The punishment of idolatry.
God did not long allow the sin against his majesty to remain unpunished. He declared his will to Moses (Exodus 32:27)—"Thus saith the Lord God of Israel"—and Moses, with his usual dutifulness, was prompt to execute his will. Having obtained the necessary force, he lost no time in inflicting the punishment. Of the punishment itself, we shall do well to note—
I. ITS SEVERITY. Men talk and think very slightingly in these days of sins against God's majesty. They profess scepticism, agnosticism, atheism, "with a light heart." The idea does not occur to them that their conduct is likely to bring upon them any punishment. But "God's thoughts are not as man's thoughts"—God visits such sins with death. Three thousand are slain with the sword on one day because of a few hours of idol-worship. Such is God's award. And the record of it has been "written for our learning, upon whom the ends of the world are come." It is intended to teach us that God will visit for these things; and, if not in this world, then assuredly in the next.
II. ITS JUSTICE. Idolatry is apostasy. It is a "casting of God behind the back"—a turning away from him, and a deliberate preference to him of something which is not he, and which cannot therefore but be infinitely inferior. The heart witnesses against idolatry; it tells us that we are bound, being God's creatures, to devote our whole existence to him. Idolatry might well be punished with death, if it had never been positively forbidden. But the Israelites had heard it forbidden amid the thunders of Sinai (Exodus 20:4, Exodus 20:5). They had a law against it in "the Book of the Covenant" (Exodus 20:23). They had pledged themselves to obey this law (Exodus 24:3). They could not therefore now complain. If all who had taken part in the calf-worship had perished, no injustice would have been done. But God tempers justice with mercy. There were well-nigh six hundred thousand sinners; but the lives of three thousand only were taken.
III. THE METHOD WHEREBY IT WAS ESCAPED. Those escaped who put away their sin as,
1. The Levites, who hastened to repent, and placed themselves on the Lord's side at the first summons made by Moses. This was the best course, and the only safe one. This was "turning to the Lord with all the heart;" and, though no atonement for past sin, was accepted by God through the (coming) atonement of his Son, and obtained from him, not only forgiveness, but a blessing (Exodus 32:29).
2. Those escaped who desisted either when Moses made his first appeal, or even when they saw the swords drawn, and vengeance about to be taken. To draw back from sin is the only way to escape its worst consequences. Even then, all its consequences are not escaped. Their iniquity was still "visited" on those who were now allowed to escape with their lives—"the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf" (Exodus 32:35) at a later date.