Shunned Love

Introduction

This past week has been one of those times that will go down in history as a moment in which most people will remember when they heard the news, not necessarily because they were familiar with Charlie Kirk and what he had done, but how the nation in which we lived has responded. Many have responded with an outpouring of sympathy and prayers for the family, many have responded in ways that cannot be described any other way than pure evil, praising the death of an individual who did not resort to nor condone violence even against those with whom he disagreed. Outside of all of that there have been countless videos being shared of this young man proclaiming truth, never backing down, never being ashamed, but repeatedly and boldly proclaiming the gospel. Although there are certainly places where his theology and ours may have differed it seemed quite clear that he had faith, that he had led his family in faith, that he proclaimed that faith… and at the end of the day it seems likely that he was killed for his faith.

There is not doubt that the world we live in is broken and lost, this we know from the teaching of scripture. For just over 400 years, first as colonies and then as the United States of America we in this country and our ancestors have not truly faced religious persecution. We have seen opposition, to be sure, but true persecution, the threat of death because of our faith, has been only something we have read about in books or articles or at the most witnessed in video from other parts of the world. What is worrisome is that even though we have only faced opposition and not persecution we seem very prepared to compromise where others have given up their very lives.

It is clear, then, that the church in America faces not one, but two major problems. The first of these is the constant threat from the evil, demonic forces that are this world. The system that does and will always oppose God. While I am certainly concerned with that opposition and desire to stand firm on God’s Word against that very system, my concern is actually for the second major problem that we face. That problem is one which is rooted in the very heart of many of the so called churches that claim to be Christian. The truth is though, that this, just like everything else we face, is addressed in Scripture. I know that I may sound to some individuals as a broken record when I say this but there is a reason that God has given us His word, a word that is inerrant, infallible, sufficient, complete, authoritative and certain. It is the rule that we live by, it does contain all that we need for life and godliness, the issue is that many professing Christians and so-called churches today no longer view the Bible as being any or all of those things. It is the reason that we draw such straightforward, undeniable and indisputable attention to this very fact.

The truth is that there are two reasons we find for this view, one of these is simply that although they may profess to be Christians, they do not have true saving faith. Secondly, beyond the fact that they are sinners, some of these people will not stand firm on the word of God, because they have lost their first love.

One of the most difficult books for many in the church today is the book that closes the cannon of scripture. Likely written around 85-95 AD from isolation on the Island of Patmos, the book provides the final inspired Words of God given to the Apostle John. Apart from the description of the final battle between heaven and hell, the ultimate defeat of Satan and the final gathering of the people of God to dwell with God, this book also contains seven letters written to seven different churches. Each of these seven letters serves a different purpose for the people of God. One of these letters in particular ties in to events recorded in the lives of the people of Israel in the wilderness beneath Mount Sinai. We find this letter in the first verses of Revelation chapter 2 where we read these words:

Revelation 2:1–7 LSB

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: This is what the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says: ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot bear with those who are evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, you also have not grown weary. ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first. But if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. ‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

As Christ gave these words to John to write to the church at Ephesus the goal was to help those who were within that church to see what they had done, call them to repentance and demonstrate once again His everlasting grace and mercy for His people. The church at Ephesus was not alone, the Jews had this same problem, in fact we see it come to light over and over again in scripture. Once such event occurred at the very foot of Mount Sinai. It is to this particular event that our text brings us this morning. Over the next several weeks we will look at the next section in the book of Exodus. This particular section is almost parenthetical in that the events interrupt the flow of the narrative. Turn with me if you will in your bible to the book of Exodus as we once again return to this historic narrative of God delivering His people from the land of Egypt for His glory and their good.

Text

As you have turned to the text, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy, Inerrant, Infallible, Sufficient, Certain, Authoritative and Complete Word:

Exodus 32:1–10 LSB

Then the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain. So the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Arise, make us gods who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” And Aaron looked and built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.” So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go! Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. “They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” And Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. “Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may consume them; and I will make you a great nation.”

Merciful, Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can gather in Your presence this morning to worship You, to adore You, to glorify You. As we turn now to Your word our prayer is that Your Spirit illuminates the truth of Your word to our hearts. As we study this text together, Father, may we be convicted of our failings, may we repent of our sins and trust in the knowledge that just as we confess our sins that You are ever faithful to forgive us of our sins even as Christ blood has already cleansed us from all unrighteousness. Grant us the strength to forgive others just as You have already forgiven us. We thank You for the bountiful provision in our lives, knowing that our every need is met in Christ Jesus. Direct our paths, strengthen our faith and resolve so that we stand firm and speak out Your truth. Father we thank You for the precious gift of Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and Your faithful hand that ever guides us. We ask all of these things in the precious and wonderful name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Rebellion

Before we dive into the text itself we need to take a few moments and realign ourselves with the events and the order in which they have unfolded. In Exodus 19 God gave Moses specific commands to prepare himself and the people of Israel. The preparation was for the purpose of making themselves ready for God to descend on Mount Sinai, ending with the command of God in verse 24; Exodus 19:24 “Then Yahweh said to him, “Go down and come up again, you and Aaron with you; but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to Yahweh, lest He break out against them.””

