The Golden Calf and its Consequences (Exodus 32)
(1) Sermon Script
Introduction: Short Marriages
'Celebrity marriages: they never last'. That's Donkey in Shrek, after Dragon swallows Lord Farquar at the Altar. And it's funny because there’s truth in it.
Usually, marriage, ostensibly entered for life, is exited for what seems a better life. Often for a younger wife. Unfortunately, we watch the marriages of the rich and famous explode. Whether in Women's Magazines or on TV. We watch the wooing, the wedding, the honeymoon. The declarations of wedded bliss. Then the extended absences. After all, each has their own A List career to follow. Then we hear of difficulties over career and kids. Rumours over a rupture. Then headlines headlines like ‘is this the end?’ Exclusive pictures of 'the new man', or 'the other woman'. Then the separation, the divorce, the settlement, the lawyers. Then the whole news cycle starts again. The same stories about the same rich and famous people are run. Only the photo and the name of the new partner love interest has changed.
Recently we saw this with a famous Australian. Within 4 years and 7 months, we saw him announce his divorce from his wife of 25 years. We then saw him remarry in a lavish, 2 million dollar plus ceremony in the Bahamas. Then divorced from that marriage. Then another remarriage. It was splashed all over our media.
Sadly, Wikipedia has a list Hollywood Marriages that lasted 3 years or less: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_marriage. The shortest one I read about was for 56 hours. But there were marriages that lasted 9 days, two weeks, and 19 days as well. Many of those involved are household names, actors and actresses.
And what the rich and famous do on our TV screens and Women’s Magazines, the Home and Away characters do, and pretty much the society does the same. They are just like us, only bigger.
Why do these things happen? Of course there is the infidelity, the adultery, the egotism and selfishness. Long separations as each spouse compete for their independent careers play their part. We understand why someone ends up in the arms of a coworker or costar, even if we don’t condone it.
Context: Yahweh and his expensive Wedding
Well, Yahweh has just married his people, Israel. He has entered into covenant relationship with them. He was the great King. She was the poor slave in Egypt. But he had long had a soft spot for Israel, and so from the top of Mount Sinai, he betrothed himself to Israel. Yahweh said to Israel in Exodus 19:4-6:
4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. ’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. ” (Exodus 19:4-6 NIV)
And the people wholeheartedly said 'I do'. All that the Lord has spoken we will do. We will be obedient (Exodus 24:3, 7).
All the accompanying indicia of a valid marriage were there. The people washed their clothes (Exodus 19:10, 14). The signs of the covenant, not a ring and holding hands, but the blood sprinkled on the people (Exodus 24:8). And moreover, there was the expensive reception with important guests. 70 elders were invited into the presence of Yahweh (Exodus 24:9 ff). And they ate and drank in his presence. The people really did agree, and fully consented to their new relationship with Yahweh.
Now, on this analogy, Moses is a bit like a ‘Marriage Broker’ come ‘Wedding Planner’. Now, after the Covenant Ratification ceremony, Yahweh had called Moses up the mountain for a short time. Sure, it was 40 days and 40 nights. But Yahweh was planning for life together with his people. It wasn’t too long to prepare for their life together for the coming generations. Yahweh needed to give Moses the plans for his dwelling, the tabernacle (Exodus 25-27). And he had made detailed preparations for his household service, to be conducted by the Priests and Levites (Exodus 28-29). And Yahweh had planned his calendar, the special times he would spend with his people. God was serious about his relationship with his people.
Now, part of the promise the people ‘I do-ed’ was this: 'I am Yahweh, the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt. ‘You shall have no other Gods before me, ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything. ‘You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain' (Commandments 1-3; Exodus 20:1-7).
These were core, foundational to God’s relationship with his people. It was an exclusive relationship of the only Saviour God Yahweh and his pure people, saving themselves for the one and only God. There was to be no adultery. Just as sexual Adultery is to Marriage, so religious Idolatry is to God’s Old Covenant with his people Israel. Idolatry is Adultery.
The Adultery of Idolatry and Aaron Implicated (Exodus 32:1-6)
Absence is supposed to make the heart grow fonder. But not as far as Israel was concerned. For Israel, absence didn’t make the heart grow fonder. Absence made the heart wander. They strayed. Exodus chapter 32 verse 1:
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. “ (Exodus 32:1 NIV)
Notice what they say. ‘Make us gods’.
