The Golden Calf

The Golden Calf - Exodus 20:18-32:35.

Introduction & Review

Today we’re continuing our chronological Bible storying series, “The Big Picture of the Bible, from Creation to Christ.” It is the story of redemption God has had in place even before time began. We can say this because God is Omniscient, that’s a big theological word that means God is all knowing - literally there is nothing God doesn’t know about any subject, history, science, language, even the most intimate details of your life including how many strands of hair on your head, as well as any and all sin in our lives.

See God knew even before He created humans, male and female, in His image and in His likeness that we would rebel against His laws and decrees. God gave the first humans only 1 rule, a simple command to obey related to the food they could eat. God gave the first couple, Adam & Eve, access to all the trees of the garden of Eden to eat for food except 1; the tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil. God promised them if they disobeyed Him, they would die.

Little did they know the degree of the devastation their act of disobedience would cause. However, God knew, so God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit all hatched a plan of redemption that would involve the sending of Jesus Christ, to redeem sinful, fallen humans from the clutches of Satan & sin and his evil plans to destroy human life and all creation.

We’ve been tracing this story of redemption throughout what’s called the Old Testament portion of the Bible. The Bible has 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament - called the law and the prophets, that reveal God’s expectations of His people and points forward to the Redeemer, the Messiah we know now is Jesus Christ. There are 27 books in the New Testament, which identifies Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Son of God - fully God & yet fully man, who would give His life as the sinless Son of God to atone for the sin of mankind and to appease the righteous & just demands of God that sin be paid for with blood.

The New Testament also explains how Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, commissioned & used 12 very ordinary men to share the good news of the Gospel, salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and established the church to continue sharing the Good news of Salvation and teach people what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. The amazing thing about the Bible is that this “Scarlet Thread of Redemption” is woven through every single Bible Book and it tells us of how God will bring all this to a conclusion and restore perfect order to His Creation. What’s even more amazing is this story of redemption was inspired by God who used at least 40 different authors over a period of about 1600 years! All of it agrees and validates this story of redemption without any errors or contradictions.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been learning how God rescued His chosen people, the COI out of slavery after over 400 years. God established them as a great nation by this point they number over 2 million people. Last week we began to see how God provided both leadership for them by providing for their physical needs of food and water. He also gave them His law, the 10 commandments of how they were to relate vertically to him (1-4) & to each other (5-10).

Today’s story comes from Exodus 20:18-32:35 and we’ll learn more details about those expectations God has. We’ll see it wasn’t long before the people did something so awful, so egregious, God almost wiped them out and started again from scratch. Yet God’s redemptive plan and the grace and mercy of God comes shining through again.

As always, listen to the story and focus on the important details so you can tell this story to someone else. At the end we’ll explain reasons why this is a key Bible story and some life applications we can make to our own lives today.

1. Tell the story - Setting

Since I know you’ve slept at least a little bit since last Sunday, we need to remember that God wanted to have what I called a “Come to Jesus” meeting to meet with the COI face to face on Mount Sinai. God planned to speak to them personally and give them His laws. God also needed to teach them about His unique nature in that He is Holy and cannot be approached just any old way one chooses. So He told Moses to have the people prepare themselves, purify themselves for 3 whole days and God displayed just a smidgen of His awesome might & power by covering the mountain in fire, smoke, thunderings, lightening and the long blast of an ear piercing trumpet as well as an earthquake that shook the mountain. God spoke and gave His 10 commandments.

This shock and awe display completely freaked the COI out and they didn’t want to face God face to face. They told Moses they were afraid of dying and asked him to speak to God for them & just relay what God said (20:19).

Moses pleaded with them in 20:20 “Do not fear; for God has come to test you and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” Then we have this key statement in 20:21 “So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.”

