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Today's reading is Exodus chapter 32 starting at verse 1 to 35. Exodus chapter
32 starting at verse 1. When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming
down from the mountain they gathered around Aaron and said, come make us gods
who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt we
don't know what has happened to him. Aaron answered them, take off your gold
earrings that your wives your sons and your daughters are wearing and bring
them to me. So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
He took what they had handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape
of a calf fashioning it with a tool. Then they said these are your gods Israel
who brought you up out of Egypt. When Aaron saw this he built an altar in
front of the calf and announced tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord. So
the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and
presented fellowship offerings. Afterwards they sat down to eat and
drink and got up to indulge in revelry. Then the Lord said to Moses go down
because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt. They
have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves
an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to
it and have said these are your gods Israel who brought you up out of Egypt. I
have seen these people the Lord said to Moses and they are a stiff-necked people
now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy
them then I will make you into a great nation. But Moses sought the favor of the
Lord his God. Lord he said why should your anger burn against your people whom
you bought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the
Egyptians say it was with evil intent that he bought them out to kill them in
the mountains to wipe them off the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce anger
relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham
Isaac and Israel to whom you swore by your own self. I will make your
descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give you your
descendants all this land I have promised them and it will be their
inheritance forever. Then the Lord relented and did not bring on the people
the disaster he had threatened. Moses turned and went down the mountain with
the two tablets of the Covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both
sides front and back. The tablets were the work of God. The writing was with the
was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of
the people shouting he said to Moses there is a sound of war in the camp.
Moses replied it is not the sound of victory it is not the sound of defeat it
is a sound of singing that I hear. When Moses approached the camp and saw the
calf and the dancing his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his
hands breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain and he took the
calf the people had made and burned it in the fire. Then he ground it to powder
scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. He said to Aaron
what did these people do to you that led you into such great sin? Do not be angry
my Lord Aaron answered you know how prone these people are to evil. They said
to me make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us
up out of Egypt we don't know what has happened to him. So I told them whoever
has any gold jewelry take it off then they gave me the gold and I threw it into
the fire and out came this calf. Moses saw that the people were running riled
and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so had become a laughing
stock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said whoever is for
the Lord come to me and all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to them this
is what the Lord the God of Israel says each man strap a sword to his side go
back and forth through the camp from one end to the other killing each each
killing his brother and friend and neighbor. The Levites did as Moses
commanded and that day about three thousand of the people died. Then Moses
said you have been set apart to the Lord today for you were against your own sons
and brothers and he has blessed you this day. The next day Moses said to the
people you have committed a great sin but now I will go up to the Lord perhaps
I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses went back to the Lord and said oh
what a great sin these people have committed they have made themselves
gods of gold but now forgive their sin but if not then block me out of the book
you have written. The Lord replied to Moses whoever has sinned against me I
will blot out of my book now go lead the people to the place I spoke of and my
angel will go before you however when the time comes for me to punish I will
punish them for their sin and the Lord struck down the people with a plague
because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made. We pray Lord in
your mercy with the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be
pleasing in your sight our Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. Well last week was
half term for my kids they were off school and so my middle son Zach and I
went away for a few days. Now we did lots of fun things over those couple of days
but one of the highlights for me at least was we went to a planetarium give
me a nod if you know what a planetarium is. Not many of you okay this this is a
picture of it on the screen behind me it is basically it's a building that has a
big dome roof and the dome roof is used as a projector screen to show movies
about space. I can see you all think that sounds terribly boring but for a space
nerd like me that's pretty much the coolest thing you can do. Anyway we
watched this film and the film was about the solar system what the solar system
is and where the solar system has come from. Let me explain let me give you a
quick lesson on the solar system okay the solar system is called the solar
system because at the centre of it is the Sun okay and round the Sun in orbit
going round and round are the planets and then round a lot of the planets go
moons orbiting the planets. So moons orbit planets and planets orbit the Sun
okay that's how it works so far so good right yeah everyone following me okay the
thing I learned last week that I didn't know beforehand was where moons come
from in the first place. Apparently apparently moons were either part of the
planets and they they used to be part of the planets orbiting the Sun but then a
meteor hit knocked them off and then they started orbiting the planet instead
of the Sun or else they were asteroids that were orbiting the Sun but somehow
went out of orbit and ended up orbiting planets instead. Now you're sitting here
and you're thinking goodness this is boring why is he telling me all of this
not just because I want you all to be space nerds as well but because I
realized watching this film that it is an excellent excellent illustration of
the human condition. But what are human beings? We were made by God for God. We
derive our life and our health by orbiting our lives around him but but
sin came into the world human rebellion and it knocked us out of orbit. Instead
of having God at the center and orbiting our lives around him we've started to
orbit our lives around other things things that God has made whether it be
sex, money, power, good looks, family or success. We human beings we are planets
who have become moons, dead moons. Anyway with that in mind let's turn to to
Exodus chapter 32. Just a reminder of where we're up to in the book of Exodus.
