Parenting Children Resources

After God met with the Israelites and gave Moses the Ten Commandments, he called Moses to return to the mountain. He told Moses to have the people make a tent for him called the tabernacle. God doesn’t have a body, so he doesn’t need a place to live. So why did he want them to build a tent? God wanted a place where the Israelites could meet with him and know that he was always with them. This was a place to worship the true God! It would remind them of who he is (holy), how he acts (forgives sins), and what he wants (to be present with them).

Moses was gone on the mountain for forty days, and the people began to wonder what had happened to him. Rather than waiting for God and Moses to lead them, the Israelites decided to create a god (idol) of their own—not only create one but also bow down and worship it! A bad idea. As bad as eating from the off-limits tree. They said to Aaron, “Make us gods who shall go before us” (Ex. 32:1). Aaron agreed. Do you know what they did? It was so foolish. So sinful too. They made an idol of gold that looked like a baby cow and they shouted, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (32:4). How ridiculous! The one true God had saved them! They broke the first and second commandments: One God. No idols.

When God Almighty saw them worshiping the golden calf, he was mighty mad and wanted to destroy everyone. But Moses pleaded with God to remember his promise and not destroy the people. Then Moses went down the mountain and saw the people singing and dancing before the idol. “Moses’ anger burned hot” (32:19) too. He burnt the idol, ground it into powder, mixed it with water, and made the sinful people slurp their silly cow. Yuck!

And God punished some by the sword. “The next day Moses said to the people, ‘You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin’” (32:30). Moses prayed for them. And God had mercy. Even though he sent a plague, he gave them a second chance: “I will be gracious,” God said, “to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (33:19). Later God would renew his covenant with Israel, and God’s people built that tent to worship God the way he commanded them.