After Moses goes down to the people of God and delivers the commands of God from verses 20-22 and then returns we see in chapters 20-23 the giving of the Law to Moses for the Israelites. This included the Moral and Judicial Law. Once Moses had been given these two portions of the law he descended the mountain and in chapter 24 we see the covenant ratified between God an Israel. We read in Exodus 24:7–8 “Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!” So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has cut with you in accordance with all these words.””

Once the covenant has been accepted by Israel God tells Moses in Exodus 24:12 “Now Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction.”” and Exodus 24:18 teaches us that" Then Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.” You may recall from our conversation last week that this period of forty days and forty nights has ended and Moses is beginning his descent.

We know that during that 40 days Moses is given the commands regarding the building and instituting of the Tabernacle and the sacrificial system and the giving of the tablets of the testimony that we spoke about last week. What we have recorded in chapters 32-34 are the events that begin at some point while Moses is on the mountain and deal with the aftermath of the rebellion of the people of God.

The words of verse one set for us the tone of the people as they stood at the base of this mountain. Very often I have seen the focal point of these events being placed on the words that the people use when they went before Aaron and said “as for this Moses...we do not know what has become of him” with the idea being that they do the things that they do our of fear or confusion because they did not have a leader present with them. The danger in this teaching is that it de-emphasizes the real problem here, it gives these people a way out and seeks to reduce this to a simple mistake on the part of a people versus calling it what it truly is… rebellion.

The language that is used here gives us some clues, but we need to do some work to understand what the Hebrew conveys much better than the English. The word “saw” for instance, typically, for us, this word has the simple meaning of simple visual realization of something, but what is actually happening is deeper, there is thought and consideration happening that we cannot see. So what was it that they were considering, the fact that Moses “delayed” in returning to the people. When we hear this word we think of someone running late or being held up and prevented from returning. In the Hebrew this word is a derivative of a word that typically means ‘to be ashamed’. The people have considered that Moses had been gone much longer than they thought was a reasonable time frame, in other words, they grew impatient as they begin to think that Moses had abandoned them, or at the very least was taking much too long to do what he was doing.

As they began feeling this impatience and frustration that he was taking his dear sweet time on the Mount instead of doing whatever it was that they thought he should be doing the text states that they assembled about Aaron. While this certainly does not sound menacing in the English, the picture that is being painted for us is a group of people surrounding and pressing in on Aaron, perhaps even cornering him, and while they have him cornered, they demand that he, as the second in command, do something. Literally what they ask for are gods to go before them.

What this demonstrates to us is the truth of the situation. It is not that they are mad at Moses, or concerned about Moses, or ashamed that they seem to have a leader that has disappeared, if those things were the cases, why not ask for Aaron to simply step up and lead them as Moses had led them. No, the truth of what is happening here is so much darker and in all reality is something that so many of us are often times guilty of, in the words of AW Pink they have “cast off their allegiance to Jehovah, their hearts had departed from Him.” The truth is they were impatient, they were restless, and their cry of “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!” was forgotten, cast aside, and they, feeling that they knew what was good and right for them, desired to return to their former ways of worshipping many gods.

To put it simply, they left or lost or abandoned the love of God. This world has certainly abandoned God, but we should expect no less from those who are not believers, but what of us, what of the people who proclaim themselves to be the people of God, how often have we casually and without any thought, simply cast Him aside for this world and then turn and make for ourselves idols of created things that can never fulfill the expectations that we place on them. Let’s return to this thought in a few moments.

We see in this passage that they not only reject God, they reject the man that God has placed over them, to lead them out of the promised land, they reject the deliverer that God had used to bring them out of the land. Notice how they refer to him as “this Moses”. In the span of a breath they have violated the first three commandments that had been given them. Not just in word, but they had been written down for them, delivered to them, the tablets that Moses was receiving were the tablets to stand as a perpetual statute, at permanent solution to the temporary way it had been written by Moses at the command of God for the purpose of ratifying His covenant with these people. Recall Exodus 20:4–6 ““You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

The Molten Calf

After the people have gathered around Aaron and demanded these things we see Aaron’s response. As a reminder, this is again the same Aaron that God has chosen from the people to serve as the high-priest and his line to serve as the common priests within the tabernacle. Less we be tempted to cut Aaron some slack by stating that he was simply giving the people what they wanted, we need reminders that compromising the word of God for the sake of getting along and not offending the people is SINFUL. Aaron, the man who had walked beside Moses, had probably been privy to more of the truth than any of these people folds under the pressure. Much like the disciples would to Jesus, Aaron in his own way makes his cry the same as that of Peter as he denied Christ.

