Episode 1: Missing Leaders and Molten Hamburger

Episode #1:  Missing Leaders and Molten Hamburger

Exodus 32

• What has happened so far?
  • The people have been led out of Egypt, crossed the Red Sea and been encamped at the foot of Mt. Sinai.  Two months after they had been led by the hand of God and driven across the desert following the pillar of cloud and fire, they met with God on the mountain.
  • There he had given them the 10 commandments by his own voice (Ex 20).  The people in their fear and dismay, pleaded with Moses to be their mediator with God.  They could not endure the sound of his voice for they were afraid they would die.  Yet, they promised to do everything that God told them.
  • This episode would reveal their utter lack of obedience to and faith in the Lord.  While they had already demonstrated their utter lack of faith during their two-month desert trek thus far, this episode would provide a major low-point in Israelite history.
• Where was Moses?
  • Moses had been on the mountain with God for almost forty days at this point.  He was doing what the people asked him to do:  become the mediator between them and the Lord!  Yet, when he was gone, look at what happens.

• The People Rebel (1-6)
  • How quick do the people turn away from God?
    • They had been out of Egypt a little over three months
    • Moses had been gone for almost 40 days
  • Why do they turn away from the God who brought them out and provided for them?
    • It would seem Moses was long gone
    • Where was their faith?
    • Had they lost their connection with God?
  • The people demand of Aaron an image of the god that brought them out of Egypt.  In verse 1, the word “gathered together to Aaron” can be translated as “gathered against Aaron.”
  • What do the people say about their creation?
    • It would be an image of their god
    • It would go before them
    • It was the god who brought them out of Egypt
    • It was to be worshipped
    • It was to be an image of the Lord
  • This is like adultery on the wedding night.  God had just established the relationship with the people by the covenant and regulated it by the law.  The people quickly abandoned the covenant that they swore to keep a few weeks earlier.
  • This episode lies within the context between the giving of the blueprints for the tabernacle and the actually building of the tabernacle.  The plans have been given, but it is not yet built and their actions and attitudes bring into question whether they will ever be true.
  • Everything in their behavior is going completely against what God has laid out in his word to Moses.  This is the ultimate antithesis of God’s true plan for his people.
  • The people incorporated false and pagan rituals into their worship to the God.  Their singing and dancing and playing held strong sexual overtones-practices that were strictly forbidden by God earlier.  They were worshipping a corrupt image of God of their own making and worshipping that image in any way they saw right.

• God’s response (7-10)
  • What does God call the people?
    • He talks about them being Moses’ people.  He speaks about “your” people, whom “you” brought up
    • Like a parent talking to a spouse about “your” disobedient son
  • What is God ready to do?
    • God is ready to destroy these people, and start over with Moses
    • The people had broken the first three commandments, and deserved punishment
  • Why?
    • These are a stiff-necked people (Define!)
    • They have been like this since the day Moses was introduced to them
    • There was rebellion in their hearts from the beginning.

• Moses’ Pleadings (11-14)
  • Moses appeals to God’s nature and his promises
  • How does Moses appeal to God on behalf of the people?
    • God’s name will be ridiculed among the nations if they are destroyed
    • He appeals to God’s promises to the patriarchs
    • This is a promise that cannot be revoked – it was based in God’s character and his word.  He had made the covenant with Abraham.
  • How does the Lord react?
    • The Lord relents from destroying the people
    • This is a changing in the work of God, not his nature
    • God is not repenting for any evil that he has committed.  What he wanted to do was legitimate and to a point necessary for the punishment of Israel.  This was not a covenant promise like his promise to Abraham-he could go back on this threat because it was only an intention and was therefore conditional.
    • God is changing his relationship toward the people – his wrath is averted based on his promises.  These promises must have kept the sacrifice of Christ in mind too for that is the only way for God’s wrath to be averted in toto.

• Moses goes back down (15-29)
  • Moses already knows what has happened in the camp
  • How does he react when he sees and hears the camp?
    • He breaks the tablets in his hands.  This symbolizes the broken law of God that the people had broken in their revelry.
  • Moses then grinds the calf to dust and makes the people drink it
  • He then confronts Aaron (the supposed leader of this bunch)
    • Aaron gives the story with a few key points left out
    • “Out popped this calf” from the fire!  Imagine that!
    • Blame-shifts to a large extent
  • The people had “broken loose”
  • He calls the Levites to his side
  • The Levites go through the camp to kill those who had probably instigated the idolatry and the party.  The whole congregation deserved to be killed for their participation.
  • How is Moses’ command to kill “brother and son” different from God’s desire to destroy the people?  Had not Moses just argued against this?

• Moses ascends back to God (30-35)
  • What was Moses going back to do before God?
    • Moses returned to God’s presence in order to make atonement for the people’s great sin.
    • He was truly the mediator between the people and the Lord – even going so far to offer himself as the sacrifice for the people.  He confesses the sin of the people before the face of God, and then shows his devotion to the people as well as to God
  • Why would God not accept Moses’ suggestion to become a sacrifice?
    • Moses was not a legitimate sacrifice because he was also a sinful man.  He could not endure the wrath and punishment of God for his life also needed atonement to be made for it.

