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The Saddest Chapter in the Bible

by Dr. Henderson Ward  
9/17/2014 / Christian Living

The Holy Bible, comprising the Israeli Bible the Old Testament and the Christian New Testament, has 1189 chapters. These chapters are not inspired divisions, they are what we call paratext; they are man-made breaks that a certain man, by the name of Archbishop Langton, introduced in the early 13th century; and the divisions into verses were done by Robert Estienne, a Frenchman, some 300 years later.

Some people, especially liberal theologians and egregious form-critics of holy writ, go to great extremes to nit-pick and hassle over chapters and verses, fighting over where one should and should not end and where another should and should not begin. In truth, these are banal arguments of no spiritual value, and believers should be aware of the inestimable worthlessness of such disagreements.

What must be borne in mind, and should at all times impact our considerations, is that the original Hebrew and Greek texts had no divisions for chapters and verses.

When Paul wrote an epistle, it was not written in chapters and verses, it was written in prose; just as you would write a normal letter today. Although chapters and verses help us greatly in better understanding the Bible, and even moreso in aiding our memory, nevertheless it is essential that we understand that chapters and verses are not part of holy writ and everyone is free to disagree with the divisions.

But given that the Holy Bible is divided into chapters, it is beyond dispute that all chapters do not convey the same joy and pleasure, the same message of hope and eternal blessedness, the same portrayal of the best of which humans are capable, the same exposition of the graces and mercy of the Eternal God.

No, some chapters make for sad reading; like Genesis chapter 4; where Cain slew his brother Abel out of pure jealousness, like 1 Kings chapter 13; where a godly and decent prophet was deceived by a renegade prophet into disobeying God and by so doing lost his life, and like Matthew chapter 24; describing the horrors of the destruction of Jerusalem, when women would kill and eat their own children, that took place in 70 AD.

The above mentioned are chapters that consist of events and details that make for sad reading, and there are many similar chapters in the Bible. To choose which chapter is the saddest, is going to be a matter of opinion, but one of the saddest, if not the saddest of all, is Exodus chapter 32, and here is why.

God is faithful. Although it took 430 years God had not forgotten His promise to Abraham, Genesis 12:2, and when the Israelites cried out to God during their enslavement in Egypt God sent Moses to deliver them.

After contending with Pharoah for Israel's release, and having to show Pharoah that God was serious in freeing his people by unleashing a torrent of plagues, Moses persuaded Pharoah at last to relent and let the Israelites depart from Egypt. But then Pharoah had a change of mind and relentlessly pursued the Israelites by a hostile army, wanting to recapture them and return them to more slavery.

Moses, by a meandering and event-filled journey, eventually came to the Red Sea. There he performed one of the greatest of all miracles by dividing the sea, so that Israel, and all the cattle and sheep, could cross over on dry land. Later, when the Egyptians tried to follow, he commanded the sea to return to normal and the Egyptian army was completely drowned.

Exodus chapter 14 is set at the foot of Mount Sinai. It is now three months after Israel departed from Egypt and during that time Israel was irritable, bombastic, argumentative and restless and on more than one occasion disputed and argued with Moses as to why he did not leave them in Egypt.

So why is this chapter so sad?

Believers of today, and all Christians since the 1st Century AD, have to resort to faith in order to have an accommodation, indeed a relationship, with Almighty God.

Not so these Israelites of Exodus chapter 14.

These Israelites were priviledged in a way almost exclusive to them. God showed them a range of miracles, the likes of which the world had not experienced, and to which every single one of them were witnesses and participants.

In Egypt the plagues, and their astonishing escape from the horrors of slavery, were just the beginning of God's mighty, and visible hand, on their behalf.

When they came to the Red Sea, God again showed them something spectacular. He used Moses with a pointing rod to do something humanly impossible, and very spooky. Waters of the sea stood up like walls and they walked through on dry land, and the Egyptian army following them were drowned by the sea returning to normal.

When the Israelites, in their usual disapproving and bellicose manner, complained of food, then God rained down manna out of the sky for them; to eat until they were full.

When they grumbled about bitter water, then Moses under God's instructions sweetened the water by inserting a tree, and when later they again nagged for water, God instructed Moses, at Miribah, to strike a rock with his Rod, and they got water in breath-taking abundance.

We now come to the precise sadness of Exodus chapter 32.

Here were the Israelites assembled at the foot of Mount Sinai, and they were waiting for Moses to return, he having gone up the mountain to receive the 10 commandments. Moses might have stayed a little longer than they expected, but they were not malnourished, or thirsty, or in any way incapacitated. They were simply irritable and impatient.

So what did they do?

Did they go to their leaders, Aaron in particular, and voiced their concern about Moses' delay and asked that they get a move on to the Promised Land? Did they seek God's guidance as to the way forward? Did they send out a search party to look for Moses to see what was happening? No, none of these things. They recklessly discarded God, as they would a worn out and tatty garment, and dismissed Moses from their thoughts as if he no longer existed.

Instead of seeing the ordinances of God and His presence as the benefits through divine grace, and therefore most desirable and welcome, they saw them as impositions on their freedoms and choices. They were, in truth, asserting their right to rebel, even though such rebellion was not in their best interest and would do them serious harm. Their rebellion actually cost them dearly, for they were immediately slaughtered on Moses' instructions 3,000 of them at one fell swoop.

The enormous sadness of this chapter, Exodus 32, has to be seen in the context of God's blessed abundance and mighty works of excellence on Israel's behalf. God did his very best for an undeserving and fickle people; and it was not enough for that goodness to be translated into acceptance and appreciation. It was as if the goodness of God, unlike Romans 2:4, became a catalyst for decadence and rebellion.

It is so terribly regrettable when the light becomes darkness, and the good becomes bad, and the benefits of grace and salvation become repugnant. Beware of apostasy! (disowning one's faith). The awesome cost to the Israelites was not just the 3,000 that were slaughtered at once, but the thousands (some estimates say 2-3 million) that perished as they transitioned across the desert on their 40-year journey.

The events that culminated at the foot of Mount Sinai, and hence Exodus chapter 32, came about because many Israelites cared little about their spirituality. Their commitment to Almighty God and their rapport with him was:

Superficial. And this led to to their seeing it as:
Burdensome. And as with most burdens they saw it as:
Punitive. And protested why them? They regarded the whole thing as:
Distasteful and unfair. And gleefully rebelled with naked recklessness.

So, by what convoluted logic, does God's blessed abundance, and mighty works of excellence on Israel's behalf a few weeks earlier, translate into this horror show?

What lessons, if any, are we to learn from this saddest of chapters in the Bible? And is this very same thing now happening to some of us?

I will do the very best, and proper, thing I can. I will leave you to answer that question.

Enough said.

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Dr. Henderson Ward received his Doctor of Divinity in theology, with distinction, from Masters International School of Divinity, USA, where he is currently a post-doctoral fellow. Dr. Ward's career involved pastoring, evangelism, and teaching. Copyright 2017

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