Opportunity
Notes
Transcript
Reading:
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Introduction:
When you become a parent I don’t think that there is a lot that can prepare you for what you may encounter.
I can’t speak for my wife; but I can definitely say that I wasn’t entirely prepared.
My wife grew up babysitting, and me...that wasn’t a thing.
In the beginning of our marriage she was a nanny.
Thinking about last week’s message one of the points was those who God called He equips.
I believe God used that time to equip me as a dad.
I’m thankful that other families left their children in our care so I could practice for when the Lord saw fit to give us children.
Here are things I learned:
Too much information or explaining isn’t always a good thing.
Little kids in the bath don’t have enough sense to soap up their hands and close their eyes when they wash their face.
Their bones can handle more falls and bumps than a lot of us can.
This one’s key:
When toddlers are quiet and playing...
They are up to no good!
There are a ton of videos online where a parent walks into a toddlers room and they are covered in butt paste.
Or they took the whole bag of cookies, eaten them and crumbs are all over.
Some had gotten into some crayons or colored pencils and have re-created the Sistine chapel on their walls.
We recognize that when the parents aren’t present for the guidance or oversight, the children are quiet and are getting in trouble.
We find this to the opening of Exodus 32.
Just like toddlers get into trouble when their parents’ eyes are turned away, Israel sinned when Moses was away on the mountain.
(Re-Cap the Exodus up until this point)
Moses had been on the mountain conversing with God for 40 days.
What were the instruction for the Israelites while Moses went up the mountain?
We find the answer in:
14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”
Aaron and Hur are left in charge.
What were they to be doing?
Guiding people in the ways of Holiness.
Being patient is hard.
Our modern culture has been conditioned to get things quickly and when we don’t we get a little frustrated.
What about Israel, how did they handle being patient?
Typically:
Impatience provides opportunity (1-6)
Impatience provides opportunity (1-6)
1 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.”
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.”
3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.
4 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!”
5 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.”
6 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.
Right away all of Israel had grown impatient while waiting for Moses and Aaron.
It seemed that Israel had thought of a way to be close to God, make a reminder of Him.
J.I. Packard a professor of Theology in Vancouver said:
“Metal images are the consequence of mental images.” -J.I Packard
People make from wood and metal the image they have in their minds.
In this case Israel had an mental image for god that was to be crafted into a metal image.
There was a committee formed.
“The people gathered together”
(a group of persistent people stirring the pot)
The language here lends notion to the idea that they gathered themselves against Aaron.
They demanded a god be made, an icon that depicts Yahweh.
They believe that Moses is dead.
Highlight:
This moment right here is when Aaron is being tested through pressure of the people.
He fails and folds to the pressure of the committee even though he knows it is wrong.
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.”
3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.
They went right away and did it.
How different would it be if Aaron told them no?
Shame on you! Repent from your thoughts! The God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob brought us out of Egypt and we entered a covenant that this clearly breaks.
Look up there He is still speaking to Moses; Be patient and wait upon the Lord.
Do you think they would’ve listened?
They might have harmed him, instead.
The people proclaimed the calf as their god.
4 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!”
5 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.”
Why a calf? Do you ever wonder why?
Humans often fall into the comfort rut.
After being in Egypt for 400 years they picked up a thing or 2 about worshiping.
Yet they only worshiped idols there and each idol had an icon to remember them by.
The icon of the calf was similar to the Egyptian icon Apis:
The Israelites weren’t abandoning Yahweh as their God, they were setting an icon that remind them of Him.
The bull represented strength, fertility, kingship and divine presence.
The bull to the Egyptians wasn’t just an animal, it was an visible living form of divine power.
Which Osiris (Egypt's top idol rode, further stating Yahweh is all power and strength)
To celebrate the Lord they demanded an image to remind them of His power and strength.
6 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 were coming to God on their terms to worship Him.
They had forgotten that God said there is one way to worship me and that is through the tabernacle and the law.
We come to the Lord in the way He says: Humble, not proud.
