So Bad We Could Taste It
Exodus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 5 viewsWhen is the last time we waited on anything?
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When is the last time we waited on anything
When is the last time we waited on anything
Have you ever said, “I want that so bad I can taste it?”
Yeah, that’s one of the reasons so many of my diets have failed.
I wanted it so bad I could taste it, so I did.
And it appears that tasting a half gallon of peach ice cream is somehow incompatible with a diet.
But I wanted it so bad I could taste it.
The story we are studying today is a staple of children’s ministry.
Every kid that’s ever gone to Sunday school knows the story of the Golden Calf.
Many of us have seen paintings people have painted.
I suspect as we read the text, many if not most of us will see those pictures in our heads.
It would be easy to say, "I’ve heard this story 100 times” and kind of zone out.
You don’t want to do that.
Turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 32.
While you head there, kids, I suspect many of you have heard this story.
And you’ve heard what the Israelites did wrong.
But there is a lot more to this story than them just making a golden calf idol.
What I want to know, is why did they do it?
If you will pay attention today, you’ll find out why they did it
And, you might be able to learn how to keep from making the same kind of mistake.
Their main mistake wasn’t making the golden calf.
Their main mistake was, they wanted something so badly, they could taste it.
The three words to help you follow along in the worship guide are Wait, Desire and God
Our text this morning is Exodus 32:1-6.
Hear now the Word of the Lord Exodus 32:1-6
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.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Let’s ask the Lord’s help to hear His voice,
Dear Heavenly Father,
We are an impatient lot.
Help us to see ourselves in Your Word and then cause us to see You.
We want so much to follow you - please hold us close.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
What in the world happened?
What in the world happened?
I mean really.
These people walked through the Red sea on dry land.
They saw Pharaoh’s army destroyed.
They saw bitter water turned sweet.
They ate miracle food.
They drank miracle water.
They saw the fire on the mountain.
Each one of them heard the very voice of God.
70 of their elders ate dinner in the presence of God.
And all of this didn’t happen over the course of years so they had time to forget.
It happened over the course of weeks.
It’s maybe 12 weeks, maybe 16 weeks since they were slaves in Egypt.
They had just heard the 10 commandments from the voice of God.
And Moses had just written everything down and read it to them again.
How in the world?
WHAT were they thinking?
Well, let’s remember some very powerful things we’ve talked about before.
You’ve heard people say - you might have said it yourself - I’ll believe it when I see it.
Seeing is a very powerful thing.
Touching is very powerful.
We want physical things.
Yes we are spiritual beings but which one of us in a moment of tragedy hasn’t prayed, “Lord, if I could just hear your voice.
“If I could just feel your touch.”
So do you remember what the Lord did about that?
He created a physical structure that we could go to where we would know He’s always there.
This building is one of those places.
It’s not just a pretty barn
This is a holy sanctuary where you can meet God anytime you want.
It’s His physical reminder because He knows we have to have something physical.
They wanted something physical.
And, to you remember the four words?
“It worked for them.”
Egypt was a mighty nation and they had golden idols of all kinds of gods all over the place.
And they seemed to do pretty good - except they can’t swim very good obviously.
They probably even had golden calves in Egypt because calves were an almost universal symbol of fertility.
So, they had seen it before - and it worked for them.
When I would say to my dad, “Well, everyone else is doing it,” he would say
“If everyone else was sticking their head in an oven, would you?”
Well, if it got them what they wanted, we might just do it, mightn’t we?
And maybe, if this was all the temptation they experienced, they might have resisted.
But there was more.
Look at verse 1 - Exodus 32:1 “When the people saw that Moses delayed...
You see that word delayed?
There is our key.
They had desires and they got impatient to get them
They had desires and they got impatient to get them
Why are we in debt up to our eyeballs?
We’re so quick to blame these folks for being downright stupid -
Knowing what you know, seeing why you see, how could you be so dumb?
They had everything they needed, didn’t they?
Miracle food - the best they had ever eaten.
Miracle water - water gushing from a rock in a river that could care for over 1/2 a million people and their animals.
Safety?
They were attacked and they beat the dickens out of the enemy.
But - now think about this - they know they are going to the promised land.
There they will have houses and not tents.
There they will have a variety of food and they will own things.
It will be THEIR land and in any of their lifetimes
No one had owned THEIR own land.
You see what happened, right?
They focused on what they wanted and they got impatient.
They wanted it so bad they could taste it.
Now, where do we see the symptoms of that same disease today?
Debt, bankruptcy, divorce, unplanned pregnancies
Working 24/7/365, never taking an uninterrupted vacation
The Bible has a word for this: James 4:1-3
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
It’s passion.
We call it other things: desire, hunger, thirst, appetite, craving, lust, urge, ache.
It’s that gnawing in our bones to have something we want.
And passion in and of itself is amoral - it’s neither right nor wrong.
It’s when it dominates us that it become immoral and against God.
So, here is the deal - they wanted something they could see, other people did it and it worked for them
They wanted something so bad that they could taste it and they were tired of waiting
And now there is something else.
Look at verse 2 Exodus 32:2 “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.””
They had timid leadership
They had timid leadership
Pay attention - Aaron was Moses’ older brother.
He had been with Moses from the get go - he was God’s spokes model.
Remember Moses wasn’t so fast on his feet and he was scared he couldn’t do the job right.
