Fear – Exodus, Part 7

When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry.  He threw the tablets [of the law] from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain.[1]  Moses saw that the people were running wild, for Aaron had let them get completely out of control, causing derision from their enemies.[2]

King James’ translators painted a more vivid picture of how out of control the people were running wildMoses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies).[3]  Even in this translation Aaron’s role seems potentially passive.  By conceding to their demands for a golden calf Aaron made them naked (euphemistically speaking) unto their shame among their enemiesJohn Nelson Darby[4] gave this verse a different twist in his translation: Moses saw the people how they were stripped; for Aaron had stripped them to [their] shame before their adversaries.  This sounds more like Aaron as officiating priest commanded the people to strip for πορνεία,[5] the ritualized sexual worship they had practiced in Egypt.[6]

The translators of the NET do not believe that the Israelites engaged in such worship[7] in Exodus 32 (nor that the Greek word πορνεία[8] refers to it, as far as I can tell).  The note on the word translated running wild and completely out of control reads: “The word is difficult to interpret. There does not seem to be enough evidence to justify the KJV’s translation ‘naked.’ It appears to mean something like ‘let loose’ or ‘lack restraint’ (Prov 29:18). The idea seems to be that the people had broken loose, were undisciplined, and were completely given over to their desires.”  In 1 Corinthians 10:7, however, Paul’s quotation of Exodus 32:6—The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play—the note reads: “The term ‘play’ may refer to idolatrous, sexual play here, although that is determined by the context rather than the meaning of the word itself (cf. BDAG 750 s.v. παίζω).”

Whoever is for the Lord, come to me, Moses said.  All the Levites gathered around him, and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Each man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”[9]

I have seen this people, the Lord had said to Moses on the mountain.  Look what a stiff-necked people they are [Table]!  So now, leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them [Table]…[10]  With these words in his mind, though he had pleaded with the Lord to turn from your burning anger, and relent of this evil against your people,[11] when he saw their sin with his own eyes Moses formed an ad hoc militia or national guard.  Here I can see the ministry that produced death (θανάτου, a form of θάνατος)[12] – carved in letters on stone tablets[13] functioning as the ministry that produced condemnation (κατακρίσεως, a form of κατάκρισις).[14]

Though I have considered whether Moses had a change of heart, I think it was the same Spirit, who through Moses’ words caused the Lord to relent over the evil that he had said he would do to his people,[15] who spoke the words through him, Each man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.  And He did this for the very same reason, to spare most of the people of Israel, to remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about I will give to your descendants, and they will inherit it forever.”[16]

The Levites did what Moses ordered, and that day about three thousand men of the people died.[17]  The Levites were not included in the census of males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army.[18]  Whether their number was comparable to the other clans (50,000) or half the size of the smallest clan (16,000), their campaign was not exceptionally ruthless.  Apparently these deaths served no other purpose than to restore order, to bring a halt to the people’s play.

The deaths of three thousand men had provided no atonement (Exodus 32:30-32 NET).

The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a very serious sin, but now I will go up to the Lord – perhaps I can make atonement on behalf of your sin.”  So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has committed a very serious sin, and they have made for themselves gods of gold [Table].  But now, if you will forgive their sin…, but if not, wipe me out from your book that you have written” [Table].

In fact, Moses was unable to make atonement for those who sinned.  And the deaths of three thousand men were not sufficient punishment (Exodus 32:33-35 NET).

The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me – that person I will wipe out of my book.  So now go, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about.  See, my angel will go before you.  But on the day that I punish, I will indeed punish them for their sin.” And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf – the one Aaron made.

This is law.  This is fear-based righteousness.  It is not the fear of witnessing the catastrophic destruction of the Egyptian army.  It is not the fear of hearing a voice from something like a volcano in full ash eruption.  It is the fear of leaders (Moses and the Levites) using lethal force to uphold the law, and the fear of God as a potential enemy.

The Lord said to Moses, “Go up from here, you and the people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’  I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.  Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey.”[19]

It sounds wonderful.  The Lord will lead and guide them into a land of plenty.  But the fear must be ever present.  But I will not go up among you, the Lord continued, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.[20]

Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting.  Anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.

