The Story of Moses and the Ten Commandments

The Incident of the Golden Calf

• Moses went up to Mount Sinai, where God gave him the tablets of the commandments, and he stayed for 40 days and nights.
• The people, thinking Moses had abandoned them, gathered around Aaron and asked him to create a god to lead them.
• Aaron made a golden calf, and the people offered sacrifices to it, sat down to eat and drink, and made merry.

God's Response

• God told Moses that the people had acted perversely and turned aside from the way He commanded them.
• God told Moses to go down from the mountain, as the people had cast for themselves an image of a calf, worshipped it, and sacrificed to it.

Moses' Reaction

• Moses came down from the mountain, saw the golden calf, and threw down the tablets at the foot of the mountain in anger.
• He took the calf, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
• Moses scolded the people and went to the Lord to beg for forgiveness for their sin.

Moses' Intercession

• Moses begged forgiveness for the people, saying, "Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold."
• He offered to take the punishment for their sins, saying, "But now, if you will only forgive their sin – but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written."

God's Forgiveness and the Covenant

• God forgave the people and told Moses to cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and He would write on them the words that were on the former tablets.
• The covenant that God made with Israel turned them into the people of the covenant, making them:
  • God's own people
  • The people chosen by God
  • The people being led by God
  • The priestly people who offer sacrifices to God