32:1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden1 calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
7 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
11 But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” 18 But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” 33 But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
35 Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
32:1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden1 calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
7 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
11 But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” 18 But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” 33 But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
35 Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Caleb Chancey:
Before Malley opens this up reading this morning's text, I I just wanna say if you look at your worship guide, you're gonna notice it's a rather lengthy scripture reading. Matter of fact, Malley just walked up and she said the whole whole text, you want me to read? And I was like, yes. That's something we do take time to do, devote ourselves to the public reading of scripture and this might be the most important part of the service. And so we do want to 0 in and listen carefully to the Lord's words.
Caleb Chancey:
Sometimes I study a text all week and I've read it over and over and over. And you'd be surprised at how many times when I read the text before I preach, I'm like, I never noticed that. I never noticed that. Like, there goes my entire sermon. You know, it's just gone.
Caleb Chancey:
It's just a new direction. And so God is always speaking through his word. So listen carefully as we do go through all of Exodus 32.
Speaker 2:
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So Aaron said to them, take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf.
Speaker 2:
And they said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, go down, for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
Speaker 2:
They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, these are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff necked people. Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you. But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, oh Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
Speaker 2:
Why should the Egyptians say with evil intent did He bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven. And all this land that I have promised, I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing upon his people.
Speaker 2:
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the 2 tablets of the testimony in his hands, Tablets that were written on both sides, on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. But he said, it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear. And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot.
Speaker 2:
And he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.
Speaker 2:
For they said to me, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So I said to them, let any who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire and out came this calf. And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose to the derision of their enemies, Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side?
Speaker 2:
Come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered around him, and he said to them, thus says the Lord God of Israel, put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and that day about 3,000 men of the people fell. And Moses said, today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day. The next day Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up to the Lord, Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.
Speaker 2:
So Moses returned to the Lord and said, alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you.
Speaker 2:
Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. Then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made. This is the word of the Lord.
Caleb Chancey:
Thanks be to God. If you would, pray with me. Our father, we do ask that you would honor the reading of your word. That through your spirit, your word would become alive and be written on our hearts in this moment. Lord, we do need to hear from you.
Caleb Chancey:
We need to be changed by you. We need to be transformed to look like you. So now, in this moment, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away, but Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Caleb Chancey:
We're actually going to spend, 2 weeks here in Exodus 32. Next week, we're gonna look at the intercession of Moses and the power of prayer. But this morning, we're going to look at the sin of the people, this embarrassing sin of the people. If we look back on our lives, I think all of us can say that we have done some pretty embarrassing things, some things we're ashamed of, some things we really regret. Things that now, when you just think back to them, they make you cringe that you actually did it.
Caleb Chancey:
This past Christmas, I was reminded of one of those things that I had done. Someone gave me a gift to remind me of a former life of mine. When I was in college, I used to teach drums. Okay? I was a drummer.
Caleb Chancey:
I was in different bands, and I would teach junior high kids some drums. So, of course, I did what any person would do at that time. I I came up with a business card. And, Let's just put that business card up here. A Christian drummer, services available.
Caleb Chancey:
I have tried, since then, to collect every one of those cards and to burn them or bury them. Somebody found 1, put it on the Internet, which is why the Internet was apparently invented. And then this Christmas, somebody made me this shirt. So if you do need a Christian drummer, maybe want to teach you some old Petra, Amy Grant, striper, or something along those lines. You know where to find one.
Caleb Chancey:
Thankfully, they had the decency of blotting out the phone number when they put it on the Internet. But all of us, we have those moments, we're like, Ugh, I can't believe I did that. Alright. This is one of those moments in Scripture. It's one of those moments in Israel's history that they would just rather forget.
Caleb Chancey:
Not only is it a terrible sin, it's really embarrassing. It's embarrassing because how it took place at the foot of Mount Sinai. They actually thought, at the time that they were doing this, they thought, this is a good idea. This is a really good idea that we do this. They even convinced themselves that they were somehow worshiping the Lord as they did this.
Caleb Chancey:
And so it's when when I read this story, I get scared when I see how fast things went downhill for the Israelites. They had just arrived at Mount Sinai. And already, back in 24, chapter 24, we saw how Moses had gone up the mountain, and he had given them the law and said that he read the law to the people, so they have already heard God's law. They had already entered into a covenant agreement, wholeheartedly agreeing to do this thing. And then Moses, he goes back up the mountain now to receive instructions about how to build the tabernacle of God and the ark of God, and it's while he's up there, he leaves Aaron in charge, and then things go downhill fast.
