Another Fall

Intro: The shock of this text should cause us to reminisce. We’ve seen glimpses of Israel’s rebellion and at times faithlessness. But here, right after the sealing of the covenant, as Moses is on the mountain receiving the law to bring back to the Israelites, we see a turn, a huge step backwards. The danger here in this text is to just go, “wow, look at how awful these people are.” I don’t want us to do that this morning. I want us to truly search our own hearts, even as the people of God, and ask ourselves, where do I, even as a Christian, dismiss the promises of God and seek after my own ways rather than God’s ways? Where do I commit grievous sin of idolatry in my own life? And what can be done about it?

CTS: Guard against the sin of fashioning God in our image and trust in the atoning work of Jesus.

READ EXODUS 32

__________________________

As we read earlier in the service from 1 Corinthians 10, the Bible tells us that this text, and the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness in general, are to be an example for us. This isn’t something we look at and go, huh, that’s interesting, and then move on. Paul tells us that this is a warning for us.

1 Corinthians 10:6 ESV

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

Let’s look at the example of the Israelites, examine ourselves, and repent where we have fallen to be faithful to Christ, our one and true Savior and God.

I. Law Broken (1-6)

The account of this text is the “original sin” of Israel. Here is where God’s covenant after his revelation of it has been rejected. Yes, they grumbled and complained earlier, but now, they have the Law in full, told Moses (and in effect, God) “All that the Lord has commanded, we will do.” That includes the very first commands given in Exodus 20, the first commands.

One commentator put it this way “The sin here is like committing adultery on one’s wedding night.”

A. Rejection of God’s Word (1)

They had forgotten what Moses told them, were impatient. So instead, they reject Moses himself and desire to make something that they could see. Ironically, this representation of God comes in light of the fact that they could still see Mt. Sinai. They could see the thunder and the lightning. But that wasn’t enough. Also, Aaron himself saw God and ate with God.

This is not that far from what Adam and Eve did. This is why I call this “another Fall.” God commanded, yet they rejected God’s ways and began to exchange his glory for their own. The Israelites did the same.

They forget the promises of God that He would be with them.

They forgot the commands of God in how they would love Him.

Spiritual adultery was their desire.

The path of spiritual adultery is always a rejection of God’s Word and promises. Stray from the Bible and stray from obeying His commands as His people, and the results will be the same. Hold fast to God’s Word. Hold fast to His grace and His love. Hold fast to the Savior ways, for it is the best way of life He has for us.

B. Forgetting the grace of God (2-3a)

The very things that God gave them in grace as they left Egypt are being used to make this calf. Aaron commands them to give them all the gold they have.

Remember, this gold and jewelry was to be used to make the tabernacle and the priestly garments. It was meant to be worship of Yahweh. Instead, they make an idol and worship it instead. They don’t have the instructions yet for the tabernacle and the garments in hand, but they contrast could not be greater from what we just read and went through the last two Sundays. They forgot Yahweh himself was the one who gave them the gifts they needed in order to worship him.

We as the church should be thankful for the grace that God has given us, the very gifts of grace that God has showered upon us. How are we to be thankful? To worship him with those gifts of grace. Spiritual gifts. Physical gifts. All things should be done to glory of God alone.

C. Exchanging the glory of God (4b-6)

In response to their building of their idol, a golden calf (which was a common idol in ancient near east because of its connection to livestock, fertility, and farming. God got Israel out of Egypt, but Egypt still is residing in Israel.

So in response, they worship. Aaron builds an altar, signifying that he and the people believed that this calf was a representation of God himself. The contrast could not be more stark. The command in the tabernacle was for an ark that did not have a visual representation of God. That was where the presence of God would reside. Here, they went against the first and second commandments of God and made an image that they could see, they could touch, they could control. This calf made them feel safe, comfortable, and under no threat.

And this was even an “orthodox” way of worship. They altar and sacrifices and the feast were not wrong, but they were directed to the wrong god. This needs to be something we need to remember. You can look orthodox in your worship and still worship the wrong God.

Psalm 106:19–21 ESV

19 They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. 20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,

The results of this though are clear in Scripture. This calf is nothing. This calf is a replacement of the glory of God.

Psalm 115:4–8 ESV

4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. 6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. 7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. 8 Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

The New Testament is clear in this as well, and that humanity itself is prone to this.

Romans 1:22–23 ESV

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Tony Merida says this:

We must remember that worship is about glorifying God, not gratifying self. The golden calf is what people wanted. The claf could not talk. The calf was not feared. The calf could be manipulated for one’s own desires. People do not want a holy God who speaks and confronts them. Be careful: you can do things ‘in the name’ of the Lord but still not worship the Lord. Be careful: you can have some orthodox acts of worship (they had a feast and made offerings) but worship unacceptably.

We must guard ourselves even as the body of Christ to never exchange the glory that God deserves for something else. When the prescribed ways of worship of Jesus feel like they are not enough, we don’t relent. Is the Word enough for us? Is the way of centering ourselves on the Gospel through reading and preaching of the Word, singing, and praying enough? Are we content to worship Jesus in spirit and in truth? Or do we demand other things in order for us to “truly worship.”

