Exodus 33:1 – 6 “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way.” When the people heard these bad tidings, they went into mourning, and no one put on any of his jewelry. For the LORD had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I should go with you for a single moment, I would destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you.’” So the Israelites stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.”
GOD IS STILL ANGRY!!! Until the incident of the Golden Calf, God refers to the Israelites as His people, but ever since the Golden Calf disaster, God refers to the Israelites as Moses’ people whom Moses brought up out of the land of Egypt.
“But,” you say, “I thought that ‘To err is human, to forgive, divine.’” Sorry! That phrase is not from the Bible, but from a poem by Alexander Pope, who in turn was quoting an ancient Latin proverb. While Moses has been so horrified by the Golden Calf incident that he actually has been willing to forfeit his place in eternity to save the Israelites, the Israelites as a group have not exhibited any remorse whatsoever.
God keeps His promises. God has promised the land of Canaan to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants; however, God is making an important change. Up until now, God Himself has accompanied the Israelites, manifesting as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But now God tells the Israelites that He will no longer accompany them, but will send an angel ahead of them. The pillars of cloud and fire may still be there, but God is withdrawing Himself.
Is God abandoning the Israelites? No. But there is an important principle at work here: There is no neutrality in the spirit world. You are either serving God or you are serving Satan, even if you are serving Satan by refusing to actively serve God. Your very inactivity constitutes a choice, a wrong one! God is not being vicious or arbitrary but is stating a spiritual fact. “You are a stiff-necked people. If I should go with you for a single moment, I would destroy you.” God is holy; His very Nature is that of holiness. Just as light and darkness cannot exist in the same place at the same time, so holiness and rebellion also cannot exist in the same place simultaneously. When the Israelites pushed Aaron to create the Golden Calf, they were forcibly rejecting God at the same time. Later on, in Jeremiah 2:13, God complains about the Jews, ““My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
What is the significance of the jewelry? As the Israelites were leaving Egypt, they stripped the Egyptians of all their finery. Some of this jewelry wound up being used for the Golden Calf and was later reduced to ashes and sprinkled in drinking water. But evidently, there was still a lot of jewelry left. God intended that some of this gold be used for constructing the Tabernacle; however, the Israelites chose to make an idol instead. One interesting sidelight is that the term used in Hebrew for the Israelites stripping themselves of their jewelry is the same term that was used earlier for the Israelites despoiling the Egyptians. Sadly, the only reason that the Israelites put away their jewelry was because God ordered them to do so, and not because they were remorseful for their enormous sin. Truly, these people ARE stiff – necked!
APPLICATION: Holiness and rebellion never mix! Jesus told His disciples that nobody could serve two masters, for he would love the one and hate the other. This is still true. Christians believe that when we choose to follow Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, it is Jesus who makes us holy and not we ourselves. When we choose to follow Jesus, we are choosing to live in the light. When we turn away from Jesus, we are choosing to live in darkness.
Had the Israelites themselves truly repented and had they stripped off their own jewelry without any prompting from God, they would have been inviting God back into their lives, and God would have returned. But tragically, the Israelites did no such thing and continued to rebel sporadically. Eventually, their rebellion caused them to be carried off to Babylon and Assyria; it was there that many Jews finally repented and began serving the God they had refused when they were in their own land.
PRAYER: Father God, help us! We are NOT holy and unless you clean us up, we will never be holy. Lord, come be with us and stay with us. Help us to follow your leading for our whole lives. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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