Moses Disciplined the People (Ex. 32:15-29)

8/7/2008 9:58 AM

My Worship Time           Focus:  Moses disciplined the people

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Exodus 32:15-29

            Message of the verses: “15 ¶  Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they were written on one side and the other.  16  The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets. 17  Now when Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is a sound of war in the camp."  18  But he said, "It is not the sound of the cry of triumph, Nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat; But the sound of singing I hear."

19  It came about, as soon as Moses came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.  20  He took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it. 

            21 ¶  Then Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?"  22  Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil.  23  "For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’  24  "I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf."  25  Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control—for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies—26  then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him.  27  He said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’" 28  So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.  29  Then Moses said, "Dedicate yourselves today to the LORD—for every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.’”

            I want to touch on a few things from these verses, things that I have learned from studying this passage.  The reason that Moses threw down the tablets with the Law written on them was because after seeing what was going on in the camp he knew that the children of Israel had broken the Law after they had promised before to keep it, thus he broke the tablets that the Law was written on. 

            In the book of Deuteronomy Moses tells the next generation of Israel that he had to plead with the Lord that He would not take the life of Aaron.  Aaron lied to Moses about how the golden calf was made by him and Moses had to deal with Aaron over that lie.

            Moses then breaks up the golden calf and grinds it into power and then puts it into water and makes the people drink of it.  There would be no putting that thing back together again so that it would become another idol. 

            After asking who was on the Lord’s side, something that Joshua would write in his book latter on, the Levites killed 3000 men who were a part of this orgy.  Jesus would later say something that would relate to what happened here, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”  (Matthew 10:37)  These men were killing some of their own family members and friends, perhaps even their own sons, and this is what it cost them to follow the Lord.  In heaven we will all be spiritual brothers and sisters in the Lord which has more meaning that being physical brothers and sister in this life.  It is best to be both physical and spiritual brothers and sisters.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The Lord sometimes calls His children to do some very hard things in order to advance His kingdom as is seen in this section of Scripture.  God will never give us something to do that His grace won’t be there to get us through it.

            The sins of these people came about shortly after their leader was gone and the reason that this happened was because they had not been dealt with before He left.  Sin will take you farther than you’ll want to go, slowly but surely taking control.  These are the true words of a song that I have heard.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Deal with the temptations at the earliest stages before they grow into sins.
2. Put on my spiritual armor.
3. Trust the Lord to lead me.

Memory verses for the week:                      Exodus 20:1-5

1. Then God spoke all these words, saying,
2. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3. You shall have no other gods before Me.
4. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
5. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the enquiry of the fathers on the children on the third and forth generations of those who hate me.

8/7/2008 10:44 AM