Exodus 32

Aaron, he that alone was allowed to climb up the flaming hill of Sinai with Moses, who had heard God say, “Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, for I am a jealous God,” within one month calls for their ear-rings, makes the graven image of a calf, erects an altar, consecrates a day to it, calls it their god, and weeps not to see them dance before it. Aaron might have learned better counsel of his brother’s example. When they came to him with stones in their hands, and said, “Give us water,” he ran as roundly to God with prayers in his mouth; so should Aaron have done when they said, “Give us gods;” but he weakly runs to their ear-rings, that which should be made their god; not to the true God, which they had and forsook. Who can promise to himself freedom from gross infirmities, when he that went up into the mount comes down and doth that in the valley which he heard forbidden in the hill? I see and wonder at the mercy of that God, which had justly called himself jealous. This very Aaron, whose infirmity had yielded to so foul an idolatry, is afterward chosen by God to be a priest to himself; he that had set up an altar to the calf must serve at the altar of God; he that had melted and carved out the calf for a god must sacrifice calves and rams and bullocks unto the true God; he that consecrated a day to the idol is himself consecrated to Him who was dishonored by the idol. The grossest of all sins cannot prejudice the calling of God; yea, as the light is best seen in darkness, the mercy of God is most magnified in our unworthiness. Bp. II.

God left him to himself to teach us what the best of men are when they are so left, that we may cease from man, and that he who thinks he stands may take heed lest he fall. Aaron was, at this time, destined by the Divine appointment to the great office of the priesthood; though he knew it not, Moses in the mount did; now, lest he should be lifted up above measure with the honors that were to be put upon him, a messenger of Satan was suffered to prevail over him, that the remembrance thereof might keep him humble all his days. He who even shamed himself so far as to build an altar to a golden calf must own himself altogether unworthy of the honor of attending at the altar of God, and purely indebted to free grace for it. Thus pride and boasting were forever silenced, and a good effect brought out of a bad cause. By this likewise it was showed that the Lae made them priests which had infirmity; and needed first to offer for their own sins. II.

2,3. Golden rings.** The abundant supply of such jewelry is fully conformed to the condition of things among which the Hebrews had so long lived, where not only are ear-rings of gold, and in some instances set with pearls, abundantly found, as well as represented, but where one of the pictures at Thebes exhibits the ladies comparing the ornaments in their ears. The implied skill in metallurgy and the manufacture of jewelry, formerly questioned, is now perfectly established. The whole process of working gold is delineated in their tombs, while various modern museums exhibit great numbers of old Egyptian ear-rings, finger-rings (some of them very massive), bracelets, anklets, and other kinds of ornaments elaborately and delicately wrought. S. C. B.

4. Fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf.** After he had made a rough cast of it, he formed it with a graving-tool, so that it became a complete and elaborated statue of a bull, which plainly recalled the worship of the bull in Egypt, where an ox called Onuphis (the ox Apis), at Memphis, and another ox, Mnevis, at On, received Divine honors (as emblems of the creative and generative powers of nature). No sin is, in after times, more frequently blamed on the part of God’s people than this. C. G. B.

5. To-morrow is a feast to the Lord.** Not to the golden calf, but to the Creator of the world, whom they worshipped in this image. Notwithstanding which, this was no better than an idol, and they were gross idolaters (Ps. 106:19, 20; 1 Cor. 10:7). Bp. Patrick.—By Aaron’s building an altar and proclaiming this feast to the true God, it would seem that he still proposed within himself to lead the thoughts of the people through the outward medium and fix them upon Jehovah himself, the only proper object of adoration. But such a mixture of Divine and idolatrous worship never fails to mislead the mass of men, and though the priests of a corrupt religion, in imitation of Aaron, may plead that the use of paintings, images, and sacrifices, is intended merely as a help, by sensible media, to spiritual worship, yet there can be no doubt that its practical effects are always the same with those here recorded, and that it comes under the same condemnation. Whatever were Aaron’s private views or wishes, the transaction is thus again characterized by the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:41), “And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifices unto the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their hands.” So Jehu, led away by the same delusion, could boast of his zeal for the Lord of hosts, while yet he was a worshipper of the golden calves of Jeroboam (2 Kings 10:16, 29). Bush.—In after times, when the kings of Israel set up the same representation of the true God at Dan and Bethel, the Scripture constantly speaks of it as the leading sin, from which all the rest of their idolatries, and at last their utter destruction, proceeded. For from worshipping the true God by an image, they soon came to worship the images of false gods too: and from thence fell into all sorts of superstition, and all sorts of wickedness. Abp. Secker.

6. Sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.** When this idolatry of theirs is spoken of in the New Testament, the account of their feasts upon the sacrifice is quoted and referred to (1 Cor. 10:7), They sat down to eat and drink of the remainder or what was sacrificed, and then rose up to play; to play the fool, to play the wanton. Like god, like worship H.—God was forgotten; all true sense of his presence and indeed of his nature was ruled out by the very fact that they had exalted a golden calf into his place. By a law of human nature men become like the object they worship. Calf worshippers go down to the level of the calf they worship. Alas! would that they did not sink far lower in passion and in crime! H. C.

Superstition besots the minds of men and blinds the eye of reason; and first makes them not men, ere it makes them idolaters. How else could he, that is, the image of God, fall down to the images of creatures? As the Syrians were first blinded, and then led into the midst of Samaria, so are idolaters first bereaved of their wits and common-sense, and afterward are carried brutishly into all palpable impiety. Bp. H.

Idolatry is always accompanied with the grossest sensuality. The reason is clear. Each idol that men have worshipped or now worship is some portion of nature deified; some power in nature or some attribute of man, which the man worships as his god. Now it is the very nature of all such properties or attributes that they are monstrous and mischievous. For instance, love without purity is appetite; wisdom without truthfulness is cunning; courage without mercy is ferocity; justice without compassion is horrible cruelty. And so ever does the false faith lead to the foul life, and the foul life is cleansed by the terrible judgments of God. W. C. Magee.

MOSES RECEIVES THE TWO TABLES. INFORMED OF ISRAEL’S APOSTASY, AND INTERCEDES FOR THEIR FORGIVENESS. HE DESCENDS FROM THE MOUNT, BREAKS THE TABLES, DESTROYS THE CALF, AND INFLICTS DEATH UPON THE GUILTIEST TRANSGRESSORS.

