Shemoth/Exodus
Parashah Ki Thisa’


SHEMOTH/EXODUS CHAPTER 32

1.  When the people perceived that Moshe was delaying in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together over Aharon, and said to him, "Get up and make for us [an] elohim that can go before us; because [as for] this Moshe, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."

We can understand their giving up on Moshe’s coming back; it probably appeared to them that he had been consumed by the fire and noises they heard coming from the mountain.  They grew tired of waiting, but it was still a season to wait.

2.  So Aharon told them, "Tear off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives, your
sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.

3.  So all the people tore off the rings of gold that were in their ears, and they brought them to Aharon,

4.  and he took [the gold] from their hand and formed it with an engraving tool, and he made it a [molten] casted calf.  And they said, "This is your elohim, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

5.  When Aharon saw [this], he built an altar in front of it, and Aharon called out and said, "Tomorrow is a feast to YHWH!"

As yet they had not celebrated the feast that they had told Pharaoh was their purpose for leaving.  So Aharon wants to bring closure to this promise. 

6.  So they rose early the next morning, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings near.  And the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to make merry.

Israel is meant to be a celebratory, “partying” people; the reason they were leaving Egypt all along was to celebrate a feast to YHWH.  The only problem was that they had this idol as its focus.  They were not seeking to return to idolatry or polytheism.  They had heard, “Have no other Elohim.”  So they decided to put His name on something they were used to.  All they had to represent YHWH was Moshe’s words; they wanted something more tangible.  They thought they were making an image of the true Elohim, but they were wrong.  They were applying His Name to other things, and He was not amused. 

7.  Then YHWH said to Moshe, "Go on down, because your people, whom you caused to ascend from Egypt, have become corrupt. 

Your people: Moshe was held responsible to uphold what YHWH had done for them.  He tests Moshe with the same kind of phrase we might hear from one spouse to the other: "YOUR child is misbehaving!" 

8.  "So quickly they have turned off the path which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a casted calf and bowed to it, and have offered sacrifices to it!  And they have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who caused you to ascend from the land of Egypt!'"

9.  Then YHWH explained to Moshe, "I have watched this people, and they are a stiff-necked people.

10.  "So now [if you] leave it to Me, my nostrils will flare against them, in order that I may consume them, and I will make a great nation from you."

He knows Moshe would do things rightly and he already has two sons who could become a new nation.  But "Leave it to Me" is an implied challenge to see if Moshe will intervene and convince Him to change His mind.  It is a conditional decree that He leaves room to be talked out of.  It would show Him what kind of shepherd Moshe really was. He hints that if he does not leave YHWH alone about this, His anger might not burn quite as hot.  It clues him in on the fact that he needs to fight for those who have been put under his charge, or they will not survive. 

11.  But Moshe endeavored to persuade the face of YHWH, his Elohim, to condescend, by saying, "Why, O YHWH, should your nostrils flare against Your people, whom You caused to ascend from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

Moshe asked if He hadn’t invested too much in them already to just destroy them.  All the animals and firstborn sons that died would be for nothing, and the Egyptians would get the wrong idea, and never see that YHWH is loving and kind.  They will think He likes human sacrifice.  Moshe turns YHWH’s words around and says, "If they were indeed my children, You could do that to them.  But consider it more carefully: they are YOUR children as well!"  Only by looking out for YHWH’s reputation can one protect His people, and only by protecting His people can His reputation by saved.  He has heard the hint of mercy in the wrath, so he addresses Him as YHWH (the one who will be all that His people need Him to be), not Elohim (the judge).

12.  "Why should the Egyptians say, ‘For a malicious reason He caused them to ascend, in order to slaughter them among the mountains, and to utterly consume them from the face of the earth’?  Relent from your fierce anger and turn Your intention away from harming Your people!

13. "Remember Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Israel, to whom You swore by Yourself and promised them, ‘I will multiply Your seed like the stars of the heavens, and all this land which I have promised, I will give [it] to your seed, and they shall possess it eternally."

Now he brings out the “big gun”.  Moshe appealed to the promise the way YHWH had actually stated it, showing that he had actually listened to Him.  Remember Avraham: another who tried with audacity to persuade YHWH to relent.  Israel: To mention him by the name of Yaaqov (the one who did not even look out for the reputation of his own daughter) would not have been as effective, for Israel is the name given to the man who “strove with Elohim and man and prevailed”.  Now Moshe is doing the same.

