Anticipating Jesus: From Golden Calf to Greater Mediator
How Jesus redeems our rebellion.
As we’ve looked at Jesus in the Old Testament, we’ve covered Christophanies, examples of typology, and Messianic prophecies. You can get caught up at the links below:
Finding Christ in the Old Testament
Creation and the Promise to Come
A Type of Christ in the Wilderness
I want to wrap up the series by exploring one more powerful example of biblical typology. I wrote about that moment in Exodus 17 when the Israelites were questioning God's goodness, and God instructed Moses to strike the rock. Water flowed from stone, which is a beautiful picture of Christ, the Rock, who would be struck for us.
The Mountain & The Valley
I want to go back to Exodus in chapter 32. Can you imagine the scene? Moses has been up on Mount Sinai for forty days and nights. His heart must have been overflowing as the Lord revealed His perfect law, the intricate design for the tabernacle, and the sacred priesthood. God was going to dwell among them. Imagine how eager Moses must have been to share this with the people waiting below.
Waiting on God is an exercise in trust, and the people didn’t trust God. They were tired of waiting, and decided to take matters into their own hands. They demanded that Aaron build them an idol. One of the early church fathers, Ephrem the Syrian, said that the absence of Moses simply gave the Israelites the opportunity to “worship openly what they had been worshiping in their hearts.”
That brings us to Exodus 32:7-8.
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’”
Imagine how deflated Moses must have felt. This has to be the epitome of having your bubble burst. He goes from eagerly wanting to deliver good news to hearing the people have thrown it all away before he could ever tell them.
Corrupted Hearts: The Nature of Israel’s Sin
Notice what God says here in verse 7. “They have corrupted themselves.” Not simply that they sinned or made a mistake—but that they corrupted themselves. When God chooses the word “corrupted,” He’s revealing something profound about the nature of their actions.
The Hebrew word suggests decay, ruin, destruction—a breaking down of something once beautiful and pure. Imagine a piece of fruit that begins to rot from within. That’s what sin was doing to God’s people.
God used this very same word repeatedly in Genesis 6, right before the flood. When we see this connection, suddenly the weight of the moment becomes clear. The last time humanity “corrupted themselves” this way, God’s response was to cleanse the entire earth with water, sparing only Noah’s family. This is a spiritual crisis.
The most telling usage of the word “corrupted” is in Ezekiel 28:17.
“Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.
Who is he talking about in Ezekiel? Satan. The corrupter. The Father of lies. So, by not waiting on the Lord and worshipping their own way, they have corrupted themselves in the same way Satan did. They are in a sense reenacting the scene in the garden when humans first fell into sin. “Did God really say we couldn’t worship idols? God is just trying to keep good things from us.” Unfortunately, humans fall for that same old trick over and over throughout history.
Divine Wrath & The Weight of Rebellion
What does God go on to tell Moses in Exodus 32:9-10?
The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. 10 “Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
In verse 9, God calls them obstinate. The NIV translates this as “stiff-necked.” They’re stubborn. The definition of obstinate is someone who is unwilling to change their opinion or attitude even when presented with good reasons to do so.
Hosea 4:16 says they are stubborn like a stubborn heifer. Jeremiah repeatedly calls them obstinate, saying that they do not listen or pay attention. We’re never like this, are we?
A stiff-necked person refuses to be corrected, even when he or she is clearly proven wrong. A stiff-necked person never changes or grows. If you never change or grow, have you truly submitted to God? Are you being sanctified and made more into the image of Christ? This is a dangerous position to be in.
God says in verse 10 that he’s going to judge them. He’s going to destroy them and start over. They have corrupted themselves.
The wages of sin is death, and God would have been perfectly just in executing judgment. After all, they had broken the first two commandments barely a month after receiving them at Sinai. This sobering reality extends to every stiff-necked person who worships false gods. As Paul writes in Romans 2:5, “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds.”
Go Down at Once
So far, this all seems depressing, but even in the threat of judgement there are signs that God will show grace. We know that His purpose from the beginning is to save His people, not destroy them.
What does God tell Moses to do in verse 7? Go down at once. God could have immediately destroyed them. He could have just as easily told Moses, “I wiped the people out because they made an idol. We’re starting over right now.” But He doesn’t. He tells Moses to go down to the people.
Remember, Moses is their spiritual representative before God. God is making that point loud and clear to Moses. He tells Moses to go down and mediate for this people. This is God’s grace on display. Moses is a type pointing to Jesus, who God sends down to mediate for His people once and for all.
So, while this may all seem discouraging, it’s actually Ephesians 2:4-5 on display:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
The Foreshadowing of Grace: A Greater Mediator
In verses 11-14, Moses intercedes for the people, and God relents. This is a foreshadowing of our own salvation. Like the Israelites, we are floundering in our rebellion against God, refusing to wait on Him. Refusing to trust in Him. Insisting that we are going to do things our own way, which only leads to disillusionment and destruction.
We need a mediator. We need someone to intercede for us who can turn away God’s wrath. God sent Jesus down to a rebellious people. He lived a perfect life, and He pleads for us not on the basis of our righteousness, but on the merits of His saving work. He is the greater Moses. The apostle John writes:
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)