Chapter 32
I used to be a real “redneck” when I was younger. Growing up in Texas and then moving to Los Angeles through a divorce, I clung to everything country. Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, The Charlie Daniels Band—anything “hard” country, I was into. The bills of my ball cap were so curved they nearly touched at the ends. I was a “rebel” in the West. I couldn’t wait to get out of California and head back to Texas, maybe even become a truck driver and see the good ol’ U.S.A.
Some of that came true. I made it back to Texas, and I ended up working in transportation. Along the way, after some tough times and stubborn choices, I found the Lord. I loved every minute of learning more about Jesus. Church was great, but the music was a little too “rock” for me. It took time, but eventually, I discovered Christian country music. Bruce Carroll and Paul Overstreet became two of my favorites. My path was changing. Little by little, I started finding more peace and love in my heart, and less pride and ego. I wish I could say I stayed on that path without straying. But… no.
As a Christian now for a while, I’ve had my fair share of setbacks. I can never seem to understand how one week I can be so close to the Father, only to find myself back in the world the next. From time to time I would find myself looking back. Some might call it “nostalgia,”, that sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past, often before I came to the Lord. But when that glance backward turns into a longing for the past, it can be dangerous. How long can we take our eyes off God before we lose our way?
This is similar to what happens in this chapter of the Bible. It’s easy to sit in judgment of Israel. I mean, in just five short months, God had done one amazing thing after another. But after Moses left for just 40 days, these people went completely off the rails! But if we’re honest with ourselves, I bet most of us can’t go even 40 days without slipping up.
They made a bad choice right off the bat. God brought them to the mountain earlier in the book and began speaking to them, but they said it was too much. They chose to go back and asked Moses to be their mediator instead. But when Moses wasn’t there, they started looking around. They wanted that “old-time religion,” but without Moses, they tried to make one up for themselves. In less than 40 days of living without God, they had turned back to the world.
The Bible says not to forsake the fellowship of believers. In other words, we’re meant to stay connected to a Bible-based, Jesus-centered church or fellowship. None of us are called to be lone rangers. God created us to encourage, strengthen, and protect one another. My brothers in Christ can also help me get back on track when I start gazing too long in the rear-view mirror, or miss to many fellowships. So if you know someone who has disconnected, this may be speaking to you to connect with them. If it’s you, then this message is certainly for you! Get back to, and reconnect your relationship with God.
The Golden Calf
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, [How do you react when God is not working on your time table, but causes what you think is a delay?] “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, [Listen how they disassociate themselves from Moses….”this fellow” “this guy”. And it wasn’t Moses who brought them out of Egypt – It was God. Exodus 6:7] we don’t know what has happened to him.”
2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, [literal – young bull. This was a very well-known and recognized image. For 400 years they saw this bull, one of the highest deities in Egypt.] fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. [They now replaced relationship with religion.]Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. [The verb tense suggests sexual “playing”. From religion it was an easy step into immorality]
7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 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.’
9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 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.”
11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. [Moses the mediator – Just like Jesus.] 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, [Notice Moses does not say Jacob, the man of the flesh, but uses his spiritual new name “Israel” here. Moses was making a point with God.] 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 your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ ” 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. [God knew He would not destroy Israel. But he purposely put Moses through the test of becoming an intercessor for Israel. Something he would get a lot of experiences doing as time went on. God used this to train Moses to be the leader God wanted him to be.]
15 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. 16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.” 18 Moses replied: “It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.”
19 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. 20 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.
21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?” 22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. 23 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.’ 24 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!” [Look how Aaron’s story but almost word for word but then had a little twist compared to verse 3.]
25 Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. 26 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.
27 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, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ” 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. [This represented about 1/10 of the total that came out of Egypt. These were not the only ones involved, but most likely the most flagrant, or perhaps the leaders encouraging others to fall away.] 29 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.”
30 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.” 31 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. 32 But now, please forgive their sin–but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” 33 The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. 34 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.”
35 And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