The Israelites they were slaves in Egypt that's what it was at the beginning
Exodus chapter 1 but God miraculously rescued them out of Egypt. He led them
through the parted Red Sea out into the wilderness there in the wilderness he
fed them he gave them water to drink from a rock he defeated their enemies
and he led them to Mount Sinai. Moses goes up onto Mount Sinai to receive the
law and the people are left waiting. Which brings us to Exodus chapter 32 and
our first point today what are you orbiting your life around? What we read
in verses 1 to 6 of Exodus 32 it's it's shocking isn't it?
Remember the Israelites had only just received the Ten Commandments just
months earlier. Exodus chapter 24 verse 3 tells us that after receiving the
commandments Moses came down from Mount Sinai and gave the commandments to the
Israelite people. So they knew the Ten Commandments they knew commandment 1
you shall have no other gods before me. They knew commandment 2 you shall not
make yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven or on earth below. In
other words you are only to worship me as I say I am to be worshiped and the
people heard that and according to Exodus chapter 24 verse 3 they said the
people everything the Lord has said we shall do. And then here in verse 1 of
Exodus chapter 32 the people gather around Aaron they say come make us gods
and so Aaron replies okay strip off all of your bling verse 2 let me smelt it
down and then he takes out his little chisel and he chisels out of this this
collection of bling a golden calf saying behold these are your gods Israel who
brought you out of Egypt. It was great to have City Church youth up here reading
the passage for us because they've been going through the book of Exodus
alongside attending these sermons and a few weeks back the group came together
and they they said about writing a list of questions that they wanted to have
answered in this sermon series and one of them was this okay I'm quoting
questions this the golden calf how could the people turn away from God so quickly
when they could see God's presence on the mountain and when they'd only just
committed themselves to the Ten Commandments. That's a pretty good
question isn't it? Exodus 32 it it almost sounds unbelievable doesn't it? Well let's try to
dig down into the psychology of the Israelites at this point in time what
was going on in their heads and in their hearts. Well look at verse 1 verse 1 we
find them grumbling why are they grumbling? Well because Moses was so
long in coming down from the mountain. Now Exodus chapter 24 verse 18 tells us
exactly how long Moses was up on the mountain for it was 40 days and 40 nights
now granted that is not a short period of time but it's not that long either is
it is just over a month and the people would become impatient. Now I want you to
think what is impatience? What makes you feel impatient? When patience happens
when when something you want depends upon someone or something other than you
and you are not happy with the time frame in which is happening. That's what
impatience is. I know what impatience is because I get impatient pretty much
every single weekday morning okay I'm stood down there by the front door
waiting to go on a school run and I am impatient because one of my children has
forgotten a piece of their school uniform or forgotten to pack their school
back. That's impatience. Impatience happens when we're not in control and we
want to be and that was what the Israelites were experiencing at the
start of Exodus chapter 32 and it led them to seek to wrestle back control and
to make things happen on their own time frame. Now the Bible commentators they
disagree about precisely what command the people were breaking at this moment in
time. Were they breaking the first commandment or were they breaking the
second commandment? So were they making, were they asking Aaron to make them a
different God, a better God? Or were they asking him to make them a way to
worship God in a different way? It's hard to know for sure. I mean verse one makes
it sound like it's a first commandment issue. They want verse one God's plural
who will go before them just like Yahweh only better. But then Aaron's reply it
makes it sound like it's a second commandment issue. He makes him an idol
verse four and he says to them these are your gods who brought you out of Israel.
