Divided Road

Todd A. Christine / General Adult Road Construction / Idolatry / Exodus 32; Psalm 106:19–23 Text: Exodus 32:1–6, 21–24, 31–35 Complement: Deuteronomy 9–10; Matthew 16:1–4; Revelation 3:14–22

Challenge Question: The Leaders We Choose

What kind of leader do you want to follow? What kind of leader do you want your children to follow?

That is not a soft question—it is a searching one. Because the leaders we choose, endorse, and elevate shape not just our churches, but our families and our future.

Imagine this: the mountain still smokes with the glory of God, His voice still echoes in your ears, and manna still lies on the ground each morning. The Red Sea spray is barely dry on your sandals. You’ve seen seas split, water flow from rock, and enemies defeated. And yet—just weeks later—you say, “Make us gods who will go before us.”

Exodus 32 is not just Israel’s story—it is the human story. We are a fickle people. We want a god we can hold, control, and manipulate, rather than the God who calls us to holiness.

Today we’ll look at three movements in this story: the great sin, the failure of leadership, and the hope of a mediator. And along the way, we’ll see that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate answer to our idolatry.

Israel’s Great Sin (Exodus 32:1–6)

The people grew impatient waiting for Moses. They demanded visible proof: “Make us gods who will go before us.”

Aaron complied. He gathered gold, fashioned a calf, and then baptized it in religious language: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” (v. 5) And the people descended into chaos—sacrifices, drunkenness, revelry.

This is not ignorance—it is rebellion. They had heard God’s commands, but they reshaped Him into their image. As Psalm 106 recalls: “They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.”

The Leadership Confrontation (Exodus 32:21–24)

Moses returned and confronted Aaron: “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin upon them?”

Aaron excused himself: “They gave me the gold… and out came this calf!” As if sin just happens. As if he bore no responsibility.

Here we see two models of leadership:

Aaron-leadership: a leader over the people, capitulating to their desires, blessing their idols.

Moses-leadership: a prophet for the people, confronting sin, interceding with God, bearing their burden.

Transition: Aaron’s failure was not just ancient history—it exposes a leadership temptation alive in every generation.

Leadership Contrast Then and Now

The temptation of Aaron-leadership still plagues the church today. Many Christians are less interested in truth that redirects them and more interested in affirmation that flatters them. Attendance, participation, and even financial support are held hostage: “If the church doesn’t exalt my wonderfulness, I’ll go elsewhere.”

Idolatry is the elevation of any ritual, relationship, possession, or pursuit to the place of ultimate devotion, where it receives the sacrifice of our lives that belongs only to God. In Wesleyan thought, idolatry is love disordered—when the heart that should be fully God’s is divided and centered elsewhere.

The church today seeks accommodation, not sacrifice.

“Weak leadership seeks peace at the price of truth; strong leadership seeks truth even at the price of peace.”

Leaders, fearing controversy, often shrink back. They avoid preaching repentance, soften sin, and package faith as inspiration. But this is Aaron-leadership: baptizing rebellion with religious ritual.

Bible-modeled leadership shows true leadership is prophetic. Moses shows us that faithfulness means naming sin and standing in the breach. As Jonathan Tyson puts it in Beautiful Resistance:

“The church will either be shaped by the culture’s idols or resist them with holiness. There is no neutral ground.”

“Faithful leaders are not echoes of the people’s desires, but voices of God’s direction.”

Francis Chan warns in Letters to the Church:

“We live in a time when people go to church for themselves, not to offer themselves to God. We are consumers, not servants. When the message doesn’t cater to our preferences, we leave. This isn’t worship—it’s idolatry.”

John Wesley once declared:

“Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell.”

Craig Groeschel reminds us in The Christian Atheist:

“We can believe in God but live as if He doesn’t exist. When our lives center on comfort, success, and self-fulfillment rather than surrender, we aren’t worshiping God—we’re worshiping ourselves.”

Challenge Question: The Leaders We Choose

Aaron-leadership looks attractive. It is smooth, accommodating, affirming. It promises peace without confrontation and religion without repentance. It blesses idols with holy words and sends people dancing around their golden calves. But in the end, Aaron-leadership leaves people in bondage to themselves.

Moses-leadership, by contrast, is costly. It names sin, even when unpopular. It stands in the breach, interceding with tears. It calls for holiness and sacrifice, not applause. It risks rejection, because truth in love always does. But in the end, Moses-leadership leads people toward freedom, toward God’s presence, toward life.

