Exodus 32:27

_THEN MOSES STOOD IN THE GATE OF THE CAMP, AND SAID, WHO IS ON THE LORD'S SIDE? LET HIM COME UNTO ME. AND ALL THE SONS OF LEVI GATHERED THEMSELVES TOGETHER UNTO HIM._ Moses stood in the gate. The camp is supposed to have been protected by a rampart after the attack of the Amalekites. WHO IS ON THE LORD'S SIDE? - i:e., who will support the cause of God against idolatry and idolaters? UNTO ME - let him join me, and follow my directions. AND ALL THE SONS OF LEVI GATHERED THEMSELVES TOGETHER UNTO HIM. The universal word all is here to be taken, as in many other passsges, with limitations, as denoting the majority, or a very large number, who were inflamed with a holy zeal; for some of them were involved in the guilt of the golden calf, and perished. Verse 27. SLAY EVERY MAN HIS BROTHER. "Every" is not to be taken literally, as if each individual of the 22,000 Levites was to kill a bro...

27._Thus saith the Lord God of Israel _He commands the Levites to gird themselves with their swords, to commit slaughter throughout the whole camp; and this may at first sight seem to be cruel and inhuman, when they are forbidden to spare their brothers, their friends, and neighbors; but it was by no means excessive, if we reflect how much more grievous it is to profane the sacred worship of God, than to inflict injury on man. Nor does he desire that all should be slain promiscuously; but only bids the Levites proceed courageously; so that, if they should chance to meet with any one worthy of death, neither relationship, nor friendship, nor familiarity, should hinder or delay the just course of severity. Nay, since it soon after follows that the Levites did as they were commanded, we gather that he was content with a moderation more akin to leniency than to rigor. If any sedition has ari...

21-29 Never did any wise man make a more frivolous and foolish excuse than that of Aaron. We must never be drawn into sin by any thing man can say or do to us; for men can but tempt us to sin, they cannot force us. The approach of Moses turned the dancing into trembling. They were exposed to shame by their sin. The course Moses took to roll away this reproach, was, not by concealing the sin, or putting any false colour upon it, but by punishing it. The Levites were to slay the ringleaders in this wickedness; yet none were executed but those who openly stood forth. Those are marked for ruin who persist in sin: those who in the morning were shouting and dancing, before night were dying. Such sudden changes do the judgments of the Lord sometimes make with sinners that are secure and jovial in their sin....

Verse Exodus 32:27. _FROM GATE TO GATE_] It is probable that there was an enclosed or intrenched camp, in which the chief rulers and heads of the people were, and that this camp had _two gates_ or _outlets_; and the Levites were commanded to pass from one to the other, slaying as many of the transgressors as they could find....

The faithfulness of Moses in the office that had been entrusted to him was now to be put to the test. It was to be made manifest whether he loved his own glory better than he loved the brethren who were under his charge; whether he would prefer that he should himself become the founder of a “great nation,” or that the Lord’s promise should be fulfilled in the whole people of Israel. This may have been especially needful for Moses, in consequence of his natural disposition. See Numbers 12:3; and compare Exodus 3:11. With this trial of Moses repeated in a very similar manner Numbers 14:11, may be compared the trial of Abraham Genes

EXPOSITION MOSES PUNISHES THE RINGLEADERS. The presence of Moses in the camp—his impressive act in breaking the tables—even his seizure of the idol and consignment of it to destruction—did not arrest the licentious orgy in which the people had engaged before his coming. The "play" that had followed on the feasting still continued; though we may suppose that many had been impressed and had desisted. Moses felt that an example must be made, and a stop put to conduct which was more and more provoking the Almighty, and might at any moment bring down the judgment of complete destruction upon the whole people. He therefore took his station at the main gate of the camp (Exodus 32:26), and shouted the words "Who is on Jehovah's side? Here, to me!" The sound of the words could not, of course, have reached very far—but

AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL,.... The following orders are given by Moses, not of himself the chief magistrate, and as the effect of heat and passion, but there were from the Lord, who was Israel's God and King; he had them expressly from him, or by an impulse on his spirit, or in such a way and manner that he knew it was of God, and this was his will: PUT EVERY MAN HIS SWORD BY HIS SIDE; girt there, ready to be drawn upon order: AND GO IN AND OUT FROM GATE TO GATE THROUGHOUT THE CAMP; not into the tents, where good men might be bemoaning the sin committed, but throughout the streets, where many were loitering, it being a holy day with the idolaters: AND SLAY EVERY MAN HIS BROTHER, AND EVERY MAN HIS COMPANION, AND EVERY MAN HIS NEIGHBOUR; who were idolaters; none were to be spared on account of relation, friendship, and acquaintance....

Exodus 32:1. _And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him._ What a terrible speech to be made by the people whom God had chosen to be his own! «Make us gods. Make our Creator.» How could that be? Exodus 32:2. _And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me._ Poor Aaron! He never had the backbone of his brother Moses. He was a better speaker; but oh, the poverty of his heart! He yields to the will of these idolatrous peo

4. ISRAEL ‘S SIN AND REBELLION CHAPTER 32 _ 1. The people in rebellion (Exodus 32:1)_ 2. Jehovah threatens his wrath (Exodus 32:7) 3. Moses beseeches Jehovah (Exodus 32:11) 4. Moses descends and in the camp (Exodus 32:15) 5. Moses' offer and failure (Exodus 32:30) This chapter records the breaking of the covenant by Israel ‘s sin, rebellion against Jehovah, and idolatry. Here we find man's heart fully uncovered, that wicked heart of unbelief. What manifestations of God's power they had seen! Their eye

EXODUS 32:1 E, EXODUS 32:7 Rje, EXODUS 32:15 E, EXODUS 32:25 J, EXODUS 32:30 E s, EXODUS 32:35 E. THE GOLDEN CALF. Exodus 32:32 stand between the instructions for the Tent and their fulfilment. Their religious value is high and clear. But their literary growth has been too complex to trace here (_see_ Driver, CB 346ff.). It is po