Reflections on 3000 People and God's Sword

Over the past few weeks, I've been hearing, from various sources, references to the Book of Exodus.  (Jeremiah is also coming up, but I need to do some more reading...)  It seems logical -- with high unemployment, trying economic times, and unrelenting summer heat ("Heat index DOWN to 118 degrees"?  C'mon!), it's definitely a time of testing, trying, and purification for all those enduring the summer time doldrums also known as the "dog days of summer."  But as I was at the gym at 4 a.m. (going through some testing and purification of my own!), I caught something from one of the televangelists that seemed to stick with me, and I thought that I'd share it with you.

As I said earlier, what the Israelites went through in Exodus could definitely be considered trial, test and purification  (Wandering around the desert for 40 years definitely qualifies in my book).  But it's also a rather "bloody" book.  Moses kills the Egyptian overseeer (Exodus 2:11-15), the 7 plagues that God sends down to the Egyptians (Exodus 7:14 through 12:39), and finally, the closing of the Red Sea on the Eguptian army chasing the Israelites out of Egypt (Exodus 14).  But the instance used in his message was when Moses brought down the original tables holding the Ten Commandments, and found the Israelites worshiping a golden calf. (Exodus 32:15-28)

Moses turned around and came down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of The Testimony. The tablets were written on both sides, front and back. God made the tablets and God wrote the tablets— engraved them.

When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting noisily, he said to Moses, "That's the sound of war in the camp!"

But Moses said,
Those aren't songs of victory,
And those aren't songs of defeat,
I hear songs of people throwing a party.

And that's what it was. When Moses came near to the camp and saw the calf and the people dancing, his anger flared. He threw down the tablets and smashed them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made, melted it down with fire, pulverized it to powder, then scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

Moses said to Aaron, "What on Earth did these people ever do to you that you involved them in this huge sin?"
Aaron said, "Master, don't be angry. You know this people and how set on evil they are. They said to me, 'Make us gods who will lead us. This Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him.'
"So I said, 'Who has gold?' And they took off their jewelry and gave it to me. I threw it in the fire and out came this calf."
Moses saw that the people were simply running wild—Aaron had let them run wild, disgracing themselves before their enemies. He took up a position at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is on God's side, join me!" All the Levites stepped up.
He then told them, "God's orders, the God of Israel: 'Strap on your swords and go to work. Crisscross the camp from one end to the other: Kill brother, friend, neighbor.'"

The Levites carried out Moses' orders. Three thousand of the people were killed that day.

That's right. Under orders from God, 3000 Israelites died.  God's sword fell on those who had sinned against Him.  Even after this, God sent down a plague on the remaining refugees as a further punishment. (Exodus 32:30-35).

Flash forward a whole bunch of years -- to the first Pentecost.  Another group of 3000 saw the effects of God's sword, but from a whole different angle: (Acts 2:37-41)

Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?"


Peter said, "Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites."

He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, "Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!"
That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.

And here's where I started to see parallels and changes.  Just as 40 days is a symbolic statement for "a sufficient period of time," I see the use of 3000 people as a good number of people.  We're not talking small groups or gatherings here, but a rather significant number of people.  In Exodus, I see the sword of God of the Old Testament -- a jealous god that tolerated no substitution, no competition, and no quarter.  Sin against Him at your own peril.  In that time, we were all sinners, falling fall short of God's expectation of us, and there was nothing we could do about it.  Even worse, there was nothing, no one that stood between us and God.  This meant that the sword was leveled at us -- or, more specifically, the 3000 that didn't stand with God in Exodus 32.

The sword that we see in Acts at that first Pentecost is the same sword.  The sword of a jealous god.  We're still sinners, and nothing that we could do to change it.  However, we had someone on our side -- Jesus Christ -- to stand in our stead to take our punishment.  And in a post-Easter world, it's Christ that not just stands in our stead for our punishment, but also stands by our side.  Here, in this post-Easter world, God's sword is no longer pointed at us as it was in Exodus, but at the Devil.  Me thinks I'll keep standing with God.

Greg