Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Reading for September 13th

 Israel worships a golden calf . In 32.1-35: Israel makes an idol in the form of a golden calf and worships it. This indeed violates the important prohibition in the Ten Commandments against worshipping other gods and making idols (20.3-4). The story has a parallel in a later account about King Jeroboam, who sets up golden calves at two worship sites in northern Israel (1 Kings 12.25-33). 

Read Exodus 32.1-14. In verses 2-3 The gulden rings presumably come from their gold jewelry given to the Israelites by the Egyptians when they fled Egypt (12.35-36). In verse 4: The calf of young bull was a common image for certain Canaanite gods. In verse 7: The Lord tells Moses that now the Israelites are your people. They are no longer God's people. In verse 10: The Lord plans to consume or completely destroy the Israelites for their disobedience. The Lord with then take Moses alone and make of him a great nation. That is the same promise God first made to Abraham (Gen 12.2). In verses 13-14: Moses pleads with God on behalf of the Israelites. Moses reminds God that they are your people (vv. 11, 12; see 33.13). To destroy Israel would to do harm to the Lord's international reputation (v. 12). it would also violate God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (v. 13; see 6.2-8). God swore or made a promise to each of the ancestors in Genesis: Abraham (Gen 13.14-15), Isaac (Gen 26.3), and Jacob/Israel (Gen 28.13). Remarkably, Moses succeeds. The Lord changed his mind about destroying Israel. Comments or Questions..

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