Third Millennium Study Bible
Notes on Exodus 32:15-24

Moses' Just Anger - Exodus 32:15-20

After all that God had done for them, Israel sinned. Moses was justly angry! See Ephesians 4:26. Moses went down the mountain "with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands" (Exod 32:15). "They were inscribed on both sides, front and back." Attention is emphatically drawn to the divine origin of the tablets that would soon be smashed.

As Moses progressed back to camp and "Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "There is the sound of war in the camp"" (Exod 32:17). Moses replied in a short, graphic poem with a threefold use of the word for "singing" (Exod 32:18). The poem literally reads, "Not the sound of singing victory; not the sound of singing defeat; but the sound of singing I hear."

As Moses approached the camp he saw (1) the calf and (2) dancing. He saw Israel breaking the covenant of God and "threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain" (Exod 32:19). The broken tablets powerfully pictured the broken covenant. MacKay states:

We are told that Moses was angry. Was this a fit of temper and rage? Two features suggest that Moses anger is righteous indignation at the sinful rebellion of the people. 'His anger burned' is the same phrase as my anger may burn (verse 10), describing how God would respond to the situation. Moses, the covenant mediator, responds with judicial wrath at the way in which the dominion of the LORD has been spurned. He cannot take the tablets into the camp where the people have rejected the LORDs demands on them. In his zeal for the cause of the LORD, he solemnly breaks the tablets of the Testimony because the covenant relationship with the LORD has been shattered by the people's infidelity. Did the fragments lie at the altar where they had pledged their allegiance? It too was 'at the foot of the mountain' (Exod 24:4). The information in Deuteronomy 9:17, "broke them before your eyes", suggests that a number of people had gathered round Moses as he reached the edge of the camp, and that his action was a public testimony against them.

That Moses response was not sinful is further supported by the absence of any divine rebuke for his behaviour. Elsewhere Moses is himself punished for acting in a fit of anger (Num. 20:11-12).

Moses burned the calf (Exod 32:20). Perhaps the calf was made of wood, with a golden overlay. Currid explains saying:

Some interpreters question how a metal calf could be burned and then ground to dust. A Canaanite text from Ugarit helps us to interpret the scene properly. In one particular myth the goddess 'Anat is pictured as fighting Mot, the god of the underworld. One section reads:

She seizes the godly Mot -
With sword she does cleave him.
With fan she does winnow him -
With fire she does burn him.
With hand-mill she grinds him -
In the field she does sow him.

The same actions of burning, grinding and scattering are in this text, and they are to be understood metaphorically for the total annihilation of the god. It is apparently the same end that Moses had in mind for the golden calf.

Then the Israelites were forced to drink their sin as a sign that they would have to bear it (cf. the water of bitterness that later was to be drunk by an adulteress [Num 5:18-22]). Israel had been unfaithful to the Lord, her husband.

Aaron's Excuses- Exodus 32:21-24

Inquiry was made of Aaron for his sinful leadership (Exod 32:21). Ryken says, "Moses was sensitive to the temptation Aaron faced; he acknowledged the pressure the man was under. However, he also wanted his brother to take full responsibility for what he had done. This is the right balance. When dealing with sin, spiritual leaders should have compassion for those who have fallen, while at the same time not leaving any room for making excuses." Aaron should have confessed his sin. Instead, he blamed the people for his own unfaithfulness and even suggested a miraculous origin for the calf. Aaron's conduct throughout this episode suggests that the Levitical priesthood was destined for failure from its inception (cf. Heb 7:27).

Related Resources

• Divine Sovereignty: Is God Sovereign or Am I Free?
• Providence: Who is in Control of the World?
• The Covenants of Works and Grace: What Is Covenant Theology?
• Covenants in General
• Conditional and Unconditional Covenants