What about daily living? Is God enough for us, or do our relationships steal the glory from Christ? Do our friendships, our families, or anything else, are they deemed more important than Jesus? Does pleasure of sin come before obeying the commands of Jesus to live a holy life? Does that act of pride, anger, gossip, lust, adultery surpass the glory of living for Jesus because your desire is for it rather than your desires for Christ?

II. Covenant Threatened (7-10)

The consequences of this spiritual adultery are about to be seen. In their rejection Him as the one true God who led them out of Egypt, the covenant is about to be threatened.

God reveals the sin of the people to Moses (7-8)

God makes it clear to Moses to tell them the gravity of the situation as he is on the mountain. Go down and see what your people have done. They have sinned and corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned from my commands. They are worshiping a golden calf, sacrificed to it. They claim its their god now.

God promises a new way forward (9-10)

And then God tells Moses that he is done with these people. They are stiff-necked. They are bent on doing this evil.

And in this, he says to Moses to “leave him alone,” so that he can pour out his wrath upon him. This leaving him alone is interesting. The implication is that Moses himself is the only thing that is keeping his wrath at bay. In essence, it is an invitation for Moses to do something about this. But it is a real invitation as well. If Moses doesn’t do something about this, he will carry out his wrath.

The threat to humanity for us because of our sin is no different. Death. Separation from God. All sin has brought this upon us. And God is right in pouring out his wrath against stiff-necked people like us. Our lives are threatened, the covenant of life is now in jeopardy. And only a mediator can stop that wrath from coming upon us.

The threat to the church, as God’s people, is something we must take seriously. Those that abandon Christ as the only way of salvation are in danger. Now, this doesn’t mean that if you are saved you lose your salvation. Those that are truly saved will remained save and continue to follow Christ, though imperfectly, until death or until He comes again. But that doesn’t mean we don’t take the commands of God seriously. We are saved in His love and His grace, and therefore, because of that redemption, we live as His holy people loving Him and loving others. We obey His Word, His call to disciple, and to proclaim His name to the world. We kill sin and honor Christ. We declare His glories through words and through our actions. He alone is worshiped in us. But those that reject this life never knew him in the first place. Don’t be like those described in Hebrews 6:4 to taste the heavenly gift, but have never partook of it by repentance and faith and continued to live in that repentance and faith.

III. Mediation Made (11-14)

So Moses takes the invitation. What a turn for Moses. Once selfish and not confident, only thinking of himself and his inability. Now he stands solely between Israel and God and then looks to save God’s people. He intercedes. He prays. And this prayer has three aspects that are essential.

(1) Why save Israel, then destroy the people? (11)

(2) Why give the Egyptians an opportunity to gloat? (12)

(3) How can you ignore the promise of your eternal covenant? (13)

These three aspects speak to Moses calling upon the character and the faithfulness of God. He calls upon His name and the witness of His name. When he prays, he is concerned about God’s name being made fun of, his glory being diminished, his enemies being able to gloat. This is a bold prayer, but remember what Moses has been doing. He has been communing with God for forty days without food and water. Moses has such a relationship with the Lord, understands who He is, that He isn’t arrogantly demanding God do what he says. He calls upon God to remember his promises.

And God answers the prayer. He relents! Would God have destroyed Israel if Moses didn’t pray? I think so. But God knew that Moses would pray and intercede. He called him to it. And he calls us to pray as well on behalf of others. Are you praying for one another? Are you interceding on behalf of the lost in your life, for your church family, that God’s glory and honor would continue in us? Do we boldly pray by faith?

And what this should also point us to is our desperate need for a mediator ourselves. Moses mediated. Jesus, the true and greater Moses, interceded for us when we sinned against God. He is the means by which God brings us back into right relationship with him. He puts himself in our place, prays for us, and intercedes for his people, even now for us. The wrath of God for our sin is stopped by the God-man himself. Are you thankful today for your mediator, Jesus Christ, who has stopped the wrath you deserve for your sins?

IV. Consequences Experienced (15-29)

Though mediation was made, that doesn’t mean that there are no consequences to the sin of Israel. Mediation is made, but that work of mediation requires the act of repentance. Sin has its consequences, and the wrath for them can be assuaged, but its seriousness still remains, and often, consequences for it must be brought forth. Moses will bring about these consequences to show the seriousness of sin.

a. Anger over spiritual adultery (15-20)

First, we see Moses’ own anger over this act. Being told something is happening is different than from actually seeing it. He descends upon the mountain, and Joshua who is about halfway up tells Moses he hears sounds from the bottom, like the sound of war. Moses knows what it really is, because God has told him.

He precedes down with the tablets, the very covenant he made with Israel, and goes down. His anger burns hot over God’s glory being rejected. He sees the party around the calf, breaks the tablets (which was symbolic of the covenant that they broke with God), takes the calf and destroys it and makes the people drink it. This drinking of the powder is a foreshadowing of how adultery will be dealt with later revealed in the Law. The concoction would reveal who was the ringleaders, the unrepentant. This will come into play later.