Moses trusted Aaron.
But what happened in verse 1?
“The people gathered themselves together TO Aaron...”
Was it everyone?
Nope.
But it was a lot of them and they came as a mob.
Look at the words they used, see the word “Up”
That’s an imperative
It could be rendered “Get up! Stand up!”
Maybe even - “Do something.”
The text doesn’t say it but Aaron’s actions do - He was afraid of those people.
Not necessarily that they would hurt him
But maybe that without Moses he didn’t think he could convince them.
He knew the right thing to do - but he was more afraid of the crowd he could see than the Lord that he couldn’t.
But he did try to make it hard - he was kind of passive aggressive here.
The ESV softens it up bit, “Take off the rings of gold ...
Yeah, that word take is literally “tear off.”
It’s an imperative - rip the earrings off of your families ears.
Gentlemen, right this moment, would you please lean over to your wives and daughters and maybe some of your sons and rip their earrings off their ears.
We’ll wait.
See, in his own timid way, Aaron was trying to make it unpleasant for them to do this thing
That HE KNOWS IS WRONG!
But desire is a beast
And we all know that we’ll do crazy things to get the things we want.
So they bring their gold to Aaron and Aaron does the dirty deed.
Now notice something in verse 4 Exodus 32:4 “..And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!””
Aaron didn’t say it - he knew better.
They said, “These are your gods, O Israel...”
And with that, they broke their covenant with God.
Ten rules - that’s all they had and they really aren’t that hard to do except for one thing.
Passion.
The more we want something, the crazier we’ll get.
But, our boy Aaron, he’s that kid that’s standing on the edge going, “we’re going to get in troubleeee.....”
And like that kid that knows if he pushes it too hard, everyone will turn him and call him a sissy among other descriptive names
So he tries to make it not quite so bad.
Look at verses 5 & 6, Exodus 32:5–6 “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.”
They did all of the right things for all of the wrong reasons
They did all of the right things for all of the wrong reasons
I leaned back in my chair and pondered this for a long time and if you think about it, you’ll know why.
“Tomorrow shall be a feast to..” who?
LORD is in all caps - “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.”
You’ve got your golden calf you can see so we’ll pretend that’s a picture of Yahweh and we’ll do Yahweh things.
We’ll have a sin offering - remember - the burnt offering
Incinerate a cow to represent the punishment for sin.
Then we’ll have a peace offering
That’s were we know our sins are forgiven so we sit down and have a meal with Yahweh.
We eat and drink while His portion gets roasted to dust on the altar.
And we’ve done exactly what Yahweh said we were supposed to do.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
Check.
We are worshipping the Lord - just as He said.
Hallelujah!
Let’s give Jesus some praise in this place!
And this is where we need to get real quiet.
This is how folks get real sideways with God.
Churches that fly the rainbow flag
Transgender flag
BLM flag
It can happen with the American flag or a building
Or our health, wealth and happiness.
Our … passions.
When our passions enter the picture, the object of worship gets muddy.
We gather to worship - but what are we worshipping?
Aaron very conveniently left out Exodus 20:4-5
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Did you notice the curse?
You notice there is a curse there that he left out.
Aaron left out Exodus 20:7
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Did you notice the curse?
He left the curse out - He never mentioned God’s punishment.
What did Aaron call the golden calf?
While the people are staring at that golden calf, Aaron said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.”
He didn’t say the calf was Yahweh, but he didn’t say it wasn’t either.
He didn’t correct them - He let them believe they were doing the right thing
And they were - they were doing right things wrongly.
Without reading a verse ahead, what physical thing happened that prove they were doing the right things wrongly?
Five words.
It’s the end of verse six, “They rose up to play.”
That word play doesn’t mean a pick up softball game and corn hole.
They played - just like every other religion played - same rules - debauchery, immorality.
Sin - they would say circumstances pushed them what way.
But it didn’t - they chose sin.
The writer of Psalm 106 talks about this.
But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.
They wanted what they wanted so badly they could taste it, so they didn’t wait on the Lord.
Listen, the minute we focus on what we want, on our passions and desires, we will kill ourselves to get them.
We’ll dip our desires in the chocolate of God talk.
We’ll decorate them with the sprinkles of God’s promises.
And on the outside, they will look and taste oh, so good.
But when we bite down on it, we find out it is not what we wanted at all.
Psalm 106:15 tells how God reacts to this sin
he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.
He gave them what they asked, but...
Open your eyes folks, and look around you.
I pray all the time, “Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one.”
In the garden, the evil one tempted Eve and Adam.
On a very high mountain, the evil one tempted Jesus.
In the upper room, the evil one tempted Judas Iscariot.
And with all three, it was the same temptation - you can have what you want right this minute.
And only one passed the test and that was Jesus.
How did He do it?
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”
Him only - Jesus was willing to wait on God.
Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!
But for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
“And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.
They didn’t wait - and we’re going to see how they robbed themselves of God’s blessing.
Could that, has that happened to us?
In a moment we’ll pray and sing.
I’ll be at the front pew if you want to talk about Jesus.
If you don’t know him, I’d love to have that conversation with you.
But Church family, the Lord has given us a lot to ponder.
It might be a good time to take a few minutes and do just that.
In our haste to get what we want, are we robbing ourselves of God’s best?
Let us pray.
