Exod. xxxii. 31 — 33. 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 ivilt 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.
WELL may it be said, " Lord, what is man ?" Truly " his goodness is as a morning cloud, and as
the early dew that passeth away." If we did not see it verified in fact, one would scarcely conceive it pos- sible that man should be so frail and mutable as both history and experience attest him to be. The Is- raelites were now at the very mount where they had beheld Jehovah shining forth in all his terrific majesty, and had heard him proclaiming in most tremendous sounds his holy law. They beheld also upon the mount that very same cloud, the symbol of the divine presence, which had led them in their way from the land of Egypt to that place : yet, because Moses, when summoned by God to come up to the mount, abode there longer than they expected, they cast off him, and God also ; and desired visible gods to be made for them, that they might in future com- mit themselves to their guidance and protection. It is this, which Moses so pathetically laments in the words before us.
The whole history is very instructive. That we may have a concise, but comprehensive, view of it, let us notice, I. The sin of Israel —
This was a dreadful compound of ingratitude, folly, and impiety —
[The people had already forgotten the numberless mercies which they had received from God, through the ministration of his servant Moses: they thought that they themselves could form an image which should supply the place of all other bene- factors, human and divine : and in direct opposition to the most express commands3, to which they had so recently promised the most faithful adherence, they made a golden calf, and appointed it as the representative of the Deity, and offered sacrifices to it as their deliverer and their guide: yea, so bent were they upon having a visible god to go before them, that they at the very first proposal gave up their ornaments, in order that of them an image might be formed, which they might worship after the manner of Egypt. But most of all are we surprised, that Aaron, the divinely appointed colleague of Moses, should, at the first mention of such a device, assent to it, and be the very person to form the image, and to proclaim a feast unto Jehovah in honour of it : and that, when reproved for his wickedness, he should attempt to justify it by such
a Exod. xx. 4, 23.