At first view, this gross apostasy, so soon after the wonders in Egypt and the terrors of Sinai, and in the very face of the mountain from which the law forbidding idolatry had been proclaimed, seems utterly confounding. But though there is no excuse for it, this much may be said by way of accounting for it: In

Egypt, the Israelites had lost much of the life of their faith, and had become familiar with the worship of idols. A law of spiritual ideas had now been promulgated; but, as yet, no forms of worship were set up. The wonders which had so powerfully impressed their senses had ceased. Moses, the visible organ of Jehovah, had disappeared; and, in his prolonged absence, time hung heavy in the camp. A chief object of worship in Egypt was Apis, the sacred bull, which was kept in royal state at Memphis, and honored as a source of national life and power. Hence, when they craved some visible representative of the Divinity, the golden calf would naturally suggest itself, and their feast would take the form of such orgies as they had witnessed in Egypt. With a self-sacrifice that marks the sublimest heroism, Moses assumed the task of mediation. The power and glory of Jehovah as committed to the salvation of Israel, the effect of any failure upon his enemies, and, above all, his own covenant of grace with Abraham—these are the arguments by which Moses pleads with the Lord; and his earnest, unselfish faith prevails. J. P. T.

Nowhere is a sharper contrast brought before us than that which this history presents. In the valley the multitude, as if infected by some epidemic insanity, are preparing for their idolatrous orgies; on the mountain, within the cloud-veil that shrouds its summit, Moses is communing with Jehovah. Below, all is noise and tumult and passion; above, all is peace and contemplation and fellowship of spirit with spirit: below are sin and shame; above are intercession and forgiveness. W. M. T.

How dreadful the shock to Moses, as the conference between himself and Jehovah concerning all the scheme for erecting a palace, and preparing a service of worship at his immediate dwelling-place—is suddenly interrupted with the announcement, “Go, get thee down, for thy people (they have broken the covenant and are no longer mine), which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” “I have seen this people, and behold it is a stiffnecked people. Now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.” This scene is among the most remarkable in the Bible history, as illustrating to finite human minds the nature of intercessory prayer. Representing Jehovah after the manner of a covenanted ruler, justly incensed at the faithlessness and treason of his subjects, threatening to cast off and destroy them, and to make Moses the centre of a

New Covenant, it shows how, by Divine intercession, first a respite was gained and subsequently how by further intercession the culprits were fully restored and the covenant renewed. To us who cannot comprehend the Divine side of this great question of the relation of human intercession to the purposes of God, this account is all-sufficient. Instead of speculating about the unknowable and framing theories of what our minds must necessarily be incompetent to grasp, we have only to accept God’s assurance that somehow in the manner here illustrated he may be led to hear the intercessions of his creatures, after the manner of human rulers who may be prevailed upon by arguments. The threefold argument of Moses—wherefore shall He seem to cast a reflection on his own wisdom by so soon destroying what he had expended so much power to preserve—wherefore expose his own great name to the scorn and derision of Egypt and thereby confirm them and the whole world in their unbelief—wherefore seem to fail to keep the covenant with Abraham and thereby seem to disregard his obligation—is all inspired you will perceive by his holy loyalty to Jehovah and his intense concern for his honor among men. The ultimate end we seek in all genuine petition or intercession is the honor of our Father—as illustrated by this intercession of Moses. Seeing that the eyes and tongues of not only all the vast empire of Egypt, but all surrounding nations, are intent on finding matter of malicious triumph, both over the people so signally delivered and the God who so signally delivered them, he would, at all hazards, preclude all disparagements of the Divine glory by its being blemished by his enemies. His intercession prevailed, as all such intercessions must. “The Lord repented of (or, in the Hebrew, was propitiated concerning) the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” S. R.

Ex. 32: 10. Let me alone. Moses had not yet opened his mouth, but God foresaw the holy violence with which his importunity would besiege his throne, and apparently desires him not to intercede for them. What greater or more significant proof could be given of the Divine condescension to the petitions of a mortal? Bush.—God is fain to bespeak his own freedom; as if Moses’s devotion were stronger than God’s indignation. Great is the power of prayer; able, after a sort, to transfuse a dead palsy into the hand of Omnipotence. Tropp.—Moses should not need to solicit God for revenge; God solicits him, in a sort, for leave to revenge. Who would look for such a word from God to man, “Let me alone?” As yet,

Moses had said nothing; before he opens his mouth God prevents his importunity, as foreseeing that holy violence which the requests of Moses would offer to him. Moses stood trembling before the majesty of his Maker; and yet hears him say, “Let me alone.” The mercy of our God hath, as it were, obliged his power to the faith of men: the fervent prayers of the faithful hold the hands of the Almighty. As I find it said afterward of Christ, That “he could do no miracles there, because of their unbelief;” so now, I hear God, as if he could not do execution upon Israel because of Moses’s faith, say, “Let me alone, that I may consume them.” Bp. H.

I will make of thee a great nation. If Moses had accepted the proposal, God’s promises to the patriarchs had still been fulfilled; for Moses was a son of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and in him and his the promises might have been fulfilled. Kit.—What a temptation lay for Moses here! But in his prayer he speaks as if Jehovah had not used these words at all; he scarcely pays regard to them; he makes no use of them in his own interest; he is far more concerned about the honor of Jehovah than for a numerous posterity. By all means, then, destroy his trunk, stripped as it is already of its leaves, provided that the forest trees of Israel be not cut down; for he already sees the axe laid to their roots. In the full strength of interceding love he can be quite oblivious of everything except the sinful Israel; nor does he leave the mountain-top till he brings down with him the promise that the sentence, merited even though it is, shall be delayed at least, if not repealed. Yet this our prayer is but the first of hundreds more; or rather, it is the key-note of a life of faith and prayer and love on Moses’s part through forty years—a life that dies not, even when he gives up the ghost. “Now, therefore, forgive their sins;” how frequently, and in how many ways, the man of God presented this same prayer! It is this very perseverance in entreaty for the good of Israel—when, almost at every moment, they have turned anew to corrupt practices—that gives to Moses’s intercession a great measure of the unselfish, the pathetic, the sublime; and thus, just like the man himself, we find it standing in the books of the Old Testament almost alone, unparalleled. But it is also just this feature in the prayer of Moses that shows us professing Christians how we should conduct ourselves in secret intercourse with God. Come hither, ye who seek to understand what true prayer is—what kind of prayer it is that pleases

God; behold that man who wrestles like another Jacob, not for his own life but for Israel’s, and who like Israel earned for himself the meed of praise that as a prince he had power with God? It is not enough that you should cry to God for help whenever your own want and misery oppress your soul; Moses calls loudly, “Pray for others too,” and the more earnestly for them as they are more unfortunate, more sinful than yourselves, and more unthankful and unkind to you! Neither is it enough that you present to him your own and others’ miseries; for Moses says again, “God’s honor must be made the one great object in your prayer;” woe to the man whose prayer is but self-seeking, who does not endeavor to extol God’s majesty! Nor yet, again, is it enough that you should raise your heart at special times in prayer, but soon abate your zeal; Moses cries out to every one who strives on earth, “Continue, persevere in prayer; the faithful friends of God are the best friends of men!” Happy, thrice happy, is the nation, church, or family that counts among its members those who strive like Moses in their prayers. Eternity shall one day show how much earth owes to those who have thus learned to live in constant intercourse with heaven! Van O.