And when Moses went out to the tent, all the people would get up and stand at the entrance to their tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent.  And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses.  When all the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people, each one at the entrance of his own tent, would rise and worship.  The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend.[21]

It may not have occurred to Moses to consider his exalted position the ministry that produced death or the ministry that produced condemnation, though he seemed to recognize it in respect to the Levites who followed him.  “You have been consecrated today for the Lord,” he said to them, “for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today.”[22]  But it did occur to him to seek something more from God, something we might call a ministry of the Spirit[23] or a ministry that produces righteousness.[24]

Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have been saying to me, ‘Bring this people up,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.  But you said, ‘I know you by name, and also you have found favor in my sight.’  Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your way, that I may know you, that I may continue to find favor in your sight.  And see that this nation is your people.”[25]

“All things have been given to me by my Father,” Jesus said.  “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.”  Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!  For I tell you that many prophets and kings longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”[26]

And the Lord said [to Moses], “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  And Moses said to him, “If your presence does not go with us, do not take us up from here.  For how will it be known then that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people?  Is it not by your going with us, so that we will be distinguished, I and your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?”[27]


[1] Exodus 32:19 (NET)

[2] Exodus 32:25 (NET)

[3] Exodus 32:25 (KJV)

[7] Note 22

[9] Exodus 32:26, 27 (NET)

[10] Exodus 32:9, 10a (NET)

[11] Exodus 32:12b (NET) Table

[13] 2 Corinthians 3:7 (NET)

[14] 2 Corinthians 3:9 (NET)

[15] Exodus 32:14b (NET)

[16] Exodus 32:13 (NET) Table

[17] Exodus 32:28 (NET)

[19] Exodus 33:1-3a (NET)

[20] Exodus 33:3b (NET)

[21] Exodus 33:7-11a (NET)

[22] Exodus 32:29 (NET)

[23] 2 Corinthians 3:8 (NET)

[24] 2 Corinthians 3:9 (NET)

[25] Exodus 33:12, 13 (NET)

[26] Luke 10:22-24 (NET)

[27] Exodus 33:14-16 (NET)

Romans, Part 36

What shall we say then? Paul continued, that the Gentiles who did not pursue (διώκοντα, a form of διώκω)[1] righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη)[2] obtained it (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη), that is, a righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) that is by faith, but Israel even though pursuing (διώκων, another form of διώκω) a law of righteousness (δικαιοσύνης, another form of δικαιοσύνη) did not attain it.[3]  In other words, people who really worked at achieving righteousness by pursuing God’s law did not attain that righteousness, while people who did not pursue righteousness at all did attain it.

Isolated from any context, this sounds extraordinarily unfair.  But this decision was made so far beyond any judgment of mine regarding what is fair, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[4]

When Rebekah had conceived children by one man, Paul had written earlier, our ancestor Isaac – even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works [ἔργων, a form of ἔργον][5] but by his calling [καλοῦντος, a form of καλέω][6]) – it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,” just as it is written:Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[7]  Complaining about this is about as productive as complaining about who my parents were.  But just as God knows my parents and my upbringing, what advantages or debilities that afforded me, He knows who has received mercy and who He has hardened: God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens (σκληρύνει, a form of σκληρύνω)[8] whom he chooses to harden.[9]

Why not? Paul continued.  Why didn’t Israel attain the righteousness they pursued by law?  Because they pursued it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works (ἔργων, a form of ἔργον).[10]  Paul wasn’t writing about faith alone, dead faith that produces no works: So also faith, if it does not have works (ἔργα, another form of ἔργον), is dead being by itself.[11]  Instead he wrote of deeds that have been done in God through faith in His credited righteousness: For everyone who does evil deeds (φαῦλα, a form of φαῦλος),[12] Jesus said, hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds (ἔργα, another form of ἔργον) will not be exposed.  But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds (ἔργα, another form of ἔργον) have been done in God.[13]

