Lesson 11: The Covenant is Confirmed
Exodus 24
The first two verses connect back to 20:21, when God called Moses to ascend Mount Sinai and bring with him the seventy elders, Aaron and his sons, who were to act as the priests. Moses shared the words of God with the people, and once again they promised to obey everything God had told them to do. Moses then wrote down all that God had said, which means the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant.
It would take more than the written word and promises to ratify the commitment of the people, so the next morning, Moses built an altar to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The sons of Aaron offered sacrifices at the altar, sprinkling blood on the stones signifying that God had forgiven the people of their sins.
1. What was the significance of Aaron’s sons serving as priests? ________________________
2. Name the twelve tribes of Israel.
A. __________________ B. _________________
C. __________________ D. _________________
E. ___________________ F. __________________
G. ___________________ H. __________________
I. ____________________ J. ___________________
K. ____________________ L. ___________________
3. Joseph was a son of Jacob, why is there no tribe for him? ___________________
4. What was special about the tribe of Levi? ________________________________
5. Who accompanied Moses up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone? What was the significance of this? _____________________________________________________________
6. Who did Moses leave in charge while he and Joshua were on the mountain? ____________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. What did the glory of God on the mountain look like to the Israelites? __________________
8. How long did Moses stay on the mountain? _______________________________________
(Note: Chapters 25-31 pertain to instruction for building the Tabernacle and will be covered in a subsequent lesson.)
Read 32:1-6
An old adage concerning children is, that if you want them to behave you must check them and correct them – often! Moses was gone from their presence on the mountain with God for forty days and now we see what happened.
9. What does 32:1 say about the spiritual maturity of the Israelites? _____________________________
10. What was the strength of character shown by Aaron? _____________________________________
11. What would you have done differently if you were there? __________________________________
Read 32:7-14
12. What was God’s response to the actions by the people? ___________________________________
13. How did Moses plead their case with God? ______________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Read 32:15-18
14. How are the two tablets carried by Moses described? _____________________________________
15. How did Joshua and Moses differ in describing the noise they heard coming from the camp?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Read 32:19-20
16. What did Moses do with the tablets? Was this justified? ___________________________________
17. What did he do with the golden calf? __________________________________________________
Read 32:21-24
18. How did Aaron respond when confronted by Moses? ______________________________________
19. How do you account for the lie Aaron told in 32:24? ______________________________________
20. Have you ever been guilty of “passing the buck?” _________________________________________
Read 32:25-29
21. How had the people come to regard Aaron? Was there any hope for him to again function as a leader? ___________________________________________________________________________
22. What did Moses do to gain control of the situation? ________________________________
23. Wasn’t this an extreme measure? Was he justified? _______________________________
Read 32:30-35
24. What did Moses offer to the Lord when he went back on the mountain to atone for the sins of the people? ________________________________________________________________
25. How hard is it to accept responsibility for the actions of others? _____________________
____________________________________________________________________________.
26. Who does the action of Moses remind you of? ___________________________________
27. What punishment did God inflict on the people for their act of disobedience? __________
____________________________________________________________________________
The Israelites were learning, painfully, that their actions had severe consequences. They had just come from the mountain top experience of witnessing the glory of God to being objects of his anger and wrath. How could things ever be made right again? This is a question we often ask ourselves and the answer is always the same. We pay for our mistakes but God’s love is unfailing and he allows us to return after we have fallen away. Praise be to God for His grace and mercy.