AN INTIMATE AND ALL-POWERFUL GOD

EXODUS 32:1-6

We have been in this topic of the heart of God and we focused on the heart of Christ leading us to Easter.

But last week, we shifted to looking at the heart of God the Father. The figure head of the trinity.

We talked about that we are not seeking to grow in the knowledge of who God is but in true knowledge or experiential knowledge of who He is. So that when don’t just know that He is love but we turn towards Him and experience His love.

I laid out 3 challenges to us this week. and many of you took it seriously and followed through with them! I want to thank the many that emailed or texted me how you were touched by those challenges. I pray that these challenges become practices and disciplines in your life! don’t just stop this week, do it again.

If you haven’t been able to do them, give them a try this week. Go back and watch last week’s message and join us in these challenges! I pray that we would be a church that practices what we preach.

So, as we study these attributes, we must remember that we are learning them so that we can apply them. So that we can believe these are true. That we can have a better relationship with Him, because we know Him more truly.

And as we learn and apply these attributes to our lives we must remember that there are extremes that we can fall into if we hyper focus on one or a few topics.

The Lord God is complex and can not be understood by focusing on the attributes of God that make us feel better or don’t challenge us.

We must take what the Word of God says about Him completely and let Him do whatever He desires to do. After all, He is GOD and we are NOT.

My wife and I are coming up on our 10 year anniversary and we are blessed to have 5 wonderful kids together. our oldest is 14 and our youngest is 3. One of the things that blows me away the most able them is just how different their personalities, tendencies and needs are. Patience our oldest who is very independent and just as stubborn as her mother. Jace, our youngest, who is the baby of the family with emotional swings that change by the second but thoroughly enjoys being the baby and being needy.

The wide variety and needs that each of them need is crazy!

But one of the things that Candace and I agree on when it comes to parenting, and you don’t have to agree with it, is that we strive to be parents that teach our children to respect us and people people in authority while at the same time, as parents, being approachable and develop a close relationship with each of our kids. We think its important to find balance in that with our kids. But each of our kids need some of both always but sometimes need more of one over the other during different seasons.

Different stages of life and development needs a stronger push of respect, while others need a close more intimate push.

For example,

Patience went through this in her pre-teens and Boone is now going through this stage of learning where the line is for joking.

I can be pretty jokey with my kids and each of them have the right to joke back with me but there is a line that takes things too far that they have to learn.

They must be reminded that I want to be close enough to you that we can joke but there is a line that breaks the boundary for being disrespectful. I think that we as humans all try to push that line and see what we can get away with. But a parents job as we see it is to establish those boundaries and enforce them.

I must also be aware that there are times in my kid’s lives and development that they need that stronger hand of discipline and to know that what I say needs to be obeyed either for your good or because its what needs to happen. The proper boundaries in life must be established and maintained.

While at other times of vulnerability or weakness, I can be a close understanding support and encourage them to strive more. I can come in and build them up to meet whatever challenge they are facing.

I believe it takes a balance of the two as a parent. I am the same parent, the same parent but I approach each situation differently. I don’t change who I am but I am what my child needs in each situation.

I believe that it is within us, as humans, as God’s creation to need both a deep respect for our Father and His authority and yet desire and experience a deep intimate relationship with Him.

We saw this in our study of the heart of Christ. He was both God, who is worthy of falling at the feet of in praise, and man, who desires to sit with you, teach you, heal you, comfort you and provide for you.

We see this in the stories about God in the old testament. We see this balance between respect or reverence and relationship.

I believe that God desires to be both for us even though there are seasons in life that we need more of one or the other attribute. He is still one God and doesn’t change, but He knows that we need both and at times in life we need more of one.

There have definitely been seasons of my life that I needed the more heavy hand of discipline. I have needed to be reminded of the boundaries.

I feel like I am currently in a season that the Lord is drawing me closer to Him in a deeper, more intimate relationship. To see Him as a more intimate Father. Now, I still need His discipline and to grow more in reverence of just how incredible that He is.

I believe its about balance and I believe we can see that in scripture.

Before we read our verse, let me set up the context. The Israelites over the past year has seen some pretty huge and powerful events. They witnessed the 10 plagues in Egypt. Darkness completely covering the Egyptians but not them. The death of the first born of all in Egypt besides them.

They witnessed the Red Sea parting for them and then collapsing to destroy their enemy.

They saw a cloud by day and fire by night leading them through the wilderness.

They witnessed manna literally falling from heaven for them to eat.

They saw water pour out of a rock.

They saw, in chapter 19, the lightening and wind of God fall upon Mt Sinai and set a mountain on fire!

They saw Moses, their leader, the one that they could talk to, the one that they could bring their complains and issues to, the one they could have a conversation with. The one who they saw as their representative to God, walk up on that fiery mountain 40 days ago.

And this is where we pick up our verses.

Exodus 32:1–6 ESV

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. 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.” 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.” 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!” 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.

A couple of things we can draw from this passage about this balance of respect and relationship.

THE ISRAELITE'S HAD RESPECT BUT LACKED RELATIONSHIP.

