idolatry
was a just judgment upon them for making and worshipping the golden
calf, and a judgment they were never quite freed from till the
captivity of Babylon. See <scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p39.5" osisRef="Bible:Rom.1.23-Rom.1.25" parsed="|Rom|1|23|1|25" passage="Ro 1:23-25">Rom. i.
23-25</scripRef>. Note, Many that are not immediately cut off in
their sins are reserved for a further day of reckoning: vengeance
is slow, but sure. For the present, <i>the Lord plagued the
people</i> (<scripRef id="Ex.xxxiii-p39.6" osisRef="Bible:Exod.32.35" parsed="|Exod|32|35|0|0" passage="Ex 32:35"><i>v.</i> 35</scripRef>),
probably by the pestilence, or some other infectious disease, which
was a messenger of God's wrath, and an earnest of worse. Aaron made
the calf, and yet it is said the people made it, because they
worshipped it. <i>Deos qui rogat, ille facit—He who asks for gods
makes them.</i> Aaron was not plagued, but the people; for his was
a sin of infirmity, theirs a presumptuous sin, between which there
is a great difference, not always discernable to us, but evident to
God, whose judgment therefore, we are sure, is according to truth.
Thus Moses prevailed for a reprieve and a mitigation of the
punishment, but could not wholly turn away the wrath of God. This
(some think) bespeaks the inability of the law of Moses to
reconcile men to God and to perfect our peace with him, which was
reserved for Christ to do, in whom alone it is that God so pardons
sin as to <i>remember it no more.</i></p>
</div></div2>