(A) INTRODUCTION
The Bible is full of “Typologies” to many theologians. One of the figurative types is Moses. As claimed, he is pictured as Jesus, the Redeemer. One of the roles of a redeemer is to “Intercede” for His people.
Thus, I am considering one of the Bible messages on how Moses interceded for His people in Exodus 32.
Needed not much introduction, Exodus 32 is the story of “Golden Calf”. The people were impatient as Moses was meeting God for a long period on the mountain. Given a lack of spiritual leadership and guidance, the old Israelites rallied around Aaron and asked him to make them a statue to lead them just like the pagans did.
With that, Aaron took the Israelites’ golden earrings, molten a “Golden Calf” and built an altar for the Calf. They offered burnt sacrifices, worshiped and feasted there.
The aroused God revealed what the Israelites had done to Moses. Immediately Moses pleaded for the Israelites before the furious and angered God who threatened to destroy the people. Moses reminded God of His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses further calmed God that it could become a laughing stock to Egyptians if God was to destroy the Israelites after leading them out of Egypt.
Not just that, Moses reminded God of His promise to make Israelites as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Certainly, God heard Moses. He relented in bringing disaster to His people as threatened.
The story isn’t ending here. When Moses came down from the mountain, he saw people dancing around the golden calf, out of furiosity, he broke the first set of tablets of stone engraved with His commandments (verse 19).
The Bible is telling us, Moses melted the golden calf, ground it as powder, mixed it with water, and asked Israelites to drink it (verse 20).
(B) THREE THOUSAND WERE KILLED
Nevertheless, what caught my attention is the subsequent act of Moses; in verses 26-29 that read below:-
| Exodus 32:26-29 GNT 26 So he stood at the gate of the camp and shouted, “Everyone who is on the Lord’s side come over here!” So all the Levites gathered around him, 27 and he said to them, “The Lord God of Israel commands every one of you to put on your sword and go through the camp from this gate to the other and kill your brothers, your friends, and your neighbors.” 28 The Levites obeyed, and killed about THREE THOUSAND men that day. 29 Moses said to the Levites, “Today you have CONSECRATED YOURSELVES AS PRIESTS in the service of the Lord by killing your sons and brothers, so the Lord has given you his blessing.” |
The points here are as a so-called “TYPE OF JESUS”:-
- Moses obeyed God by ordering the killing of 3,000 men who were not on the Lord’s side. Moses did not seek God’s pardon for killing the 3,000. (verses 26-28)
- Moses did not intercede from killing the 3,000 men.
- Should we want to claim that Moses is figurative of Jesus, we have to agree that Jesus allows killing too, isn’t it?
- The killing of 3,000 men came first before the act of “ SELF CONSECRATION/ SET APART” (verse 29).
- By doing that, the blessing of God will flow again. That means without killing 3,000 and self-consecration, the blessing of God won’t be flowing.
The continue, on verses 30-35 of Exodus 32 below:-
| Exodus 32:30-35 30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin. But now I will again go up the mountain to the Lord; perhaps I can obtain FORGIVENESS FOR YOUR SIN.” 31 Moses then returned to the Lord and said, “These people have committed a terrible sin. They have made a god out of gold and worshiped it. 32 Please forgive their sin; but if you won’t, then remove my name from the book in which you have written the names of your people.” 33 The Lord answered, “It is those who have sinned against me whose names I will remove from my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about. Remember that my angel will guide you, but the time is coming when I will PUNISH these people for their sin.” 35 So the Lord SENT A DISEASE on the people, because they had caused Aaron to make the gold bull-calf. |
(C) ATONEMENT/ FORGIVENESS
According to ESV, NASB, NIV, NKJV, AMPC, RSV, etc, the word “FORGIVENESS” in verse 30 is:
– make ATONEMENT for your sin for some of the translations. It means forgiveness and atonement are interchangeable.
This means Moses’ first round of pleading in verses 11-14, the killing of 3,000 men, and CONSECRATION are not “ATONEMENT”. Rather, I should say that PLEADING, CONSECRATION, and ATONEMENT are 3 different things.
Well, New Testament believers can argue that Jesus did all the above 3 things for them.” The bible is all about Christ. Indeed, the Bible is the story of Jesus”, said most of the New Covenant preachers and believers.
(D) SELF CONSECRATION
Nevertheless, verse 29 is saying “SELF” consecration or “Consecration/ Dedicate Yourselves”. It is not God’s consecration. It is not “All about Christ, none about self”, as modern teaching likes to proclaim.
And I guess modern teaching will never agree that Jesus comes to kill. To be exact, in modern teaching, Jesus is always pictured as nothing but “Love”. No judgment from Jesus.
In addition, before my study, I never heard any sermon being preached that 3,000 Israelis were killed after Moses successfully interceded before God. Mostly, the pulpit would always like to paraphrase that the first set of Ten Commandments of the tablets which represent “Pure Law” never was God’s intention for His people.
Sadly, modern teaching paraphrases by saying when the Law was given, 3,000 people were killed. But when the New Covenant was given, 3,000 people were saved, based on Exodus 32. Biblically, 3,000 were killed not because of the given of the Law. It was because of sin. People built an altar of “Golden Calf” that provoked God, which was the reason of 3,000 people being killed
On the other hand, modern teaching likes to say even Moses, the best of the best, broke the Commandments. What an amusement.
Furthermore, “Typologists’ ‘ would like to give partial, inconsistent figurative. The killing of 3,000 men is not part of the Typology Bible Interpretation.
I don’t want to read too much into the Typology of bible interpretation. The “Typologist” can be highly selective and paraphrasing. Bible reading would become very hard. Who has the right typology and paraphrasing then? Rather, I should be faithful in reading His word rather than paraphrasing selectively.
I would say that in different eras, God raises different people to rescue His people. These rescuers or redeemers include Moses, Jeshua, Judges, and Kings. The truth is that God never changes. His method of salvation and His character is the same in whichever era. He was, He is, He is to come. It is not just His love that never changes. His overall attributes never change.
Paganism had been engrossed in their mindset then. In a short period of 40 days, they gave in to paganism. They easily fell into bad habits and the influence of the world.
(E) A SELF-TEST/ EXAMINATION
Should I use “Typology Bible Interpretation, I would warn myself from paganism/idols. Perhaps, I am worse than old Israelites. They fell in 40 days. How about me? Is my faith in Him greater and last longer than those Israelites?
May I behold His glory and vision, always! Let my heart not depart from His callings, purposes, and truth. Let not my thoughts and my ways deviate from His truth. Certainly, to be a faithful Christian is never easy, especially since current Christianity is surrounded by paraphrasing teachings from the pulpits.
In conclusion, intercession, punishment of sin, consecration, and atonement are not the same. God will deal with it separately.
Next, it is not true for one of the famous teachings using Exodus 32 to justify that the given of the Law, 3000 people were killed. Truly, it was the sin of building the “Golden Calf” that provoked God to 3,000 people were being killed.
Let me continue examining Exodus 32 in another separate study. Part 2 of the “Golden Calf (Names Remove)” can be found here Amenbible.
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