God gave Moses instructions fleshing out more details about the Big 10. This was important since the COI were a new nation, they were now free from the bonds of slavery and the Egyptian ways of doing things which was contrary to God’s ways and God’s character. They were to be a unique people, unlike any other nation in the world. God instructed Moses how to deal with everyday issues in the lives of the COI. Rather than just let them “wing it” or “fly by the seat of their robes”, God gave them His expectations regarding several different areas:

Laws concerning servants

Laws concerning violence

Laws concerning animals & property

Laws concerning moral & ceremonial principles,

Laws concerning codes of justice

Laws concerning Sabbath days, & years

Laws concerning annual feasts they were to observe & also

Laws concerning idolatry and obedience to God.

We can think of the Big 10 as an overview and what follows next provides more details to the framework of the big 10 and what the big 10 looks like in everyday circumstances they would encounter. Again, God knows everything so He wanted to give them examples of so they would know how to behave.

In chapter 23-24, Moses went back down to the people and gave them a verbal account of what God had said and the people affirmed their agreement (24:3). So Moses wrote this down, built an altar and they offered sacrifices to God and the COI again affirmed their commitment to obey God by the blood of those sacrifices. God even called Aaron, his sons Nadab & Abihu, along with 70 elders of the COI to join Moses in His presence on the mountain. They all got “glimpses of glory” as the Bible says “And they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in it’s clarity.” (Ex. 24:10)

There was more glory to behold, Moses was completely covered by the cloud and the sight of the glory of God was like a consuming fire on top of Mount Sinai. God told Moses He personally was going to record His laws & commandments written on tablets of stone so Moses could teach them to the COI & to come on up closer in the cloud on the mountain. So Moses disappeared into the cloud & was up there for 40 days & 40 nights (24:18)!

In chapter 25-31, God gave Moses instructions for worship including the priesthood of Aaron & his sons as well as plans for the tabernacle, including the objects & articles to be used in worship; something we’ll look at in more detail later in our story series.

Problem/Curve ball

Then we have a key statement which is the beginning of a major, major problem in 32:1: “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron & said to him: ‘Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for 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.” In that moment, Aaron completely fell apart in his leadership on behalf of God and told them to bring him all their gold jewelry from their wives, sons & daughters and the people quickly did just that. So Aaron put them all in a fire and melted it down, then he used an engraving tool to fashion a molded, golden calf. When the people saw it they were overjoyed and shouted “This is your god O Israel, that brought you ought of the land of Egypt.”

Wait what? Let’s see, they just witnessed God’s fierceness with fire & smoke with thunderings on the mountain, they had experienced God’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt including God wiping out the entire Egyptian army in Red Sea. They saw God lead them out with a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, they heard God speak to them and Moses…yet they gave Aaron gold, saw it go into the fire, saw Aaron mold it into a calf and they go “this is our god who led us out of Egypt? Seriously? How stupid do you have to be?

Aaron apparently was happy they liked his handiwork so immediately he built an altar in front of the golden calf he had made & declared the next day would be a feast and celebration of their new god. Aaron even named this idol Yahweh!

Early the next morning, the people got up, offered burnt offerings & peace offerings, they sat down to eat and rose up to play, a euphemism to describe all manner of drunkenness, revelry, pagan sexual immorality & debauchery!

Climax

Remember I said God knows everything? Well God saw what was going on down below while He and Moses were visiting face to face. So God told Moses to get down the mountain and take care of business because the people had corrupted themselves. Listen to what God said to Moses in 32:8-10: “They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”

Well Moses pleaded with the Lord about this & his plea to God was of such magnitude, the word pleaded means Moses made himself sick and exhausted in his cries to God for mercy on behalf of the people. Moses asked the Lord why He should give Egypt a chance to blaspheme His name since He had gone to the to the trouble of rescuing the COI from slavery with a famous display of might & power, only to kill the COI in the wilderness? Moses pleaded with the Lord to turn away His fierce wrath & relent from the harm He intended for them.

Moses also reminded the Lord (as though He needed reminding) of His promises to Abraham, Isaac & Jacob - Israel, the very man the COI were named after. He recited God’s promise to multiply them as the stars of heaven & give them a land of their very own.