This is a representation of the Lord he's saying this is this is Israel's
Redeemer and notice verse five when everything sets up Aaron announces
tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord. The word used there is that the
Hebrew word Yahweh he's making his golden calf so they will have a festival
to the Lord God the God of Israel. You know it's quite possible actually that
there was really going on here is the people are asking for a different God
and Aaron seeks to arrange a compromise. Instead of making a different God he'll
make a new way to worship the Lord God a way to worship him right now on their
terms and it's utterly tragic. You see while Aaron is saying all of this Moses
is up on Mount Sinai and while he's up there he is receiving instructions from
the Lord about how the people are to worship him. As Aaron is chiseling away
on his pathetic lump of gold trying to make a golden calf Moses is up on Mount
Sinai receiving instructions from the Lord about how Bezeleu and Ohiliab are
to make gold silver and bronze furnishings for the temple. What Aaron
does in these verses it is a pathetic attempt to do what God is already doing
for Israel born out of a desire for them themselves to be in control and to make
things happen when they want it to happen. The people they have been knocked
out of their orbit around God and have started to orbit around created things
instead and it is shocking. But it's not surprising is it? I mean don't we
experience this all the time? A couple of months back we were thinking about
money and anxiety and we looked at that passage Matthew chapter 6 verse 25
where Jesus commands that we shouldn't worry not about money not about food not
about clothing because God has it all in hand. We know that's God's promise to us
don't we? But how many of us grow impatient and resort to overwork and
constant fretting about finances as we orbit our lives around our jobs or
around our bank balances rather than orbiting them around God? We know that
God has promised to satisfy us relationally on the deepest most
incredible level. In Matthew chapter 11 verse 28 Jesus says come to me all you
who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. We know in our heads that
that is a promise of God. We know it's true but in our hearts so often we think
well yeah that's okay but really I need to have a a satisfying sexual
relationship in order to be whole and when that doesn't seem to come on our
time frame we start to look for a relationship with someone else who's not
a Christian or with someone of the same sex or we struggle with sin we struggle
with this sin that we keep on struggling with again and again and again and we
are just incredibly frustrated it's driving us crazy we want a way out and
we know we know that according to the Bible God has given us everything we
need in his word in the sacraments in the church but we think if I'm really
gonna nail this sin I need something more and so we seek it out doubling in
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox disciplines and rituals. Now I'm not
saying that we haven't got anything to learn from those other Christian
traditions but when we start to depend upon those things as if they are a
silver bullet rather than depend on the ordinary means of grace well we're
trying to worship God then on our own terms and on our own time frame. We
started to orbit our lives around created things rather than the Creator
himself. We've become moons instead of planets and that has consequences which
brings us on to our second point today rescue from the solar flare. Now those
moons that used to be parts of planets or asteroids orbiting around the Sun
they were better protected when they were orbiting around the Sun they were
better provided for by the Sun when they were orbiting around it and when they
became moons they they lost their atmosphere and the Sun became a source
of death instead of life. Well something similar happens when we cut ourselves
off from the source of life. Take a look at verses 7 to 14 the Lord is speaking
here to Moses but suddenly he cuts off what he's saying and says Moses you got
to go down because your people have become corrupt and are worshipping an
idol. Verse 9 your people they've become stiff-necked now that's a metaphor like
an ox that won't bend and submit to a yoke so the people of Israel will not
submit themselves to God's law and so verse 10 the Lord says leave me alone
that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Now I think we
read these verses and many of us will really struggle with them. It sounds
like God's having a tantrum doesn't it? People aren't behaving and I am hopping
mad with it and I am gonna go and smite them now. You know I think our problem is
that we we view anger as always being a bad thing and of course for us for us
fallen human beings anger almost always is a bad thing. We know that when we get
angry usually we lose control of ourselves and usually our anger it is
mixed with sinful feelings of pride of envy of self-pity but we mistakenly
assume that anger is the opposite of love and it's not. I mean just for a
minute think about the sort of things that you get angry about. Your work, family,
church, Liverpool football club. We only get angry about the things that we
really care about. The opposite of love is not anger. The opposite of love is
indifference. We are indifferent about things we don't care about. We get angry
when what we love is threatened. So God's anger doesn't show that he hates his
people rather God's anger shows that he loves them and unlike our anger God's
anger is not polluted by pride or selfishness or self-pity it is a holy
anger. It is the just and proper response to humanity's rebellion against him. It's
the right response to their decision to become moons instead of planets and his
anger is tempered by compassion. I mean as we're reading through that you did
notice that didn't you? The Lord told Moses what he intended to do. He told him.
Why did he tell him? Why didn't he just wipe out the Israelites?
Why tell Moses? Well take a look at verse 14. After Moses had pleaded, after he
interceded on behalf of his people we read, the Lord relented and did not bring
on the people the disaster he had threatened. Now that word relented is a
Hebrew word nakham and it means to change one's mind. But of course God can't
change his mind. God's unchanging. He does not change anything. He does not change
his mind which means that what happens here is all part of God's plan. God's
love for his people meant that he must be angry at their rebellion. His justice
demands that he must judge. But he told Moses what he planned to do so that
Moses could intercede for them. So that Moses could step into the breach
representing the people of Israel and bring salvation to them as a
representative of God. Moses intercession was God's chosen means to
rescue the Israelites. So we need to look carefully at what Moses said. Look at
these verses, verses 11 to 13. Moses makes four arguments, four reasons why God
should not destroy Israel. Firstly, God's work. Moses points out all that God has
already done for the people, verse 11. The plagues, the Passover, the parting of
the Red Sea, the feeding with manna and he says having done all of that God are
you really going to destroy them now? Secondly, Moses points to God's glory.
