It was while they were in the very act of celebrating this idolatrous festival that Moses, accompanied by Joshua, returned from the presence of the nation’s invisible King. He had already received Divine intimation of the apostasy of the people, and in his capacity of Mediator had already interceded in their behalf. Now with the two tables of the Law in his hands he descended the Mount. To the ear of his companion the noise of the host, as it ascended upwards from the valley below, _sounded like the noise of war in the camp_. But Moses knew otherwise. _It is not the noise of them that shout for the mastery_, he replied, _neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that sing do I hear_. Then as he drew near the camp, and beheld with his own eyes the heathenish orgies that were going on, his feelings overmastered him; his anger waxed hot, and he cast the Tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the Mount. Next advancing towards the senseless image, he seized it, burnt it with fire, reduced it to powder[72], strewed the ashes on the neighbouring brook of Horeb, and compelled the people to drink thereof. Then after sternly rebuking his brother for conniving at so heinous a sin, he stationed himself at the entrance of the camp, and bade all, who still remained faithful to Jehovah, gird on their swords, and without regard to family tie or private friendship, slay the offenders from gate to gate with the edge of the sword. It was a severe but necessary test of the fidelity of the people, and the sons of Levi were found faithful. With a zeal very dissimilar from that which had animated their forefather at Shechem (Gen. xxxiv. 25, 26), instead of siding with Aaron, though their tribal leader, they arose and slew about 3000 of the offenders, thus effacing the blot on the memory of their tribe, and qualifying themselves for high functions in the sanctuary (Ex. xxxii. 25–29).
In order to make an atonement for the people’s sin, Moses, on the next day, re-ascended the mount, and solemnly interceded with the Almighty on their behalf. Standing _in the gap_ (Ps. cvi. 23) between a justly offended God and an erring nation, he offered, if no other way of forgiveness was possible, freely to surrender his own life, and to suffer the blotting out of his own name from God’s Book. Eventually his intercession prevailed. The Almighty promised that the nation should not be cut off, and that He would send His Angel before them, who should lead them into the land promised to their forefathers. But further punishment certainly awaited them; in the day of His visitation, He would visit their sin upon them, an earnest of which they speedily experienced in the shape of plagues (Ex. xxxii. 35), with which _the Lord plagued the people_, because of their sin in _turning His glory into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay_ (Ps. cvi. 20).