Israel did not attain righteousness because they pursued it by dead works, if you will, apart from faith in the righteousness that comes from God:  For ignoring the righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) that comes from God, Paul wrote early in the next chapter, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) they did not submit to God’s righteousness (δικαιοσύνῃ, another form of δικαιοσύνη).[14]

One more point of clarification before moving on:  The Gentiles who did not pursue (διώκοντα, a form of διώκω) righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη) before Paul preached the Gospel to them, did pursue it afterward, but not a law of righteousness (except those he wrote to at Galatia and Colossae in order to correct that very error).  Paul’s instructions to the young Gospel preacher Timothy are helpful here: pursue (δίωκε, another form of διώκω) righteousness (δικαιοσύνη, a form of δικαιοσύνη) (e.g., the righteousness that comes from God), godliness, faithfulness (πίστιν, a form of πίστις),[15] love (ἀγάπην, a form of ἀγάπη),[16] endurance,[17] and gentleness (πραϋπαθίαν, a form of πρᾳότης);[18] and again, pursue (δίωκε, another form of διώκω) righteousness (δικαιοσύνην, a form of δικαιοσύνη), faithfulness (πίστιν, a form of πίστις), love (ἀγάπην, a form of ἀγάπη), and peace (εἰρήνην, a form of εἰρήνη),[19] in company with others who call on the Lord from a pure heart.[20]  I note again how much of this flows directly from the Holy Spirit: the fruit of the Spirit is love (ἀγάπη), joy, peace (εἰρήνη), patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (πίστις), gentleness (πραΰτης, a form of πραΰτης), and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.[21]

They stumbled over the stumbling stone, Paul wrote of those who pursued a law of righteousness, just as it is written,Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall, yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.[22]  I think it is worthwhile to unpack this a bit.  The first phrase is very reminiscent of Isaiah 28:16.

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Paul (NET)

Blue Letter Bible (Septuagint)

NET Bible (Greek parallel text)

1

Look, I am laying in Zion a stone…

Romans 9:33

ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐμβαλῶ[23] εἰς τὰ θεμέλια[24] Σιων λίθον

Isaiah 28:16

ἰδοὺ τίθημι[25] ἐν Σιὼν λίθον

Romans 9:33

Look, I am laying a stone in Zion, Isaiah wrote, an approved stone, set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation…I will make justice the measuring line, fairness the plumb line…[26]  The rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose ἐγὼ ἐμβαλῶ (I throw) a stone, which is quite evocative of Moses and the stone tablets of the law: When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry.  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain.[27]  Paul did not believe that the cornerstone for the foundation (θεμέλια) stone (λίθον, a form of λίθος) of Zion was the law.  He chose the word τίθημι (I will lay) instead.

For no one can lay (θεῖναι, a form of τίθημι) any foundation (θεμέλιον, another form of θεμέλιος) other than what is being laid, Paul wrote the Corinthians, which is Jesus Christ.[28]  And Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down (τίθημι) my life for the sheep…This is why the Father loves me – because I lay down (τίθημι) my life, so that I may take it back again.  No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down (τίθημι) of my own free will. I have the authority to lay it down (θεῖναι, a form of τίθημι), and I have the authority to take it back again.[29]

Then Paul alluded to Isaiah 8:14—a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall—but he didn’t quote from the Septuagint.  Indeed this is what the Lord told me, Isaiah wrote.  He took hold of me firmly and warned me not to act like these people (Isaiah 8:11-16 NET):

“Do not say, ‘Conspiracy,’ every time these people say the word.  Don’t be afraid of what scares them; don’t be terrified.  You must recognize the authority of the Lord who commands armies.  He is the one you must respect; he is the one you must fear.  He will become a sanctuary, but a stone that makes a person trip, and a rock that makes one stumble – to the two houses of Israel.  He will become a trap and a snare to the residents of Jerusalem.  Many will stumble over the stone and the rock, and will fall and be seriously injured, and will be ensnared and captured.”  Tie up the scroll as legal evidence, seal the official record of God’s instructions and give it to my followers.

