Moses is Not Pleased - Exodus 32:7-24

32:7-18 - While all this hubbub is going on down in camp, Moses is still up on the mount talking to God. God of course knows what’s going on, and tells Moses, “Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” TB makes a funny comment saying, “God informs Moses of what ‘YOUR’ people are doing. I think that’s kinda funny that God calls Israel ‘YOUR’ people.” Like this whole time, God’s saying “my people” and now that they are doing wrong, it’s “your people.” But TB says that he’s now calling them Moses’ people because God has disowned them. God tells Moses that the people have made themselves “a golden calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto.”

God says that He’s going to come up with a way to destroy these wayward Israelites, and Moses pleads with God to spare the people, citing all the promises He made with Abraham, and all the miracles He showed in Egypt, which I thought was an interesting strategy. God relents and says, fine the people can remain alive and Moses heads down the mountain, taking the two stone tablets with him that were engraven with God’s commandments. Joshua had been waiting on the mountain for Moses this whole time and hears all the noise coming from the camp and assumes that there is some sort of battle going on. When Moses gets to him while coming down the mountain, Moses reassures Joshua that it’s not war, but instead the people having lost their minds. Then they head down into the camp together.

32:19-24 - When Moses and Joshua get to the camp Moses is pissed and he throws the stone tablets down onto the ground “and brake them beneath the mount.” TB notes, “this act of breaking the tablets was significant; in the Middle East, whenever a covenant was made, written down, and then violated, the clay tablets it was written on were ceremonially thrown down and shattered to signify that the covenant was indeed broken. So, this wasn’t a moment of rage in which Moses lost it for a second and in doing so threw down the tablets of the Law. It was a custom… and the people knew immediately what it meant when he did it. The hours-old covenant with God was broken… gone… already!”

Not only did Moses break the tablets, invalidating the covenant, he melted down the golden calf and threw it into the drinking water supply and made the people drink it. I don’t know why this is significant, but it’s kind of like “this is your god now, eat it” vibes that I’m getting, maybe I’m reading too much into it. Then Moses turns to his brother, his second in command, his right hand and asks “what did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?” This was probably the biggest betrayal Moses felt, with everything he was trying to do, to have his own brother, the one who was supposed to be his support in everything, be a linchpin in this rebellion. Aaron’s answer was basically, ‘they are a wicked people and they asked me to do this for them.” Aaron caved to social pressure, but ultimately, I personally, I believe that the fiercest loyalty can come from betrayal and I think that’s what ended up happening with Aaron because he becomes this high priest that is critical to the implementation and establishment of the work after this.