Judge ye, then, whether God may not well be filled with indignation against us, as he was against his less enlightened and less indebted people of that day ?]
Having seen the grounds of Moses' indignation, let us proceed to mark,
II. His expressions of it —
1. He broke before their eyes the tables of the Law, which God had committed to him —
[Was this done in a paroxysm of rage ? No : m it was a significant action, declaring, in effect, to the whole people, that they had made void all their solemn engagements with the Deity"; and that therefore the covenant he had made with them, of which "these tables were a testimony0," was utterly annulled.
And are not all the provisions of the Gospel, too, made void by wilful and deliberate sin ? They are : and all hope in the Gospel, whilst our hearts are alienated from God, and fixed on earthly vanities, is nothing but delusion. Our Lord has faith- fully warned us, that it is in vain for us to " cry, Lord! Lord! if we do not the things which he says:" and that however we may debate the matter with him in the last day, saying, " Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works ? he will reply, I never knew you: depart from me, ye who work iniquity p." Whoever then ye be, who, instead of de- lighting yourselves in God, are addicted to carnal mirth, I break the tables of the covenant before your faces this day; and declare, that " whoso doeth not righteousness, is not of God;" but that, on the contrary, " whosoever committeth sin, is of the devil q." It is needful that we declare this faitlrfully: for, whilst dancing about your golden calf, you conclude that all is well, and little think in what light your conduct is viewed by a holy and jealous God. And to learn it, first, when your Lord shall descend from His holy mount to judge the world, will be too late: for, as the Levites passed through the camp, and avenged the cause of God on the offenders without favour- ing even their nearest relatives, so will the angels at that day inexorably and irresistibly execute on all the violators of God's covenant the judgments denounced against themr. Let all, then, bear in mind, that " God is a jealous God; " and that " he will neither give, nor suffer us to give, his glory to another."]
m The manner in which Moses, forty years afterwards, relates it, sufficiently proves this. See Deut. ix. 16, 17. " Dent. v. 27.
0 ver. 15. p Matt. vii. 21—23. <i 1 John iii. 6, 8, 9.
r Compare Isai. xxxvii. 36. with Matt. xiii. 41, 42.