Exodus 32:15-35 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand… I. THE DESCENT or MOSES THE EMBLEM OF THE LAW'S ENTRANCE INTO A WORLD OF SIN (vers. 15-29). 1. He came with tables written by God's own finger. The Divine origin and claims of the law are still attested by its own nature and by man's conscience. 2. He was met by the exhibition of gross and defiant sin. The law does not come to a people waiting to receive the knowledge of God's will, but busy with their idolatry and breaking what they already know to be his will. 3. The law's advent, therefore, is in wrath (ver. 19). (1) The broken tables declare that God's covenant is broken. This is still shown in the taking away of God's word from the sinful: it is not understood. Though held in the hand, a veil is drawn between the soul and it. Spiritual death, rationalism, and infidelity, are tokens to-day of God's broken covenant. (2) The burning of the idol, etc. The broken law is a prophecy and foretaste of wrath. (3) The slaughter of the persistent idolaters. The place of feasting becomes the place of death. II. THE INTERCESSOR. 1. His deep consciousness of the evil of their sin (vers. 30, 31). The intercessor cannot make light of man's iniquity. He who bore our burdens felt their weight and terribleness as we have never yet done. 2. His love. Though he hates their iniquity, his life is bound up with theirs (ver. 32). III. THE TERRIBLENESS OF SIN AS SEEN IN THE MIRROR OF THE DIVINE ANGER. 1. The impossibility of ransom. "Whosoever hath sinned against me him will I blot out of my book." There is but one sacrifice which avails, and that reaches the heart of the sinful and changes it. 2. Mercy to the unrenewed only means a delayed judgement: "Nevertheless, in the day when I visit I will visit their sins upon them." - U. Parallel Verses KJV: And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. |
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