Righteous anger over sin is needed in our world today. We don’t commit violence and we don’t act like jerks, but we do need to have righteous anger against sin amongst God’s people. And part of that is to remember that there is no 11th commandment that “thou shalt be nice.” Sometimes, we need to be confronted over our destructive behaviors, even in the church. Why? Because God’s glory is at stake. Worship of self and things that blind others to the Gospel must be dealt with in the church. There should be righteous anger when children, women, and even men, are abused in the church. This is why the changes to Ministry Safe were done, to protect the vulnerable among us, to be above reproach. There should be righteous anger when slander occurs among God’s people. There should be righteous anger when disunity happens. But this is all with humility, having to deal with our own sin and constantly seeking God’s presence and communion with him.

b. Confrontation of sin (21-24)

Moses then goes and confronts Aaron, the supposed leader when he was gone. This confrontation is clear. Moses is incredulous that Aaron could be convinced to do such a thing. Did they threaten to kill you, hurt you? What happened?

And then what was done in the garden is repeated again. The blame lay somewhere else. On the people. Don’t be angry Moses. These people, you know how they are. So, when they pressured me to do this evil, i took their gold, and threw it in the fire, and all the sudden the calf appeared!

The blame got shifted. And he also hid his sin. It said earlier that Aaron crafted the calf with an engraving tool.

This wasn’t true repentance. This was blame shifting and hiding.

When we sin and are confronted, we must be careful to not blame-shift or hide. We must own up to our sin, declaring it what it is, and repenting of it. No hiding. No excuses. No blaming others. People will sin against you. The choice is yours if you will sin back. This is counter to the ways of the world. We are told to get revenge, to reciprocate. God tells us to turn the other cheek, live graciously, and do what is right. Will we be a people that confesses regularly according to God’s word, or to our own standards instead?

c. Judgment on the unrepentant ring leaders (25-29)

Moses makes the call to repentance to the nation. The people had broken loose in their sin. They were not holding back. So he goes to the people and says, “who is on the Lord’s side?” The Levites, of whom he was part of himself (and Aaron), come and declare their repentance and desire to honor God.

Three types of people have shown up here. The repentant Levites. The repentant but middle ground people. And the unrepentant ring leaders. The Levites were commanded to go through the camp and kill those unrepentant ring leaders, revealed by that golden calf soup symptoms.

We may look at this and cringe. But we must also realize the unrepentance of these men. We must also realize how serious sin is. Death was promised from the beginning. Continued on in the law. Continued on today. We may not die immediately, but because of sin, we all deserve death. This is the reality of the seriousness of sin.

For the church, this does not give us license to go and kill “infidels.” Here, the issue of idolatry will be one that will plague the Israelites throughout its history. For us as the church, the principle is that we are to stand for that which is good and right, to take sin seriously, and to stand on the Lord’s side. We should take seriously false teaching within the church and rid it from our presence. Not with violence, but rather, through prayer and through removing those that would cause others to stray from the true faith.

Acts 20:28–30 ESV

28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

2 John 10–11 ESV

10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

V. Substitution Offered (30-35)

In the final section of this chapter, we see Moses declare his intention to make atonement for God’s people. He tells them that this could be a possibility, but he doesn’t know. He will attempt to.

Moses goes to the Lord a second time, and confesses on behalf of them their sin. But he asks that he would forgive them. But if he doesn’t, that he would take their place and be blotted out of the book.

But God reiterates the consequences of sin. And Moses cannot be that atonement for them. Sin must be taken care of, and even his own death would not be enough. Why? Because Moses is not sinless. He can’t make atonement because as we have seen already in the Passover, God requires a spotless Lamb.

The issues remains the same. Those sacrifices pointed to a needed perfect sacrifice. It required not the blood of lambs, but the blood of a perfect man, a God-man, to take our place. Moses could not be the means of salvation because he wasn’t sinless. Jesus, the Son of God, put on flesh, sinless and perfect, and willingly gave himself to mediate and to atone for our sins.

And this is the Good News of the Gospel in such a chapter full of sin. We will see this come clearer later in the next few chapters. But a reminder for us today, that no matter how far we have come, how far away from God we are, living in idolatry, that there has been atonement made.

For the unbeliever, I call on you to see your sin and to trust in the one and true God Jesus Christ, the only way of salvation. He alone can take away your sins and give you eternal life. He has come to save you, to cleanse you, and make you His own. Adopted into the family of God. Will you repent of your sin and trust in Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins. Only by faith, not by works.

For the believer, when we stray and fall into idolatry, it is serious. But in Christ we have forgiveness. Let us to diligent to follow Jesus, nothing else. Not ourselves. Not fashioning worship how we want, but how Jesus wants us to. Quick to repent, acknowledging our sin as it is, and living for the only One who could save us. The golden calves of our lives can’t save us or give us meaning. Only Jesus can.