Parents, elders, teachers, pastors—your children, your congregation, your community will learn what leadership looks like by the leaders you choose to follow. Will they see you follow the crowd-pleaser, or the truth-teller? The peacekeeper, or the intercessor?

The church doesn’t just need more leaders. The church needs faithful leaders. Leaders who, in Wesley’s words, “fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God.”

So the question stands before us today: What kind of leader do you want to follow? And what kind of leader do you want your children to follow after you’re gone?

The Human Condition: Demanding God on Our Terms

The golden calf at Sinai is not an isolated event. Centuries later, the Pharisees came to Jesus demanding a sign (Matt. 16:1–4). But Jesus had already healed, fed, calmed storms, cast out demons, and taught with authority. Their demand wasn’t about proof—it was rebellion disguised as religion. Jesus said: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.”

It’s the same heart posture as Sinai: “God, we will believe if You perform on our terms.” Whether a golden calf or a heavenly sign, both reveal the human condition: we want God in our image, God in our control.

Paul names it in Romans 1: “They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images.” And in Romans 3: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The truth is this: every idol is a refusal to obey the God who has already revealed Himself. Our golden calves today may be subtler—comfort, consumerism, politics, even church culture—but the root is the same: rebellion against surrender.

Kyle Idleman says it clearly in gods at War:

“Idolatry isn’t just one of many sins; it’s the root of every sin.”

When we create god in our image, he is no god at all—only a reflection of our selfishness, ego, pride, and rebellion. It is Eden all over again.

Moses the Intercessor (Exodus 32:31–35; Deut. 9–10)

After naming the people’s sin, Moses turned to God in prayer: “Oh, this people has sinned a great sin… But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written.” (v. 31–32)

Moses stood in the gap, offering himself in their place. It was the right impulse—but Moses could not bear their sin. He could only plead for mercy.

And mercy came. God relented. His presence would go with His people.

Transition: Yet even Moses could not ultimately carry the people’s guilt. His prayer pointed beyond himself—toward the need for a greater Mediator.

The Gospel Thread: Christ, the Greater Mediator

Moses’s intercession foreshadows a greater Mediator. Jesus did not only offer to be blotted out—He was pierced for our transgressions. He became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).

When the Pharisees demanded a sign, Jesus promised only the “sign of Jonah”—His death and resurrection. The cross is God’s ultimate response to idolatry and rebellion.

And in Revelation 3, Jesus addresses His church in Laodicea: “You say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,’ not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (v. 17) That’s Sinai. That’s the Pharisees. That’s us.

Yet He offers grace: “Buy from me gold refined by fire… white garments… salve to anoint your eyes.” (v. 18) And the greatest promise: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.” (v. 20)

Where idols bring chaos, Christ brings communion. Where rebellion brings wrath, Christ brings grace.

Application: Smashing Our Golden Calves

Idolatry lives wherever God must fit our terms. Our golden calves today are not statues of gold but obsessions with success, comfort, consumerism, politics, image, and even religion itself.

Mike Slaughter warns in Shiny gods:

“We become what we worship. If we give our lives to shiny gods, our lives will only reflect their emptiness.”

The question is: will we be like Aaron, blessing idols for the sake of peace? Or like Moses, naming sin, interceding, and pointing people back to God’s presence?

For the church today, this means:

Naming idols in our own hearts.

Rejecting consumer Christianity that demands affirmation instead of transformation.

Choosing leaders who speak truth in love rather than bless rebellion with ritual.

Opening the door to Christ, not on our terms but on His.

Conclusion: From Calf to Cross to Christ’s Knock

At Sinai, they demanded a god they could hold. In Galilee, they demanded a sign they could control. In Laodicea, they demanded a faith that would not confront them.

The human condition is the same: rebellion disguised as religion, idolatry wrapped in worship.

But God’s answer is always grace:

He relented in response to Moses’s intercession.

He gave the cross and resurrection as the true sign.

He knocks at the door of His church, offering communion with Himself.

So today the question is not, What god will you build? What sign will you demand? What self-assurance will you cling to? The question is: Will you open the door to Christ?

“We do not need a god we can hold in our hands—we need the God who holds us in His. And in Christ, He does.”

Closing Prayer

Lord God, We confess that we are a fickle people, prone to idolatry and rebellion. Forgive us for demanding You on our terms.

Thank You for Jesus, the greater Moses, who bore our sin and intercedes with His very life. Where we are blind, open our eyes. Where we are poor, make us rich in grace. Where we are naked, clothe us in Your righteousness.

Lord Jesus, today we hear Your knock. Come in. Dwell with us. Smash our golden calves and make us Your people again.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.