When Moses came down and beheld this idol, he was completely overcome. In a great outburst of grief and anger he dashed the tables out of his hand and break them beneath the mount. Israel had sinned a great sin. They were a stiff-necked and rebellious people. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, "and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men." It is the same taproot of sin which is the cause of all our sorrows. We, too, have sinned against the Lord. We have made some kind of golden calf, and set it in the place of Jehovah. And unless we are saved from the awful consequences of our sin, we also will suffer, as those rebellious Hebrews suffered, because of the idol which we have made. This is the first lesson that we may learn from the Bible imagery of the calf. It sets before us the true nature and the terrible consequences of sin. II.—THE CALF AS A SACRIFICE. The stain of sin may be deep, but the power of redemption is deeper. Moses said unto Aaron, "Take thee a bull calf for a sin offering, and offer it before the Lord" (Lev. ix. 2). Not indeed that the blood of calves could take away sin. "Not all the blood of beasts On Jewish altars slain, Could give the guilty conscience peace, Or wash away the stain." But that was the Old Testament way of setting forth the great fact of redemption. The offering of the bull calf was a picture of the sacrifice of Jesus. For as we read in Hebrews ix. 11, "Christ having come a high priest of good things to come, not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." This is the hope and plea of every poor sinner. "The blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." And as a sacrifice, the bull calf _could not be redeemed_. The first-born of man might be redeemed, as also the firstling of any unclean animal; but not so the firstling of an ox. It was a _clean_ animal, and its blood must be sprinkled upon the altar (Num. xviii. 17). In this way it shadowed forth the sacrifice of Christ, of whom it was said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save." As our Divine Isaac He came to Mount Moriah, but there was no ram found there to take His place as the sacrifice. He alone was a perfect offering. He alone was clean; and therefore He alone as the Great High Priest offered Himself as the victim. He poured out His soul unto death. And it is to this Saviour that all you young people must look. "Neither is there salvation in any other: there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Looking unto Jesus, loving Him, and resting on Him—that is the way we enter into life. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." This is the second lesson we learn from the Bible imagery of the calf. Sin is followed by sacrifice. The molten calf gives place to the calf that was slain.