Lesson #15

The Golden Calf

(Exodus 32: 1 33: 23)
In Lesson #13 God gave the blueprints for
building the Tabernacle, and in Lesson #14 God
consecrated Aaron and his sons as priests.

The Tabernacle is a physical structure that
enables a sinful people to gain access to an
infinitely holy God; and a priests job
description is to stand between the people and
God as a mediator, to speak to God on behalf of
the people, and to minister at the altar.




















In Lesson #14 we also learned
that in Israel priests are
drawn solely from the tribe
of Levi. In Judaism one
cannot feel called to be a
priest, aspire to be a priest or
study to be a priest: one is
born a priestor not.
The Jewish priesthood is
purely hereditary.

















To this point in our narrative:

God has raised up Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt;
To convince Pharaoh to let my people go, God has slammed Egypt with a
devastating series of ten plagues, bringing Pharaoh to his knees and
thrashing the Egyptian gods;
God has led his people out of Egypt with a pillar of cloud and fire, parted
the waters of the Red Sea, drowned the Egyptian army and brought the
Israelites safely to Mt. Sinai, providing food and water for 2 million people
along the way;
In a terrifying scene of smoke, fire, rolling thunder and celestial
pyrotechnics, God has reaffirmed his covenant with the Israelites;
God then gave the Israelites two great gifts: 1) the Law and 2) the
Tabernacle, and finally;
Moses disappeared into the fire and smoke atop Mt. Sinai, where he
received a vision of God, enthroned.








And then . . . forty days pass
without a word from either
Moses or God.

Whats going on?
Is Moses dead?
Did God abandon us?
What do we do now?








































A Golden Calf?









Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
































Herrad von Landsberg, The Golden Calf, Hortus Deliciarum (illuminated manuscript),
c. 1180.
[The Hortus Deliciarum was an illuminated encyclopedia compiled by the nun and abbess, Herrad of Landsberg at
the Hohenburg Abbey in Alsace, France. It is the first encyclopedia compiled by a woman. The manuscript was
destroyed in 1870 when the municipal library that housed it was bombed during the siege of Strausbourgh.
Fortunately, many of the illustrations survive thanks to Christian Moritz Engelhardt, who copied them in 1818.]
The Israelites need a strong and
compassionate god to get them out of this
mess! So they turn to one of the strongest
and most compassionate gods in the
Egyptian pantheon, a god they know
intimately from their four hundred year
stay in Egypt:
Hathor






Hathor had been
worshipped since the Old
Kingdom, 2686-2181 B.C.,
long before Abraham, the
Israelites or Moses arrived
in Egypt. The daughter of
Ra, the sun god, and the
wife of Horus, Hathor
appears in two primary
iconographic forms: 1) as
a woman and 2) as a cow.
















As a woman, Hathors
iconography portrays her
wearing the headdress of
a sun disk and a cows
horns.
She is often referred to as
the golden one and
she of the beautiful
hair. The Greeks later
associated Hathor with
the goddess of love,
Aphrodite.






Ptolomy IV (right) presenting himself to Hathor (center)
and her sister, Isis (left) at Temple of Isis, Philae, Egypt.

As a cow, Hathor represents
motherhood. Here Hathor
suckles Hatshepsut (lower
right) as the god Amon
(lower left) looks on.

In our dating system
Hatshepsut is the princess
who fishes Moses out of the
Nile, becomes his adoptive
mother and later becomes
queen of Egypt herself.






Relief from wall of Deir el-Bahri shows Hathor in bovine
form as the nurturing mother goddess.

eywacke statue of
Menkaure.
Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
eywacke statue of
Menkaure.
Egyptian Museum, Cairo.







Pyramid of Menkaure, Giza Plateau, Cairo.
Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
Menkaure, Pharaoh of the Old
Kingdoms 4
th
dynasty,
c. 2530 B.C.
































This sculpted triad shows Menkaure flanked by two women, Hathor on the left, who is holding
Menkaures hand affectionately, and Cynopolis, the 17
th
nome of Upper Egypt, on the right. The
inscription on the base reads: King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Menkaure, beloved of Hathor.
Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
































Temple of Hathor
Deir el-Medina, West
Bank, Luxor
Temple of Hathor
Philae Island, Aswan
Hathor Chapel,
Mortuary Temple of
Queen Hatshepsut,
West Bank, Luxor
Temple of Hathor.
Timna Valley, Israel
Temple of Hathor
Serabit el-Khadim
Mt. Sinai
































Mt. Sinai
Serabit el-Kadhim
































Temple of Hathor, Serabit el-Khadim, Sinai, Egypt.
































Natural rock formation at Wadi el-Dir, a short distance from Mt. Sinai.
Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
































Hathor, Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
































Nicolas Poussin. The Adoration of the Golden Calf (oil on
canvas), 1634. National Gallery, London.
Then the Lord said to Moses: Go down at once
because your people, whom you brought out of
the land of Egypt have acted corruptly.
(Exodus 32: 7)




















God makes a decision . . . and Moses counters:


I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are, continued the Lord
to Moses. Let me alone, then, that my anger may burn against them
to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation.
(Exodus 32: 9-10)

1. Why, O Lord, should your anger burn against your people, whom
you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a
strong hand? (32: 11).

2. Why should the Egyptians say, With evil intent he brought them
out, that he might kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the
face of the earth? (32: 12).

2. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel . . . (32: 13).

































Michelangelo, Creation of the Sun
and the Moon, detail (fresco), 1512.
Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.
Conclusion

So the Lord changed his mind.
(Exodus 32: 14)





God makes a 2
nd
decision . . . and Moses counters:


I will send an angel before you to a land flowing with milk and honey.
But I myself will not go in your company, because you are a stiff-necked
people; otherwise I might consume you on the way.
(Exodus 33: 2-3)

1. Moses said to the Lord, See, you are telling me: Lead this people.
But you have not let me know whom you will send with me (33:
12a).

2. Yet you have said: You are my intimate friend: you have found
favor with me (33: 12b).

2. See, this nation is indeed your own people (32: 13).

































Michelangelo, Creation of the Sun
and the Moon, detail (fresco), 1512.
Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.
Conclusion

This request, too, which you have
made, I will carry out, because you
have found favor with me and you
are my intimate friend.
(Exodus 33: 17)






1. Why would the Israelites, after all God had done for
them, turn to worshipping a golden calf?
2. What does the golden calf signify?
3. If you were at Mt. Sinai with the Israelites, what
would you have done?
4. Here in Lesson #15, Moses argues with God, not
once, but twice. Are there any examples elsewhere
in Scripture where someone argues with God, as
Moses does?
5. Is Moses justified in killing 3,000 Israelites after the
golden calf incident?




Copyright 2014 by William C. Creasy
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