The Ten Commandments: Part II

Exodus 32

Moses was up in the mountain for a long, long time, talking with God. The people waited and waited at the bottom of the mountain.

Soon they began to wonder. What had happened to Moses? Maybe he was never going to come back! Maybe he had died or stayed with God. After all, it was SO long since he had gone up the mountain! Why should they wait and wait if he might not even come back?

So the people went to Aaron, Moses’ brother. They had an idea.

“Let’s make some gods,” they told him. “We can’t see our God, and now we don’t even have Moses anymore! Let’s make us a god that we can see, a god just like the other people — a god we can see.”

What a terrible idea! Did Aaron tell the people they were saying something awful? Did he try to stop them? No, Aaron helped them with their plan.

“Okay,” said Aaron,“here’s what you can do. Take off your earrings, and your children’s earrings, and bring them to me.”

Off hurried the people to find as many earrings and gold pieces as they could, and brought them back to Aaron. This is what Aaron did: he melted the gold pieces down, and formed something — a calf, a golden calf, which is what many people in those days made their gods or idols look like.

“Here is our god!” cried the people. “This is the god that brought us out of Egypt!”

Then Aaron had another idea. “Let’s have a feast tomorrow to this god,” he said. “A feast to the Lord.”

Isn’t that something? Aaron still asks for a feast to the Lord after he has made this idol! Maybe he knows that this calf is not really the true God!

The people were so excited and happy to be having a feast that they were up bright and early the next morning! They happily talked, ate food, and sang songs to their calf.

But God was not only on the mountain. He was everywhere. He was also at the feast, and He heard their wicked singing.

“Go back to the people,” God told Moses. “They have forgotten Me. They have made themselves a golden calf, and now they are worshipping it”

God told Moses that He was so angry with the people, that He did not want them to be His people anymore. He told Moses that He would kill them all, but make Moses great.

We would think Moses would like this idea, but he didn’t. “Please don’t do that,” he begged. “What will all the other nations and countries think? They will say terrible things about Thee! Don’t forget Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — remember how Thou did promise them that Thou would make great nations out of them! That won’t be true if Thou were to kill them.”

What happened then? Can a man like Moses change God’s mind? No, men cannot change God’s mind. God did as Moses had said, but He was not changing His mind. You will learn more about that as you get older. God has a revealed will and a secret will. God’s revealed will in this story, what He said He would do, is that He would destroy all the people. But His secret will, His hidden will, is that actually He was not going to. He had already planned that Jesus would be born from the Israelites, so, of course, He would not destroy them.

Moses hurried down the mountain. He carried the two tables of stone in his arms. Remember that we told you how God had written the ten commandments He had given the people on these two tables.

Joshua had waited on the mountain for Moses. He did not know what the people were doing. “I hear noises among the people!” he said. “It sounds like war!”

But Moses told him of the terrible thing the people were doing. And as he got closer and closer and saw what was going on, Moses became angry. There the people were, dancing and singing and laughing as if they were having fun, and all for a golden calf who could do nothing for them! How could they forget the God who had saved them from the king, the God who had sent them the manna and quail, the God who had given them water? How angry Moses became!

Angrily he threw the two tables of stone on the ground, and they shattered into pieces! Then he grabbed the golden calf and threw it into the fire. After it had melted, he ground it into powder. Then he sprinkled it into the water which the people were to drink.

“There,” he cried, “drink that! There’s your god! Can he help you now?”

Then he turned to Aaron. “Why did you do this?” he cried. “Why did you help this people do this terrible sin?”

“Oh, please don’t be so angry,” begged Aaron. “But you know what these people are like. They are so stubborn. They get so strong you can’t say no to them.”

Moses looked at all the people. Then he cried out, “Who is still on God’s side? Who is sorry for the awful thing he has done? If anyone is on God’s side, let him come over to me!”

And some men did! We call them the Levites, because they were the children of Levi, who was one of the brothers of Joseph and Benjamin.

Moses was very happy to see that the Levites were still on God’s side. Later they became a special people. They were the ones who were allowed to help in God’s church.

Now Moses told the Levites, “Go through the people and kill as many people as you can!” And so they did.

Many people were killed. Moses then prayed to God, saying, “Oh, God, this people has done a terrible sin against Thee. Please forgive them! — but if this is not possible, please punish me for their sin instead.”

But God told Moses that He would punish only those who had done the sin. Then He sent a terrible sickness, so that many who had not been killed by the Levites became sick and died.

Later God gave Moses two other tables of stone with the laws written on them. But let us never forget how much God hates sin! He punished the people over and over for this one sin!

Only A Little Thing

It was only a tiny seed,
Carelessly brushed aside;
But it grew in time to be a noxious weed,
And spread its poison wide.

It was only a little leak,
So small you could hardly see;
But the rising waters found the break,
And wrecked the great levee.

It was only a little spark,
Dropped by a passing train;
But the dead leaves caught, and swift and dark
Was its work on wood and plain.

It was only a thoughtless word,
Scarcely meant to be unkind;
But it pierced as a dart to the heart that heard,
And left its sting behind.

It may seem a trifle at most,
The things that we do or say,
And yet it may be that at fearful cost
We may wish it undone some day.

— Mrs. M.P.H.

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