Exodus chapter 32

After reading chapter 32:

*Moses was up on the mountain for a long time. Understandably, the Israelites began to wonder what had happened to him. Aaron took things in his own hands and fashioned a golden calf idol out of donations of gold from the Israelites. It was announced that this was the God that brought them out of Egypt.  Aaron built an altar in front of the calf and announced a festival. The next day they made animal sacrifices and had a big barbecue, and possibly an orgy, though that is not clear.

*Yahweh told Moses it was time he went back and saw what the Israelites were doing. God was so angry that he wanted to destroy the Israelites and make Moses into a great nation. ( Didn't God know that would happen? ) Moses had to calm God down by reminding him that the Israelites were his special people and he had already done so much for them that he couldn't give up on them now. God cooled off and Moses went down the mountain.

*So, Moses went down the mountain with the tablets that had been engraved by God. Joshua, who had gone with Moses, but apparently was not privy to the conversation between God and Moses, heard the noise from the camp and thought it was the sounds of war. Moses knew it was a party. Still, like a parent coming home and finding out the children had taken over, he got angry. He smashed the tablets of testimony on the ground.  Then, he took the idol, burned it, ground the ashes into powder, sprinkled the powder on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.

*Then Moses berated Aaron, who practiced a little blame shifting and verbal gymnastics. Things were out of control, so Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and said that anyone on Yahweh's side was to stand by him. The Levites ( read priests) all rallied around Moses. Who can blame them, the priests were the favored group. I'm sure they didn't want to lose their benefits.

*What happens next is extraordinarily disturbing. Moses told the Levites that Yahweh was ordering them to take swords and make their way through the camp indiscriminately slaughtering people. How is this not murder, which God is supposedly against? Three thousand people were killed. Even more extraordinary, the Levites were praised for killing their own family members in service to God!

*The next day, Moses went back to Yahweh and offered to have himself blotted out of god's book. We are not told what that means. God said he would blot out whoever sinned against him. Moses was to continue to lead the people to the promised land. Then God struck the Israelites with a plague because of their behavior with the golden calf.

*It was fascinating for me to find out that the original tablets Moses was given were not the Ten Commandments at all. My study bible says they were probably two copies of the agreement between God and the Israelites, one for God, one for the people, if everything happened the way the bible says.