If ever a man inherited the earth by meekness, that man was Moses. His was a grand, unselfish life made to wait upon the lives of others. Endurance was, indeed, the very key-note of his destiny. His life was to be one long waiting in the hope of humanity. It never became to him a fruition; he never reached the promised land. He received not the treasures of Canaan any more than the treasures of Egypt; he bore the toil and Joshua entered in. He had for long years to bear on his heart the interests of that motley multitude with no other encouragement than faith. G. Matheson.

11. The Lord said to Moses when this took place, “Go, get thee down; for thy people.” The language is most suggestive; God says, “They are not my people now; they have forsaken me.” Observe how Moses, with exquisite skill, changes the pronoun, and does not say my people, but he says, they are thy people; bad as they are, they are yet that, and therefore I beseech thee to have mercy upon them. And then Moses pleads God’s glory. J. C.—He did not let God alone; on the contrary, he held up before him his own purpose and promises of salvation, as well as his own glory. With Jacob he said, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me;” and, like Jacob, he also gained the victory. K.

11-14. Moses, in his intercession, pleaded the argument with which God had furnished him. Most earnestly did he insist that Israel was God’s people, since their deliverance from Egypt had been wholly God-wrought. Three special arguments did he use with God, and these three may to all time serve as models in our pleading for forgiveness and restoration after weaknesses and falls. These arguments were: First, that Israel was God’s property, and that his past dealings had proved this (verse 11); secondly, that God’s own glory was involved in the deliverance of Israel in the face of the enemy (verse 12); and, thirdly, that God’s gracious promises were pledged for their salvation (verse 13). And such pleas God never refuses to accept (verse 14). A. E.—Moses reminds God of the triumph of his enemies, who would believe their gods had taken revenge on the people of Israel; and he appeals to the covenant of grace with their fathers, which had promised a free gift on the part of God without any conditions. First, His glory, next, His promise! Geri.

So tender is he over the name of God, that he would rather have Israel escape with a sin, than God’s glory should be blemished in the opinions of men by a just judgment. He saw that the eyes and tongues of all the world were intent upon Israel; a people so miraculously fetched from Egypt, whom the sea gave way to, whom heaven fed, whom the rock watered, whom the fire and cloud guarded, which heard the audible voice of God. He knew withal how ready the world would be to misconstrue, and how the heathens would be ready to cast imputations of levity or impotence upon God; and therefore says, “What will the Egyptians say?” Bp. H.—God had already redeemed them from Egyptian bondage. He had taken great pains with them hitherto, and had expended great power on their behalf. And He had not done this in ignorance. The latent evil in their hearts He had perceived. The future of their lives He had foreseen. Hence it would be consistent with his past favors to dispense fresh mercy. He had engaged to bring this people to the land of promise, not for their sakes, however obedient they might be, but for their fathers’ sakes. Hence their rebelliousness did not vitiate the original engagement; and although individuals might justly be destroyed—yea, that whole generation—still the posterity of Abraham must eventually enter the land. Davies.

The intercession of Moses proceeds entirely on a regard for the honor of Jehovah, and the noble man does not permit himself even to refer to the proposal that he should be made the head of a covenant nation in room of the rejected tribes. Thus triumphantly does he stand the test to which Jehovah subjected him, and we do not wonder that his pleading was successful, for “the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” W. M. T.

—Words fail in attempting to describe his true nobility of soul, which comes out in his prayers and pleadings here. Read in this and other passages the words by which he seeks to influence Jehovah to withdraw the dread death-sentence; and then tell me if there has at any time been offered a prayer more beautiful and touching than this. Does it not seem as if love were exhausting all its energies in trying to find out, not some slight palliations of the shameful conduct which must be pronounced quite inexcusable, but some good grounds for not requiring full satisfaction for the vast amount of guilt incurred? Van. O.

How absolutely disinterested Moses’s intercession! He sets aside, without even taking notice of it, the most glorious offer ever made to mortal man. How intensely earnest! Moses had a most overwhelming sense of the reality of the wrath he sought to avert. But his heart was agonizing to save his nation, and he seemed to clasp the feet of God in the spirit of one who would not, could not leave, till he obtained what he sought. How perseveringly prolonged! He prayed by his silence as well as by his speech. The whole scene is a striking illustration of the intercession of the Saviour. Orr.—In every time of emergency his immediate resort was to Jehovah. His cry was the appeal of one who knew that he was speaking to a real, living, loving person, omnipotently able to help, and pledged also to render assistance. And true prayer is ever that which, as in the case of Moses, springs out of faith in God—not that which is offered by one who would make the receiving or not receiving of an answer a test whether there be any God or not; and those supplications which are offered by men who, like Abraham or Moses, are the friends of God, and appeal to him as their friend, never come back unacknowledged. W. M. T.

14. Was ever mortal more bold and more persistent, despite of all the Lord had said which seemed to shut the door and bar off all entreaty? Yet Moses prevailed, and it does not appear that the Lord rebuked him for his persistence or for his boldness. It is simply said—“The Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” H. C.—In the sense of changing his ultimate purpose, God does not repent; but in the sense of altering his procedure, in consequence of reasons that he foresaw and took into his estimate, God is said to have repented. J. C.

Thus did the mediator address Jehovah, when he interceded for the salvation of the people. But a mediator is not a mediator of one. He had also to defend the holiness of Jehovah in the presence of the people; and this he now prepared to do. K.—The Lord does not consume the people according to his threat, but forgave them, “though he took vengeance of their inventions” (Ps. 99:8), as a warning and example. Mercy and justice were here revealed, as the issue shows. An atonement for this guilt, however, was absolutely necessary. C. G. B.

Moses Descends, Breaks the Tables, Destroys the Idol, and Executes Judgment upon 3000 Chief Transgressors.

The intercession of Moses in the mount had already secured a momentary respite for Israel, but not a pardon. To bring them to reflection upon their dreadful crime, he dashed to pieces the holy stones containing the words of the covenant, by way of showing by symbol that having forsaken Jehovah, Jehovah had forsaken them. A covenant broken on the one side is broken on the other also; and he would show them that now they occupy the position of uncovenanted outcasts. He next proceeds to the work of judgment, first destroying the idol, then at his bidding, the sons of Levi becoming his executioners, three thousand of the most pronounced apostates are slain. The executioners passed from gate to gate, cutting down, as that would seem to imply, only those still standing out in the public places, instead of hiding themselves in shame in their tents. Only a small number of the grovelling souls—perhaps chiefly of the mixed multitude that came with Israel out of Egypt—were made an example of and smitten down. S. R.