Look at verse 12. He says if you destroy them now the Egyptians they're gonna
mock you. Not for our sake Lord but for your own glory. Rescue them. Then thirdly God
Moses points to God's character. Moses knows that the Lord is gracious and
compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love so he asked him, verse 12, to
relent. And then finally the clincher. Moses pleads God's promises. You promise
Lord, not to me but to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, verse 13. You promised that their
descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky. You can't just
wipe them out because you promised that you wouldn't. You must find a way Lord
both to judge sin and keep your promise to Israel. Friends I think this is so
helpful, so helpful to us as we think about how we pray for our unbelieving
friends and colleagues. I've got unbelieving friends and family and the
thought of them spending eternity in hell, well it cuts me to the heart. It
makes me feel deeply, deeply, deeply sad and uncomfortable and I'm tempted to
think but there's not fair. I don't want to believe in a God like that and
they're not that bad after all. But of course none of that is true. It is fair
and me and you and everyone else in this room and in this city, we each of us
we deserve to be judged by God. A God who cared nothing about our rebellion
against him, well he would not be a God worth worshipping. Now we need to look
not to ourselves but we need to look to God himself. When we pray for ourselves,
when we pray for our unbelieving friends, when we pray for this city of 2.8
million people, 95% of whom are heading towards an eternity of hell, we
mustn't just pray excuses. Now we need to plead God's work, God's glory, God's
character and God's promises. That and that alone is the only hope for rescue.
Which brings us to our third and final point today, realigning our orbit around
God. How do we get back to orbiting our lives around God rather than around
created things? Well Moses comes down the mountain this point in time, he's carrying
two stone tablets of the law and as he reaches the bottom he throws them to the
ground smashing them into a million pieces. He's saying Israel this is what
you've done to your covenant promises. You've shattered them. And notice the
conversation that Moses and Joshua have as they head down. They hear this
peculiar noise down in the camp. Now Joshua he's a military man so he assumes
it must be war, what else could it be for a military man? But Moses knows it's not
war. He knows it's something worse. Singing and dancing. Okay not that there
is something wrong with singing itself. We love to sing here at City Church.
Nor is there something wrong with dancing. Some of us love to dance here at
City Church. But that word translated revelry back in verse 6, the end of verse
6. It almost certainly refers to an orgy. You see singing and dancing for the
Lord that is holy and that is good. But when it's for an idol, well we see here
the sin leads to idolatry that leads to immorality. That is always always always
the case. And that's why Moses does this peculiar thing in verse 20. He takes the
idol and he he burns it and then he grounds it down like it's coffee grains.
He mixes it with water and then he forces the Israelites to drink it. It's a
lesson for the people. It's a lesson to help them to realign their orbit. That
idol that was leading them into immorality, well where does it end up?
It ends up as feces, as poo, as it goes out through their digestive tract and
comes out the other end. Moses tries to realign the people's orbit by showing
them the gravity of their sin, smashing the law and then showing the folly of their
sin, showing exactly what the idols they were worshipping were in reality. And
then we're given this this counterexample of Aaron. Aaron is an
example of how not to repent. Take a look at the conversation that Moses and Aaron
have in verses 22 to 24. Moses confronts Aaron and Aaron does three things here.
There's three things that I am tempted to do every time that I am confronted by
my sin. Firstly, he makes light of it, then he blames others and then thirdly he
spins the story. So he makes light of it. Look at verse 22. Do not be angry my
Lord. Oh little brother Moses, don't get so upset about it. It's just a
little sin. It happened, it's done. Let's move on. Isn't that the way we so often
think? Yeah perhaps me and my girlfriend we went too far last night but at least
we didn't have sex. Yeah yeah I may have got a bit tipsy when I was out my
friends but at least I wasn't paralysed like the rest of them. Friends we need to
call sin sin. We need to treat it seriously. Next up Aaron blames the
Israelites. It's all their fault he says verse 23. Again isn't that the way we so
often think and justify our sin? The reason I'm so unkind to other people is
because people are unkind to me. The reason I'm struggling in my walk with the
Lord is because my Christian friends at church well they're just not encouraging
me at the moment. And then thirdly Aaron spins the story. Up until the end of verse
24 everything that Aaron has said has been factually true and then he says I
threw the gold into the fire and out popped this calf. It was magic. No
mention of the whole smelting it down, taking out a tool and delicately
chiseling out the calf himself. No it just happened. Don't we say the same
thing? We are masters of spin of keeping most of the facts as they are and then
just ending it a little bit differently to make it look like we're in the right.
