Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 32 verses 1 through 14:
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” 6 They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
7 The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10 Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.”
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
It was my former professor, friend, and strong Jewish community leader Howard Curzer who pointed out to me the peculiarity in this story that God waited to send Moses down the mountain until exactly the time the Israelites were demanding Aaron make idols before them. Up till then God had kept Moses busy for 40 days laying out all the exact plans for the Temple’s length, width, height, and exacting decor — proof, a friend says, that God really does care what color should be used for the chancel steps. Then, just as the Israelites grow too anxious to mollify and Aaron too weak to stand up to them, the LORD tells Moses to go down.
On first reading, it’s a test of God’s faithfulness. Will he or won’t he be with them, even though they are such a stiff-necked and forgetful people. But given the peculiarity of timing, Prof. Curzer says it’s actually a test of Moses. God lays out a test, “Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.” It’s an alluring invitation. God will make something of Moses all alone. But it’s an invitation he must refuse. Moses was called to deliver his people, not just hisself.
Our church or synagogue or country may well be very stiff-necked, and everyone around us may be bowing down to false idols. But these are our people. And we need leaders right now who will decide they must stay with the community — come what may — and not give into the temptation that deliverance would be better all by ourselves.
And who knows, perhaps as in the story the disaster that may well befall the people because of their idolatry May be averted because one leader decided not to give up on the people.
NOTE: Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Exodus chapters 36 through 38.
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