• Israel’s sin pictures our own
  • There was a time in our lives before we met Christ and put our trust in him where we were full-blown idolaters.  Now that we have believed and put our faith in Christ, our identities cannot be described as idolaters, for we can only commit idolatry. (see 1 Cor 6.9-11).
  • The people of Israel were making for themselves a god who would go before them and lead them.  They were turning their back on the God who had led them out of Egypt and who had promised them the Land of Canaan.
  • It is easy to fall into committing idolatry even as believers.  This is why Paul warns the Corinthian church of this very thing in 1 Cor 10.  When life gets tough and it doesn’t seem as if God is around for us, we often attempt to hijack control of our own lives and build for ourselves gods who will lead us out.
  • Often this idolatry comes in the form of self-worship and self-reliance.  Well, if God has delayed in coming to me, I think I’ll have to get up and go on myself.  I’ll find a good spouse, I’ll pursue a good career, I’ll build a good ministry.  We abandon the God who has led us out of our Egypt and begin to think that our power and strengthen have allowed us to come this far.
  • We begin to bow down to the idols of our heart rather than wait patiently on the Lord.  If there is something we want, we will sin if we do not get it, and we will sin in order to get it.  It comes back to the second commandment.
  • We even go so far as to build for ourselves an image of God to suit our fancies.  We see preachers like Joel Olsteen and Joyce Meyer speak of a god who will empower us to become prosperous and bless us.  We form an image of God in our minds that distracts from his true nature.
  • In a word, we make a Christ-less religion.  In our attempt at worshipping God, we have replaced Christ from center of our devotion.  When life becomes difficult, we begin to doubt the sovereignty of God, or his good plans for our lives.  We neglect and forget the promises that he has given to us.  We don’t remember his presence on the top of the mountain above us.  We fail to remember the great things he has done in the past, and refuse to give thanks by complaining and grumbling.
  • Idolatry runs deep in our fallen natures, for we long to be the one who makes the decisions and calls the shots.  Demanding that our needs be met, we fashion our own gods to meet our needs rather than seeking the Lord in prayer and Bible study.  Our fallen natures bristle at the command to lose our lives in order to follow Christ.
  • Our idolatrous hearts deserve to be destroyed, just like the people here in the desert.  We have turned away from the one true and living God and have wandered into lusting after other gods.  Yet, this destruction has been averted from those who have trusted Christ.  There is a mediator between us and God who has taken away this punishment and guilt.  There is a mediator of whom Moses is a picture.

• Moses as a forerunner of Christ
  • Moses in his love for the people would attempt to make intercession to cover over their sin.  He goes so far to even offer himself as an offering before God.  He pleads with God to kill him in place of the people.  The book that is in mind here is the book of the living (Not salvation book).  Moses confesses the sins of the people and seeks and begs for forgiveness.
  • God will not allow Moses to be the sacrifice because Moses was not a suitable substitute.  Moses still had sin in his own life that needed to be atoned for.  There must be another substitutionary sacrifice yet to come.
  • Moses is a picture of Christ who was to come later as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  Hebrews offers loads of descriptions about this sacrifice (Hebrews 7.23-25, 9.23-28, 10.14).  This sacrifice was able to atone for sin, for he was the perfect sacrifice that was able to bear the weight of God’s wrath.  His life and death became the propitiation that would avert the wrath of God from the lives of those who put their trust in him (1 John 2.2).
  • He has become our Advocate before the Father (1 John 2.1), who plead for us on our behalf (Rom 8.26).  He is ever interceding on our behalf before the Father, for he sits at the right hand of God having entered into the heavenly throne room by his own blood.  Now, before the throne of God above, we have this strong and perfect plea – “Jesus has died to take away my sin!”
  • Jesus cries before the Father on our behalf just like Moses does.  He invokes the nature and the promises of the Father.  He reminds the Father and us what he has accomplished on the cross and through the resurrection.  God’s promise remains—those who trust in him will be reconciled and saved from the wrath that is to come.  We no longer have to drink the poison of our own sin, for that poison has been taken by another.

• Stop worshipping the Cows
  • This deliverance from the wrath of God is also a deliverance from idolatry.  We have been freed from the penalty of sin and also of its power.  This is why Paul urges the churches to flee from all sorts of lusts and idolatries (1 Cor 10.14, 2 Tim 2.22).
  • We who have been delivered from the bondage of Egypt must live devoted lives to God through the person and work of Christ.  This life will become very hard and we will be tempted to hijack God’s control and lead ourselves into the Promised Land.  We must fight those lusts to build our own kingdoms, our own families, and our ministries.  Often we set up idols that we think is God, but we must destroy them by knowing the true God through his word.
  • There will be times when God seems very far from us, and there is no one around to lead us through the desert.  Remember God’s promise and the cloud of his presence.  His promises will stand, he will deliver us.  But it will be in his way, in his time, and in his power.
  • We fashion for ourselves gods of our own choosing because we think we know what is best – eating, drinking, and rising up to play.  These things are fun for a season, but will settle into our stomachs and poison us.  What is best is to wait upon and rely on God to lead us.  Moses was on the mountain receiving plans for the tabernacle, the place where God’s physical presence would reside in the midst of the camp.  Waiting and trusting in God is much better than bowing before hamburger.