Exodus 32:1-14 Commentary

What is taking God so long?

There’s a whole sermon to be preached in the opening clause of this text: “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down the mountain…” Of course, the key theme of the text is idolatry: the making and worshiping of the golden calf by the Israelites.  But isn’t it also of interest to consider the root causes of our sin and idolatry and, in this case, the fact that it starts with disillusionment with God.

Consider the sources of our idolatry in the same way. When God hasn’t shown up soon enough. When God hasn’t provided what we wanted, perhaps even what we needed. When we dog-eared the catalog page and circled the item we wanted and God still managed to send us the wrong thing. It is in this state of mind that we are uniquely tempted to trust something other than God, which is very-nearly the definition of idolatry.

If God always gave us exactly what we wanted, when we wanted it, in the right amount for as long as we needed it, we wouldn’t have the same sense of urgency toward coming up with a plan of our own. Similarly, the people might have acted differently if Moses had come on down the mountain in a reasonable amount of time, as determined by those on the ground who had no sense of what was really going on up there between Moses and his God (though far be it from God’s people to let a thing like not understanding God’s ways stand in the way of deciding how the world should be run.).

Robert Alter offers a similar, though slightly more charitable, take on the people’s predisposition to pursue idolatry.  Alter roots the people’s desire in fear, specifically that they are looking for “gods that will go before us”, a martial image pointing “to the urgently felt need for a guide through the wilderness.” Although our wilderness may be less literal, the feeling of needing someone — or something — to get us through our days is universal to the human condition. A sermon on this text can do some wise pastoral work by pursuing these felt needs beneath our willful idolatry.

Idolatry is Sneaky

On the face of it, there isn’t much subtlety to fashioning a Golden Calf in the middle of the wilderness. Perhaps those who listen to our sermons feel some relief on this topic since they don’t keep pagan images in their home, lighting candles or incense to honor them. But there’s more to what’s going on here than the obvious.

1) The Golden Calf is made up of good things. When the Israelites fled Egypt, God gave them the command to ask their neighbors for their nice stuff and, oddly, their neighbors seemed more than willing to do so. (A great tie-in for a Children’s Message when our young ones’ thoughts have turned to trick-or-treating.) Similarly, our idolatry is made up of good things, even those things (talents, experiences, financial or positional power) God has given us.

2) Having your Golden Calf and God too. Listen closely to those who diagnose idolatry out there, in the world. Or, perhaps, a preacher might contrast the Monday to Friday rat race with the holiness that happens on a Sunday morning in worship. But notice what Aaron does in verse 5, declaring “Tomorrow will be a festival day to the Lord.” Sure, the people would come to offer gifts and offerings to the calf, even sacrificing to it. But Aaron suggests, “isn’t it, really, if you think about it, and tilt your head and squint just right, isn’t this *also* an act of worship to God?” There is a kind of idolatry — alcoholism or workaholism — that will drive someone from the church. But there are many other forms of idolatry that priests, like Aaron, have married to the Christian gospel — holiness-for-show and judgment of those on the outside — and they are no less wrong and troubling for that. In fact, they are, perhaps, more dangerous for their insidious, insinuating capacity: “It’s not wrong. I do it to worship God.”

A Covenant > An Idol

In verse 7, God lets Moses know about the shenanigans the people have gotten up to in his absence. And then in verse 9, the text says again “And God said.” Ancient Hebrew grammar did not include quotation marks so this phrase “and God said” serves the purpose of marking speech.  What is interesting here is that God speaks … and then God speaks again, indicating the likelihood that, in the middle Moses was speechless, mouth hanging agape, trying to wrap his mind around, “They are doing what?!”

But after God’s second speech, the dialogue picks up in earnest. Noting how, earlier in verse 7, God refers to them as “your” people, God and Moses seemingly play a game of hot potato. God threatens to punish them. Moses appeals to reason and public relations, “after all you did bringing them up out of Egypt? How’s that going to look?” But Moses really knows the judge on this case so he goes on to make the argument that judge cannot deny: ”Remember Your promise to Your people.” This is the reason why God relents, finds a path forward and remains in faithful, loving relationship with God’s people.

By contrast, idols don’t make promises. We wish on them, imputing hopes and expectations.  But Baal never promised anyone health. Wealth can’t promise you the stock market will never crash. Your body can’t promise you its genes will never mutate and go rogue. Fame can’t promise to never leave you nor forsake you. Our idols dangle our dearest hopes just out of reach.  God’s covenant comes near, first in the shekinah glory (more on this next week), then in Christ’s incarnation and, at last, in Christ’s coming again to make all things new and set all things right.

Illustration Idea:

In preparing this sermon commentary, a snipped from the song, Reasons Why, by the indie bluegrass trio, Nickel Creek ran like a loop through my mind. Trying to understand why they haven’t landed well in life and, instead, feel stuck in their dissatisfaction and many missteps and misdirections, the refrain goes like this: “others have excuses. I have my reasons why.”

The Israelites might have said the reason why they needed that Golden Calf was because Moses was away for too long. We would, likely, judge that as an excuse.  Similarly, Aaron’s attempt at justifying the worship of the Golden Calf with a reason why — its really worship of YHWH — is also, in hindsight an obvious excuse. But what about us? When it comes to idolatry, what are our reasons why? And might they, in fact, be just like all the other excuses we can so easily discern in others?  But, to flip the image, when God chooses to restrain God’s wrath and vengeance, isn’t it a lovely and loving thing that the covenant is God’s reason why?