A Broken People a Good God

Introduction

Recap

Chapters 15-18- Israel’s Belief Problem

God’s fulfilling promise

Making Israel into a Nation

God gave them a Law

Most importantly: God made a Covenant with Israel

be a treasured possession

Nation of Priests

Holy Nation

Chapters 32 &34

Israel Still has a belief problem

God is Holy and Righteous

God is gracious

- Israel’s Problem & God’s Holiness

Exodus 32:1-

Exodus 32:1–6 ESV

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.

Vs.1-6

Moses, not God was Israel deliverer- Deception

Gold Calf- Did not believe that the One True God delivered them from Egypt

In these 5 verses they broke the first 3 commandments- When God gave them these commandments it was to show that they had a right relationship with God. Yet, they already broke up just a few days God visited them and showed Himself to them on the mountain!

Vs. 7-10

God sees their Sin!

Tell’s Moses to go down to them

God knows their problem already and

Exodus 32:

Exodus 32:9–10 ESV

And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 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.”

God is Holy and wrathful that He says get away from me, because he wants to destroy all of Israel and make a nation from just Moses

Therefore, Moses pleads with God, imploring, begging him to remember his covenant with them even though they just broke it.

What Moses is asking is for forgiveness on behalf of Israel

Exodus 32:13–14 ESV

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.’ ” And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

Vs 15-20

Moses goes down from the Mountain with tablets in his hand (ten Commadments)

Joshua and Moses heard all of Israel singing and when they got down the mountain, they saw the Golden Calf and Israel dancing

Moses breaks the Tablets in anger

Burns the Golden Calf

Makes Israel drink dirty water

Vs. 21-24

Moses confronts Aaron

Aaron blames it on the wickedness on the people (he isnt wrong)

Exodus 32:24 ESV

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.”

Exodus 32:

Sin does not confess to being wicked and broken, sin only tries to make excuses

After this, Moses judges those who broke God’s Law using the Levites who were still loyal to him

Exodus 32:30-

Exodus 32:30–31 ESV

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.” So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold.

Moses desires to make atonement for Israel’s sin

He returns to God but asks for forgivness

Ultimately the Lord will forgive them

Two Things to take away from this...

Broken People need a Mediator

God is Holy and righteous annnnnnd Gracious

In - Moses is continuing his interaction with God and God reminds him of what he will do with Israel, that he will keep his promise to them and bring them into the land and keep his covenant with them even though they have a problem!

God says he will make the Tablets of Stone again

Exodus 34:8–10 ESV

And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

Exodus 34:8-

Despite Israel’s wickedness, God is gracious and kind to keep his promises to them.

Because Moses pleaded with Him and trust in Him, Israel could not keep God’s covenant with them and they will be blessed by God

God tells them that he will give them a land

They will destroy all the other altars of pagan gods and win battles against other nations

to Prove God is with Moses, as Moses heads back into Israel his face is shining with God’s glory- so bright that he had to always be veiled

Our New Covenant

Earlier I said In this passage we will see:

Israel’s belief problem

God’s Holiness and righteousness

God’s Grace

Israel’s belief Problem

the truth is that Israel had a belief problem because they had a heart problem

Mans Heart Problem

the reason Israel made a Golden Calf is because they had a heart problem

There are so called “golden calfs” in our lives- because what the Golden calf represented was Israel’s unwillingness to completely depend upon God

There could be golden calfs in your lives- friends, video games, sports, hobbies

Ultimately the biggest golden calf is ourselves because we want what we want

God’s Holiness and righteousness

God Is so holy and righteous that our sin makes him wrathful as well

Sin is a serious matter

We cant go to God on our own, thats why we needed someone like Moses- to go to God on our behalf

God’s Grace

God shows mercy and grace to the Israelites, not only did he relent from destroying all of them, he forgave them and reinstated HIs covenant with them.

In Jesus- our Covenant is better

Jesus is the epitome of God’s grace, meaning God through Jesus saves us from our heart problem. Jesus is the reason we can believe and have eternal life.

2 Corinthians talks about a confidence we should have in Christ because when we believe we have the Holy Spirit take control of our hearts. He permeates it.

Because of this, we dont have a veil on to see God. We can take the veil off like Moses when he went to be with God.

This is a close relationship with Him