Exodus 32: The Golden Calf and Moses' Intercession

So, this is Exodus 32, the golden calf. This is on Tammuz 17th, which wherever you are at sundown, we have entered that on the Hebrew calendar. "Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered to Aaron and said to him, 'Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'" So again, my friends, some people believe that they replaced Yahweh with this, but they were really replacing Moses, their leader, just like the scripture says that, "Come, make us gods that shall go out before us. For as for this Moses, not God, Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." So they were trying to make a calf to replace Moses.

"And Aaron said to them, 'Break off the gold earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.' So all the people broke off their gold earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molten calf. Then they said, 'This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.'" Because remember, they thought Moses brought them out, right? So, "O Israel, this is what brought you out of the land of Egypt," the golden calf.

"So when Aaron saw it, we're in the month of seeing, by the way, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.'" Now, think about that, my friends. Aaron declared that Tammuz 17th was a feast to the Lord. Okay, so this was Tammuz 16th, and then Tammuz 17th was going to be a feast to the Lord. Think about that. There's only one person who can declare feast days, not Aaron; it was God through Moses. Not through anybody else; only through Moses got the ways of worship. So when Aaron did that, he was trying to create a feast day to himself. Now, think about Christianity, everybody. Feast days to themselves; they're not in the Bible. So again, this is a great correlation to that. And our Christian friends need to understand that Aaron said, "Let's make a different feast to the Lord to Tammuz 17th." That's why it became a fast day and a cursed day because of what the high priest did. Okay, so we've got to understand this. It's very serious stuff, and something that our Christian friends need to really understand that you can't just make different feasts to the Lord. Christmas, Easter, and all that are different feasts to the Lord. It surely is, and this is what Tammuz 17th is about for the Christians, just as well for our Jewish friends as well.

"So when Aaron saw it, the golden calf, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation as the high priest, 'Tomorrow is a feast of moed to the LORD, Tammuz 17th.' Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose to play. And the LORD said to Moses, 'Go, get down, for your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. After 40 days, they have made themselves a molten calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, "This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt."'"

"And the LORD said to Moses, 'I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them; and I will make of you Moses a great nation.'" Now look at Moses' heart position here. This is very important for us during this time period right now. Look, he could have easily said, "For sure, yes, Lord, make me a great nation." That's a lot of people would have said that, right? Let's look at the heart position of Moses during this time after all that he's been through. He was 80 years old when this happened, 80 years old, going up and down Mount Sinai, dealing with the people through the 40, 50-day divine appointment, counting of the Omer, dealing with the complaining, the griping, and all these things. And now he got them to receive the Torah, or they received the Torah at Mount Sinai, and then he's up on the mountain getting the tabernacle instructions in Exodus 25 through Exodus 31. And then at the end of the 40th day, we have the people making the golden calf. So here we are, you know, with these things, and he was fuming. Moses was fuming. Of course, Yahweh was fuming; He wanted to destroy them. And look at Moses' heart position for God and also for the people. The two greatest commandments, you're seeing them right here with Moses.

"Verse 11: Then Moses pleaded with Adonai his God, and said: 'Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, "He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth"? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember,' look at what he says, 'remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, "I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever."'" So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

Now, isn't that amazing? A couple of points here. First of all, Moses had not gone down the mountain yet to see what the people were doing, and we're about to get into that, and then you're going to see his his anger, his righteous anger come out. So Yahweh was very upset with him. And look at the heart position of Moses. That's why He chose him because he was humble and he loved the two greatest commandments. He was more concerned about God's character among the nations than his own personal glory of being a great nation and all these things. He reminded Yahweh of the covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, of the promised land, and of the seed, of the lineage, the pure royal lineage. You just can't wipe them all out, Lord, right? So Moses reminded the Lord of that. Of course, Yahweh knew He was going to do that, of course. But I find it amazing of Moses' heart position for Yahweh and also for the people. Even though the people were out of alignment, just think about it. They were in Egypt for hundreds of years, however you want to call it, and they were just out of Egypt for 90 days only, 50 days to Shavuot and 40 days. 90 days. Not to be whatever, but they were still, if you will, babes, if you will, or milk, if you will. And Moses understood that; Yah understood that. And Moses interceded. And that's a great understanding for us as well for grace, for mercy, for loving-kindness, for intercession. You know, God doesn't want to see anyone perish, you know, is what He says. He doesn't like that. And He wants us to have the heart for people to inherit eternal life, not to just destroy people because of a different religion or different color, different this, different that. He wants us to do the Great Commission. So Moses was doing the Great Commission, if you can keep me in context here, by loving God and loving his neighbor. I mean, he was fulfilling the Torah right there, is what Yeshua would say: love God, love neighbor. And I find it just remarkable that again, he did, he had that heart position for God and also for the people.

"Verse 15: Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand; the tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, 'There is a noise of war in the camp.' But he said, 'It is not the noise of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear.'" So it was as soon as he came near the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses' anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain. Then he took the calf which they made he that he made them drink. Excuse me. Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. Goodness. And Moses, Moses said to Aaron, 'Why did this people, what did these people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?'"

My friends, I mean, this is what it's about. You see the intercession, but you also see the righteous anger that Moses had once he saw it with his eyes. Remember, he was on the mountain interceding with the Most High not to destroy the people before he saw what was going down. Then when he went down on the mountain, he broke the tablets of God with His finger on it. That's how much anger He had. And then you read what he did; he ground it to powder, put it in the water, and made them drink it. Pretty heavy stuff, isn't it?

So again, my friends, this is a very important day to remember idolatry. God hates idolatry, and that's what the golden calf is. Anything that consumes our time more than Elohim, one could be considered idolatry. Vanity, all of these things. Solomon said, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity" for a reason. And again, this goes back. This is hardcore stuff. But my friends, the Apostle Paul himself, to my Christian friends, says idolatry does not enter the kingdom of heaven. And if we're out of alignment, myself included, we've got a golden calf, whatever that looks like today, then we're out of alignment. And I think it's very important. And one of the major things is that Aaron, the high priest, said, "We're going to make a feast to the Lord from their own good." Think about that. And look what happened. Look what happened to them. Bad stuff.

So, all my Christian friends really need to understand this from a prophetic understanding. You can't just start making days to worship God. He's the Lawgiver; He's the only one that can make these commandments and these days for us to celebrate on, not anybody else. Not even Aaron the high priest could do that; you saw what happened. And Aaron, if Moses didn't pray for Aaron, God would have broken out on Aaron as well. So, we've got to really realize this, my friends. It's super important. People are in "la la land" thinking that all these different days to worship Jesus is okay and everything's good. No, it's not. It wasn't good back then, and it's not good now. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever; does not change; no shadow of turning with Him. Okay, we all know that. And since that's the case, we can't be coming up with feast days on our own in Christianity. That will get the gavel. And that's where it is. So, we've got to realize the trajectory of what is going on in this story from a prophetic understanding for all of us as well, and personal as well.