Proper 23, Year A
Exodus 32:1-14,
Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23,
Philippians 4:1-9,
Matthew 22:1-14
Commentary on Exodus 32:1-14
As with many Lectionary readings, this one is a part of a
much larger passage, in fact the entire section this is a part of runs through
Exodus 34, and is the story of the loss and renewal of the covenant. The
section of that which is today’s reading is divided into three parts.
First, verses 1-6, is the dialogue between Aaron and the
murmuring people while Moses is up on the mountain with Yahweh. Aaron, the
great paragon of faith, plays the great wuss and capitulates, seemingly without
an argument, when the people demand a god they can see and touch. (One wonders
why Yahweh did not include him in the “burn ‘em” section later on, but
whatever...)
Missing unfortunately from our reading today is Aaron’s
all time classic defense of stupidity and idolatry, which occurs just a little
further on. That is, when Moses returned from the mountain and saw the mess
below, he asks him, “what did this people do to you that you have brought so
great a sin upon them?” And Aaron responds by saying it wasn’t his fault (of
course), but his excuse is one of the best ever. He says all he did was to ask
them for their gold, “so they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire, and
out came this calf!” (33:24). Yes, of course, he had nothing to do with it.
The second
section, verses 7-10, is mainly Yahweh’s speech to Moses up on the mountain in
which Yahweh decides they are not worth it and it’s time to bring out the “burn
‘em” weapons. Notice that when Yahweh does this, the people—the ones whom Yahweh
rescued from the fleshpots of slavery in Egypt, carried through the parting of
the Nile River, fed with manna and quail in the desert, and did so by great
power and a mighty hand, these
people—when he describes them to Moses, he suddenly calls them “your people, whom you brought up....”
The third section, 11-14, is mainly Moses chewing out Yahweh
for Yahweh’s facile willingness to
send hot burning wrath upon them—ingrates though
they are. Notice that his appeals are not for the worthiness of the people
(that would be a stretch) because both agree they are scum. But instead, Moses
first, appeals to Yahweh’s vanity: “Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with
evil intent that [Yahweh] brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and
to consume them from the face of the earth’? And then second, he makes the
argument that, with all that has gone on so far with Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel, etc., to bury the crowd now would ruin everything.
The arguments were evidently convincing because “Yahweh
repented of the evil that he planned to bring on his people.”
Gene Tucker lists three themes for theological and
homiletical reflection that can be found in this passage. If you move fast over
them, you could probably construct a three-point sermon using all of them. On
the other hand, at least two of them (one and three) could be developed more
deeply into individual sermons.
(1) The sin of
the people, always a popular topic for preachers. More than simply a violation
of the first and second commandments, it was also a lack of trust, both in
Moses’ leadership (v. 1) and in God (v. 4).
(2) Moses as
mediator. He immediately intercedes for the people even though they obviously
don’t deserve it. “Although there is no threat to him (v. 11b), he identifies
with the people, the same ones who have grumbled about his leadership so many
times.”[1]
(3) God’s
capacity to repent. It is the ground of the prayer of confession, and the key
factor that makes renewal of the covenant possible.
To this list, I could add:
(4) Idolatry, possibly implied in the first one, but
could also stand alone.
(5) Covenant, or their lack of understanding of it.
Here are a few possible titles on the Exodus text. Some I
made up, some I borrowed from other, far more creative, people. “Gold Rush,”
“Who Done it?” “The Gold Standard,” “Idolatry 101” (implying they need a refresher
on monotheism), “Let’s Take it One More Time, From the Top” (implying they need
a refresher on the meaning of covenant), “Moses and the Calf of Many Earrings,” and finally, “And Out
Came That Calf” (if you spend time on Aaron and his painfully bad excuse for
caving to their desires for a second god to worship).
Exegetical Notes
Exodus 32:1-14
1When the people saw that
Moses delayed[1] to come down from the
mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods
for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up
out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
2Aaron said to them, “Take
off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters,
and bring them to me.”
3So all the people took off
the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took
the gold from them, formed it in a mold,[2] and cast an image of a
calf;[3] and they said, “These are
your gods,[4] O Israel, who brought you
up out of the land of Egypt!”
