So among one of many round trips up and down the mountain to receive instructions from the Lord, one day on the way back down, Moses returned to find that the impatient Israelites had built themselves a Golden Calf to worship.
A couple of points about this incident.
First, we have to understand that the Israelites’ worship customs and their ideas about God and the spirit world was thoroughly Egyptian in thought and practice.
There is no doubt that the Golden Calf they had created was a representation of the Apis Bull which was considered a high-ranking deity among the Egyptians.
There is also no doubt the Israelites had full awareness of what they were doing when they constructed the Golden Calf and worshipped it.
It was a practice many of them had very likely participated in with the Egyptians during their time in Egypt.
Upon encountering their idolatry, Moses immediately goes into a rage and destroys the two stone tablets containing the 10 Words of God he was carrying with him.
What happens next is as chilling as it is shocking.
God orders the faithful to kill the Golden Calf worshippers.
A massacre results and the traitors are destroyed.
Contrary to common understanding, this event at Mount Sinai was when the Levites were first anointed as God’s priests…
…and when Aaron became the first High Priest.
This event also demonstrates this principle that when it comes to making a choice between God and family, you go with God.
Many of the Levites were forced to kill many of their family members during the ensuing bloodbath again at God’s orders.
Afterwards, the Lord gives Moses instructions to build an earthly model that would represent the Lord’s heavenly dwelling place.
This earthly model we now know was the Wilderness Tabernacle.
This was a tent comprised of two compartments: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.
The most famous item to be placed inside the tent was of course the Ark of the Covenant that was covered with a special lid called the “Mercy Seat”.
The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies area and was where Moses would go to speak directly with God.
The tent itself was surrounded by a large courtyard where the priests would serve the common laymen worshippers when they came with their animals to be sacrificed and then burned up on the Bronze Altar.
Leave a Reply