(Continued from p. 21 )
5.-AT MOUNT SINAI
Three months after the exodus from Egypt the children of Israel encamp before mount Sinai where, after recounting His gracious ways with them, God proposes that if they obey His voice and keep His covenant, they shall be a kingdom of priests and ap holy nation. They do not hesitate to accept this conditional relationship, and answer:"All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Exod. 19:7). Consequently, of the third day, the new principle of dealing is inaugurated in suitable fashion, for God comes down upon the mount in a thick cloud amid thunderings and lightnings and tie sound of a trumpet. And so terrified are the people that they say to Moses:"Speak thou with us, and we will near:but let not God speak with us, lest we die!" Such Is the effect of putting themselves upon the basis of human conduct, instead of remaining upon the ground of divine goodness when Moses further explains arrangement, they again say:"All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient!" (chap. 24:7).
In the meantime having ascended the mount, Moses receives
THE TWO TABLES OF STONE
whereon are written the ten commandments. At this time he is absent from the camp of Israel for forty days, during which time the people become restive. Not having realized God's presence among them, they virtually say:Without Moses we are without God!-"Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him" (chap. 32:1).
As for Aaron, although he has qualities that only grace can give, he is not a man to stand in the breach; he cannot say NO! Indeed, the fact that the people approach him with their proposition shows that they estimate him shrewdly, for he suggests an offering of gold, and upon receiving their earrings melts and molds them into a calf which he fashions with a graving tool, whereupon they declare:"These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!" (chap. 32:2-4). But Aaron further promotes the apostasy by building an altar before the image and making a proclamation:"Tomorrow is a feast lo the Lord!" He uses Jehovah's name to gloss over the matter.
At this point we anticipate Moses' question to Aaron:"What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?" To which he replies:"Let not the anger of my lord wax hot:thou knowest the people that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us:for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me:then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf" (vers. 21-24).
Passing over this bland explanation of the calf's emergence from the flame, we need not question the plea that the people "are set on mischief." But what is apparent in himself is the lack of courage to resist a popular backsliding; he is not strengthened for such an emergency by the sense of the presence of God.
Returning however to Moses, let us observe that before he sees the "calf" and the "dancing," he is prepared by God for the worst, being put through exercises of heart that temper his actions when the apostasy bursts upon his view (chap. 32:7-14). For instance God says to him:Israel is "thy" people, a "stiff-necked people," which I will displace by a nation from thyself. But Moses answers:They are "Thy people," the subjects of Thy care. Whereupon he pictures the exodus from Egypt and portrays the effect of any report that the movement had collapsed. Will not the Egyptians say:He did worse to them than to us? He drowned our army, but He exterminated them; He wrought mischief upon us, but, "For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth" (chap. 32:12). Hence Moses appeals to God's oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel:"I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever" (ver. 13). This argument gives great pleasure to God (He really prompts it), for it reveals confidence in Himself, and shows that Moses realizes he is engaged in a divine movement. When therefore we read that, "The Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto HIS PEOPLE," we gather from the very expression that He had never given them up.
However Moses is now ready to descend the mountain. "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing; and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount" (ver. 19). This is not fleshly rage, but indignation in sympathy with God; and the breaking of the tables is the act of one who knows what to do; for had the law entered the camp it would have cut off an idolatrous nation. But it is noteworthy that the unmixed law never reached the people but, when re-written, came among them combined with sacrificial offerings that pointed forward to the cross.
However, the destruction of the calf is instant. And the death of three thousand is an execution by divine command, when the sons of Levi slay "every man his brother" (those closest by relationship), "and every man his companion" (those closest by choice), "and every man his neighbor"(those closest by circumstance). "And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made."
The intercession of Moses on this occasion, when he asks Jehovah to blot him "out of Thy book which Thou hast written," unless He pardons Israel, is one of the most amazing examples of burden-bearing on record, and has engaged some of the most spiritual minds in explanation of its measure.
Jehovah now permits the departure of Israel toward the land flowing with milk and honey but, while He guarantees an angelic vanguard, says, "I will not go up in the midst of thee" (chap. 33:3). However when the people are stripped of their "ornaments;" when the tabernacle is pitched without the camp, and those seeking the Lord follow the tabernacle, Moses is heard pleading:"If Thy presence go not [with me], carry us not up hence." Indeed, on Sinai's summit with a second set of tables, he had said:"If now I have found grace in Thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiff-necked people" (chap. 34:9), its very stiffneckedness requiring the guidance He only could give. For, says he, how can it be known that we have found grace in Thy sight unless' it be by Thy going with us, and what can make us different from the nations, but Thy presence among us? (chap. 33:16).
And may not we say:Can ecclesiasticism, or a halo of names, safeguard God's people today? If we have learned what Moses knew, we will say:Nothing can avail but the presence of Himself manifesting His mind and love for our practical sanctification.
Moses is so affected when Jehovah shows willingness to continue in the midst of His people, and discovers that his own exercise of heart is but the reflection of God's feelings in the matter, that he says:"SHOW ME THY GLORY!" As if he would say:Such readiness to forgive is peculiarly divine! I desire to know Thee better! Permit me to behold Thee in the outshining of Thy nature! But this request can only be granted in part (vers. 19-23). Thus in the "cleft of the rock," covered by the Lord's hand as He passes by, Moses beholds His "back parts." For in that day he can only learn that God is moving forward to what He will do in the fulness of time. As the revelation of God in Christ is at that time future, Moses cannot behold His glory in the "face" of the Man Christ Jesus.
We shall conclude this paper with a reference to chapter 34:29-35, where we learn that upon the law-giver's descent with "the two tables of stone like unto the first," Aaron and all the children of Israel are afraid to come near him because "the skin of his face shone." Therefore while his face is toward the people "he put a vail" on it. But when he turns and goes in before the Lord, "he took the vail off." This is interpreted in 2 Cor. 3 as follows:That the Spirit's present gospel ministry of life and righteousness enables its preachers to use "great plainness of speech," in contrast with Moses' ministry of death and condemnation. And the vail Moses uses to dim a glory that reminds of legal obligations is likened to the vail upon the heart of Israel. Thus Israel's back is toward God, and its vailed heart turned away. But, as Moses removed the vail from his face when he went into the presence of the Lord, so "the vail shall be taken away" from Israel's heart when they turn around and seek His face. _R. J. REID.
(To be continued in next number, D.V.)
'PRAY. . .SING'