17. Joshua. While Moses was in the cloud, as in the presence-chamber, Joshua continued as near as he might in the antechamber (as it were), waiting till Moses came, that he might be ready to attend him; and though he was all alone for forty days (fed, it is likely, with manna), yet he was not weary of waiting, as the people were, but when Moses came down he came with him, and not till then. H.—His calm and quiet waiting during all the time of Moses’s absence stands in very strong contrast with the impatient and unbelieving temper of the people during the same period. Bush.

A noise of war. To the soldier’s ear, quick to receive the sound of the battle-field, the clamor is full of alarm. “He said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp,” “Had the Amalekites taken advantage of the absence of the leader of the host and the captain of the army, to make another attempt on Israel?” The keener and more chastened ear of Moses discerns the true nature of the wild uproar. As he had been already apprised on the mount, “the people he had brought out of Egypt had corrupted themselves,” had “made a molten calf,” had “worshipped it and sacrificed thereunto.” The din was not that of combatants, but of revellers. E. V.—Often in descending this mountain close by the spot whence the Law was given, while the precipitous sides of the ravine hid the tents from my gaze, have I heard the sound of voices from below, and thought how Joshua had said unto Moses as he came down from the mount, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” Palmer.

19. Moses is described as descending the mountain without seeing the people, the shout strikes the ear of his companion before they ascertain the cause; the view breaks on him suddenly as he draws nigh to the camp, and he throws down the tables and dashes them in pieces “beneath the mount:” now any one descending the mountain path by which Ras Sufsafeh is accessible (according to Captain Wilson in three quarters of an hour to a practised mountaineer) through the oblique gullies which flank it, would hear the sounds borne through the silence of the plain, but would not see the plain itself until he emerged from the lateral wady; and when he did so he would be immediately under the precipitous cliff of Sufsafeh. Clark.

As the disgraceful scene burst upon him, in righteous anger he dashed the tables out of his hands, and broke them in pieces at the foot of the mount; giving at once a terrible significance for all future time to the phrase, a broken law, and a sign of man’s inability to keep the Law given on Sinai. For both Moses and the people, though in different ways, were showing, by their acts, that the first use to which man puts God’s Law is to break it. Both tables were broken, for idolatry had been followed by licentiousness. P. S.—It was not the ebullition of ordinary passion giving vent to its rage by breaking the glorious stones. It was the act of holy judgment at a moment when judgment must not slumber. Suddenly there bursts upon his view the covenant people of God in bacchanalian revelry, dancing, and shouting around the idol. What sight could be more awful to the reverent and loving spirit of Moses, so intensely concerned for the name and honor of Jehovah? Here are the people whom he himself had sworn into holy covenant with Jehovah just before he had parted with them—Jehovah to be their king and they to be his loving and obedient subjects. And now, just as he brings them the holy covenant, gloriously engrossed for them on the beautiful stones which God’s own hand has fashioned, and on which God’s own finger has written in enduring characters the terms of the covenant, alas! they are already fallen into apostasy, and that, too, so low, grovelling, degrading an apostasy. S. R.

There was never so precious a monument as the tables written with God’s own hand. Prophecies and evangelical discourses He hath written by others; never did He write anything himself but these tables of the Law: neither did He ever speak anything audibly to the whole of mankind but it; the hand, the stone, the Law were all his. Yet that God, which so sharply revenged the breach of one law upon the Israelites, checks not Moses for breaking both the tables of the Law. Bp. H.—They had broken the covenant itself, and Moses as a sensible sign of the awful fact breaks the monumental tables in which it was inscribed. Nothing could more solemnly indicate that their covenant standing was wrecked, and that they now lay exposed to the severest vengeance of an angry God. It is doubtless in this view of the transaction that we find no censure passed upon Moses, nor does he afterward (De. 9:17) speak of it with any regret. Bush.—Those are angry, and sin not, that are angry at sin only, not as against themselves, but as against God. It becomes us to be cool in our own cause, but warm in God’s. Moses showed himself very angry, both by breaking the tables and burning the calf, that he might by these expressions of strong indignation awaken the people to a sense of the greatness of the sin they had been guilty of, which they would have been ready to make light of if he had not thus shown his resentments, as one in earnest for their convictions. H.

20. Consider well the moral courage of Moses. He was but one man. Yet he ventured to confront that inebriate host, armed only with the terrors of holy wrath—and the conscience-stricken crowd shrunk before him; and not a hand was lifted up in resistance, when he cast their idol to the ground. Kit.—He burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and made the children of Israel drink of the dust. The manner in which this was done is a proof of the extraordinary skill in the metallurgic arts possessed by the Egyptians; and, through their instruction, by the Hebrews. Modern chemistry employs tartaric acid, and reduces gold to powder. Stahl, one of the ablest chemists, informs us that natron, which is very common in the East, will produce the same effect; and, if the metal be previously heated, the effect is sooner produced. Hence Moses, in the first instance, cast the image into the fire, and then made it potable. Now one of two consequences must follow: either he performed a miracle, or he possessed very extensive scientific attainments. There is no account of any miraculous intervention of Providence in the story; it then was the result of natural means, but such as none but a well-informed chemist could have known or used. No alternative, then, is left us but a positive denial of the facts or an admission of the knowledge of Moses. Hawks.

21-24. Aaron deserved to have been cut off for this sin, and had been so if Moses had not interceded particularly for him, as appears (De. 9:20). And having prevailed with God for him to save him from ruin, he here expostulates with him to bring him to repentance. Aaron lays all the fault upon the people: They are set on mischief, and they said, Make us gods. It is natural to us to endeavor thus to transfer our guilt; we have it in our kind, Adam and Eve did so: sin is a brat that nobody is willing to own. Aaron was now the chief magistrate, and had power over the people, and yet pleads that the people overpowered him: he that had authority to restrain them yet had so little resolution as to yield to them. He extenuates and conceals his own share in the sin, as if he had only bid them break off their gold that they had about them, intending to make a hasty assay for the present and to try what he could make of the gold that was next at hand; and childishly insinuates that when he cast the gold into the fire it came out, either by accident or by the magic art of some of the mixed multitude (as the Jewish writers dream), in this shape; but not a word of his graving and fashioning it. But Moses relates to all ages what he did (verse 4), though he himself here would not own it. He that covers his sins shall not prosper, for sooner or later it will be discovered. This was all Aaron had to say for himself; and he had better have said nothing, for his defence did but aggravate his offence; and yet he is not only spared but preferred; as sin did abound, grace did much more abound. H.

