1. After the covenant between God and Israel had been ratified, what did the Lord said Moses? "And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give you tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that you may teach them." (Exodus 24:12)
2. What covered the mount, and what was its appearance? "And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel." (Exodus 24:15-17)
3. How long was Moses in the mount? "And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and got him up into the mount; and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights." (Exodus 24:18)
4. Did he eat or drink during that time? "When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water." (Deuteronomy 9:9)
5. When the Lord had finished talking with Moses, what did He give him? "And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God." (Exodus 31:18)
6. What was on these tables of stone? "And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spoke with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly." (Deuteronomy 9:10)
7. Whose workmanship were the tables, and how were they filled? "And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand; the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." (Exodus 32:15-16)
8. What did the people say and do when they saw how long Moses was gone? "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, 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. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron." (Exodus 32:1-3)
9. What did Aaron do with the gold? "And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf" (Exodus 32:4)
10. What did they call this golden calf? "And they said, These be your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt." (Exodus 32:4)
11. What does the psalmist say of this? "They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eats grass." (Psalm 106:19-20)
12. Before they could do this, what did they forget? "They forgot God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea." (Psalm 106:21-22)
13. How did they worship this image? "And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." (Exodus 32:6)
14. What must we conclude as to the nature of this "play"? See Notes.
15. Why did the people happen to make a calf to worship instead of the image of a man? See Notes.
16. What was the Egyptian calf-worship? See Notes.
17. How extensive was sun-worship anciently? and what was the nature of it? See Notes.
18. What did God think to do to the Israelites for their abominable idolatry? "And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of you a great nation." (Exodus 32:9-10) "And the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time." (Deuteronomy 9:20)
19. With what words did Moses plead for them? "And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why does your wrath wax hot against your people, which You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom You swore by your own self, and said unto them, 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. ... And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if You will forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray You, out of your book which You have written." Exodus 32:11-13,31-32)
20. Did the Lord grant his request? "And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people. ... And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto you: behold, my Angel shall go before you; nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them." (Exodus 32:14,33-34)
21. What immediate punishment did the people receive? "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 broke them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. ... Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. ... And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made." (Exodus 32:19-20,26-28,35)
Notes:
Prof. George Rawlinson says: "No part of the Egyptian religion was so much developed and so multiplex as their sun-worship. Besides Ra and Osiris, there were at least six other deities who had a distinctly solar character."--In Religions of the Ancient World, p. 21
Concerning Osiris, it says: "Abydos was the great seat of the worship of Osiris, which spread all over Europe, establishing itself in a remarkable manner at Memphis. All the mysteries of the Egyptians, and their whole doctrine of the future state, attached themselves to this worship. Osiris was identified with the sun. ... Sun-worship was the primitive form of the Egyptian religion, perhaps even pre-Egyptian."--The Encyclopedia Britannica (art. "Egypt")
But while Osiris was the Egyptian sun-god, or the chief representation of the sun, he was chiefly represented by a sacred bull, called Apis. On this it says: "According to the Greek writers, Apis was the image of Osiris, and worshiped because Osiris was supposed to have passed into a bull, and to have been soon after manifested by a succession of these animals. The hieroglyphics inscriptions identify the Apis with Osiris, adorned with horns or the head of a bull, and unite the two names as Hapi-Osor, or Apis-Osiris. According to this view the Apis was the incarnation of Osiris manifested in the shape of a bull."--The Encyclopedia Britannica (art. "Apis")
From these quotations it is easy to see why the Israelites made a golden calf, instead of an image of something else. They made the god and became the form of worship with which they had been most familiar in Egypt. And when they did this, they were simply engaging in sun-worship, the form of idolatry which in all ages has been the most universal rival of the worship of Jehovah.
As to the nature of sun-worship, it will perhaps be sufficient to quote what it says of Baal: "The Baal of the Syrians, Phoenicians, and heathen Hebrews is a much less elevated conception than the Babylonian Bel. He is properly the sun-god Baal Shamen, Baal (lord) of the heavens, the highest of the heavenly bodies, but still a mere power of nature, born like the other luminaries from the primitive chaos. As the sun-god, he is conceived as the male principle of life and reproduction in nature, and thus in some forms of his worship is the patron of the grossest sensuality, and even of systematic prostitution. An example of this is found in the worship of Baal-Peor (Numbers 25), and in general in the Canaanitish high places, where Baal, the male principle, was worshiped in association with the unchaste goddess Ashera, the female principle of nature."--The Encyclopedia Britannica.
That is a mild statement of the case; and so when we read of the Israelites that: "The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play," (Exodus 32:6) and learn that the word rendered "play" is the same as that rendered "mock" in Genesis 39:14, 17, we get a better idea of the heinousness of the sin of the Israelites.
When it is remembered that the Egyptian calf-worship was sun-worship, and that Sunday was "the wild solar holiday of all pagan times,"--North British Review, vol. 18, p. 409, and has its name "because the day was anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its worship,"--Webster, the Heaven-daring nature of the sin of the Israelites, just after they had heard God's holy law, and especially the first, second, fourth, and seventh commandments, is most strikingly set before us. A more perfect insult to the God who had delivered them from Egyptian bondage, that they might serve Him, can hardly be imagined.
One more point should be noted, to show how completely, in intent, the Israelites went back to Egyptian bondage, by their worship of the golden calf. A preceding quotation has shown that Ra and Osiris were intimately associated as leading representatives of the sun of Ra.
Professor Rawlinson, says: "Ra was the Egyptian sun-god, and was especially worshiped at Heliopolis [city of the sun]. Obelisks, according to some, represented his rays, and were always, or usually, erected in his honor. Heliopolis was certainly one of the places which were thus adorned, for one of the few which still stand erect in Egypt is on the site of that city. The kings for the most part considered Ra their special patron and protector; nay, they went so far as to identify themselves with him, to use his titles as their own, and to adopt his name as the ordinary prefix to their own names and titles. This is believed by many to have been the origin of the word Pharaoh which was, it is thought, the Hebrew rendering of Ph' Ra--'the sun.'"--In Religions of the Ancient World, p. 20
Thus the Israelites not only deliberately sunk themselves in the bondage of sin, but also more fully showed their willingness to return to bondage under Pharaoh, than when they sighed for the leeks and the onions of Egypt. Their deliverance from physical bondage was in order that they might be delivered from spiritual bondage, and was a representation of it; and when they had plunged into sin, they placed themselves in a worse bondage than any physical oppression could ever have been. Being overcome by the idolatry of Egypt, they virtually returned to the bondage of Egypt, "For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." (2 Peter 2:19)--Signs of the Times, March 11, 1889--Exodus 24:12-18; 32
E.J. Waggoner