5When Aaron saw this, he
built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall
be a festival to the LORD.” 6They
rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of
well-being;[5] and the people sat down to
eat and drink, and rose up to revel.[6]
7The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at
once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt,
have acted perversely;[7] 8they have been
quick to turn aside from the way[8] that I commanded them; they
have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and
sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up
out of the land of Egypt!’”
9The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen
this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10Now let me alone, so that
my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will
make a great nation.”
11But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn
hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt
with great power and with a mighty hand? 12Why should the Egyptians
say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the
mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your
fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13Remember[9] Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will
multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven,[10] and all this land that I
have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it
forever.’”
15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain,
carrying the two tablets of the covenantb in his hands, tablets that
were written on both sides, written on the front and on the back. 16The
tablets were the work of God,[12] and the writing was the
writing of God, engraved upon the tablets. 17 When Joshua heard the
noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war
in the camp.” 18 But he said,
“It is not the sound made by victors,
or the sound made by losers;
it is the sound of revelers
that I hear.”
19 As soon as he came near the
camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw
the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 He
took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder,
scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
21
Moses
said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a
sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord
burn hot; you know the people, that they are bent on evil. 23 They
said to me, ‘Make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man
who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of
him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off’; so they
gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
[1] “Delayed”: Everett Fox (The Five Books of Moses New York:
Schocken 1993) offers “shamefully late.” He says that the Hebrew word, boshesh, carries with it the connotation
of causing shame/embarrassment.
[3] “Calf”: Or young bull, a
symbol of fertility in Canaan. [Fox, Moses]
See also 1 Kings 12:28; Hosea 8:5. In ancient Near East iconography, the bulls
figure prominently either as representations of gods, e.g. Bull El in the
Ugaritic texts, or as animal thrones of deities standing upon their backs.
[NJBC]
[4] “These are your gods ...”:
In 1 Kings 12:28-30, Jeroboam I uses the same words to lead the northern
kingdom into separation from God, an act that to the northern Deuteronomic
historian nullifies the divine promise given earlier to Jeroboam’s dynasty: see
1 Kings 11:31-39. [NJBC] (Northerners
are to worship at Bethel and Dan.) Why “gods” and not “God”? (See also v. 8.) Most
modern Jewish translations have god in the singular. Two Christian
translations, the Jerusalem Bible and the Contemporary English Bible, also have
god (and God) in the singular. The Septuagint and Vulgate translations have
gods. “Why ‘gods’, when there is only one image? Because to speak of ‘gods’ in
the plural is typical of pagans (see 1 Sam 4:7–8; 1 Kings 20:23); the sentence
is probably taken from 1 Kings 12:28” (John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., Oxford Bible Commentary (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2001)].
[5] “Well-being”: The Hebrew is
shalom, a word which includes in its meaning peace (with God and one another).
[6] “Revel”: There may be a
sexual connotation, as in Genesis 26:8 (when Isaac fondles Rebekah); 39:14, 17
(Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses Joseph of sleeping with her). This might support
the idea of a calf being used as a divine symbol.
[7] “Acted perversely”: FoxMoses
offers wrought ruin. He says that the Hebrew word, shahet, is often used to describe moral decay, e.g. in Genesis
6:11-12 (before the Flood): “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the
earth was filled with violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all
flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth.”
[8] “Turn aside from the way”:
Probably meaning the way of God. Intertestamental Judaism called its system of
laws Halakhah, from the Hebrew halokh, to go/walk. Later still,
Christianity became known as The Way. [FoxMoses]
[9] “Remember”: The particular
form of the Hebrew verb means remember to one’s credit.
[10] “I will multiply your
descendants like the stars of heaven”: Recalling the promise to Abraham and
Isaac in Genesis 15:5; 22:17; 26:4.
[11] “The Lord changed his mind”:
God is free to change an announced plan, as has already been done in saving
Noah and others from the Flood (see Genesis 6:5-6) and will do in sparing
Israel from a plague of locusts (see Amos 7:1-6).
[12] “The work of God”: Or God’s
making, unlike the making of the calf.
[1]
Gene M. Tucker, in Fred
B. Craddock, Ed., Preaching Through the
Christian Year: Year B (1993), p. 470.