Aaron, considering the situation, that word “saw” again then turns and commands the people to give an offering for the purpose of creating this idol. Verse three tells us that it was not just any quick, carefree process, but that it was done with care and precision, the use of the engraving tool says that he went beyond just melting down the gold into a cast form and presenting it, but that he took time to carefully craft this idol. As he presents it to the people they cry out, giving credit to the idols that which belonged to God. Notice they called them their gods, who brought you up out of Egypt.

Within a matter of 40 days they went from a cry of absolute obedience to God to a cry that gives God’s glory and honor to a created thing. The major temptation that led up to this, the impatience of the people of God to simply wait on God, to accept His timing, to simply obey the One who had delivered them from bondage, who had and would continue to sustain them in all things. Just after Jesus is baptized we also see Him going through a 40 day period, one in which the Holy Spirit drove Him into the wilderness for the purpose of being tested. During that period He was tempted beyond anything that we can truly comprehend and yet stayed faithful.

For Israel it only got worse, notice Aaron’s actions and words in verse 5, he builds an altar to it and then proclaims the next day to be a feast for Yahweh, then they all Exodus 32:6 “… rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play.” Not only have they rejected God, made and idol to replace Him they now go so far, being led by Aaron, to excuse and perhaps in their mind soften their sin by calling the detestable creation they had made Yahweh, using the very covenant name of God given only to His people, and offering sacrifices and peace offerings before it and then going about their life in the pleasures of the flesh. AW Pink quoting another theologian records these words:

Gleanings in Exodus Chapter 59: The Golden Calf

“Alas! alas! it has ever been thus in man’s history. The human heart lusts after something that can be seen; it loves that which meets and gratifies the senses. It is only faith that can ‘endure as seeing Him who is invisible.’ Hence, in every age, men have been forward to set up and lean upon human imitations of Divine realities. Thus it is we see the counterfeits of corrupt religion multiplied before our eyes. Those things which we know, upon the authority of God’s Word, to be Divine and heavenly realities, the professing Church has transformed into human and earthly inventions. Having become weary of hanging upon an invisible arm, of trusting in an invisible sacrifice, of having recourse to an invisible Priest, of committing herself to an invisible Head, she has set about ‘making’ these things; and thus from age to age, she has been busily at work, with ‘graving tool’ in hand, graving and fashioning one thing after another, until we can at length recognize as little similarity between much that we see around us, and what we read in the Word, as between a ‘molten calf’ and the God of Israel”

Psalm 106:19–21 LSB

They made a calf in Horeb And worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory For the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt,

Forgotten Love

Which brings us to the truth of the situation, the fact that they had forgotten their first love, their God, the Creator. What cannot and should not be missed is God’s response, which is two-fold, wrathful and yet merciful. Nehemiah captures this in Nehemiah 9:17–18 ““… And You did not forsake them. “Even when they made for themselves A molten calf And said, ‘This is your God Who brought you up from Egypt,’ And committed great blasphemies,” They had made a covenant with God, one that explicitly stated that He would be their God and they would be His people if they kept the commandments that He had given to them. In His righteous anger He commands Moses to go back to the people for they have corrupted themselves, it was they that broke the covenant, no more than 40-days (and likely less) had passed since and they have already failed. Notice the language that God uses in sending Moses back to “for your people” indicating that the covenant has been broken. He also recalls the very words that the people used in proclaiming the idol to be their gods.

I need to interject something here, two things actually. First, the old covenant was simple in terms, obey My commands and I will be your God. The people failed to keep their end. The truth is that they, just as we, are incapable of keeping the law, that is first purpose of the law, to show us that we have no hope apart from the work of Christ. In His perfection, he perfectly fulfilled the Law. In that perfection He went to the cross, He took the curse of the law, the penalty for our sins, upon Himself at the cross. This was verified in the resurrection and His glory and enthronement manifested in the ascension. Often times people are guilty of placing themselves falsely in a narrative and then altering the course of those events, in this case, as in every other case, had we been their, the outcome would have been the same, we are still, before being regenerated, without the ability to not sin.

