Merciless Vengeance or Holy Wrath
Exodus 32:27-28 (Joshua 7:24+; 10/all)
Exodus 32:27-28: 27 He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’ ” 28 So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.
Joshua 7:24-26: 24 Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.” And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. 26 They raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day, and the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the valley of Achor to this day.
Joshua 10:40 (36-42): 40 Then Joshua struck all the land, the hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slope and all their kings. He left no survivor, but he utterly destroyed all who breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel had commanded. See also Joshua 10:7-15
These passages are a testimony to the Holy sinlessness of our God and His infinitely righteous, immutable, just Holy hatred of all evil, a hatred that demands, as His Holy Spirit enabled, beloved children, unwavering obedience and the pursuit of Holiness and purity in daily living – John 14:15,21,23.
What prompted God to demand and command so severe a judgement? Was it merciless hateful vengeance or was it Holy righteous wrath?
Indeed, what did prompt God to demand so severe a judgement? The sin of idolatry! In this case the sin of Aaron, God’s chosen High Priest of Israel. Aaron’s sin was his greater fear of man than of God. That fear produced a capitulation to the evil demands of the people (Israel) on his part that led him to fashion the “molten calf” in gold. He then compounded his sin by willingly condoning the blasphemous proclamation of the rebellious Israelites as recorded in Exodus 32:4 when they declared “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” In spite of manifold experiences of God’s loving, faithful, immutable provision for them, they had, by their own sinful choice, become like those that Jeremiah would later describe as “……. altogether stupid and foolish in their discipline of delusion—their idol is wood! Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith; violet and purple are their clothing; they are all the work of skilled men (Jeremiah 10:8-9). There are two very revealing examples here of the inherent propensity of sinful men, as depraved sons of Adam, to rationalize and justify their sin. First, Aaron’s response to Moses when he confronted him about his sin was, comparatively speaking, the same “blame somebody or something else” lame excuse Adam gave to God when God confronted him about his sin in Genesis 3. We might justifiably respond with incredulity at the absurdity of Aaron’s response, but before doing so, look closely at your own heart and life to be sure you aren’t making the same kind of “shift the blame” responses to God in your pursuit of holiness as His faithful child. And what was Aaron’s response? Exodus 32:21-26 reveals Aaron’s response that prompted the command of God in verses 27-28:
Exodus 32:21-26: 21 Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?” 22 Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. 23 “For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24 “I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” 25 Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control—for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies— 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. (I have underlined those points of Aaron’s capitulation, blame shifting and absurd explanation of how “out came the calf”.)
Numerous passages of scripture bear testimony to other priests of Israel and supposed leaders of the New Testament first century church failing to fulfill their God ordained role as spiritual leaders of His elect children. Consider just two of those additional examples, one from the Old Testament and one from the New. Pay particular attention to God’s Holy command concerning each (underlined):
Ezekiel 22:23-31: 23 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 24 “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.’ 25 “There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in the midst of her. 26 “Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27 “Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey, by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain. 28 “Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken. 29 “The people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery, and they have wronged the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner without justice. 30 “I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. 31 “Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads,” declares the Lord GOD.
Romans 16:17-18: 17 Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. 18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.
God’s response to Moses in Exodus 32:7, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” clearly reveals their sin to be rational and willful. They were completely mindful of God’s will for them to wait for Moses return from the mountain, having been with God, but they chose to ignore the will of God in order to “do their own rebellious, sinful thing”.
God’s judgement on these rebellious, idolatrous Israelites was and remains today, as a “type” or “window” if you will, into the ultimate reality of the eternal magnitude and comprehensiveness of God’s Holy, just wrath and hatred of sin as manifested in His final judgement of all who reject Jesus Christ as revealed in Revelation 19:20-20:3,10,11-14,15.
God’s instruction to Moses and the sons of Levi in verses 27 manifests, not the angry, merciless, wrath of a harsh, vengeful, hateful, unloving god, as do the myriads of man conceived false gods like Allah, the pantheon of Mesopotamian, Greek, and Roman gods, or the infinite deities of Hinduism, Buddhism, and all things to do with Eastern Mysticism. Every false god conceived by lost men in every age of human history has been and is an angry, fearful, vengeful, merciless, hateful, unloving god. Why is that? It would seem the answer to that question should be, to a redeemed child of God, in the light of God’s word, rather evident and straightforward. Every angry, hateful, vengeful man conceived false god is such because the nature of every false god is that of his or her creator – a God hating, angry, merciless, hateful human being – Jeremiah 17:9-10; Romans 8:6-8:
Jeremiah 17:9-10: 9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? 10 “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.
Romans 8:6-8: 6 For the mind set on the flesh is dead, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Contrary to the mindset of many professing believes and social gospel preachers, this situation with the children of Israel recorded in Exodus 32:27-28 is not – let me repeat – is not the action of judgement executed by a harsh, merciless, vengeful, unloving, hateful God. NO! The judgement executed by God in Exodus 32 and Revelation 20 is the just and righteous judgement of our Holy, Sovereign loving God against the rebellious, God hating sons of Adam – the One and only True God (Titus 1:1-2; Isaiah 44:6; 55:8; Psalm 50:21; 135:6-21), the One God who is love (I John 4:7), who is the sinlessly pure, radiantly beautiful, majestically Holy, uncreated, always existent Triune God of all creation who cannot and will not tolerate the sinful rebellion of Adam’s race – Psalm 50:21-22; Revelation 20:15.
Suffice it to say, as revealed by the Holy Spirit in God’s word – the hatred of God toward evil men as sons of Satan (John 8:43-45) and His ultimate wrathful judgement on them is equally as Holy and sinlessly pure and righteous as is His sinlessly pure, regenerating, saving, sanctifying, glorifying, love and mercy and grace for His predestined, foreordained, beloved elect children – the Holy bride of Christ – Revelation 19:7-10.
Indeed, dear reader, Exodus 32:27-28 is not about a merciless, vengeful God, but it is a Biblical testimony of the sinlessly pure, Holy God of all creation revealing that He cannot and will not tolerate to any degree the sin, disobedience, and compromise of lost, rebellious sons of Adam – Revelation 19:7-10:
Revelation 19:7-10: 7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he *said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'” And he *said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 10 Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he *said to me, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Never foolishly believe that God is a God of tolerance. Patience? Infinitely so, as testified to by the fact that He has been and continues to (for the last 7-9,000 years, one day at a time), with infinite patience born out of His sinlessly pure, always existent love (I John 4:7-10), unfold His glorious plan of gracious redeeming love, one fresh new day at a time since the first day of creation and will do so until that moment in time future when He will uncreate this entire temporary universe to establish His New Heaven and New Earth – II Peter 3:3-13. But, a God of tolerance – NEVER will it be. One final thought – foolish is the individual professing believer who would declare that God is a “loving God who would never allow someone to go to hell.” The truth of Exodus 32:27-28 totally dismantles such an unbiblical concept of the love of our Holy, sinlessly pure, worthy of all our praise Heavenly Father – Job 21:30; Psalm 5:3-4; 92:6-9.
Job 21:30: 30 “For the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity; They will be led forth at the day of fury.
Psalm 5:4-5: 4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with You. 5 The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. 6 You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
Psalm 92:6-9: 6 A senseless man has no knowledge, nor does a stupid man understand this: 7 that when the wicked sprouted up like grass, and all who did iniquity flourished, it was only that they might be destroyed forevermore. 8 But You, O LORD, are on high forever. 9 For, behold, Your enemies, O LORD, for, behold, Your enemies will perish; all who do iniquity will be scattered.