14.  So YHWH allowed Himself to be moved to turn in pity from the harm that He had threatened to bring on His people.

Since YHWH did respond to him, we should pay careful attention to how he asked.  YHWH relented.  He did not say He would do nothing to them, for He would bring a plague.  But He would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked.

15.  And Moshe turned and went down from the mountain, the two slabs of the testimony in his hand, tablets written on both of their sides--on this [side] and on that [side] they were written.

16.  Both of the tablets were the workmanship of Elohim, and the writing was the writing of Elohim; it was engraved [unbroken] clean through the tablets. 

This may be the only time a human being has held in his hands something directly written by YHWH.  Engraved: inscribed or carved into. 

17.  Then Y’hoshua heard the noise of the people as they were shouting, and he said to Moshe, "[There's] a sound of war in the camp!"

Y’hoshua had been unmentioned this whole time, but, unlike the rest of the community, he waited patiently on his master for forty days. 

18.  But he said, "It is neither the shout of bravery nor the response to defeat that I am hearing, but the sound of bowing [themselves in worship].

19.  And what took place was that, as he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moshe's anger grew hot, and he flung the tablets from his hand and shattered them beneath the mountain.

Literally, Moshe's nose flared--as Elohim's had earlier.  Thus far he has only heard what they were doing; now that he sees for himself the extent of what is going on, the impact is different; he has the same reaction and does not blame YHWH.  It is not just a few troublemakers who have restrained Aharon so he could not prevent it; no, Aharon himself is facilitating this.  It was more than he could take. Who would want to live in their midst? If YHWH had let him see what they were doing first, he might have said, after all, “Go ahead and kill them all!” and taken YHWH up on His offer to start all over.  He had stuck his neck out for them, and they have betrayed him and YHWH.   They have already broken the covenant, so why should its symbol not be broken as well?  Underlying his anger may have been a hope that destroying the evidence against them might spare their lives.

20.  And he took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and he ground it until it was fine powder, then scattered it on the surface of the water, and made the descendants of Israel drink it.

The people did not want to drink the pure water of YHWH, so they have made their bed; they must lie in it.  Some people will not change unless they see the flame in your eyes and feel threatened.  He will teach them not to be so disloyal.   This was not a nice day for Israel, but its events were positive, because it would make them get their act together.  Compare the special drink required of a woman suspected of adultery (Numbers 5); this is exactly the case here, since idolatry is so often interchangeable in Scripture with the concept of unfaithfulness to YHWH.  This was a test of jealousy, so the truth about them could indeed come out.

…

25.  Then Moshe recognized that the people were throwing off their restraints because Aharon had given their enemies an opening to put them to shame.

26.  So Moshe stood in the entrance [gate] to the camp and said, "Whoever is for YHWH, come [over] to me!"  And all the sons of Levi moved over [and gathered] to him.

He knows his own tribe is bloody; he himself has even killed a man, so he makes them choose sides.  Qorakh must even have sided with Moshe this time—possibly one reason he later thought he was something special. 

27.  Then he told them, "Thus says YHWH, [the] Elohim of Israel: Let each man put his sword on his thigh, and pass over back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, and each one his companion, and each one his near [kinsman]."

Near kinsman: or simply, neighbor—not the pagans or foreigners, but their friends and family (other Levites).  Tents do not have gates, so this is referring to the places of judgment.  Apparently people were refusing to be judged by Moshe, and appealing to those who were closer to them. And as Levites these judges were especially responsible for teaching the rest of Israel; so they were held to a higher standard, and they did not even admit they were guilty for not having restrained them or brought those they knew were guilty to justice.

28.  So the descendants of Levi did according to the word of Moshe, and from among the people about three thousand men fell that day.

29.  And Moshe said, "Consecrate yourselves today unto YHWH, since each one has been against his son and against his brother, so that you may be given a blessing today.

30.  And what took place on the next day [was that] Moshe said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up to YHWH.  Maybe I can effect a covering for your sin."

He made them stew in their guilt and fear of YHWH all night.  Yet still he is fighting for them.  He cannot forgive them, because their sin was against YHWH.  But now that he has drawn the lines in the sand and re-established his authority, and has also rested and eaten for the first time in 40 days, he has calmed down and offers to try to go fix what they have broken.  This is the first time we are introduced to this concept of a covering for sin.

