YouTube video sermon
Exodus 32:1-9, 30-34
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and let’s go back to Exodus 32. Only two more weeks and we’ll be done with Exodus. I promised that we would be finished by the end of August and I’m sticking with it, even though there’s still so much more that we could cover. Of course, Exodus 32 is known to most of us as the story of the golden calf, and indeed that’s what happens at this point in Israel’s journey, but it’s more than that. Ultimately, it’s the story of every human heart.
Think about this for a moment. In the day-to-day comings and goings of life, there’s actually no such thing as atheism. There’s no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice is what we worship. And the compelling reason for choosing some sort of “god” or spiritual thing – be it Jesus or Allah, be it Jehovah, or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some sacrosanct set of ethical principles – is because pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.
If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you’ll never have enough. You’ll always want more. You’ll never find a sense of peace and contentment. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you’ll always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you’ll die a million deaths on your way to the grave. On one level, we already know this. The trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.
Worship power and you’ll end up feeling weak and afraid, and you’ll need ever more power over others to numb your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, and you’ll end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.
But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful, it’s that they’re unconscious. They’re default settings. They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing.
To paraphrase the great reformer of the 16th century, John Calvin, “The human heart is an idol factory.” Os Guiness and John Seel, in their book No God but God: Breaking With the Idols of Our Age, write, “Idolatry is the most discussed problem in the Bible… There can be no believing communities without an unswerving eye to the detection and destruction of idols.” Left to ourselves, we’ll worship something other than the living God. And that’s what we’re going to look at this morning.
But before we do, let’s pause and seek God’s blessing:
“O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire You with our whole heart, that so desiring we may seek and find You; and so finding You we may love You; and loving You we may hate those sins from which You have redeemed us; for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.” (Anselm of Canterbury, Prayers of the Early Church & Prayers of the Middle Ages, Edited by J. Manning Potts, 1954.)
We’ve noted how there are these connections, these links between Exodus and Genesis, between the Garden of Eden and the Tabernacle, well here’s another one. This is a story about another “great fall.” While Moses was on the mountain receiving instructions on the proper way to worship the living God, the people were back at camp taking a huge plunge into sin.
If you’re in the habit of taking notes in your Bible, then write 1 Corinthians 10, beside Exodus 32. That’s right; the Apostle Paul uses this exact story (and others from Israel’s years of desert wandering) to warn the church about the snare of idolatry. He says, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! [T]herefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:11-12, 14 NIV).
If you’re still wondering whether or not there’s anything for us – New Testament, new covenant believers – to learn from the dusty, dark pages of the Old Testament, then wonder no more. In Exodus, the Israelites were tempted with their memories and experiences of the Egyptian gods. In Corinth, they were tempted with the local pagan gods. And the same is true in America 2023. The “gods” may look different but the principle is the same: we must avoid the idols of our hearts. So, let’s consider two challenges from Exodus 32, as they relate to idolatry.
Be Careful Not to Fall
Why did Israel fall into idolatry? For the same reason that we do. And I’m going to quickly give you six reasons directly from the text.
We Fall When We Disobey the Word of God (32:1a)
“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’” (Exodus 32:1a, ESV).What was given to the nation of Israel back in Exodus 20? (Ten Commandments, right). The next 5 chapters (Exodus 20-24) all recount God’s message to Moses and set forth some of His covenant rules. And when Moses finished telling the people everything, listen to what Exodus 24:3 says; “When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, ‘Everything the LORD has said we will do.’” Yet, what do they do? They reject God’s word and make an idol.
They claimed to be worshipping “the LORD,” and they proceeded to give offerings, yet they made an image to do so. Perhaps they thought they were worshipping the real God, but they were worshipping in a way that clearly violated what God had said. We do the same thing. We’ve been given the word of God (the Bible) and many of us have said (and do say) that we will obey it, and yet, we fall when we disobey the very word that we have access to. So, number one, we fall when we disobey the word of God.
We Fall When We Fail to Trust the Purposes of God (32:1b)
“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” (Exodus 32:1b). That’s not true. They knew where he was. They just didn’t trust his involvement with God’s purposes. They were frustrated with his extended absence, and instead of trusting in God’s purposes, they moved on. Israel wanted to get on with their journey, but God had not told them the specifics, only that He would go with them.
The same is true for us. God hasn’t given us a script. There’s no special roadmap that gets handed out when you repent of your sin and follow Jesus that tells you everything that’s going to happen (when/where/how/why). But the Bible does tell us that “[He] will be with us even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Many people look at God’s promise to return and say, “Well, you know what, He hasn’t come back in 2000+ years, I’m just gonna move on too.” Like Israel, we say “What about this man, Jesus? Is He coming back or not? Must not, so I’ll just move on.” Trust Him. Trust God’s timing. His purposes are good and best. So, number two, we fall when we fail to trust the purposes of God.
We Fall When We Forget the Grace of God (32:2)
“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’” (Exodus 32:2). Do you remember, when we were talking about all of the materials and items needed for the tabernacle, where did all of that stuff come from? (Their plundering of Egypt, right?) Who made that possible? (God.) The gold came from God’s victory. It pictured His grace and His faithfulness. And yet Israel minimized God’s grace by giving it to an idol, rather than using it for His glory.