Caleb Chancey:
Let's look at what leads up to all of this. Go back to verse 1. It says, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, 'Up. Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
Caleb Chancey:
So the situation that led to Israel committing idolatry all began because they lost their mediator, their mediator, Moses, the one who spoke on behalf of God, the one who had confronted Pharaoh, the one who had raised his staff and parted the Red Sea, the one to whom the people begged, you go talk to God, because if we talk to him, we will die, but you do that. And Moses did, and he relayed God's word to them. And now, this Moses has ascended up into the clouds, up into heaven, or up into the mountain, and then they get scared that something has happened to him. He's absent. And they think maybe Moses is not coming back.
Caleb Chancey:
And so all of this fear they now have leads them into idolatry and revelry. All of their man made religion that we see that comes out here is simply them trying to cope with the loss of their mediator. And it's important for us to understand this, because today, we find ourselves in a somewhat similar position. Jesus, our mediator, has physically left us. He has ascended into the clouds, leaving us behind.
Caleb Chancey:
This Jesus who physically touched the deaf and the blind, and he healed them. Jesus who, when he touched a leper, he would make them whole. Jesus who had the little children come to him, get in his lap, and he would physically bless them, this Jesus is physically no longer present. He's left us. He has gone up to heaven, and he is there for a long, long time.
Caleb Chancey:
He's been there for 2000 years. And so we can begin to feel the same temptations that the Israelites felt when they lost their mediator, because we miss the physical presence of Christ, our mediator. And we wonder, is he ever coming back? And we we so desperately, we want someone that we can touch, someone that we can see. And in his absence, we also begin to wonder, can our faith really survive?
Caleb Chancey:
Is our religion really relevant with him not being here? I mean, our faith is so counter cultural. Can it really remain relevant in his absence? And so we begin to feel this temptation to adapt, to modify our faith to meet up with the changing times, all driven from a fear of losing it. There there are a lot of parallels here, which is one of the reasons this is such an important text for us.
Caleb Chancey:
The story begins saying that the people gathered to Aaron. They're really gathering against Aaron. That's how you could translate this. They're gathering against him. Verse 1 has a very negative connotation.
Caleb Chancey:
They come to Aaron and they say, make for us gods that will go before us. So the question is, will Aaron, who's just heard the word of God, will either listen to God, or will he listen to the people and give in to their demands? Because remember, Aaron, chapter 19, he had actually climbed up the mountain with Moses and heard the words of God himself. He knows what the people are asking of him is wrong, and yet we see 0 hesitation. He gives in.
Caleb Chancey:
What he does is he he has the people, give me your gold earrings, and he he melts them down, and he fashions them into a golden calf, or you could translate that as a bull or an ox. And then the people shout, these are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Aaron then builds an altar before this idol and then proclaims, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. Do you see that? They made an idol.
Caleb Chancey:
These are your gods who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and then they're saying, tomorrow, we will make a feast to Yahweh. They somehow think they're still worshiping the Lord in this. They even make burnt offerings and peace offerings, which are required by the law of God. But then in verse 6, we read that they sat down to eat and rose up to play. Language that has a lot of sexual connotations to it.
Caleb Chancey:
And so, what we see happening here is this strange blend in which people are taking part of the religion of their culture, part of who God has revealed himself to be, and they're blending it all together, fusing it together, and creating something new. They're picking and choosing what they want from God's word. I'll take that. I'll reject that, and we're gonna make this thing, and somehow, we are gonna convince ourselves that we are worshiping Yahweh. And now, when reading this, I mean, the first question you think is, how in the world is this possible?
Caleb Chancey:
I mean, how in the world could they make this golden calf and really think that this golden object brought them up out of Egypt? Well, actually, I don't think that is what they thought when they said, these are your gods. Some of your translations might say, this is your god. It's the word Elohim, which is often throughout scripture just translated as God. It could be God or gods here.
Caleb Chancey:
Dealer's choice when reading this. And what I think that they are, they are viewing this idol as, is how most people viewed idols as. Not actually God himself, but as a representation of God. And so, you know, they are breaking commandments here, but more than so than breaking the first commandment, thou shalt have no other gods before me. They're really breaking the second, mostly.
Caleb Chancey:
You shall have no graven images. None of those physical representations of God. And that's what they thought they were doing when they made this calf was making a physical representation of God. The god of this idol was thought to come over and reside over an idol that they make. Kind of like a throne.
Caleb Chancey:
That's kind of what this golden calf would be. And this is why they could worship this thing, yet at the same time, think they were worshiping Yahweh. Now, I'm reading this. I'm thinking, if I were to make a physical statue of God, you know, what's the image we all have of God? Old man, white hair, long white beard, wearing a robe, sandals.
