Idolatry at Sinai
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see what the God of Israel would do for His people. Should they now be
destroyed, their enemies would triumph, and God would be dishonored.
The Egyptians would claim that their accusations were true—instead
of leading His people into the wilderness to sacrifice, He had caused
them to be sacrificed. They would not consider the sins of Israel; the
destruction of the people whom He had so signally honored, would
bring reproach upon His name. How great the responsibility resting
upon those whom God has highly honored, to make His name a praise
in the earth! With what care should they guard against committing sin,
to call down His judgments and cause His name to be reproached by
the ungodly!
As Moses interceded for Israel, his timidity was lost in his deep
interest and love for those for whom he had, in the hands of God, been
the means of doing so much. The Lord listened to his pleadings, and
granted his unselfish prayer. God had proved His servant; He had tested
his faithfulness and his love for that erring, ungrateful people, and
nobly had Moses endured the trial. His interest in Israel sprang from
no selfish motive. The prosperity of God’s chosen people was dearer
to him than personal honor, dearer than the privilege of becoming the
father of a mighty nation. God was pleased with his faithfulness, his
simplicity of heart, and his integrity, and He committed to him, as a
faithful shepherd, the great charge of leading Israel to the Promised
Land.
As Moses and Joshua came down from the mount, the former
bearing the “tables of the testimony,” they heard the shouts and outcries
of the excited multitude, evidently in a state of wild uproar. To Joshua
the soldier, the first thought was of an attack from their enemies.
“There is a noise of war in the camp,” he said. But Moses judged more
truly the nature of the commotion. The sound was not that of combat,
but of revelry. “It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery,
neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome; but the
noise of them that sing do I hear.”
[320]
As they drew near the encampment, they beheld the people shout-
ing and dancing around their idol. It was a scene of heathen riot, an
imitation of the idolatrous feasts of Egypt; but how unlike the solemn
and reverent worship of God! Moses was overwhelmed. He had
just come from the presence of God’s glory, and though he had been
warned of what was taking place, he was unprepared for that dreadful