Sometimes something we know God wants us to do – and out of stubbornness or lack of faith, failure to believe he can do it through us, we don’t do it – then months later, it catches up with us – maybe some of you can identify – something you did years ago out of weakness or fear or lack of trust in God, seemed like you were getting away with it, then it comes back in time to bite you – that’s what happens here in Exodus 32, incident of Golden Calf –
Moses had been gone for 40 days, people getting impatient, starting to grumble – we see here how quickly we can become impatient with God – we want God to do something, and we want him to do it when we want him to do it, which is usually right now – we want him to follow our plan rather than the other way round – it’s easy to see that God seems stubbornly resistant to the idea of changing his plans to accommodate our impatience –
So the people had already written Moses off after six weeks – 1] As for this Moses, we do not know what has become of him – so the attitude was bummer about Moses, yeah, he formed us into a nation, led us to freedom from the biggest and most ruthless tyrant in the world, did signs and wonders and stupendous miracles for us to break us out of prison and give us our freedom, but what’s he done for us lately?
It was nice knowing you, Moses, we’ve got your picture up on a wall somewhere around here, but we got to move on – so they say to Aaron, Get up, make us gods who shall go before us – so Aaron, the weenie, goes along with them, says y’all need to give me your golden ear-rings so I can melt ‘em down, whip up a god for you –
So they gave all them all their ear-rings – including the men, it they took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron – so even the men wore ear-rings made out of gold – people say, whoa, never knew that was in the Bible – here’s hoping my teenage son never finds out about this –
Brought them to Aaron, who had them melted down and formed into a golden calf – the chief of the gods that Egypt worshiped was a bull god by the name of Apis – says in 4] Aaron fashioned it with a graving tool, and said these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt 5] and then he built an altar before it –
So while this was going on, whoops, the guy they had all kissed off was coming down from the mountain with two stone tablets written by God himself, containing the ten commandments – and the first one of those reminded them they were to have no graven images around anywhere –
So why did they listen to Aaron? Part of this is Moses’ fault – because Moses from the very beginning refused to do what God directed him to do, to be his spokesman, Moses said can’t do it, can’t speak my way out of a wet paper bag, God grudgingly allowed Aaron to serve as Moses’ spokesman – God said to Moses, Look, I will tell you what I want you to say to Pharaoh, then you can tell it to Aaron, and he’ll tell it to Pharaoh – same way I want you to communicate to the people – Moses heard the word from God, then gave it to Aaron, instead of delivering it to the people, so Aaron was the one who wound up giving it to the people –
So who were the people of Israel used to listening to when something important had to be communicated? Aaron – it was so natural for them to turn to Aaron, and then do whatever he said –
So what about Aaron, why did he listen to the people? Because he was a follower, not a leader – I remember a story about a French general, who said one time, there go my people – I must follow them for I am their leader –
Then when Aaron gets busted he blames everybody else – he blamed the people for their depravity (v. 22), Moses for taking so long (v. 23), and the furnace for somehow magically spitting out a calf!
So God says, 7] Go down, for your people have corrupted themselves, 8] they have turned aside quickly out of the way I commanded them – note the word “quickly” – most of the really big problems we have created for ourselves were created by our impatience, we just couldn’t wait for God, we tried to pursue a short-cut, got tired of waiting for God to act, so took matters into our own hands –
9] I have seen this people, it is a stiff-necked people – 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 – said I’ve had it with these bozos, I’m gonna wipe them out, and Moses, I’m gonna to start all over with you, build a new nation from the ground up to replace this nation of nitwits –
We see here the power that one man’s intercessory prayer can release into the life of an entire nation: 12] turn from your burning anger and relent (lit means to repent, to change one’s mind – does God change his mind? Well, if this passage of Scripture is to be believed, God does, and here’s an example) relent from this disaster against your people – said to God, remember all the promises you made under oath to Abe, Isaac, Jacob about how big their nation would get, about how you would give them the land of Canaan? – 14] and the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people –
Then after Moses got God all calmed down, it was Moses who went ballistic, God had to calm him down – 16] went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony, written on both sides, on the front and back they were written – every depiction I’ve ever seen has the writing just on one side, on the front side, but Bible tells us God used both sides of the tablets, front and back – the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets
19] got to camp, he saw the calf and the dancing and Moses anger burned hot, he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain – guess that would make Moses the first man to break the Ten Commandments, broke them all at once –
20] took the calf, melted it down, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, made the people drink the water
21] Moses was hot, gave Aaron a piece of his mind he couldn’t afford to lose – What did this people do to you, that you have brought such sin upon them?- Aaron says, I tried, really I did, but these people are impossible – You know the people that they are set on evil – there was nothing I could do, I tried, but I could see I was wasting my breath and my time, and so in the end I totally wussed out – 24] they gave their gold to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf – I was just as surprised as anybody, Moses, it just popped out of there – couldn’t believe it myself –
26] people had broken loose, Moses needs to regain control, says to the whole camp, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me” – all the sons of Levi gathered around him – 27] put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp and kill those who have abandoned God and turned so quickly to idolatry – 28] the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and that day about 3000 men of the people fell – we see here how few people it takes to lead an entire nation off course, and how few people it takes to set things right –
29] So Moses says to the Levites, Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord – in other words, they had earned a battlefield promotion – so how does promotion come in God’s kingdom? It comes from doing the difficult thing, risky thing, the bold thing in obedience to God –
Only one cluster of God’s people had the courage, the boldness, to step and do the right thing, the risky thing for God and God’s kingdom – God rewarded them with a permanent place in his tabernacle, in his temple – and their courage and faith had a spillover effect in the lives of their children and their grandchildren and their great grandchildren –
We are a fickle and impatient people, prone to wander – we need pray today for people we love who have turned away from God –
We also need to remember that God has a temper – God is not soft, he can be harsh and unbending in disciplining us for ignoring his truth and his standards –
And finally we need to remember that fervent intercession can save a nation from God’s judgment – God is willing to forgive and restore and renew – but somebody has got to ask him to do it – that’s us – let’s pray today for the hatred, the racism, the mindless violence that is consuming our cities today –