Caleb Chancey:
He's the man upstairs. We don't immediately think calf, you know, or bull when we're thinking about God. But they chose these things because they thought a bull or an ox embodied who God was. He is strong. A bull and ox represented strength and fertility.
Caleb Chancey:
Gold represented power and wealth. And so these are not necessarily bad things to ascribe to God, But they do fall way short. Here here's the thing. When when looking at this idolatry, the people are trying to meet a real need that they have in their hearts. It's a God given need.
Caleb Chancey:
And that's we want to know what God is like. And we want for him to be present with us. And we want him to be leading us. And we want to worship him. We we all want this.
Caleb Chancey:
It's not a bad thing. It's a God given desire that we have. Here's the ironic thing when you're reading this story. They're down there making their own little gold false image, God has Moses up on the mountain telling them how to make the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle. At the exact same time, God is saying, here's a golden image that you can make that will really help represent who I am, that will help lead you into worship.
Caleb Chancey:
And he's giving Moses all these detailed instructions about what these objects should look like. If you read through Exodus, you're going to find 7 entire chapters devoted to the instructions of the temple. This is the part when you're reading through Exodus, you get to that, and you read it. But but really, you're just you're just you're skimming along because it's hard. Let let me read you just a little section.
Caleb Chancey:
Alright? It's it's in the morning, but stay with me. Just a few verses from Exodus 26. Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with 10 curtains of fine twined linen, and blue and purple and scarlet yarns. You shall make them with cherubims, skillfully worked into them.
Caleb Chancey:
The length of each curtain shall be 28 cubits, and the breadth of each curtain, 4 cubits. All the curtains shall be the same size. Five curtains shall be coupled to one another, and the other 5 curtains shall be coupled to one another. And you shall make loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain in the first set. Likewise, you shall make loops on the edge of the outermost curtain in the second set.
Caleb Chancey:
Fifty loops you shall make on the one curtain, and 50 loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set. The loops shall be opposite one another, and you shall make 50 clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to another with a clasp. Okay. Seven chapters of this. Alright?
Caleb Chancey:
Compare this now, if you will, to Aaron's explanation of what he was building. Verse 24. So I said to the people, let any who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf. I mean, I just threw it.
Caleb Chancey:
This just came out. God gives 7 detailed chapters of all these instructions for the tabernacle and the ark, which will take a long long time to build. And Aaron just throws something together and says bow down to it. There's no planning. There's no preparation.
Caleb Chancey:
There's just an overnight rush job to try to meet the demands of our heart. There's a lot you could say about worship just right here, but we're gonna move on. I want to look at why idolatry itself is so wrong. Why is it so wrong? The fundamental problem with idolatry is that it seeks to make God in our image.
Caleb Chancey:
No matter how glorious the image is that we make, it is still fashioned by our own ideas of what we want God to be. And although we likely no longer make idols out of wood, stone, or gold, We do make idols all the time in our minds. Most people's view of God is nothing more than a really good view of themselves. God is kind of like the perfect selfie. That's it.
Caleb Chancey:
We get ourselves just right. We wanna take a picture, and then we wanna enhance it a little bit, make it look a little bit better. And that's our view of God. He's just he's just like us. Just a little bit more powerful.
Caleb Chancey:
Just a little bit more wiser. And instead of listening to who God is, tells us who he is, we tell God who he should be, and what he should look like, and what he should like, and what he should not like. And amazingly enough, this image of God that we create takes on a lot of our characteristics and takes on a lot of the characteristics of our culture. This golden calf here resembled what the people of Egypt worshiped, not what God had called them to be. And I've said this a few times here at the church, but it's worth repeating again.
Caleb Chancey:
If there are not times when you're reading the word or in praying or in worship, if there are not times, as you seek the Lord, that he doesn't rub you the wrong way, it's likely because you were creating him in your image instead of him making you into his. Because if if God always acts like you act, thinks like you would think, does the things that you would do, loves the things that you would love, hates the things that you would hate, then that's just an idol. But if you have a God who can confront you, a God who isn't like you, a God who might occasionally rub you the wrong way, there is the real God. And you know what? The biblical word for that is sanctification and transformation when God begins to rub you the wrong way, because he is shaping you to begin looking like him.
Caleb Chancey:
That's why it's so important not to create an idol. Well, let's look at how the lord responds to the people's idolatry. Look at verse 7. And the lord said to Moses, go down, for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. Now, every single parent here understands what's going on, Because Lauren and I have this conversation all the time when one of our children does something bad.
Caleb Chancey:
Look what your child is doing. That's not my child. That is your child. Up to this point, God's always saying, my children, my people. Here they sin like, Moses, look at what your people are doing, the people that you brought up out of Egypt.