26. Whoever (is) for the Lord—to me!** The words “let him come” are omitted through the impassioned earnestness of the speaker. The offence was one of the most aggravated character; one by which the honor of God’s great name had been sadly tarnished; and in order to a more effectual vindication of it, judgment was to be executed with terrible severity. Go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp. This is no doubt to be understood as a commission to slay every one whom they should meet in the open places of the camp, let him be relation, friend, or neighbor, while they were not required to enter into any of the tents. Bush —A number of men, fresh from their orgies, whom even his appearance and words had not yet sobered into shame and repentance, still thronged the open roadway of the camp. These were met by the avenging Levites, as, sword in hand, they passed from gate to gate; and these were the three thousand which fell on that day, while the vast multitude had retired to their tents in tardy repentance and fear, in view of him whose presence among them be-tokened the nearness of that holy and jealous God, whose terrible judgments they had so much cause to dread. A. E.

By his untimely and ungodly zeal for the honor of his own house, the forefather of the tribe of Levi had brought a curse upon himself, which still rested upon his tribe (Gen. 34 : 25); by their well-timed and holy zeal for the honor of the house of God, his descendants now extinguished the curse and changed it into a blessing. If their ancestor had violated truth, fidelity, and justice, by the vengeance which he took upon the Shechemites from a mistaken regard to blood-relationship, his descendants had now rescued truth, justice, and the covenant, by executing the vengeance of Jehovah upon their own blood-relations. Hence Moses referred to this tribe in the following words (De. 33 : 9): “Who says of his father and mother, I saw them not; who is ignorant of his brother, and knows nothing of his own sons.” The disposition manifested by the sons of Levi on this occasion, and their readiness to esteem friend and brother but lightly in comparison with Jehovah, was that which qualified the tribe of Levi above every other to serve in the house of Jehovah, and rendered it worthy to be chosen as the lot and inheritance of Jehovah. Penitent Israel was called upon to inflict punishment upon impenitent Israel, that their own guilt, which had been forgiven, and the mercy which had been shown them on account of their penitence, might be impressed upon their minds in its fullest extent as a warning for future times. Before such considerations and designs all considerations of a sentimental character must give way, as, in fact, sentimentality of every kind is out of place in matters concerning the judgment of God on the impenitent sinner. . . . The punishment inflicted by the command of Moses has often been described as an act of inhuman cruelty. If there is any ground for such a charge, it not only applies to this particular case, but to the spirit and essence of the whole code of laws, and to the entire course of history of which they formed the guiding principle. The Law represents every act of apostasy from Jehovah, every kind of idolatry, and every species of heathen superstition, as a capital crime. If, then, the Law itself is not to be condemned for such stringency as this, the command of Moses, which merely carried out the spirit of the Law, is perfectly justifiable. Such stringency was perfectly justifiable on the part of the Law; it was demanded as well as dictated by the peculiar position and character of the Old Testament Theocracy. It was first of all demanded by the fact that the God of Israel was also the King of Israel. Every sinful disregard or violation of the dignity of Jehovah, the one God in Israel, was also a crime against the sole monarchy of the King Jehovah; every religious crime was a State crime as well. K.

The spirit of the narrative forbids us to conceive that the act of the Levites was anything like an indiscriminate massacre. An amnesty had first been offered to all in the words, “Who is on the LORD’s side?” Those who were forward to draw the sword were directed not to spare their closest relations or friends. Clark. —None were executed but those who openly and boldly stood forth. Bush.

We are not nearly enough in the habit of treating religion as a cause, and ourselves as soldiers, whose honor is bound up in it, our all at stake in it. Who is on the Lord’s side? is a question that rings up and down our streets eternally. It is of the utmost consequence to every young man’s singleness of heart, saying nothing of his future welfare, to have this choice settled. To be uncommitted is to be on the side that is not God’s. F. D. H.

Let no one say that Moses is most powerful in prayer, but weak when courage, energy, and promptitude in punishment should be displayed. Not merely is the order given to single out the guiltiest, he does not spare the strongest nor the dearest when he has to wield the chastising rod. He shows that he esteems sin not more lightly than the Holy One of Israel himself, even though he has made such earnest intercession in behalf of those who sinned. Van O.—Moses, who is described as “very meek,” and who shrank back in evident agony from that leadership of Israel to which he was called by Providence, yet sternly vindicated his mission against the rebellious Korah, as he now inflicts a sharp vengeance upon these guilty idolaters. H. P. L.

All the main features in the historical episode of the worship of the golden calf reappear in Deuteronomy. But in the lips of the aged Law-giver just before his death they assume a wholly different form, and are the ground of an earnest call to humility, in the prospect of new and greater mercies from God. The facts recalled to their memory are the idolatry of the whole congregation, the share of Aaron in their sin, its disclosure to Moses by God himself, the proposal to make of him a greater nation, his descent with the tables in his hands, their destruction in his anger, the destruction of the golden calf, and the mingling of its powder with the brook, the consecration of the whole tribe of Levi, the intercession of Moses, his fear of the total rejection of the people, the preparation of the second pair of tables, the second forty days on the mount, the writing of God on the second tables, the renewal of the covenant. All these are set before them in tones of earnest and holy love, to stir them up to gratitude to the God of Israel. Birks.

UNBIDDEN, MOSES ASCENDS THE MOUNT TO PLEAD AGAIN FOR ISRAEL’S FORGIVENESS. PENITENCE OF THE PEOPLE. THE CLOUD-PILLAR DESCENDS TO THE TENT OF MEETING, AND THERE GOD SPEAKS WITH MOSES FACE TO FACE. THIRD PLEADING OF MOSES IN BEHALF OF ISRAEL.

Ex. 32 30 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin : and now I will go up unto the LORD ; peradventure I shall make atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin— ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. And now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee : behold, mine angel shall go before thee : nevertheless in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the LORD smote the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

33 1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Depart, go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land of which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it : and I will send an angel before thee ; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite : unto a land flowing with milk and honey : for I will not go up in the midst of thee ; for thou art a stiffnecked people : lest I consume thee in the way. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned : and no man did put on him his ornaments. And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people : if I go up into the midst of thee for one moment, I shall consume thee : therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from mount Horeb onward.

7. Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it without the camp, afar off from the camp ; and he called it, The tent of meeting. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tent of meeting, which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the Tent. And it came to pass, when Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the door of the Tent : and the Lord spake with Moses. And all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent : and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man at his tent door. And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp : but his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tent.