The most incredible verse records the Lord’s decision in 32:14: “So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.”

At that great news, Moses went down from the mountain carrying the tablets of stone with the law of God, written on both sides and engraved by God into that stone symbolizing God’s law is permanent. Moses met his assistant and military commander Joshua and they continued on to the camp. As they approached, they could hear the sounds, shouts & tumult coming from the camp. It was so loud that Joshua thought for a moment there was war in the camp but Moses said it was the sound of singing, the kind of singing pagans sing in their sinful revelry, you know like having friends in low places.

What they saw on their arrival was shocking, people up dancing everywhere in front of this molded, golden calf & engaging in all sorts of perversion & sexual immorality. This display of wicked idolatry just infuriated Moses. I think he understood immediately why God was ready to wipe them out. Moses was hot, I mean boiling hot with consuming righteous anger! Moses smashed those tablets of stone containing the law of God, he took that golden calf, dumping it into the fire, ground what was left into power and threw it all in the water and made the COI drink it! He then got in Aaron’s grill immediately: “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” (32:21)

Aaron started playing the same blame game Adam & Eve had attempted several hundred years before when God came to hold them accountable: Aaron basically said well dude don’t be mad at me, you know how these people can be right? I mean they are stubborn & determined to do evil. They told me to make a god for them to go before them, because they didn’t know where you were all this time or what happened to you. So I told them to break off all their gold, they gave it to me. I threw it into the fire and out popped this calf! Again how stupid.

Moses could see the people were completely unrestrained, quit literally they had let loose in their depraved actions of debauchery, so much so it was an embarrassment in front of God’s enemies. Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and called out “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me!” Well the sons of the tribe of Levi, the ones God would choose to be priests, immediately came and stood with Moses. Moses commanded them to take their swords and go through the camp, anyone engaged in debauchery was to be executed on the spot. So the sons of the tribe of Levi did what Moses commanded and sadly 3,000 people died that day.

Peace returns to the Village

Once the wrath & mayhem subsided & Moses had gotten their attention, he told the people to consecrate themselves to the Lord & perhaps the Lord would bless them in spite of their sin; Moses told them he was going to try and atone for their sin before the Lord. Listen to this amazing account of what Moses said and did next (read 32:30-35).

Set up for next time

Next time we’ll see how God forgave the COI for this great wickedness and provided a means for them to be in a right relationship with Him. But for now, let’s think of why this is a key story for us God wants us to learn.

2. Explain how this story matters to the big story of the Bible. (IE Why is this a key story?) Let us think about 4 reasons of critical importance…

This story reveals the depravity of the human heart. CF Jeremiah 17:9-10

This story reveals the reality that humans are created for the worship of Almighty God. Satan’s counterfeit worship is nothing more than foolish idolatry.

CF Isaiah 44:9-17. Isaiah goes on to describe how dumb it is to make an idol out of a tree for example. With half of it he burns it to warm himself and make food, with the other half he fashions an idol and says “this is my god!”

This story highlights the reality of the wrath of God against sin, rebellion and idolatry.

This story is given as a negative example of how not to worship God. 1st Cor. 10:5-7

This story highlights the abundant grace, mercy and forgiveness of God. Ps. 103:8-14, Micah 7:19.

3. Applications of the story to everyday living - (2-3 lessons from the story that apply to our lives today - including the gospel.

1. God’s grace & mercy are greater than all our sin.

“Praise the Lord, His mercy is more, stronger than darkness, new every mourn, our sins they are many His mercy is more!”

Share the ABC’s.

2. God is faithful to keep His promises no matter what.

(Moses reminded God of His promise to Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob).

3. God is watching you & knows exactly what is happening in your life.

This is simultaneously encouraging & convicting!

4. Deal with sin immediately & directly. Moses confronted Aaron 1 on 1. (Matt. 18:15-19, Matt. 5:24, 1st John 1:9).