31.  So Moshe went back to YHWH and said, "I pray now, this people has committed a great sin, and have made an elohim of gold for themselves.

32.  "Yet now, if you will, lift away their sin; and if it cannot be, then erase me now from the book which You have written."

33.  Then YHWH said to Moshe, "Whoever has sinned against Me is the one I will blot out from My book.

Now YHWH reprimands Moshe; “You don’t get to tell Me who goes in this book.  I’ll do it if I want to, but you don’t have a say in this.” 

…

CHAPTER 34

1.  Then YHWH told Moshe, "Carve for yourself two slabs of stone like the first ones.  Then I will write on these slabs the words which I wrote on the first slabs, which you shattered.

Carve for yourself: Unlike the first set, which YHWH had formed (32:16), Moshe had to make these tablets.  Moshe has asked to know how to lead these people as YHWH would, since He has put them in his jurisdiction.  This is part of His answer: First, repair what you broke, as an example to Israel of taking responsibility for one’s actions.  What we carve out for ourselves will be more valuable to us than something that is just handed to us free of charge. When we dig out the truth for ourselves, it may be the same as what our teacher has said, but it will stay with us better, because we have invested ourselves in the search.  What we labor for, we appreciate more.  (This may be another reason Yahshua calls the Torah “Moshe”: it is Moshe’s workmanship.) Whatever his motive for breaking them, he now needs to prepare another place for the instruction to come forth.  Sometimes we have to sand off old things that were carved into the tablets of our hearts in order to have room for the right instruction to fit. (see Prov. 3:3; 7:3)  This is the only way a heart of stone is acceptable—if it is prepared to receive His word.  Sometimes that causes too many smudges, and the only way to truly have a clean slate is to start over. Like a child in kindergarten, a blank page is full of potential.  Anything might end up on it.  Every bookstarted with a plain page and every beautiful painting started off with an empty canvas. It is primed so it will truly be painted on rather than just stained.  If not stretched tightly enough over the frame, it is difficult to represent the details properly.  If it is not prepared properly, we will not achieve the best results.  Every time we are to be taught we likewise need to prepare our hearts to hear, in the same way we must cease before entering into the Sabbath so that we will be able to be joyful and encourage one another.  Then YHWH will put us in a position to be written on.  The way we prepare a place is to do the works of the Torah, then YHWH can write the instruction’s deeper meaning upon it.  But the heart (the place where we envision what we can become) has two parts just like these tablets—the atria to receive the inflow (corresponding to the first four commands regarding our relationship with YHWH) and the ventricles to pump it throughout the rest of the body, corresponding to the six latter commands regaring our responsibilities toward our fellow Israelites). It only works if the right information is written on it, just as the brain sends the right signals to the heart, telling it to keep beating.  And there must be a balance between the receiving and distributing, or we will die.  The Torah is our “pacemaker” since the impulses of our own minds often make the heart work improperly.  When YHWH says He will put the Torah in our minds and write it on our hearts (Yirm. 31:33), it does not mean He will magically do it all for us.  Just because He writes it does not guarantee that we will obey.  We have to study it and practice it (put it in our minds) before we come to love it (for that is what it means to have something on our hearts.  What we do not study and practice it repeatedly, it will never find its way to our hearts.  It has to sink in to the point where the thought of bacon disgusts us or we could no longer imagine working on the Sabbath; that is engraving it—creating new channels for our inclinations to flow through.  Then you will find yourself in this Book of Life.  It is no coincidence that the heart is the size of a clenched fist.  What we grasp and hold tightly to is what becomes important to us.  What we hold onto becomes what our heart is about.  So hang onto what is most profitable and positive. YHWH writes on what is prepared by Moshe (the Torah).  Moshe was the one whom YHWH trusted to give shape to the truths He had revealed.  He could not function as high priest, because he tended to side with the people’s interests, while Aharon needed to stand for YHWH’s interests, but together they bring about the right balance. On these slabs would be the directions for building the ten items that would provide the unity required to form a dwelling-place for YHWH.  To make it work they would need to act on what Moshe gave them, in the same way that the repentant House of Israel needs to measure the pattern of the Temple for ourselves after the prophets shows it to us. (Yehezq’El/Ezk. 43)  The first step in bringing the Kingdom is having the Messiah’s shape defined by Moshe (the Torah).  Otherwise, the Dwelling-place cannot be rebuilt, just as surely as YHWH’s House would remain empty if He did not enter it once it is built.