Notice they didn’t go up on the flaming mountain to go get Moses. Think back over the past year, they definitely had a reverence for the power and might of God but they lacked a closer more intimate relationship with God. So, they built a god they could talk to, drink and play close to. They created a God to fit their desire.

Notice they say two things. We don’t know what happened to Moses or if he is even coming back. In essence, they were missing the one to talk to. The one to bring their complaints to. They missed their representative of God.

They recieved their need for a close relationship from Moses and they were missing that.

The second thing is that they leaned too much into that relationship. They said, ‘that man, Moses who brought us up out the land of Egypt.” After all that God did to deliver them, they gave Moses the credit because they were seeking that closeness from someone other than God.

In fact, they literally took the blessing that the Lord had given them and fashioned them into an idol.

When they left Egypt, Exodus chapter 12 tells us, God gave them favor in the eyes of the Egyptians and they gave the Israelites gold and silver as they were leaving.

Now, they take that gold and in their need for an intimate God, fashion a false idol and call it Yahweh. Aaron says, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord, to Yahweh.

There are seasons in life and you may be in one right now, that you don’t question His power, His ability, His Holiness, or His greatness. You have the greatest respect for who He is but you are craving a more intimate and close God. You have a desire to be able to talk to Him, and hear Him speak to you. But right now, you feels distant from Him or you are too afraid to approach Him. You feel like He doesn’t want to hear from you.

Like children, with a heavy handed father, who do not feel like their father cares about the details in their lives or that their father desires to spend time with them. We too can feel like our heavenly Father is too powerful and distant to care about the details of our lives and it too busy to spend time with us. We have great respect for Him but we are lacking in a deeper relationship with Him.

If you feel this way,

I would encourage you not to fall into the temptation of the Israelites and fashion a false idol out of the blessings that God has given you.

Don’t turn to the blessings of money to buy things that try to fill that void. Material things will not fulfill that desire for intimacy. Money will not buy closer friends. Money can fashion many false idols. Recognize them as false idols.

Some of us lean into the talents that God has given to us and turn them into idols as we seek intimacy with God.

Some of us have turned to a person, like Moses, to be that fulfillment of an intimate relationship. We turn to spouses or friends to give us the love that God is meant to fill. Or we turn to pastor or teachers to be our representative of God for us. Getting God’s messages though them only. Instead of growing into a more, closer walk with God ourselves.

If you find that this resonates with you, if you feel distant from intimacy with God, my encouragement is to cast off those false idols and wait for the Lord.

While the Israelites were building this idol with Aaron, God was literally giving Moses instructions on how to build the tabernacle because Exodus 25:8

Exodus 25:8 ESV

And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.

The Lord was moving to make a way for Him to dwell closer with His people.

The Lord desires to dwell with you. He desires to be close to you. He desires to be your all-powerful, awe-inspiring God yet He desires to be all that you need in comfort, love and support.

We, in the NT era, know this more true than they did. God sent His Son, to this earth to die for our sins so that He could dwell with us. That He could dwell within us through His Holy Spirit that we receive at salvation. Because of Jesus, we have the opportunity to have the temple of God be within us.

So, if you feel like this, I pray that you will turn away from false idols and set your eyes on Jesus. He is available to you. He is the fulfillment of the desire inside of you for intimacy with your heavenly Father.

The second way we could view this

AARON’S SONS HAS RELATIONSHIP WITHOUT RESPECT

I also want to look at the other end of this truth. Some of us, see God as a friend and very close to us but need to be reminded of the reverence that His holiness demands.

Leviticus 10:1–3 ESV

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

Here we see 2 of the 4 men that were allowed in the presence of God in the tabernacle. They were arguably closer to God that almost everyone else.

But only in proximity. They may have had a close relationship with God but they lacked a reverence for His holiness. They lacked seeing Him as worthy of proper praise and obedience. They were too flippant and did not take seriously the commands of the Lord.

His holiness is so powerful it can not be defiled. Its not that they were punished for disobedience, they recieved the full power of the holiness and glory of God. He can not be defiled.

The Lord tells Moses, I will be glorified. All those that come near me, must be sanctified. His presence is so great. You must be perfect and sanctified.

Thanks be to Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer that paved the way and paid the price for us to come boldly into His presence.

But sometimes, doesn’t our boldness shift into arrogance and pride? We start making demands and talk to God about what we think we deserve. Sometimes, like my kids, we can cross the line of what is appropriate to say or demands that we make of our heavenly Father.

Sometimes we must be reminded of the proper boundaries that His holiness demands

We must maintain a proper reverence for the God that we serve. His name will be glorified!

In Malachi, the Lord is talking about the temple not offering the right sacrifices. They are offering polluted offerings to the Lord. They were not taking the holiness that God deserves seriously. God says, it would be better for you to shut the doors of the temple that to keep doing this.

He says,

Malachi 1:11 ESV

For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

His name is great and it will be glorified!

Amen!

So, this week, I challenge you to ask the Lord if you fall into either one of these areas. Ask the Lord to show you if you need to correct your view of Him in either direction. Maybe you already know.

Don’t stay there. Let us each correctly view Him in the balance of respect and relationship.

Next week, we will look at how Moses handled this balance in chapters 33-34 of Exodus.

Let’s pray.