‘Look, my new husband has stepped out to prepare for our lives together. Something about a house and servants and special time with me. He’s been gone to long. Will you come to bed with me?’
This isn’t ‘he don’t bring me flowers anymore’. This is adultery on the wedding night.
In one fell swoop, everything achieved in Exodus is about to be lost. The first 31 chapters of Exodus is about to be rolled back and undone. On the Wedding Night, so to speak, the bride has a brain explosion and does the unthinkable. Because the Marriage Broker and Wedding Planer is away, the people, aided and abetted by Aaron, renounce the marriage and go prostituting for love on their terms with they don’t know what.
And Aaron, about to become High Priest and Mediator, and who was himself at the Reception dinner, should have known better (Exodus 24:9). But he was complicit in it all, and succumbed to their threats, which were at least implicit (Exodus 32:2-4). He asks for their gold earrings. And he made them into an idol of a golden calf. And their response when they saw the golden calf was, it seems pure joy:
Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. ”
Here is the people’s corrective to Yahweh’s words. ‘I am Yahweh your God, who brought you from Egypt, from the land of slavery.’ (Exodus 20:1) 'No, we think differently', the people say. 'We don’t see it your way! We want an idol. We want worship like the pagan nations around us.'
Whether they were worshipping the right God the wrong way, or worshipping wrong gods, it doesn’t matter[1]. With these three words, they broke the first, second and third commandments.
They did not have Yahweh as their God, number 1. They made and worshipped an idol, number 2. And their acts rendered the covenant promises to no affect, their solemnly sworn word means nothing, so they took God’s name in vain.
And one thing led to another. Idolatry leads to adultery. Breaking the second command usually leads to breaking the 7th. Religious sin leads to sexual sin. They got rid of Yahweh their husband, and pretty soon, they end up in sexual sin. Verse 6:
6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. (Exodus 32:6 NIV)
The word translated ‘revelry’ has the connotation of sexual play[2]. A drunken religious orgy has begun[3].
And friends, it was true then, and it is true now. Idolatry leads to Adultery. Consider the Apostle Paul’s words about Gentiles in Romans 1:
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. (Romans 1:22-24 NIV)
Paul links false religions with wrong use of sex. Idolatry leads to adultery. So we need to learn from their history[4].
Moses Mediates and Molifies Yahweh (Exodus 32:7-14)
After the act of adultery, then what? What is the price of their idolatry?
God is angry enough to destroy his people. God has form. He did it in the days of Noah. He did it to Sodom and Gommorah. He did it to the firstborn of Egypt, and the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. He is about to do it to the Canaanite, in the Books of Deuteronomy and Joshua.
Why not Israel, if they are no different? So God says to Moses in verse 10:
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. (Exodus 32:10 NIV)
Here is a course of action open to Yahweh. 'I am going for an Annulment. The quicker the better. The honeymoon’s not even over, and I’ve caught her in prostitution. I can keep my promise to Abraham another way. I can do it through you, Moses.'
But here is the great benefit of the Mediator, the go between. Someone to stand with a hand on God’s shoulder, and another on the guilty nation. Verse 11:
11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “O Lord, ” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? (NIV)
Verse 12:
12 … Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. (NIV)
Verse 13:
13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self…
(NIV)
Moses boldly argues with Yahweh his God, just as Abraham did centuries before, over Sodom and Gommorah. The Mediator pleads for mercy, not justice.
He points to distant past: Remember your promises to the Patriarchs. Then the recent past: Remember that you just saved them from Egypt. He points to the present: Think of the Egyptians. Don’t let the Egyptians gloat over them, and say you had it in for them all along.
And Moses arguments worked. God relented, stronger, he repented. He didn’t bring the disaster he threatened. That is, God didn’t destroy the whole nation, with whom he was angry, and we must add, justly, from top to bottom.
Now this raises a theological issue for us. Does God really repent, and change his mind? Doesn’t he know the beginning from the end?
And I say, ‘Yes, God did know he would change his mind’. God does know the beginning from the end. But he has a real relationship with his people.
And so scripture ‘accommodates to our capacity’. Scripture uses human ways to talk about God.
