The dark base of Mount Sinai at dusk, its summit lost in heavy cloud, and below it a vast camp of tents with a single column of smoke and the orange glow of a large fire at its center.

The Book of

Exodus 32

Only weeks after promising to do everything the LORD said, the people at the foot of the mountain grow tired of waiting. Something is burning in the camp.

35 verses≈ 8 min3 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

Tap any post to go deeper

In this chapter

Where we are

1–6Slaves in EgyptOppression and a deliverer
7–13The plaguesThe LORD against Pharaoh
14–18Through the seaRescued and led
19–24At SinaiThe covenant and the law
25–31A place to dwellThe tabernacle planned
32–40Broken and renewedThe calf, mercy, the gloryChapter 32

The Golden Calf

The Israelites

Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”

Aaron

So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before the calf and proclaimed: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”

So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

Reflect

Tired of waiting

When Moses was “delayed in coming down from the mountain,” the people did not wait. They wanted “gods who will go before us,” something they could see, shape and carry. The LORD had not left them; He had only not moved as fast as they wanted. Where are you tempted to reach for something you can see and control while you wait on God? Write it down, and write one way you can keep waiting on Him this week.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

God

The LORD also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

Moses

But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people. Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”

So the LORD relented from the calamity He had threatened to bring on His people.

At dusk on the bare granite slopes of Sinai, an old white-bearded man seen from behind picks his way down a steep path, two plain stone tablets held edge-on against his chest; far below, the glow of a fire in the dark camp.

Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

0:14

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Joshua

When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “The sound of war is in the camp.”

Moses

But Moses replied:

“It is neither the cry of victory nor the cry of defeat;

I hear the sound of singing!”

As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger and threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain.

Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.

Pray

Someone in the gap

While the camp danced, Moses was on the mountain pleading, “Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people.” He asked nothing for himself. He held God to His own promises. Pray that way for someone who has turned from God: remind the Lord of His mercy and His promises, not of their deserving. And thank Jesus, who always lives to intercede for His people, that He stands in the gap for you.

Moses

“What did this people do to you,” Moses asked Aaron, “that you have led them into so great a sin?”

Aaron

“Do not be enraged, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know that the people are intent on evil. They told me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!’

So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, let him take it off,’ and they gave it to me. And when I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!”

Aaron’s story and what happened

Whiteboard

Aaron told Moses the people pushed him and the fire did the rest: “out came this calf!” The chapter tells it differently. Aaron asked for the gold, “fashioned it into a molten calf,” built the altar and proclaimed the feast. Excuses leave out our own hands; God’s word puts them back in.

Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them run wild and become a laughingstock to their enemies.

Moses

So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.”

And all the Levites gathered around him.

Moses

He told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each of you men is to fasten his sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and slay his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”

The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people fell dead.

Moses

Afterward, Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for service to the LORD, since each man went against his son and his brother; so the LORD has bestowed a blessing on you this day.”

Question

Quick question

Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and called the people to choose whose side they were on.

Who gathered around Moses when he called, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me”?

The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin.

Exodus 32:30

Moses

So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made gods of gold for themselves. Yet now, if You would only forgive their sin.... But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.”

God

The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot out of My book. Now go, lead the people to the place I described. Behold, My angel shall go before you. But on the day I settle accounts, I will punish them for their sin.”

please blot me out of the book that You have written

Exodus 32:32

And the LORD sent a plague on the people because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron had made.

You’ve experienced

Exodus 32

0 of 40 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

Now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.

Exodus 32:30

or swipe left