Caleb Chancey:
Nobody wants to claim these people. God's anger then burns hot, and he he asked Moses, step aside. Will you just step aside so I can kill them? I wanna look at this next week, when we look at intercession, and really what God is asking for in Moses here. Well, Moses walks down the mountain with Joshua, and as they're going down, they hear the music playing.
Caleb Chancey:
Do you know what I was taught this meant when I was in high school? This is way back when, but when I was in high school, this was the first rock concert. That's what I was taught in church, the very first rock concert right here. And I am not joking. Y'all have Boy, you should have gone back a few years to my youth groups.
Caleb Chancey:
And of course, the rock concert's bad because it leads to dancing later, which is what happens. But but they're they're going down, and they they hear this music, and it's not a rock concert. What's happening is they're likely singing a hymn. They're worshiping. Remember back in Exodus 15, right after God parted the Red Sea, What's the first thing they did?
Caleb Chancey:
Moses led them in a song. Now, they've got this this new mediator or this new new God there and they're saying, he brought you up out of Egypt. So what's the first thing they do? They sing a hymn. They're worshiping And this is a scary, scary thought, that God's people have the ability to be so deceived that we can actually think we are singing to the Lord when all we are singing to is an idol.
Caleb Chancey:
We're committing idolatry. Unless our worship is shaped by the word of God, we will fall into this trap. Well, after hearing the music, Moses goes down. He actually sees what the people are doing, and then his his anger burns hot just like the Lord's. You know, the Lord says his anger burns hot, and he tells Moses what's happening.
Caleb Chancey:
Moses tries to stop him, but Moses couldn't see what the Lord was seeing. Now Moses sees it, and his anger burns hot, just like Yahweh's. And so he goes down, and he gets these these tablets of stone, and he throws them to the ground, and he smashes them at the foot of Mount Sinai. And then he does the craziest thing. He has this golden calf ground up into powder, and then he puts it in some water, and he makes everybody drink it.
Caleb Chancey:
And I mean, you read that and you're just like, what the heck is going on here? This is bizarre. And I'll confess, when I first read this, I kinda thought, is this kinda like washing washing your mouth out with soap, you know, when you've done something wrong? Or if you had to, you know, eat castor oil or something like that, if you've done something really bad. That's not it here.
Caleb Chancey:
This is remarkably similar to another passage of scripture in Numbers 5, in which God gives a command to husbands. He says, if you think your wife is committing adultery, here's a test. And he says what you could do is you could take some of the dust from the tabernacle, you could throw it in some water, mix it together, and put it for it to drink. Something that should be harmless. Tastes bad, but harmless.
Caleb Chancey:
It says however she gets severely sick and bloated and her legs get really bloated, you know that she has committed adultery. Well, this is very similar right here. Moses doesn't have a tabernacle, but he takes what the people were treating as a tabernacle, and he grinds it up, puts it in the water and he gives it to them to drink. It seems to be an adultery test. Verse 30 supports this idea.
Caleb Chancey:
Here, Moses says to the people, you have sinned a great sin. This phrase, great sin, is found in many Eukaritic and Egyptian texts, and in every one of them, it means adultery. If you wanna know how the Lord views idolatry, he views it like adultery. This this whole book of Exodus is a love story. It's what it is.
Caleb Chancey:
God looks down at at Israel and he he rescues them from danger. And he he draws them to himself and he leads them off into the desert in order to be alone with them. He protects Israel. He provides for her. He feeds her.
Caleb Chancey:
He guides her. And at Mount Sinai, he enters into a covenant relationship with her, much like a marriage. A matter of fact, Jewish weddings have the same opening lines. You shall have no other before me. He's marrying Israel here.
Caleb Chancey:
There are several Psalms that talk about God taking Israel out in the desert as a honeymoon period. And here, after God has shown them his heart by giving them the law, they say, we don't want a God that looks like that. And they wanna make a God that they can understand. They wanna make one more like them, A God that they can have some kind of control over. They want a God that more resembles what all the other gods look like.
Caleb Chancey:
In acts 7, Stephen, he gives his famous speech right before he is executed. And in this speech, he recalls this dark part of Israel's history and he says this, our fathers refused to obey Moses, but thrust him aside and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, make for us gods that will go before us. In their hearts, they turned to Egypt. As sick as this sounds, the people of Israel set their affections away from God and put it back to the people who had enslaved them. They look fondly back for Egypt.
