ExodusLesson #15

“The Golden Calf”(Exodus 32: 1 – 33: 23)

Review

In Lesson #13 God gave the “blueprints” for building the Tabernacle, and in Lesson #14 God consecrated Aaron and his sons as priests.

The Tabernacle is a physical structure that enables a sinful people to gain access to an infinitely holy God; and a priest’s “job description” is to stand between the people and God as a mediator, to speak to God on behalf of the people, and to minister at the altar.

  

Review, cont.

In Lesson #14 we also learned that in Israel priests are drawn solely from the tribe of Levi. In Judaism one cannot feel “called” to be a priest, aspire to be a priest or study to be a priest: one is born a priest—or not. The Jewish priesthood is purely hereditary.

  

PreviewTo this point in our narrative:•God has raised up Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt;•To convince Pharaoh to “let my people go,” God has slammed Egypt with a devastating series of ten plagues, bringing Pharaoh to his knees and thrashing the Egyptian gods;•God has led his people out of Egypt with a pillar of cloud and fire, parted the waters of the Red Sea, drowned the Egyptian army and brought the Israelites safely to Mt. Sinai, providing food and water for 2 million people along the way;•In a terrifying scene of smoke, fire, rolling thunder and celestial pyrotechnics, God has reaffirmed his covenant with the Israelites;•God then gave the Israelites two great gifts: 1) the Law and 2) the Tabernacle, and finally;•Moses disappeared into the fire and smoke atop Mt. Sinai, where he received a vision of God, enthroned.

Review, cont.

And then . . . forty days pass without a word from either Moses or God.

What’s going on? Is Moses dead? Did God abandon us? What do we do now?

  

A Golden Calf?

Photography by Ana Maria Vargas

Herrad von Landsberg, “The Golden Calf,” Hortus Deliciarum (illuminated manuscript), c. 1180.

[The Hortus Deliciarum was an illuminated encyclopedia compiled by the nun and abbess, Herrad of Landsberg at the Hohenburg Abbey in Alsace, France. It is the first encyclopedia compiled by a woman. The manuscript was

destroyed in 1870 when the municipal library that housed it was bombed during the siege of Strausbourgh. Fortunately, many of the illustrations survive thanks to Christian Moritz Engelhardt, who copied them in 1818.]

The Israelites need a strong and compassionate god to get them out of this mess! So they turn to one of the strongest

and most compassionate gods in the Egyptian pantheon, a god they know

intimately from their four hundred year stay in Egypt:

Hathor

Hathor had been worshipped since the Old Kingdom, 2686-2181 B.C., long before Abraham, the Israelites or Moses arrived in Egypt. The daughter of Ra, the sun god, and the wife of Horus, Hathor appears in two primary iconographic forms: 1) as a woman and 2) as a cow.

  

As a woman, Hathor’s iconography portrays her wearing the headdress of a sun disk and a cow’s horns. She is often referred to as “the golden one” and “she of the beautiful hair.” The Greeks later associated Hathor with the goddess of love, Aphrodite.

Ptolomy IV (right) presenting himself to Hathor (center) and her sister, Isis (left) at Temple of Isis, Philae, Egypt.

As a cow, Hathor represents motherhood. Here Hathor suckles Hatshepsut (lower right) as the god Amon (lower left) looks on.

In our dating system Hatshepsut is the princess who fishes Moses out of the Nile, becomes his adoptive mother and later becomes queen of Egypt herself.

Relief from wall of Deir el-Bahri shows Hathor in bovine form as the nurturing mother goddess.

eywacke statue of Menkaure.

Egyptian Museum, Cairo. eywacke statue of

Menkaure.Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Pyramid of Menkaure, Giza Plateau, Cairo.

Photography by Ana Maria Vargas

Menkaure, Pharaoh of the Old Kingdom’s 4th dynasty,

c. 2530 B.C.

This sculpted triad shows Menkaure flanked by two women, Hathor on the left, who is holding Menkaure’s hand affectionately, and Cynopolis, the 17th nome of Upper Egypt, on the right. The inscription on the base reads: “King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Menkaure, beloved of Hathor.”

Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Temple of Hathor Deir el-Medina, West Bank, Luxor

Temple of Hathor Philae Island, Aswan

Hathor Chapel, Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut,West Bank, Luxor

Temple of Hathor.Timna Valley, Israel

Temple of HathorSerabit el-Khadim Mt. Sinai

Mt. Sinai

Serabit el-Kadhim

Temple of Hathor, Serabit el-Khadim, Sinai, Egypt.

Natural rock formation at Wadi el-Dir, a short distance from Mt. Sinai.Photography by Ana Maria Vargas

Hathor, Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Nicolas Poussin. The Adoration of the Golden Calf (oil on canvas), 1634. National Gallery, London.

“Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘Go down at once because your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have acted corruptly.”

(Exodus 32: 7)

  

God makes a decision . . . and Moses counters:

“I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are,” continued the Lord to Moses. “Let me alone, then, that my anger may burn against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation.”

(Exodus 32: 9-10)

1. “Why, O Lord, should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?” (32: 11).

2. “Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth?’” (32: 12).

3. “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel . . .” (32: 13).

  

Michelangelo, “Creation of the Sun and the Moon,” detail (fresco), 1512.

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

Conclusion“So the Lord changed his mind.”

(Exodus 32: 14)

God makes a 2nd decision . . . and Moses counters:

“I will send an angel before you to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I myself will not go in your company, because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise I might consume you on the way.”

(Exodus 33: 2-3)

1. “Moses said to the Lord, ‘See, you are telling me: Lead this people.’ But you have not let me know whom you will send with me” (33: 12a).

2. “Yet you have said: ‘You are my intimate friend: you have found favor with me’” (33: 12b).

3. “See, this nation is indeed your own people” (32: 13).

  

Michelangelo, “Creation of the Sun and the Moon,” detail (fresco), 1512.

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

Conclusion“This request, too, which you have made, I will carry out, because you have found favor with me and you are my intimate friend.”

(Exodus 33: 17)

Questions for discussion and thought

1. Why would the Israelites, after all God had done for them, turn to worshipping a golden calf?

2. What does the golden calf signify? 3. If you were at Mt. Sinai with the Israelites, what would

you have done?4. Here in Lesson #15, Moses argues with God, not once,

but twice. Are there any examples elsewhere in Scripture where someone argues with God, as Moses does?

5. Is Moses justified in killing 3,000 Israelites after the golden calf incident?

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