12. And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people : and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by 13 name and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy ways, that I may know thee, to the end that I may find 14 grace in thy sight : and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence 15 shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not 16 with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein now shall it be known that I have found grace in thy sight, I and thy people ? Is it not in that thou goest with us, so that we be separated, 17 I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth ? And the LORD said 18 unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken : for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

30. On the morrow after the destruction of the calf, without any call from Jehovah, simply under the impulse of devoted affection for his people, Moses went up into the mount to plead a second time for guilty Israel. Before leaving he announced his purpose to the people in terms that might lead them to a deeper thoughtfulness and conviction respecting their great apostasy, to awaken and to temper their fear by indicating his own hope that the Lord might yet be merciful and receive them again into covenant with him. B. — “Ye have sinned a great sin,” he declares, so great that there is a mere possibility that it may be consistent with the honor of God to pardon it, yet he will venture upon that possibility to intercede for them. He knew that the only hope for them was deep penitence for their sin, and, therefore, aimed first to bring deep conviction to their souls. He therefore returns to the mount. Understand, this was not the return for another forty days which is afterward referred to, but on this special errand or intercession. He was in haste. For though instant perdition was stayed, yet he knew not what moment the wrath of Jehovah might burst forth upon them. S. R.

31. This people have sinned a great sin.** God had first told him of it, and now he tells God of it, by way of lamentation. He does not call them God’s people, he knew they were unworthy to be called so ; but this people, this treacherous, ungrateful people, they have made them gods of gold. He does not go about to excuse or extenuate the sin ; but what he had said to them, by way of conviction, he says to God, by way of confession ; They have sinned a great sin. H. — He is evidently agitated, his soul stretched to its utmost power of tension, as the excited manner of his prayer shows : “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin ; if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book.” It is a beautiful illustration of impassioned pleading. “If thou wilt forgive” is all he can utter—leaving the consequences unuttered in the urgency and the inexpressible earnestness of desire—as if afraid to hope for an answer. We may probably supply the unspoken issue in the break with “then would I count life a blessing.” But, as in deep despair, he adds, “If not, then blot me out of thy book. Let me die, for life will be unsupportable.” S. R.

32. If thou wilt forgive their sin.** What a glorious abruption is this ! How grand ! Overpowered with emotion at the mere idea of the sin of Israel remaining unforgiven, he cannot finish the sentence ; and after a pause of overwhelming feeling, he declares that in that case it were better for him to die than to live, and prays that it may be so. Kit. — The expression of “blotting out of the book of life” is of the same import with those phrases so frequently used in the Old Testament, of “blotting out from the face of the earth,” and “blotting out one’s name from under heaven ;” and the desire of Moses signifies that he was willing to submit to a temporal death that his nation might be saved from a temporal ruin. Abp. Til-lotson. — So in Nu. 11 : 15, it is “Kill me, I pray thee, out of hand.” The expression is an allusion to the custom of registering the people, as in Numbers, ch. 1, and as more at large in Ezra and Nehemiah afterward ; and blotting out every one’s name when he died. Pyle. — Such a book is attributed to God in Ps. 139 : 16, and the blotting out of Moses from God’s book is a figurative expression for depriving him of life. Richard Warner.

Moses could not survive the destruction of his people by the neighboring nations, nor their exclusion from the promised land ; and Paul, seeing the Jews about to be cut off by the Roman sword for their rejection of the Gospel, was willing to be deprived of every earthly blessing, and even to become a sacrifice for them, if this might contribute to the preservation and salvation of the Jewish state. Both those men, engaged in the same work and influenced by the same spirit, were willing to forfeit every blessing of a secular kind, and even die for the welfare of the people. A. C.

33. Most truly has it been said that there is nothing in all the Scriptures more calmly majestic than the Divine reply: “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” E. C. W.—God would not, in his compliance with Moses’s prayer, violate the equity of making each man responsible for himself, and not for another. He does not thus transfer his severity from the guilty to the innocent; yet in the exercise of mercy, his darling attribute, he remits of the severity and punishes in measure. Still he punishes; and even though the angel of his presence has been set forth evidently before us, we must still expect that in the administration of his holy discipline he will correct the errors and iniquities even of his own children. T. C.

34. A further point is gained by the persevering intercessor—“Go lead the people (observe not yet called my people, but neither, on the other hand, thy people which thou broughtest up—lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken to thee. Behold, mine angel shall go before thee. Nevertheless in the day that I visit I will visit their sin upon them.” The response shows that the intercessor is gaining ground step by step. At the commencement of the idolatry, the threat was—“Let me alone”—to utterly destroy, which Moses had met with the argument, “What will become of this great name?” Then, after the first cry of interceding anguish on his return to the mount, the threat is, “Whosoever sinneth shall be blotted out.” I will not destroy all, thereby confounding the innocent with the guilty. Here the sentence is, Go lead them up, and I will remember their sin when I shall have occasion to punish in future. It is a great advance toward pardon and reconciliation. But the intercessor is not yet satisfied; his soul longs for the complete restoration of his people to the Divine favor. S. R.

35. The Lord smote the people.** Every time they transgressed afterward Divine justice seems to have remembered this transgression against them. The Jews have a metaphorical saying, apparently founded on this text: “No affliction has ever happened to Israel in which there was not some particle of the dust of the golden calf.” A. C.—It is the grand peculiarity of the Gospel scheme, that while by it God hath come forth in love and tenderness to our world, he hath at the same time made full reservation of his dignity; and, along with the freest overtures of peace to the rebellious, there is the fullest reparation for every outrage which they have inflicted upon his government. On this footing he welcomes you, but on no other. He will not pass over your transgressions of his Law but in such a way as shall compel your recognition of the Law’s inviolable right to all your obedience. He will not lavish upon you of his attribute of mercy but in such a way as shall constrain your homage to all the other lofty and unchangeable attributes of his nature. He will not let you off for your violation of his commandments but in such a way as shall stamp indelibly the lesson of the commandments’ inviolable sanctity. This is that way of exquisite skilfulness by which the economy of grace is characterized, and whereby at once the deepest stigma is affixed upon sin and the guilt of the sinner is wiped away. Chalmers.

Ex. 33 : 1-3. Deliberate reflection upon the Scripture text itself, always of the first importance, is essential to the full apprehension of this entire portion of the history. The transitions of the narrative are frequent, and need to be carefully noted at every step. This paragraph presents an example. Jehovah had already bidden Moses to lead the people to the place previously indicated. Now he repeats the charge more fully. “Go, thou and the people which thou hast brought out of Egypt, to the land which I swore to give unto Abraham.” No longer my people, “for I will not go up with them.” I will send not an angel in whom is my name, but an angel, who will execute my purposes against the Canaanite. And this will I do to fulfil my promises. But with this “stiffnecked people” I will deal according to their behavior. B.

3. The covenant on which the promise was based had been broken by the people. Jehovah now therefore declared that though an angel should go before Moses and should drive out the heathen from the land, he would withhold his own favoring presence, lest be should consume them in the way. Thus were the people forcibly warned that his presence could prove a blessing to them only on condition of their keeping their part of the covenant. If they failed in this, his presence would be to them “a consuming fire.” Clark.

Penitence of the People.

