NL 305: Golden Calf - Exodus 32:1-14
image: pixabay
Exodus 32:1-14
Initial Thoughts
This is the basis of many a sit-com. Parents go out of town, leave oldest in charge. A few people come over, and all of the sudden things are out of control. Parents come home, and they are PISSED. So they decide to kill everyone at the party, and start over with new kids.
Last week we were given the Law, the cornerstone of the relationship between God and Israel. “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You must have no other gods before me. Do not make an idol for yourself… Do not bow down to them or worship them.” (Exodus 20:4)
Here the people say, “Come on! Make us gods who can lead us… Then he made a metal image of a bull calf, and the people declared, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:1-4)
If Exodus is the creation story of Israel, passing through the Sea is the birth. This is the fall.
“It is Genesis 3 all over again. The garden scene becomes a tangled mess. Harmony turns to dissonance, rest to disturbance, preparedness to confusion, and the future with God becomes a highly uncertain matter” (Terrence Fretheim, Interpretation: Exodus, p. 279).
Bible Study
Literary Context
Ten Commandments given to Moses in chapter 20 (last week)
Chapters 21-23 are other laws about social order
Chapter 24 Covenant of Sinai is sealed in blood and a meal with Moses, Aaron, and 70 leaders. The leaders “looked at God, and they ate and drank.” God tells Moses “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there. I’ll give you the stone tablets with the instructions and commandments I’ve written in order to teach them.”
Chapter 24:18 “Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.” That’s a long time for Moses to be gone
Chapters 25-31 are extensive, detailed descriptions of the tabernacle, rituals, offerings, and other priestly concerns.
Chapter 32:1 is a continuation of this thought “The people saw that Moses was taking a long time to come down…”
This passage takes place with only Moses and God, with the people at the bottom of the mountain.
After Moses goes down and sees what God was telling him, he gets mad and breaks the tablets. Argues with Aaron. Gathers Levites to dole out punishment. Purges the unfaithful. Eventually a new set of tablets are made.
The creation of the Golden Calf
The Israelites have gone back (or more likely, never fully abandoned) their polytheistic ways- no longer “God”, but “gods”
Rings of Gold - would have been the riches they stole from Egypt in Exodus 11:2
The golden calf was NOT worshipped as a God, but rather as a dwelling place for the gods- a divine seat “having precisely the same function as the cherubim over the Ark” (Alter, The Hebrew Bible, p. 339)- thus they have created an anti-Tabernacle.
Alter points out that the Golden Calves and Bulls were used by the northern Kingdom of Israel in their temples at Dan and Bethel competing with the tabernacle in Jerusalem. These were designed not as polytheistic or paganistic thrones but as thrones for YHWH
“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” - a direct refutation of God’s proclamation last week at the beginning of the Decalogue (Exodus 20)
Seems like Aaron wants to have his Calf and YHWH too - creating a seat for the gods and an altar for YHWH - setting YHWH up as the head of the gods, but still in direct contradiction to the first and second commandments
Perspectives on the story (Amy Erickson on the Working Preacher blog)
Aaron - The practical leader, willing to compromise
Left in charge, the people are longing for answers.
Aaron builds an altar in front of the golden calf, and declares that the festival is in honor of Yahweh.
Fudges a little on the law, but tries to make it okay.
God - The upset parent
v. 7 in NRSV “The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely
Acting perversely - same assessment of people as just before the flood (Genesis 6:12)
v. 7 in CEB “The Lord spoke to Moses: “Hurry up and go down! Your people, whom you brought up out of the Land of Egypt are ruining everything.”
Ruining everything - God had created order, and the people were undoing that order. They were ruining the created order that God had established
In both versions though, God says “the people you [Moses] brought out of Egypt.” He has now disowned them. They are now Moses’ people. They are Moses’ problem. It seems as if even God has forgotten the first commandment.
Moses - The intervener
Reminds God that it was God that brought them out of Egypt.
Appeals to God’s reputation in the eyes of the Egyptians
Reminds God of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.
Moses ignores God’s command to “leave me alone,” but instead stands up forcefully to God. (Parents, remember that time when your child convicted you of the thing you told them not to do?_
“The God of Israel is revealed as one who is open to change. God will move from decisions made, from courses charted, in view of the ongoing interaction with those affected. God treats the relationship with the people with an integrity that is responsive to what they do and say… This means that there is genuine openness to the future on God’s part… It is this openness to change the reveals what it is about God that is unchangeable: God’s steadfastness has to do with God’s love… God will always act, even make changes, in order to be true to [love].” (Fretheim, p. 287)
This is a very different Moses than the one who begged not to speak to Pharoah. He has grown in confidence and his relationship with God has grown more intimate. With that intimacy, he is able to challenge God and remind God of God’s own promises.
Why is Aaron punished for building the Calf when Moses is exalted for building the Ark (Exodus 25)? David Bender, Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 4: Season After Pentecost 2 (Propers 17-Reign of Christ).
Moses acts in full communion and discernment with God
Aaron acts out of fear and impatience over the perceived absence of God- instead of waiting, Aaron takes matters into his own hands
“It is too easy for folks to assume their own expertise and to rush ahead toward accomplishments, without waiting for God's guidance. It is too easy for congregations and governments to act quickly upon a promising idea without asking the hard questions about God's will for the project. It is too easy for people to make the most important life decisions—marriage, calling, career, family—without bringing God into the conversation. It is sometimes too easy to be just like Aaron.”
Moses faced similar demands from the Israelites - Ex. 16 - why have you brought us here to die, but instead of bowing to their anger and fears Moses turns to God
Thoughts and Questions
Exodus 32:14 “Then the LORD changed his mind about the terrible things he said he would do to his people.”
This is a remarkable sentence, one that could possibly make people uncomfortable if given a chance to really ponder it.
What does it mean for God to “change his mind.” This seems to run contrary to a classical understanding of the God that is all-knowing, all-powerful. How can an all-knowing God change? Is it possible that even God doesn’t know the future? What kind of vast implications does that have for faith?
We are a “What have you done for me lately” people. God and Moses are out of sight, then they must be out of mind as well. People cannot hold faith through perceived abandonment. How quick are we to forget what God has done? How quick are we to search for gods in times of trouble?
How do we lead? Are there times when appeasing the crowd is appropriate? Are there compromises that need to be made? Or are we too often like Aaron, not standing firm when we need to, or like the preachers that Martin Luther King wrote to from his Birmingham jail
What does it mean to follow a God whose mind can be changed? God is not an unmoved mover- here God is moved by Moses, God’s mind is changed by Moses. Is this another example of God being in relationship with creation and allowing that relationship (as all authentic relationships will) to have a transformative effect on Godself?
Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM
Closing Song by Bryan Odeen