We know God is Spirit and doesn’t have a body. He doesn’t have literal arms, legs, eyes, and ears. Apart from the incarnation, God is Spirit and not limited by a body.
But when scripture speaks of God’s arm or eye or attentive ear, it is a manner of speaking, a metaphor, if you like. The bible uses a human way of speaking and applies it to God. So too with God’s repentance.
The fact is, God uses means as well as ends. God appointed Moses intercession to be the means by which God would show his people mercy. In his kindness, God allows Moses and his mediation to become part of his purposes.
So Psalm 106 is correct to say:
So he [God] said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them. (Psalm 106:23 NIV)
God said he would destroy them. They deserved to be destroyed. But God had also chosen Moses to be the mediator. God also had done that. God had chosen Moses for that very purpose, to ‘change God’s mind’. God appointed Moses to change God’s mind. So that Moses stood in the breach and kept his wrath from destroying Israel.
And Moses prepares us for the Messiah, Jesus, and his ministry of mediation For Jesus is the one who stands in the breach for us.
But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence— Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2 NIV)
Jesus stands in the breach for us. He stood in the breach by his death. His death removes God’s wrath from us. His death kept keep God’s wrath from destroying us for our sins. And Jesus still stands in the breach. His ongoing life means we have a friend in heaven to plead our case.
So does that mean Jesus changes God the Father’s mind about us? Does the loving Son change the mind of the Angry God?
Well, the answer is both yes and no.
It is yes, because Jesus death is a propitiation, a sacrifice that turns aside God’s anger. If Jesus hadn’t died for us, God’s wrath wouldn’t have been removed. And it is yes, because he is our Great High Priest, and without him we are naked and lost before God.
But it is also no. For the Father is also Loving. God so loved the world that he sent his Son. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10). And we must add, that the Son, Jesus is also Angry. There is the Wrath of the Lamb, as well as his love.
But because of Jesus’ intercession for us, we are invited to be like Moses. We now have access to the Father. And we are told that God uses our prayers. Our prayers become part of God’s purposes. For God uses means as well as ends to achieve his purposes.
And so the Apostle says:
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone — 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Saviour 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4 NIV)
Because of Jesus, we have access to the Father. And so our prayers for others are acceptable before God. And we believe that God uses our prayers to turn his own anger from people. God ‘s way of working is to answer our prayers to save others. Yes, God is free. He could have done it without us. But he has decided to let us into the process. And our prayers, our pleading with God for others salvation, is part of his means of saving them.
So for whom are you standing in the breach? Who do you wish to be saved from God’s wrath? For whom are you interceding, bringing them before the throne of grace? For we do not see now the results of our intercession. It will only be on the last day that we will see the effects of our intercession.
Moses God-like Anger & Aaron's Lame Excuse (Exodus 32:15-24)
Well, Moses time up the Mountain has rubbed off on him. Because not only does he take up the people’s cause before God. He also takes up God’s cause with the people.
With God, he pleads for the people. But with the people, he reflects God’s anger. Verses 19 and 20:
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 they 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. (NIV)
Some of God’s anger has rubbed onto Moses. And we are going to see that God will discipline his people.
Anger is not always wrong. In your anger do not sin, yes. But remember gentle Jesus, meek and mild, who at least twice took over the temple courts, overturned tables, and drove out the money changers. Zeal for God’s House consumed both Moses and Jesus. One thinks of Ezra, pulling the hair and hitting the Israelite men who married foreign women. They didn’t really suggest we do all this in Pastoral Counselling 1A. Hair pulling, table overturning, idol grinding, tablet smashing.
But all these actions in Scripture are portrayed as the proportionate and appropriate responses to sin in their circumstance. And there will be worse punishments to come.
But before we get to that, let’s stop to appreciate Aaron’s lame response in the face of Moses anger. In the spirit of Adam’s, ‘The Woman You Put Here with Me Gave Me the Fruit’, we read the second part of verse 24:
Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf! (NIV)
Hey, don’t blame me. I just chucked the gold earings into the fire. Subtext, ‘It must have been God, because out came this calf’. Not just lame, but a lie, for Aaron himself fashioned the idol.