Acceptable worship He accepts is in the spirit and in truth, the truth of His word.
Aaron crumbled under pressure and compromised the truth then promoted a lie!
Connection:
Did God’s presence leave the top of the mountain?
Did the thundering from His voice stop as He spoke with Moses?
Isn’t it amazing what people can get used to, and willingly ignore?
That shouldn’t surprise us as we all get used to things in our lives and just go about our everyday life and ignore God’s working.
Pastor Dave I would never ignore the things of the Lord!
Maybe not but it’s easy to neglect all that God does for us because it becomes routine or “common”.
Supposedly it only takes an average of 30 days for something to become a habit in your life?
Israel had a common sound and sight among them for 40 days.
The people stopped being enamored with God’s presence.
They allowed God to become common.
The people’s faith waned when they stopped looking to the Lord and began looking to one another.
Transition:
God instructs Moses to go down the mountain and we find in verses 7-29 the heart of:
Moses’ Leading (7-29)
Moses’ Leading (7-29)
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ”
God’s a tattle tale!
Doesn’t this seem odd to you, it did me.
And… it sounds like the Lord complains about Israel a little bit.
9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
What is the result of what God tells Moses?
10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
I believe throughout this whole chapter A testing is taking place.
Moses is being tested for what kind of leader he chooses to be!
What could Moses have said in this moment here?
Yes, Lord please remove them.
What did he say?
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”
Moses trusted in a few things here:
You have revealed yourself and your might, not just to Israel; but to all nations of the world.
Please hold that testimony, as a God who loves His people and protects them.
You’re not an God like all the other idols nations have built and crafted.
You are a trustworthy, You have kept all of your promises through many generations.
You uphold your covenants!
Moses revealed his heart as a leader: honorable and worthy to be called to lead.
God acknowledges the faith of Moses.
14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Even though Moses acted as mediator perfectly between Israel and God, he still had to descend the mountain and lead the people properly.
15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written.
16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”
18 But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.”
19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
Have you ever noticed with certain situations that you have to deal with the longer it takes you to get there the more mad you get?
I wonder if this was where Moses’ mind was as he descended the mountain.
Notice these passages prove that Moses’ anger made him the worst sinner ever!
He broke all 10 commandments at once! [haha]
Aaron’s golden idol party was a hit with the people and it was such a riot that Joshua thought it was war.
There was no shame in the hearts of anyone.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the lie they had made for themselves.
That’s just like sin isn’t it.
The sin is enjoyed without shame in the heart.
Israel God caught and quickly realized that Moses wasn’t dead.
Moses took the lie, burned it to ash, mixed it into the water and made the people drink their lie!
20 He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
Moses dealt with the lie!
The mixing of the gold and water forcing the people drink it would’ve been a lasting reminder.
I bet it’s purpose would be to make the people sick.
Sick of their idolatry and improper worship of God.
A few commentators also noted that the gold probably hadn’t broken down in the body, so the reminder of it would be a day or 2 later.
Moses made a hot calf latte.
But since the idol was dead wouldn’t it have been “de-calf”?
Among the almost 3 million people there were some who weren’t Israeli, they left because they had faith in Yahweh.
Now some have suggested those who began the committee against Aaron to make the idol were Egyptian. (sarcasm for Moses being dead, etc...)
21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?”
22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.
23 For they said to me, ‘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.’
24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
Did you notice it?
Moses as leader provided an opportunity to Aaron.
You as a parent may have done this exact thing to your child.
Why did you do this?
The answer dictates the outcome.
Aaron had 2 options:
Option 1: Admit that he agreed with and crafted the lie.
Option 2: Lie and stick to it.
I wonder what Aaron thought as he heard these words coming from his mouth.
24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
This moment right here do you think Moses wanted to laugh?
This is like that moment you ask a child, with scissors in their hand, and hair that is worthy of a straight jacket if they cut their hair.
They look you straight in the eye and come up with a ridiculous answer with the effect of nope.
When you sin you come up with lame excuses.