4,5. When the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned.** The effect produced showed that they were deeply sensible of the value of the blessing which they were likely to lose. They were at once filled with grief, which expressed itself by the usual external badges of “mourning”—viz., divesting themselves of their ornaments, although it appears from verse 5 that this was at the same time in obedience to an express command of Jehovah. This was not only in order that they might evince the appropriate tokens of sorrow and humiliation, but also that they could make sacrifices to God. While thus disrobed of their festive garments and precious jewels, and clad in the habit of penitents, God represents himself as deliberating how to act toward them. When God speaks of himself in this language, while it is intimated that so long as impenitence continues he knows not how to exercise mercy to the sinner, it is at the same time implied that when once humbled for their iniquities he is at no loss how to act toward them; he can then give free scope to the merciful and compassionate disposition of his own heart. So it is clear that the language in the present case implied a design of mercy, provided they showed signs of repentance. Bush.

God says, “Put thyself into the posture of a penitent, that the dispute may be determined in thy favor, and mercy may rejoice against judgment.” Calls to repentance are plain indications of mercy designed. If the Lord were pleased to kill us, justice knows what to do with a stiffnecked people; but God has no pleasure in the death of them that die; let them return and repent, and then mercy, which otherwise is at a loss, knows what to do. H.

7-11.

7. The original word signifies the Tent. The only word in the Old Testament which ought to be rendered tabernacle (mishkan) does not occur once in this narrative. What is here called the Tent was a tent appointed for this temporary purpose by Moses. This tent was to be a place for meeting with Jehovah. That the people might feel that they had forfeited the Divine presence, it was now pitched “afar off from the camp.” Clark.

A provisional tent was used, not improperly called by the name subsequently given to the tabernacle, “tent of meeting;” since it, too, actually served as the meeting-place of the congregation. It is pitched at a short remove from the encampment, in order, as the historian is careful to inform us, to manifest the Divine displeasure at Israel’s recent sin. It is sometimes called the tabernacle, indeed, but only by a well-known usage of the definite article in Hebrew whereby a certain definite conception of an object by the writer and his readers is indicated. This very tent had probably been known before as the tent of Moses. Here God made special communications with his servant. Joshua, as temporary leader in Moses’s absence, occupies it (verse 11) There is no impropriety in his doing so previous to the establishment of the Levitical system. For the same reason God without the mediation of sacrifice makes revelations of himself here (verses 7, 9, 11; cf. 13:21). It is before their legal institution and the introduction of the ritual. Now, when so much has been admitted, all the principal difficulties involved in the narrative have disappeared. Bissell.

9. The pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the door of the Tent. It descended from the summit to the less elevated part of the mountain where the Tent stood. As the sublime object had probably remained stationary for at least forty days, we can easily imagine that it must have produced a deep sensation among the people to see it now again majestically moving from its place, and transferring itself down the mountain to the spot where the Tent was fixed, and where Moses had now repaired. This would indeed verify the claim of the sacred structure to the title of “tent of meeting,” when Jehovah by his symbol was thus pleased to meet with his servant in this open and honorary manner, in the sight of the awe-struck host. The effect would naturally be to inspire additional reverence for the person and authority of Moses, as one whom God saw fit to distinguish by the indubitable seal of his own selection, and to endow with the highest prerogatives of a human mediator. The descent of the cloudy pillar at the door of the Tent would also tend to assure them that the rupture between God and his people was not utterly past healing. Though withdrawn, in the withdrawing of the Tent, from the midst of them, He was still accessible. Bush.

10,11. The Tent is pitched afar off as a sign of the Divine alienation of the Jehovah who had promised to dwell, in the midst of them. This, while it spoke of Jehovah withdrawn from them, indicated that he is not totally and finally withdrawn. The Most High is willing to be sought unto. Thus intimations of mercy were mingled with the signs of his displeasure lest the spirit should faint before him and the souls which he had made. As Moses was seen leaving his residence in the camp, and with solemn air taking his way far across the plain toward that mysterious tent, and thereupon the cloud pillar began to descend from Sinai to meet him, you may well suppose the people, troubled and anxious about their great offence against God, would gaze with solemn awe and dread, eager to know their doom. “All the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door; and all the people rose up and worshipped every man at his tent door.” As they stood gazing upon the visible symbol of Jehovah—far off, indeed, but not wholly removed, condescending to hear their intercession—the goodness, the undeserved goodness of God, causes their repentings to be kindled together and their hearts to be broken into contrition. S. R.

And now as the people stood and worshipped, repentant in spirit and hushed in reverent awe as in the presence of the God against whom they had sinned, Moses pleads, and the Lord speaks to him face to face as a man with his friend. Notice here, in passing, the wisdom of Moses and the mercy of the Lord in shifting the scene of the conference from the mount, where all was wrapped in clouds, to the Tent, where the people could follow Moses with their eyes to the Tent door, and see him from time to time as he went out and in. J. M. G.

That the communications made by God to Moses were not by visions, dreams, inward inspirations, or the mediation of angels, is sufficiently evident: we may therefore consider the passage as implying that familiarity and confidence with which the Divine Being treated his servant; and that he spake with him by articulate sounds in his own language, though no shape or similitude was then to be seen. A. C.—God talked with Moses (verse 9), spake to him face to face, as a man speaks to his friend (verse 11), which intimates that God revealed himself to Moses not only with greater clearness and evidence of Divine light than to any other of the prophets, but also with greater expressions of particular kindness and grace. He spake not as a prince to a subject, but as a man to his friend, whom he loves and with whom he takes sweet counsel. H.—“The Lord spake unto Moses face to face”—not in vision, dream, or dark oracle, as is declared in Nu. 12:6-8: “If there be a prophet among you I will make myself known unto him in a dream, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all his house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.” This is all consistent enough with the other Scripture, “No man can see my face and live;” “No man hath seen God at any time.” What Moses saw and held communion with was not the Divine Essence, but Jehovah in his sensible symbol, the Shekinah, which is called the “Face” and the “Presence” of Jehovah. S. R.

**His minister Joshua, the son of

Nun.** This, like previous and subsequent references to Joshua, reveals distinctly the closeness and constancy of the relation existing between the great leader and his successor from the very outset of Israel’s wandering. B.

Verses 12-18.

This was perhaps the period of greatest heart-softening during Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness. And God graciously had respect to it. He had already assured Moses that he stood in special relationship to him (“I know thee by name”), and that his prayer for Israel had been heard (“thou hast also found grace in my sight”). But as yet the former sentence stood to the effect that an angel, not Jehovah himself, was to be Israel’s future guide. Under these circumstances Moses now entreated Jehovah to show him His way—that is, His present purpose in regard to Israel, adding, that if God would bring them into the land of promise, he would “consider that this is thy people,” and hence he their God and King. This plea also prevailed, and the Lord once more promised that his own presence would go with them, and that he himself would give them the rest of Canaan. A. E.

