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Don Ross
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| Joined: | Mon Aug 6th, 2007 |
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| First Name: | Don | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic |
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Posted: Tue Aug 7th, 2007 03:26 am |
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| Can any one explain why Moses said that God asked the people to take up swords and kill their kinsmen after God had relented of the evil that he had planned to do to them because they had worshiped the golden calf? See Exodus 32:27
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CajunRick
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| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Houma, Louisiana USA |
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| First Name: | Rick (& Kermie) | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Lifetime Catholic, Latin Rite |
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Posted: Tue Aug 7th, 2007 08:36 am |
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Don Ross wrote: Can any one explain why Moses said that God asked the people to take up swords and kill their kinsmen after God had relented of the evil that he had planned to do to them because they had worshiped the golden calf? See Exodus 32:27 Before we get into the substance of your question, let me welcome you to the Coming Home Network. We're happy to have you here with us, and we invite you to join in any of our discussions. We also look forward to your faith story when you're ready to share it with us.
Now to your question. I believe the incident literally happened. Moses as spokesman for God was inspired to exact immediate punishment on the Israelis for violating the commandment which they had been given, not to make graven images. How did God speak? He spoke through the inspiration provided to Moses by the Holy Spirit.
Why? Moses ordered the killing because the people who demanded the golden calf jeopardized the covenant between God and the Jews. We all know that the wages of sin is death; in this case, as in other cases in scripture, judgment was immediate and the punishment severe. Why was punishment carried out after God relented? Because their evil ways persisted.
For a look at the chapter in question, and in particular the translator's notes and scriptural cross-references, see the USCCB web site.
Welcome again to CHN. We're happy to have you with us.
Last edited on Tue Aug 7th, 2007 08:42 am by CajunRick
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Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
Rick Luquette
Luquette Lane
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David W. Emery
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| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Brownsville, Texas USA |
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Posted: Tue Aug 7th, 2007 11:49 am |
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Welcome aboard, Don. It’s good to see people interested in the reasons behind events in the bible. For the most part these are everyday events for the people of their time, yet they have their true significance in the Lord.
Let us begin by examining the phrase in your question, “after God had relented of the evil that he had planned to do to them.” What had God planned? Basically, that the Israelites would be entirely wiped out and new children would be given to Moses, who in his turn would become the father of a mighty nation that would worship the Lord in Israel’s stead (Exodus 32:10).
But Moses, realizing that God’s will was still with the Israelites, of whom he was a part (as it were, the head; and in this he served as a figure of Christ as head of his mystical body, the Church), rightly responded that this would not be proper, for the promise had been given to Abraham, not to himself. He would not have God turn aside from true justice. In other words, this was as much a test of Moses as it was a judgment of the Israelites. Picture Christ being tempted in the desert or in the garden of Gethsemane; Moses sought to do God’s will in like manner.
But in what follows, Moses seems more like an antithesis of Christ. Instead of sacrificing himself further for the multitude, he became angry and smashed the tablets of the Law, had the golden calf ground to a powder and threw it into a lake. Then the people were made to drink of the water thus polluted by the remains of the idol as a humiliation and a means of realizing that, as St. Paul says, “What the heathen sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons” (1 Corinthians 10:20–21). Why this antithesis? Because we humans have to learn about truth and justice before we can learn how to love after God’s manner. For the people and the times, then, the lesson was appropriate.
Then Moses begins an investigation into the causes of the incident. Aaron gives him a somewhat biased account; note his manner of cover-up: “I threw the gold into the fire, and out popped this calf!” — as if no human hand had fashioned it.
But Moses understands well enough what really happened. As leader of the nation, he has no option but to atone for their sin. This he does by calling for the men who had not participated in the incident to exact a representative punishment on the guilty. It turns out that those who responded were of the tribe of Levi; for this reason (according to the Lord’s word that the Levites would assist in the Aaronic sacrifices) Moses uses their mission as a “rite of ordination,” in that those they killed (like the sacrificial lambs of the later rites, themselves a symbol of Christ, who is known as the Lamb of God) served as a token sacrifice on behalf of the whole nation. Better that a few die than that the nation be wiped out (cf. John 11:50).
Nevertheless, God reminds Moses that the rest of the guilty will have to answer at the Judgment (Exodus 32:33–34). And again, the Lord sends a plague (v. 35) as a public reminder of their guilt. Perhaps they will repent and return to him, and so be saved when the Day of Judgment arrives.
You see, then, that the Lord had in mind from the beginning to save as many of these sinners as he could (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4). If harsh punishment is what will bring this about, he is willing to allow it to happen, to the point of not permitting any of them but Joshua and Caleb to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 32:12).
David
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