The following quote is taken from evilbible.com:
"Kill
Your Neighbors - "(Moses) stood at
the entrance to the camp and shouted, 'All of you who are on the LORD's side,
come over here and join me.' And all the Levites came. He told them, 'This
is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Strap on your swords! Go back and
forth from one end of the camp to the other, killing even your brothers,
friends, and neighbors.' The Levites obeyed Moses, and about three
thousand people died that day. Then Moses told the Levites, 'Today you
have been ordained for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed him even though
it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Because of this, he will now give
you a great blessing.'" (Exodus 32:26-29 NLT)
This passage is part of the larger
story of how the Israelites sinned against God by making a golden calf to
worship. You can read the full story
here:
At this point in Israel's history,
God had just rescued the Israelites from perpetual slavery in Egypt. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for
400 years, and were oppressed with hard labor (Exodus 1:8-14). The Pharaoh of Egypt had also commanded the
murder of thousands of infant Israelite boys (Exodus 1:22). God sent Moses and Aaron to give God's
command to Pharaoh to release the Israelites, but Pharaoh refused, and so God
sent ten plagues on Egypt (Exodus 7-11).
After that, Pharaoh finally relented, and God led the Israelites (and
non-Israelites who left Egypt with them) out of Egypt and into the wilderness,
even parting the Red Sea so that they could pass through (Exodus 14). While in the wilderness God took care of the
Israelites, bringing water out of a rock for them to drink, and bread from the
sky ("manna") to eat (Exodus 16-17).
When they reached Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the covenant that God was
about to make with the Israelites: he rescued them from slavery in Egypt to
bring them into a good land of their own, to protect them, bless them and make
them his holy nation and treasured possession - as long as they kept his
commandments. The Israelites agreed to
these terms (Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7), and Moses received God's commandments on
Mount Sinai while the people were gathered at the bottom of the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and
nights (Exodus 24:18).
Moses had been gone
for so long that the Israelites began to think he had either died or abandoned
them, and in their impatience and panic, they committed a great sin. "When the people saw that Moses was so
long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, 'Come,
make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up
out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him'" (Exodus 32:1,
NIV). So Aaron fashioned a calf idol out
of the gold earrings the people brought him, and they began to engage in idol
worship, in defiance of the first commandment God had directly spoken to them
prior to Moses' going up Mount Sinai: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of
Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for
yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth
beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them" (Exodus 20:2-5,
NIV). The Israelites had received this
commandment directly from God before Moses left, but they disobeyed.
The
charge of idolatry is a very grievous sin, which God does not take lightly (see
Exodus 20:3-6, 23;
23:13, 23-24; 34:17; Leviticus 19:4; 26:1; Deuteronomy 4:15-28; 5:7; 6:14-15;
8:19; 12:31; 17:2-7; 27:15; 29:17-18).
God warned the Israelites on several occasions that if they committed
idolatry, it was a crime that warranted the death penalty. The Israelites' covenant with God demanded
that they worship and serve him only.
They were not supposed to worship other gods or fashion idols for
themselves. God had warned them that if
they did these things, it would lead to their destruction: "If you ever
forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to
them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed"
(Deuteronomy 8:19, NIV).
Why is idolatry considered such a
serious crime? The severity of the
judgment, capital punishment, is due to the severity of the sin. God is the only God, the Lord and creator of
all the universe. When anyone bows down
and worships or pays tribute to a false god or idol, they are taking credit
away from God and giving it to something undeserving of that credit. "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my
praise to idols" (Isaiah 42:8, NIV).
The crime of idolatry was so serious that it was often referred to as
adultery against God (Ezekiel 6:9).
In response to the Israelites'
betrayal after he had rescued them from slavery, God was furious. He was so angry that he told Moses he would
destroy all of them, and start over with Moses and his family, making them into
a great nation. Moses reminded God of
his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and God refrained from destroying all
of the Israelites (Exodus 32:7-14).
However, this great sin could not go unpunished (Numbers 14:18).
In response to the Israelites'
idolatry, Moses broke the tablets of the original covenant, to symbolize that
the Israelites had broken their promise to God.
He then burned the calf idol, ground it into powder, scattered it on the
water and made the Israelites drink it (Exodus 32:15-20). He then called everyone who was willing to
repent of their sin and be on the Lord's side to come to him, and all of the
Levites came to him. They were then
commanded to kill those who were unrepentant and wished to continue in their
idolatry, breaking God's covenant - even their family members, neighbors and
friends. Those who were unrepentant were
killed, but the rest of the Israelites were spared (Exodus 32:25-30). God is willing to show mercy to those who
repent.
This story is a sober reminder that
God's commandments are not to be taken lightly.
He was very serious about the covenant that he made with the Israelites,
and they were aware of the consequences if they broke it. It was the Levites who would end up being
God's priests, and they had to do the devastating task of carrying out God's
judgment that day - even against family and friends. Their loyalty was first to God. God expects this kind of loyalty from all who
believe in him - we are not commanded to take such drastic actions as the
Levites did in the Israelite theocracy, but we are expected to put God and his
commandments first in our lives. Jesus
said, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and
follow me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:37-38, NIV).
Today, instead
of God's old covenant that the Israelites continuously broke, we have a new
covenant - a covenant not only for the Jewish people, but Gentiles as well -
the New Covenant of Jesus, God's promised Messiah (Hebrews 8). "While they were
eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it
to his disciples, saying, 'Take and eat; this is my
body.' Then he
took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you.
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out
for many for the forgiveness of sins'" (Matthew 26:26-28, NIV).