Secondly, notice how closely God was monitoring the situation, He repeated the very words that the people used in proclaiming the idols as gods. He knew of Aaron’s attempt to make this something other than it was. Earlier I spoke about the impatience of the people to wait and listen to God and I said we would return to that thought in a few moments. How often do we operate in the same realm. We may not use those exact words, we may not take gold and melt it down and craft what most would call an idol, but how many things do we do in God’s name that have little to nothing to do with God. They are not in obedience to Him, they do not glorify Him, they are not edifying to His people or proclaiming His truth yet we attach His names in hopes that it will soothe it over with Him. You may not use the words of the people of Israel or of Aaron, but even the thing which you do, can become an idol when the intent is not to honor and glorify God, but to elevate you. It may not be something that makes more of you, but if it affects your view of Him, attempts to distract you and draw you away from Him in any way, leads you to a moment of compromise, causes you to not be obedient to Him, then you have made your own molten calf, your own idol, chosen your own God.

It comes down to this, notice Gods response in verses 9 and 10. This is the first use of a term that will be used much in scripture, stiff-necked. Its origins are agricultural and dealt with a situation in which oxen would experience neck issues resulting from either a heavy burden and an unsuitable yoke or the oxen’s own resistance to the yoke itself. How true is this of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. The burden was heavy for the yoke they were using, themselves, for they were resistant to the yoke of God, that same yoke Jesus speaks of in the gospel of Matthew 11:28–30 ““Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.””

Since the people were stubborn, stiff-necked, determined to forge their own path, they incited the wrath of God. We do not talk about God’s wrath in church anymore, we do not help people to understand that it is God’s wrath from which they are being saved. RC Sproul repeatedly taught that the what we need salvation from is God, Himself. Notice the words in verse 10, that “My anger may burn against them and that I may consume them.” There is nothing unjust or unrighteous about the response of God, they had broken their covenant, the consequences of which had been spelled out an in truth should have been totally consumed… BUT GOD

What those words should convey, they are not found here, but they are implied, the final clause of this passage, one in which the people have certainly earned all that was coming to them, still contains mercy as God demonstrates it in His words “and I will make you a great nation.” What amazing grace, that a people who deserved nothing less than total destruction, would still be afforded the opportunity to go on. We will elaborate on this in the weeks to come as we deal with the remainder of this event, but for now, know that there is hope, even when it seems hopeless. God has not waited for us to get right and come to Him, He came to us; God Himself, stepped out of all eternity, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...” that Word, the Lord Jesus, went to the cross to pay for our sin, providing a way for us to be reconciled to God, that way is by grace through faith when we place our faith in Him and Him alone, we repent of our sins, we believe in the Lord Jesus and we begin to live for HIM.

Conclusion

Beloved, the golden calf incident is not merely a story of ancient Israel—it is a mirror held up to our own hearts. The people at Sinai had seen the mighty hand of God, had heard His voice, and had vowed obedience. Yet within forty days they forgot His covenant, abandoned their first love, and fashioned a god of their own making. Their impatience revealed the idolatry that still lingered within them. We may shake our heads at their folly, but are we really so different? How often do we grow restless when God delays, turning to the comforts of this world, baptizing our compromises with religious language, and calling it worship? How often do we elevate our own desires, traditions, or opinions above the clear Word of God?

The Lord’s message to the church in Ephesus resounds in our day: “You have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the deeds you did at first.” Christ walks among His lampstands even now, calling His people to return to Him with wholehearted devotion. Our greatest danger is not merely the hostility of the world, but the coldness of a heart that drifts from the Lord while still bearing His name.

The death of a young man who boldly proclaimed the gospel, and the growing hostility toward truth in our own nation, remind us that the cost of faithfulness may soon be higher than many of us have ever known. Will we stand firm when the world mocks, when persecution comes, when the waiting seems long? Or will we trade the glory of the invisible God for the fleeting approval of men?

Church, hear the call of Christ: remember, repent, and return. Will you cling to the Word that is sufficient and sure, or will you craft your own “golden calf” to soothe your impatient heart?

Closing Prayer

Gracious and holy Father, we bow before You, humbled by the truth of Your Word. We confess that our hearts are often restless and prone to wander. Forgive us for the idols we have fashioned—those things we have loved, trusted, or served more than You. Thank You for the mercy that holds back the wrath we deserve, for the blood of Jesus that cleanses every sin, and for the Spirit who calls us to repentance. Strengthen our resolve to stand firm when the world opposes Your truth. Keep us faithful when trials come. Teach us to wait on You with patient hope, to treasure Your Word as sufficient and sure, and to love You above all else. Guard our hearts from compromise and renew in us the joy of our first love, that we may shine as lights in a dark and rebellious age. We pray this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.