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Exodus 32 Bible study: The golden calf
When the LORD said, "I will make of you a great nation" (32:10), he was offering Moses the promise first made to Abram: "I will make of you a great nation" (Genesis 12:2). Moses answered by pleading for the people, reminding the LORD of his oath (32:13), and later asking to be blotted out of God's book if they weren't forgiven (32:32).
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“Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“After building an altar before the calf, Aaron announced a feast to the LORD.”
Is that in Exodus 32, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Who brought them up out of Egypt?
Watch who gets the credit for the exodus. The people say to Aaron, "this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him" (32:1). When the calf is made, they say, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (32:4). At this mountain the LORD had said, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (20:2). Then the LORD tells Moses, "your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!" (32:7). Moses answers, "why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?" (32:11). By the end of the prayer, the narrator calls them "his people" (32:14).
Where it leads to Jesus
Written for us
Exodus 32:6leads to1 Corinthians 10:14-21
The people "sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play" (32:6). Paul quotes it: "Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play’" (1 Corinthians 10:7). He says "these things were our examples" (1 Corinthians 10:6) and "they were written for our admonition" (1 Corinthians 10:11), and tells his readers, "flee from idolatry" (1 Corinthians 10:14). Then he turns to the Lord's table: "The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16), and "You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons" (1 Corinthians 10:21). At the calf's feast the people ate and drank (32:5-6); Paul warns those who share in the blood and body of Christ against idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14-21).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Exodus 32
That was a taste
The rest of Exodus 32 is waiting in Favor
- A calf, and a feast to the LORD
- Offered a great nation, Moses prayed
- Paul and Stephen retell it
- Moses remembers those forty days
- Moses and Paul
- The words come back
- 10 questions as you read
- 10 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Exodus 32 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
עֵגֶלegelsay E-gel
Strong's: "a (male) calf (as frisking round), especially one nearly grown (i.e. a steer)". Brown-Driver-Briggs: "calf". Exodus uses the word six times, all in this chapter (32:4, 8, 19, 20, 24, 35). Moses later tells it again: "You had made yourselves a molded calf" (Deuteronomy 9:16). Jeroboam "made two calves of gold" (1 Kings 12:28), and a psalm looks back: "They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image" (Psalm 106:19). Hosea says of the calf of Samaria, "The workman made it, and it is no God" (Hosea 8:6).
For your group
Exodus 32 Bible study questions
- 1When Moses delayed on the mountain, the people asked for gods "which shall go before us" (32:1). What do you find yourself reaching for when God seems slow or out of sight?
- 2Aaron told Moses, "I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf" (32:24), and said the people were "set on evil" (32:22). When is it hardest for you to say plainly what you did?
- 3Moses prayed for people who had just sinned, and offered himself for them (32:30-32). Hebrews says Jesus "lives forever to make intercession" (Hebrews 7:25). What does it mean to you that someone prays for you? Who could you pray for like that?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Exodus 32 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home