The faith of Moses, strengthened by this intimate communion, is emboldened to venture further and ask concerning what has much perplexed him. “Behold thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send.” The substance of his plea is, this is a matter of intense interest to me. Thou hast laid upon me the responsibility; and I feel the weight of the charge more than ever because of this speedy breach of the covenant which has interrupted the relation in which the people stand to thee. I do not yet comprehend this relation. There is nothing said of any renewal of the covenant and restoration of the people to be thy people. Thou speakest of an angel to go before us, but hast not let me know who he is and how he stands relative to us. Who is this angel? Let me, I beseech thee, have some personal knowledge of him. Is this asking too much? Seeing thou hast said to me, “I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight.” If, then, I have found grace, show me thy way. Tell me how this angel is to stand toward the people. And show me how this people are to be dealt with. They have been heedless and perverse. They may be so again. Show me thy way of salvation—the principle upon which the certainty of their salvation is secured, notwithstanding the uncertainty of their poor, fickle will. O Jehovah, if indeed I have found grace in thy sight, remove this perplexity and darkness from my mind. I beseech thee, acknowledge this people! Thus faith wrestles, step by step, and grows stronger and stronger, with the exercise! How wonderful the power of this prayer! And it is wonderfully victorious. In response come the words of glorious assurance that clear up all perplexity. “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Joyously the saint seizes upon the word. It is thy presence, not the presence of any mere angel, but of the angel of the covenant that he desires to have with him. It is, therefore, manifest that the people have found favor through his intercession. And, therefore, transported with joy, he reasons: Then I and thy people—associating himself with the people and both with God—must of course have found favor and are again to be in covenant with Jehovah, and separated thereby from all nations. S. R.

The main burden of the prayer of Moses was for the renewal of the Tabernacle promise, for the restoration of the crowning blessing of the presence of the Lord in the midst of them. And his pleading is not in vain, for the Lord says: “My presence shall go with thee.” But let us not fail to observe the ground on which it is given: “The Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.” It is for the sake of the mediator that the full pardon is given, and the full blessing restored. And so is it in the New Covenant. It is because the Lord Jesus has found grace in the Father’s sight that we are pardoned. It is because he knows him by name that we are accepted. “There is no other name given under heaven among men by which we can be saved” than the name of him who is the “Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus,” of whom Moses throughout all these wonderful scenes is so instructive a type. J. M. G.

14. And he said, My presence shall go with thee.** Heb. panai yēlēku, my face shall go. Chal. “My Majesty (shekiati, my Shekinah) shall go.” Arab. “My Light (or Splendor) shall walk with thee until I cause thee to rest.” Jehovah vouchsafes to him a definite assurance that the same visible symbol of the Divine Presence which they had hitherto enjoyed should be granted to accompany the host in their onward march to Canaan. More than this they did not need, and less than this could never satisfy one who had thus experienced the Divine guidance and protection. This Presence was in truth no other than what is called (Is. 63: 9), “the angel of God’s presence,” who saved, sustained, and guided the chosen people all the days of old. Bush.—The “presence of the Lord” is not a general term for his being present with them, but it is his presence by means of a Mediator of the covenant, co-equal and of one nature with himself—by means of the “angel of the Lord,” who is called, “the angel of his presence,” and (Mal. 3: 1) “The angel of the covenant” in whom is God’s name (ch. 23: 21). And so Moses afterward speaks in like terms of him, “Thou goest with us.” Thus clearly and distinctly is expressed, in the oldest books of Holy Scripture, the thought that the redeemed people of the covenant of the Lord is guided by a Mediator who is equal with God, and that the mediation which this people requires is an immediate Divine revelation of this co-equal Mediator. Gerl.

“My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” What needed Moses more than that? In all his walk and travel God would be ever present with him, to guide all his steps—the light before him, the shade at his right hand. This was enough for Moses; and it is enough for us in our no less perilous journey through the wilderness. If we walk with God, if we enjoy his presence in all our way, it is well with us—we are safe, we have rest. Kit.

15,16. Observe how earnest Moses is in this matter; he begs as one that would take no denial. “Here we will stay till we obtain thy favor; like Jacob, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” And observe how he grows upon God’s concessions; kind intimations given him make him yet more importunate. Thus God’s gracious promises and the advances of mercy toward us should not only encourage our faith, but excite our fervency in prayer. H.—Communion with God still exists between the soul and God as closely, as really, as truly, as it existed between God and Moses. God speaks to Moses as knowing him by name; and Moses, encouraged by God’s condescending approach to him, begins instantly to pray for more than he had. The more a believer has, the more he asks. It is not the man—strange enough—that needs most that prays most; but it is the man that has got most that prays the more, seeks for more; because the more we have, the deeper we feel the wants that still remain to be supplied; the more precious we feel what we have, and live in the enjoyment of blessedness that we felt not before; like Moses, we make one grant the pretext for asking another, and one blessing a reason for seeking more. J. C.

17. I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken.** Moses is not checked as an unreasonable beggar whom no saying would serve, but he is encouraged: God grants as long as he asks; gives liberally, and does not upbraid him. See the power of prayer, and be quickened hereby to ask, and seek, and knock, and to continue instant in prayer; to pray always, and not to faint. See the riches of God’s goodness: when he has done much, yet he is willing to do more; I will do this also—above what we are able to ask or think. See, in type, the prevalency of Christ’s intercession, which he ever lives to make for all those that come to God by him, and the ground of that prevalency; it is purely his own merit, not anything in those for whom he intercedes; it is because thou hast found grace in my sight. And now the matter is settled, God is perfectly reconciled to them, his presence in the pillar of cloud returns to them and shall continue with them, all is well again, and henceforth we hear no more of the golden calf. Lord, who is a God like unto thee, pardoning iniquity? H.

I will do this thing also. My presence shall go with thee, and I will keep thee separate from all the people of the earth. Both these promises have been remarkably fulfilled. God continued miraculously with them, till he brought them into the promised land; and from the day in which he brought them out of Egypt to the present day he has kept them a distinct, unmixed people! Who can account for this on any principle but that of a continual especial Providence and a constant Divine interference? A. C.

THE GREAT PETITION OF MOSES (IN THE TENT) AND PROMISE OF AN ANSWER THE NEXT DAY UPON THE MOUNT. TWO STONE TABLES AND AN ARK PREPARED BY MOSES. ASCENDS THE MOUNT WITH THE TABLES. ANSWER OF JEHOVAH IN THE PROCLAMATION OF HIS NAME SECOND FORTY DAYS UPON SINAI, WHERE HIS FERVENT PLEADING FOR ISRAEL FINALLY PREVAILS.