So Paul equated the stone the Lord would lay and the stone He would become to Jacob (the two houses of Israel).  Did the translators of the Septuagint make this connection?  It’s hard to say.  They amended the text apparently to read, “and you shall not come against him as against a stumbling-stone, neither as against the falling of a rock.”[30]

Finally Paul concluded with, yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame, which is quite similar to the end of Isaiah 28:16 in the Septuagint.

#

Paul (NET)

Blue Letter Bible (Septuagint)

NET Bible (Greek parallel text)

2

…yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame

Romans 9:33

καὶ ὁ πιστεύων ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ οὐ μὴ καταισχυνθῇ[31]

Isaiah 28:16

καὶ ὁ πιστεύων ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται

Romans 9:33

The differences here are subtle.  The Septuagint “uses the stronger negation, οὐ μὴ, whereas the NT uses the more normal weaker negation of merely, ‘οὐ’.”[32]  The words καταισχυνθῇ and καταισχυνθήσεται are different forms of the same verb.  “Thus, the difference here is only in regards to the mood and tense of the verb, having the aorist form and subjunctive mood in the LXX [Septuagint] and the future form and indicative mood in the NT.  In the end since the subjunctive can be said to represent the verbal action (or state) as uncertain but probable (GGBB, 461), both Greek texts look forward to a future pleasant fulfillment for those who trust in him.  While the LXX’s subjunctive may be a bit weaker in force, do not forget the strong οὐ μὴ which precedes the subjunctive, thus putting away any doubt as to its completion.  Both Greek texts follow the MT equally as well, and the sense is not changed by this variation.”[33]

 

Addendum (6/20/2015): Jim Searcy has published that the Septuagint is a hoax written by Origen and Eusebius 200 hundred years after Christ.  “In fact, the Septuagint ‘quotes’ from the New Testament and not vice versa…”  His contention is that the “King James Version is the infallible Word of God.”  So, I’ll re-examine the quotations above with the KJV.

#

Paul (KJV)

KJV

NET Bible (Greek parallel text)

1

Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone…

Romans 9:33

Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone…

Isaiah 28:16

ἰδοὺ τίθημι ἐν Σιὼν λίθον προσκόμματος

Romans 9:33

I’ll leave it to others to reason why Origen or Eusebius changed τίθημι (I lay) to ἐμβαλῶ (I throw) in their false Septuagint rather than copying Paul here.

#

Paul (KJV)

KJV

NET Bible (Greek parallel text)

2

…and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Romans 9:33

…he that believeth shall not make haste.

Isaiah 28:16

καὶ ὁ πιστεύων ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται

Romans 9:33

The KJV here is similar to the NET: The one who maintains his faith will not panic.[34] If the original Hebrew read make haste or panic rather than be ashamed (καταισχυνθήσεται), I leave it to Mr Searcy or others to understand why Paul changed it and why Origen or Eusebius almost (καταισχυνθῇ) but not quite copied Paul.

Romans, Part 37

Paul’s OT Quotes – Romans 9:25-33

Back to Justice, Vengeance and Punishment

Back to Fear – Exodus, Part 3

Back to Romans, Part 43


[3] Romans 9:30, 31 (NET)

[4] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[7] Romans 9:10-12 (NET)

[9] Romans 9:18 (NET)

[10] Romans 9:32a (NET)

[11] James 2:17 (NET)

[13] John 3:20, 21 (NET)

[14] Romans 10:3 (NET)

[18] 1 Timothy 6:11b (NET)

[20] 2 Timothy 2:22 (NET)

[21] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[22] Romans 9:32b, 33 (NET)

[24] Suddenly a great earthquake occurred, so that the foundations (θεμέλια, a form of θεμέλιος) of the prison were shaken (Acts 16:26 NET).

[26] Isaiah 28:16a, 17a (NET)

[27] Exodus 32:19 (NET)

[28] 1 Corinthians 3:11 (NET)

[29] John 10:14, 15, 17, 18a (NET)

[34] Isaiah 28:16b (NET)