Friends we need to repent. We need to call sin sin and we need to plead God's
work, God's glory, God's character and God's promises. Now what happens in
verses 25 to 29? Let's be honest about it. I think it makes all of us feel pretty
uneasy. If we're Christians we know we shouldn't feel uneasy about this but
that doesn't stop us feeling uneasy about it. After all isn't this what
underlies pretty much all the religious conflict we see going on around the
world? People thinking that they have a license from God to kill the heathen?
But look at what actually happened here. Look carefully. Verse 26. Moses calls on
the people. He says whoever is for the Lord come to me. He gives them a choice.
Every single one of them has a choice. Choose the Lord or choose your idol. The
implication being it was only those who were the ringleaders of the idol worship
who then subsequently failed to repent who were killed. And 3,000 men die in
total. Now that's a lot of people. But it was just half a percent of the men in
Israel at the time. It was just 0.15 percent of the total Israelites. Back in
verse 10 of Exodus 32 the whole nation of Israel every man woman and child
would have been judged and destroyed but God in his mercy simply removed those
who chose to lead the people into idolatry and then subsequently refused
to repent and turn back. It's important to say that this all happened under the
old covenant where God's people were ethnically defined. The only way people
could be removed from the people of Israel was by death. There was no other
option. We today live under the new covenant where God's people come from
all peoples and all nations and removal for unrepentant sin comes through church
discipline and removal from church membership. And that's something we've
had to do here at City Church. And if we're honest when we do that we often
feel much the same way as we feel when we read these verses, verses 25 to 29. It
makes us feel icky. None of us, certainly not the leaders of City Church enjoy
exercising church discipline. But it is necessary when people are unrepentant
if we as a church want to realign our orbit around God. But as we close we need
to ask the question how is any of this possible? Yes Moses and Israel say take
steps to put away their idols, to treat them like their dung. They remove those
who refuse to repent from the people of Israel. They trust in God's grace and
God's promises. But how can God forgive them and still be just? How can he
fulfill his promises while still judging sin? We'll turn over and take a look at
verses 30 to 35. Moses tells the people that he's going back up the mountain,
verse 30, to make atonement for their sin. And notice what he does, verse 31, he
doesn't do an errand. He doesn't try and excuse their sin and make light of it.
No, he confesses their sin. No excuses, no spin. And then verse 32 he offers to be
punished in their place, to be blotted out of God's book of life. Try to get
your heads around this. Back in verse 10 the Lord looks at Moses and says, Moses
I'm willing to start afresh with you. You can be king of the world, you can be a
new Noah, a new Abraham, the whole of my people can descend from you. This is what
I'm offering you. But verse 33, Moses offers to die instead of the people,
eternally be damned in their place. In verse 33 God says, no. Why? Well because
verse 34, sinners must be punished for their own sin. And you see the problem
for Moses was that he had his own sin to pay for. He didn't have the power to
realign the people's orbit back around God because Moses himself was part of
the problem. A better Moses was needed, a sinless Moses. Someone who like Moses
had the offer to rule from a throne, yet like Moses, chose to die in the place of
his people, chose to be blotted out of the book of life. And that's what
happened 2,000 years ago. That's what verse 34 is pointing forwards to. The
Israelites were punished for their sin as Jesus Christ hung upon that Roman
cross, dying in their place. He was blotted out so that they didn't have to
be, so that we don't have to be. That is the only way we can be returned to
orbiting our lives around God rather than orbiting our lives around ourselves.
So my question for you this afternoon is this, will you come to the Lord? Will you
come to him today to receive forgiveness for your sin? Will you come to him today
so that he will restore you to orbiting around the source of life itself? Let me
pray. Father God, thank you so much that you have made a way for us to be
forgiven. You have made a way for us to be restored to what we should have been.
Thank you Lord Jesus that you are a better Moses. You are the one who
perfectly intercedes for us. Pleading your work, your finished work, pleading
God's glory, pleading your own character, and fulfilling every single promise with
a yes and amen. Thank you that because of that there need be no fear, there need be
no death. For you Lord Jesus have conquered sin and death and Satan
forever. Amen.