Caleb Chancey:
They long to be back there, and when God sees that he has been rejected for that, it breaks his heart. Just like a husband who finds out his wife has committed adultery, It breaks his heart and like a jealous husband, his anger then burns hot, hot at the covenant that is broken. God wants all of you, and he will not share you with another. You shall have no one before him. Despite all that God has done for him, despite all the ways he has lavished his love for them, they are not satisfied in him, and they long to go back to Egypt.
Caleb Chancey:
And so when we read the story, we have to ask ourselves this question. Do we love Yahweh? Do we love the Lord God for who he is and who he has revealed himself to be in his word, or do we just love the image of who we want him to be? Is God more shaped by the currents of culture, or is God more shaped by his word? And now, I mentioned earlier that there are a lot of similarities between the church and Israel here.
Caleb Chancey:
Our mediator, the one who saved us, is no longer physically present. And just like Israel, we are left with God's word, God's word that reveals to us his character, reveals to us how we should live. But there are 3 pretty big differences between us and the world, or us and Israel, and this is our hope. First, Israel longed for an image. They they longed for some physical representation of God.
Caleb Chancey:
But we have been given the image of God. Colossians 1:15 says that Christ is the image of the invisible God. One of the reasons actually that, God the father was prohibiting in such severe terms, any image being made, is is because he knows that there can only be one image, and he was saving that in Christ when he sends his son the exact imprint of his nature. So if you want to know God, if you want to worship God, you look to Jesus, the image of God. 2nd difference between us and Israel is that we know our mediator is not dead.
Caleb Chancey:
They didn't know what happened to Moses. They thought he was dead. They got to do something, but we know that Jesus, our mediator, is alive and well and currently reigning in heaven. We don't need to panic. We don't need to be swayed by what the world tells us because we know that Jesus is living and reigning on high.
Caleb Chancey:
Final difference is this, that although Jesus has physically left us, he did not leave us alone. Jesus did not leave us alone. In John 14, Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. You'll keep my law And I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be with you. When Jesus says that my father will give you another helper, that word another is one just like me.
Caleb Chancey:
God's gonna send somebody else that is just like me. The spirit of God will come. Later in chapter 16, Jesus says, nevertheless, if I tell you the truth, it is for your advantage that I go away. I'm gonna leave you, but it's for your good that I leave you. Why?
Caleb Chancey:
So I could give you another helper to be with you forever. Or if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But And so we have been given the spirit of God, unlike these Israelites. I don't know about you, but as we've been going through Exodus, have you kind of felt the spirit's absence? Have you felt his absence?
Caleb Chancey:
I mean, hasn't the law, when we've gone through the law, even though you know it's good, you know it's full of grace, hasn't there been times of, as we've been looking at that, it has just kinda felt heavy? And you could tell the Israelites knew that it was heavy on them. It was heavy on them because they didn't have the spirit of God. You actually see, when going through Exodus, you see a progression in God giving his words to the people. First, God just speaks his law.
Caleb Chancey:
And then he tells Moses, who then tells the people his law. And then almost as acknowledging, well, that's not enough, he tells Moses his law, and then he has Moses write it down. Maybe they just need it written down. And then as if acknowledging that's not enough, he says, Moses, come up to the mountain. I will write it down for you on tablets of stone.
Caleb Chancey:
So it goes from just hearing to hearing and being written down. Now hearing and being written down by God himself in stone, And yet, it is still not enough to change his people. They still forget. And so, we need the word of God not written on paper, not written on stone, but written on our hearts. And that's what the spirit of God does.
Caleb Chancey:
He writes it on our hearts. His word and stone will crush you. His word written on your heart will liberate you. And let me tell you this. The spirit of God satisfies, and this is what will keep your heart from wandering.
Caleb Chancey:
Jesus, he he said that his spirit is like water that quenches the thirst of your soul. In John 2, he says his spirit is like the best wine you've ever tasted. What he's saying is his spirit will satisfy the deepest longings of your heart. And so, When you read this, I mean, a question that comes up is do you really want to worship something lifeless, something you've made? Because something you have made cannot transform you?
Caleb Chancey:
Something you have made cannot save you? Or do you wanna worship the living God? If you find your heart wandering, then I would say prayerfully, go to God's word and ask the spirit of that word to write it on your hearts. Pray with me. Lord, your word and your spirit are not at odds.
Caleb Chancey:
Under the new covenant, they are wed together. So to let the words of Christ dwell in us richly means to be filled with your spirit. And so God, I pray in this moment that your spirit, that he would come, that we give him an invitation to come and wreak havoc in our lives, to come and to write your words on our heart. Lord, we don't want to worship a man made God. We don't wanna change you into our image.
Caleb Chancey:
We want glory. Therefore, we wanna be changed into yours. Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen.