As we have discussed previously, the Mosaic Covenant was a covenant that God made with His people Israel. It is evident from the moment of its establishment that this covenant is bilateral in nature, for it was an agreement between God and the Israelites, who pledged that they would do all that is required of them in their keeping of the covenant (Exodus 19:8, 24:4, 24:7). As we will discuss in today’s blog, it didn’t take long for the Israelites to fall into sin, and by so doing, break the covenant.

Following the events that were covered last time, the narrative picks up with Moses going up to the mountain to receive further instruction from the Lord regarding tabernacle construction and service (Exodus 24:12-31:18). Moses remained on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights (Exodus 24:18), and it was during this time when Israel would experience their first major plunge into sin following the exodus. In Exodus 32:1, we read, “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, ‘Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’” Aaron, who was supposed to be Israel’s high priest, not only capitulated to the people’s sinful desire, but he was fully on board with the whole affair (v. 2-5)! From “All that God has said we will do!” to “Make us a golden calf!” in just a month and a half: it is no wonder then that God said about them, “they are an obstinate people” (v. 9). This became Israel’s defining characteristic, as Stephen would later point out in his famous sermon to describe his Jewish brethren right before he was stoned to death, when he said, “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.” (Acts 7:51).

Surely the Israelites were guilty of committing a great sin, as Moses pointed out in verse 30. But the covenantal language presented in Exodus 32 is definitely present as well, and that by sinning the way the Israelites did, they broke the covenant made between them and God. This connection is clear when God tells Moses to go down from the mountain to tend to the people. God said, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” (v. 7). Notice the second person language used here. God said “your people” and “whom you brought up from the land of Egypt” rather than “My people” and “whom I brought up from the land of Egypt”. The truth did not change, nor is it contradictory; God did in fact use Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, yet at the same time their deliverance was very much a work of God. But the emphasis is now placed squarely on Moses rather than on God Himself as their leader, because by breaking the covenant, the Israelites forfeited any claim to being in a right relationship with God. As we established previously, the whole purpose of the covenant made between God and Israel was so that God would be their God, and they would be His people. But now that they have broken the covenant, God, as it were, no longer refers to Israel as His people, instead referring to them as Moses’ people. They have, like an unfaithful marriage partner, committed spiritual adultery, a theme that would be played out all throughout the rest of the Old Testament.

When God told Moses in Exodus 32:10 that He would destroy the people of Israel for their sin and start over again with Moses, making a great nation out of him, Moses does something rather unexpected. Not only would God have been just in destroying Israel for their apostasy, but there is even a sense in which God would have been right in making a new nation out of Moses. After all, Moses was in no way responsible for the golden calf incident, and in fact the text reminds us that Moses was angry at the Israelites for molding the golden calf (v. 19). Yet despite this, Moses pleads with the Lord on behalf of the people of Israel! He recalled the everlasting covenant that God made with Abraham, saying, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” (v. 13). Incredibly, God “changed His mind”, in a manner of speaking, and did not harm His people Israel (v. 14).

Of course, God did not literally change His mind about anything; it is anthropomorphic language to make a simple point about the effectiveness of Moses’ intercession for the nation Israel, and how God had chosen to use this intercessory act to accomplish His eternal plan. But notice how it was the covenant God made with Abraham, not Moses, that kept the Lord from bringing destruction to the Israelites.  It was solely on the basis of God’s grace and covenantal faithfulness that He spared them from the judgment they rightfully deserved. It is the same reason why He spares any of us from the judgment we likewise deserve for our sins. In the same way that God saw Israel through the lens of the covenant made with Abraham, He sees us through the lens of the New Covenant that God ratified with Christ. Those who are in Christ are under a new and better covenant, and the old covenant has been made obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). In the New Covenant, we no longer need an earthly mediator or priest since we have a new and better Mediator in the person of Jesus Christ. “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Though Moses was faithful in his intercessory role between God and the Israelites, he was by no means perfect, and Scripture does not shy away from recording his shortcomings. Jesus, on the other hand, is the better Moses! He never fails in His intercessory work, never loses His patience with us, and even when we do sin, “...we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins…” (1 John 2:1-2). 

These truths are especially encouraging to us because we constantly struggle with our besetting sins, as none of us can keep the Law perfectly like only Christ can do. The entire Law can be summarized in what is referred to as the two greatest commandments. When the religious leaders tested Jesus by asking Him what the greatest commandment is, Jesus responded, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40). Loving God and loving others: indeed, it really is that simple. Yet we know and understand, as Christians whose hearts have been humbled and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, that this is especially difficult for us to obey, as we constantly fail to keep these two greatest commandments. As believers, we are thankful for verses like Romans 6:14, which remind us that we “…are not under law but under grace.” Why do we need such reminders? Because even though we have been purchased by the blood of Christ, who kept the Law perfectly on our behalf, we also understand that the Law is good, as it accurately reflects God’s holy character and nature. The Law is a tutor that leads people to Christ (Galatians 3:24), yet as saints the Law still serves to remind us just how much we need Christ’s unceasing intercession on our behalf and that apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5).

God never changes, and He was indeed equally as merciful toward the Israelites in the time of Moses as He is towards us who are in the New Covenant; yet despite God’s gracious act of relenting from His immediate judgment on the nation Israel through the means of Moses’ intercession, the Israelites would go on sinning all throughout the 40 years of wandering. In fact, it is the reason why they wandered in the desert in the first place, even though it was only an 11-day journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. They would persistently grumble and put God to the test, and as a result God swore in His wrath that the generation that left Egypt would never enter the Promised Land, including even Moses (Numbers 14:23, 20:12). Their rebellion would continue in the time of the judges, and would culminate in their desire to have an earthly king like the other nations. Yet even in spite of this blatant display of unbelief, God wasn’t finished with His people Israel. He gave them a king of their choosing, who ended up being a spiritual failure. God then chose for Himself a “man after His own heart” that would rule His people, a humble shepherd boy from a small town called Bethlehem. His name is David, and though he was the runt of the litter, God would use this ruddy lad to continue His redemptive plan through an everlasting covenant that He would later establish with him, which we will begin further exploring next time.