Psalm 106:19-21 says, “At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt.” The psalmist says it explicitly – they forgot the God who saved them. Sometimes, we get so busy and preoccupied that we, too, forget the God who saved us. When we do, we’re suspect to fall. So, number three, we fall when we forget the grace of God. And number four is related to this…
We Fall When We Fail to Use Our Gifts to the Glory of God (32:3)
“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. And they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” (Exodus 32:3-4). We should enjoy God’s gifts, be thankful for God’s gifts, and use His gifts to build the kingdom, not for idolatrous devotion. Think about it for a moment. Put the gold to the side. Think about all the time and skill it took to make this idol. Instead of using the gifts of time, talent and treasure to honor God, they used it for idolatry. How are we using God’s gifts? Are we using them to bring Him glory or are we using them to feed our idols?
Many people want to be forgiven of their sins and go to heaven, but they want to hold on to the idols of the world. It was God who had delivered them. It was God who had saved them. It was God who had redeemed them, and yet they forgot God and offered praise to an idol. May we never stop thanking God for His grace and living for His glory.
We Fall When We Distort the Worship of God (32:5-6)
“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.’ 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” (Exodus 32:5-6). This entire scene was a picture of distorted worship. They did what was popular instead of doing what was right with regard to worship.
Today there’s a whole church culture that reflects this story. We want to do away with what Scripture says about worship and do it our way. Consequently, we have people sitting in the pews that are nothing more than consumers of worship, being entertained by artists and led by Aaron-like folks who pander to their congregation. God’s way of worship puts the gospel of Jesus Christ on display. God-centered, gospel-saturated worship talks about the cross, it talks about sin, and it shows sinners how they can be forgiven and worship Almighty God. There’s a movement afoot in some Christian circles that claims Jesus’ death upon the cross is nothing more than, to use their words, “cosmic child abuse.” In other words, the substitutionary death of Jesus is no longer preached and believed. Worship – whatever else it might involve – is ultimately about glorifying God, rather than gratifying ourselves. And when we change the message and shift focus away from the cross of Calvary we’re distorting worship and we’re subject to fall.
We Fall When We Exchange the Glory of God (32:8)
“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!’” (Exodus 32:8) Paul’s letter to the church in Rome always comes to mind when I hear the phrase “exchanging the glory of God.” Listen to what he writes:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:18-25)
When you worship the wrong god, you’re capable of all types of sin. Have you ever thought about this, sin problems are worship problems. Your porn addiction is a worship problem. Your anger problem is a worship problem. Your greed is a worship problem. Your gluttony is a worship problem. Psalm 16:4 says, “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.” Folks, let’s love creation, use creation, steward creation, but let’s worship the Creator, the triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
There’s another issue that arises when we exchange the glory of God and that’s imitation. We become like what we worship. That’s what happened in verses 7-10, but it’s also illustrated for us in Psalm 115:4-8, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.”
Israel became spiritually lifeless like their idol. They became corrupt and nasty like cattle. They also became “stiff-necked” and stubborn like unruly cattle. They had gotten out of control and had to be led like cattle. Interesting note here; I was reading one commentator that said that might have been why Moses ground up the golden calf and made them drink it – so that it could get digested and become unusable filth. So, what should we do to avoid falling? Worship God! 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” Lo and behold, we resemble what we revere. We imitate Him who we worship.
See Our Need for a Substitute
We didn’t have time to read and study the entire chapter, but as you read it again, you’ll notice that Moses confronts Aaron and then he goes back up the mountain to intercede for the people. Verse 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.’” Moses appealed to God. He didn’t minimize their sin. He said it was a “grave sin.” He sought forgiveness for their sin.
Then he said something amazing in verse 32, “But now, if you will forgive their sin – but if not, please blot me out of Your book that You have written.’” Moses offered to lose his own life for the sake of Israel – something that Paul would say in Romans 9:3-4, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers [and sisters], my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.”
Moses and Paul understood the nature of salvation: when people sin, they need a substitute. And here is a new approach. Rather than the priests offering sacrifices as the substitute, the representative of God [Moses] offers himself as the sacrifice. But God didn’t accept. God did grant mercy and agree to continue on with Israel: the stiff-necked people. But Moses couldn’t die because he too was a sinner.
This whole chapter, as much as it’s a warning against idolatry and the dangers of the human heart apart from God, points us to one greater reality: we need a perfect substitute. And praise God, we have One! He would come from THIS VERY people – the Jews. He would ascend to the cross and bear the punishment that we idolaters deserve. He took the punishment in our place, in order for our sins to be covered. Jesus would say, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). And praise be to God, if you’ve trust in the completed work of Christ Jesus upon the cross of Calvary, then your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life.
If you’re here this morning and you’ve never done that, then let me invite you to do it today. You need to see Jesus as your substitute. He died in your place for your idolatry, so that you could be reconciled to God. You need a new life that can only be found in and through Jesus. Just trust Him. Just surrender your life. Repent of your sin. Acknowledge it for what it is – rebellion against a holy God. And accept the free gift of God’s grace in Christ.
To those of you that have trusted Jesus, you need to see your idols for what they are – dumb, unable to satisfy, unable to bring peace and joy and hope. Put your lusts to death daily (Colossians 3:5). “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). Consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God (Colossians 3:4). Remember that you’re a new creation. “Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly” (Colossians 3:16). See all of life as an opportunity to worship Christ. Believe that He’s the best Master, the most intimate companion, and the most superior source of satisfaction.