Just Retribution for Unfaithfulness: The Levites & the Plague (Exodus 32:25-35)
Well, there will be just retribution. God won’t wipe out the entire assembly, though he was just to say he would. But there will be a surgical removal of the cancer of idolatry.
Moses calls the Levites to him. And he commissions them to kill presumably those who had sinned in this matter. And we read in verse 28 -29:
28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. 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.” (Exodus 32:28-29 NIV)
But that is not all. God also will strike the people himself. Verse 35:
35 And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made. (NIV)
Again, this is pictured as punishment for sin. In both instances, we can assume, though it is not said, that those who sinned suffered in these ways. But not always.
Sometimes there is collateral damage, because we live in a sinful world, and none of us are islands. Ours sins effect each other. Each dies for his own sin, yes. But sometimes that death is brought forward for some, while others equally guilty go on living.
Consider Aaron. Aaron still gets to be High Priest. He is not killed for making the idol.
We might think it as unfair. Another way to look at it is God’s grace. Mind you, Aaron will not enter the promised land for his sin, just as Moses will die outside the promised land for his sin. So there are still consequences for the sin, though not as immediate.
Moreover, Yahweh doesn’t divorce Israel. He was within his rights to go for the anullment. He even thought about it and mentioned it. But that is not what he wants. Let’s take a sneak peak at Exodus chapter 36 verse 1:
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants. ’
God doesn’t divorce the wedding night adultress. Instead, in love he prunes her, purifies her, purges the sinners, and prepares her for the promised land.
Conclusion: Who can Suffer in Substitution for Sinners?
But I want to close my talk today asking this question. ‘Who can suffer in substitution for sinners?’ ‘Who can put themselves forward to God to bear the sin of others?’
Moses? Blot Me out of the Book and Forgive
Moses as Mediator wants to do it. He so loves his people and is committed to God’s purpose to get them into the promised land that he says this: Chapter 31 verses 31-33:
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. (NIV)
The impulse of the Mediator is to offer himself for his people. If you don’t have a mind to forgive, blot me out of the Book instead. Take my life and exhaust your anger on me instead. Because I want you to forgive their sin.
But God here refuses the offer. No, I will not accept that offer. The sinner here will die.
Paul? Curse and Cut Me off From Christ for My Countryman
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul makes a similar statement for his people Israel. In Romans 9 verses 1-3, Paul says:
I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. (Romans 9:1-3 NIV)
Paul’s thinking is. Israel are rejecting Christ. They are making a fatal choice. They are opting for a fate worse than death. God, why don’t you send me to hell instead? Why don’t you accept them, and cut me off from Christ? For that is the impulse of the mediator. To take the place of the one for whom he pleads.
Jesus: A Life as a Ransom for Many
But neither Moses nor Paul’s offers are accepted. They cannot ransom others by offering their lives in exchange for them. They cannot go to hell in place of another. And the Psalm tells us why:
No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him — the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough (Psalm 49:7-8 NIV).
But the Psalmist hopes for redemption in God:
But God will redeem [or ransom] me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself (Psalm 49:16 NIV).
God himself must ransom. God himself must pay the price. A brother cannot pay for another, because ransoming is more expensive than that.
And God did ransom us. In the person of Jesus Christ. God became a man to become the ransom for many. As God, the ransom of Jesus Christ is of infinite value. And as man, Jesus Christ can ransom or redeem his brothers, because he is also God. And so Jesus Christ says:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45 NIV)
And as the Son of Man, the one worthy of worship, his sacrifice of himself is acceptable for many. For you and me.
Dear friend, you do not have a Moses or a Paul who offered his life for you. You have God himself, in the person of his Son. See what a great Mediator we have.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men… (1 Timothy 2:5-6 NIV)
Worship God through Jesus for such a Mediator. Thank God for such a costly ransom. The wonderful, perfect, spotless man who is God, Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
Footnotes
[1] Psalm 106:19-22 NIV: 19At Horeb they made a calf and worshipped an idol cast from metal. 20 They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass. 21 They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
[2] Durham, Exodus: WBC, 422; Enns, Exodus, NIVAC, 571; Childs, Exodus: OTL, 556; R A Cole, Exodus: TOTC, 216
[3] Childs, 566
[4] Compare also Paul’s direct quote from Exodus 32:6 LXX: 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry. (1 Corinthians 10:7 NIV).