You blame people, Adam and Eve both did it, and even blamed God in the process.
Verse: 25
25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies),
People lost or gave up on all moral restraint.
26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.
27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’ ”
28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell.
29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”
About 3,000 men died that day.
It would seem that these were the 3,000 that persisted Aaron to make the idol, and were persistent and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
1/1,000th of the people are a minority.
In our modern world people cite this moment in Israel’s history for promoting that God is a God of genocide.
I would say they misunderstand how severe God sees improper worship, especially idols.
Let’s get a better perspective, a radical medical perspective.
If there was a brain tumor that was growing, and Dr.’s could surgically remove it and save your life would you tell them no because the surgery would hurt?
Moses removed the sickness that could possibly have stopped Israel from entering the promised land, He stopped the spread.
See a connection here:
The first day the covenant of the Law was opened up as Moses came down the mountain 3,000 people die.
In the New Testament the first day the new covenant opened up at Pentecost 3,000 people are saved.
There’s a comparison of Law and Grace.
Connection:
How could this terrible thing happened so fast - 40 days?
Man’s nature!
We can find that in our sin we loose that close connection to our Lord; but we desire it once again.
Instead of going about it the right way we create “images” to remind us of Him to attempt the stirring of the spirit in our lives.
What should you do for that closeness to happen again?
Repentance. Turn from that sin.
This is why we are instructed to gather often and encourage one another daily.
To assist and encourage us as we desire and pursue righteousness.
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
We understand that sin incurs:
Consequences (30-35)
Consequences (30-35)
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold.
32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”
33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
35 Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
Moses interceded on behalf of Israel.
He asks the Lord to take His life if it means they can all be forgiven.
This is a direct picture of Christ in the New Testament.
Now the passage brings up a book that contains names.
Is this teaching that you can loose your salvation?
No, there needs to be a distinction between the record of believers names in the Lamb’s book of life and the book or the living here.
Israel would take census’ and would record all the names of those living and consequently at death a name is transferred from the book of the living to the book of the dead.
The lambs book of life is a record of all names that are saved by faith in Christ.
No names are removed from that book once their in it, and the other is only a transfer.
God also addresses the principal.
God deals with people individually.
We can see in those passages God’s grace and God’s government.
God’s grace: He forgave their sin.
In His government they receive chastening for their sin.
Conclusion:
God addresses Idolatry because of our sinful nature: He hates it!
(illustrate the seriousness of Idolatry in connection to Christ’s death)
Pilate had received 3 strikes against him from Ceasar.
He instituted an image of Ceasar in Jerusalem
The Jews responded with kill us if you must but remove that image. (He removed Caesars image, and he wasn’t happy). Strike 1
He brought golden shields with the inscription of the name of Emperor Tiberias,
The Jews responded with appealing to Tiberias about the Idol worship and it was removed (Ceasar wasn’t happy) Strike 2.
Pilate took temple funds to build an aqueduct. He profaned God’s house.
The Jews began violent protests (Pilate wasn’t ruling his area well, Ceasar wasn’t happy) Strike 3.
If you recall when Jesus was brought before Pilate in John 18-19 Pilate says: “I find no fault in Him.”
The Jews lie and say He claims to be a King and any king is a threat to Ceasar...
The Jews leveraged this moment to get what they wanted.
12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”
So if you ever wondered why the Jews had power over Pilate, this was it.
His next strike would be death.
You find Idols being a problem to the Jews all through their history.
It teaches us that substituting anything for correct worship of God breaks the commandments and we need to repent from it.
Israel grew impatient while Moses was on the mountain.
Impatience opened the door to idolatry.
Challenge: Where in your life are you struggling to wait on God’s timing? Commit that area to prayer this week instead of rushing ahead.
“Am I worshiping God the way He commands, or on my own terms?”
You find that in moments of your life God allows circumstances to test you.
Keep your heart for God first, then for everyone else to do what is right.
Jesus did what Moses showed: Mediate on behalf of others and offer grace.
-Pray!