2.  "Now be prepared in the morning, and come up to Mount Sinai in the morning, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain.

He had a time limit within which to have the slabs ready.  Even if it took him all night, they needed to be ready by the next morning.  He could not just come when he felt like it.  And he had to start early, rather than doing other things first; YHWH had to be his priority. 

…

4.  So he cut out two tablets of stone like the former, and Moshe got up early in the morning and ascended to Mount Sinai, as YHWH had ordered him, and he took in his hand the two slabs of stone.

He actually did what he was told; this means everything.  He showed up with his heart in his hands, and honored YHWH in an appropriate way.

…


11.  "Guard for yourself what I am commanding you today, and watch [as] I am about to drive out before your face the Emorites, the Kanaanites, the Chithites, the P'rizzites, the Chiwites, and the Y'vusites.

Build whatever fences are necessary to keep Israel from being negatively influences again by other nations.

…

18.  "You must observe the festival-gathering of Unleavened Bread; you shall eat matzah for seven days--just as I have commanded you--in the month of the greening of the barley ears, because in [this] month of Aviv you came out from Egypt.

The cure for idolatry is the feasts of YHWH—“partying” within His boundaries.  The antidote for eating at a pagan table is to eat matzah—a ritual that will teach us and confirm YHWH’s desires.  He starts with Passover to repair the misunderstanding about who brought them out of Egypt.

…

21.  "You may work six days, but on the seventh day you must stop; even in plowing or harvesting time, you must stop.

…

23.  "Three times during the year shall every one of your males appear before the Master YHWH, the Elohim of Israel,

The women are already dying to leave the house; the men are the ones who have to be talked into leaving their work.  During the “down times”, when there is less urgent work to do than at planting or harvest time, we would be more likely to have the leisure to yield to the temptation to go there, He summons us to meet with Him.

…

27. Then YHWH told Moshe,  "Write down these words, because by the mouth of these words have I cut a covenant with you and with Israel."

YHWH had said He would write the words on the slabs (v. 1), but He tells Moshe to write them. Thus there are two sets of words being written on them.  YHWH would write what He had written the first time, but Moshe had to write the additional commands mentioned since those—summarized by the need to ensure that Israel is not influenced by the nations, and to guard the festivals He has commanded, including the Sabbath.  He wrote the details of what YHWH wrote.  He “stretched the canvas”, YHWH “primed” it with the Ten Commandments, and told Moshe to write more concerning idolatry and the festivals, because these were the two areas in which they had done wrong already.  He is always in season and in context.  He tells them how it is really meant to be done.  Don’t just attend His feasts; participate in them.  Put as much of yourself into them as you can, and we can fix what we have broken.  Stay busy with what He has commanded, and you will not have time for idolatrous pursuits.  Do not come empty-handed (v. 20).  Bring your blank tablets and write on them what you learn.   Make room for new wisdom and a new direction that He may take you in, just as He moved the camp of Israel closer and closer to the Promised Land. 

28.  And he ended up being there with YHWH forty days and forty nights.  He neither ate food nor drank water.  And He wrote on the slabs the words of the covenant--the Ten Items.

He is bringing a new covenant here--or really the same one, but presented in a different order. YHWH realized the people could not handle the ten words until we learned to be a set-apart people, so He begins with that this time before He ever says anything about the ten words.

29.  Now as Moshe was descending from Mount Sinai, the two tablets of testimony being in his hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moshe did not realize that the skin of his face had become luminous through his speaking with [YHWH].

Tablets of testimony: a telling name, for what is on our hearts will bear witness either for or against us.  We may be able to fake it for a while, but our hearts will be revealed by our words as well as our works.  Now that he was in touch with YHWH’s words directly, they were not just rules anymore, but were alive in him, and it showed. This shining face was a validation that YHWH mercifully provided to the people.  It proved to them that Moshe really had spoken with Him face to face, and that he was not making any of this up.  It was evidence of his authority and made it overwhelmingly obvious that YHWH was with him.




Commentary on
Parashat Ki Thisa'
Replacing the
Broken Words