A Great Sin; A Greater Delieverer

Read Exodus 32

300 Illustrations for Preachers (Relying on Rituals to Help Your Team Win)

(Preaching Themes: Faith, Prayer_Petition, Superstition):

When it comes to supporting their favorite sports team, many Americans pray or perform game-day rituals that they think will affect the outcome of a game. A survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute looked at the link between team spirit and fan spirituality. The survey found that 60 percent of Americans say they are fans of a particular team, and many of them said they would do something to help their team along in an important game. Almost a quarter of those fans will wear special clothes such as a team jersey on game day, and 26 percent said they would pray and ask God to help their team win. According to the results, football fans are more likely than fans of other sports to admit to praying for their team or performing some ritual before a game. And although three-quarters of respondents said that God played no role in a victory, 48 percent said they believed God rewarded faith-filled athletes with good health or success. On the other hand, 47 percent did not believe that.

—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Dear ones, the reality of the matter before us is that rituals have no bearing on how our favorite team will perform in any given sport. Much less so with God, who is far more concerned with the condition of our hearts because what rules our hearts will drive our thoughts, words, and actions. God demands faith that leads to obedience and not a faith that seeks convenience and practicality for our present circumstances, as you can see from the text in Exodus 32.

Israel lacks commitment to God (1-10).

Verses one through ten provides readers with a distinct picture of how the Hebrew people (soon to become Israel proper) responded to God’s continued protection, provision, and miraculous presence among them. But, unfortunately, the God who delivered them through ten plagues decimated the Egyptian army in the Red Sea is the one whom the people forget and, through their actions, declare you are no better than the idols of Egypt.

Do you see their declaration to Aaron? This Moses is taking too long. We need an idol to lead the way. Aaron commands the people to tear off their gold rings from their bodies and surrender them at his hand. Then Aaron produces for the people a manufactured god and places it alongside the invisible God, the Living God, and makes a proclamation in verse 4, “These are your God.”

Did you notice how YHWH declares to Moses regarding the Hebrew people? First, YHWH declares, “your people,” not “my people.” Then God puts Moses to the test; how about I destroy them and start fresh with you?

Dear ones, here we see how easily the one living a life guided by their idols and not led by the Spirit of God, respond in wickedness to God’s faithfulness. While it is easy to identify with Moses and Aaron, or Joshua, the reality is that every one of us is like the Hebrews that neglected the Living God, trading Him for some manufactured knock-off that pleases us rather than a Living God that transforms us.

What makes the offense before a holy God the more severe is the willingness to impart our all to the idols in our lives through great sacrifice, while ignoring the Living God who would free us from ourselves and our trespasses to an abundant life under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

The beauty of this passage, the entire chapter, is that it points to God’s redeeming power and how Moses, through these interactions, shows the perfection that is to come through the Only Begotten Son of God—Jesus Christ.

Moses points to Someone Greater (11-18).

The greatness of this exchange is not because Moses takes preeminence but because he surrenders in humility, and in his humility, Moses exalts the greatness of God through the dialogue we read. When we read the Bible with God as the main character and the hero in every narrative, poem, and history, there is a real sense of awareness that an unchanging God is the one that tests our hearts and minds to mold us into His likeness.

Did you catch how Moses answers God in verses 12 through 13? The essential response is to remember the source and sustaining power of the covenant that would be broken. It is not Adam’s, Abraham’s, Isaac’s, or Jacob’s; the covenant stands by the sustaining power of God and who God was, is, and will be. Moses passed the test because rather than exalting himself over the sinful people, he offered worship to God by recounting the covenant God set between Himself and Abraham’s descendants.

The exchange between God and Moses also highlights the condition of Moses’ heart at the time of this dialogue. It shows where his anger toward the people is not out of vain selfishness or pride but remains centered on the God that gave his perfect law by His inspiration and authority, by His personal name—YHWH.

Dear ones, a minimal litmus test for the presence of any form of idolatry in the human heart is a simple question: Do I live my life to honor God regardless of the circumstances I face, or do I compromise my faith in God when there appears to be a more pleasant way? The fact that meets us, as it did the Hebrews, are the countless objects that would become our “gods” in place of Almighty YHWH.

Some examples are: Material things, our bodies, our identity, our prestige, our pleasure, what we do for work, what we do for recreation, the family we come from, our vision of what is a “good future,” our personal morality, our sexuality, and more. Rightfully do we see how what Joshua perceived as defeat in the roaring sound from the camp, Moses detected as sounds of short-lived triumph and confusion.

I encourage us to express a thankful attitude that we have the hope of the resurrected Jesus and the teaching of the Gospel in the New Testament affirming that the Law points out our sin. The Gospel (The complete incarnation, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ) removes the taskmaster of the Law and offers us freedom under God’s grace, mercy, and the excellent work of the perfect Son so that our sins and imperfections may no longer afflict us. However, we continue to fight against temptation and sin. (Galatians 3:15-29; 4)

God and Moses points to the redemption to come (19-35).

While we are to address God’s amiable attributes quickly and joyfully such as his love, mercy, grace, and enduring patience (longsuffering), we are also compelled to call attention to his fear-inspiring attributes, namely His justice, his wrath, and insufferable nature towards sin. The beauty of God is his perfect state being all of these at once, never surrendering one over the other, but acting out each one with the same fierceness as the others.

Moses in his actions represents the way sin impacts humanity. In verses 19 through 20 we see that the idol is crushed and the people are made to drink the dust of the golden calf, expressing the depth of the sin upon everyone; it is part of who they are as a people. Then in verses 21-24 we hear from Aaron, the father of the Priestly line, how in his weakness, he leads the people astray.

Yet, here in this point of despair for the reader, we have God laying out the case for a better and greater Priest. Not one that would fail, but one who even tempted by Satan himself, would stand the tempestuous blows of misused Scripture to prooftext a false “Christianity.” Aaron is the beginning contrast to the High Priest of Heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who represents the Church and stands as the perfect Priest and atoning sacrifice once and for all. Our Perfect Hight Priest does not make us a laughing stock, but makes us honorable and holy. (Hebrews 3)

Lastly, Dear ones, because God is worthy of honor and praise, God’s holiness is not trifled with His people. Remember, we are not our own possession, but those who have surrendered to the life-giving gospel, much like the people given over in the Mosaic covenant, belong to the Living God. Furthermore, when we come before Him and hold Him as something other than the “Holy, Holy, Holy” God of Heaven and Earth, we take our lives into our hands.

Sin and sinful men cannot stand before God and live. So, as the idolaters could not stand among the people of God, so too, we must be careful that we do not mock God’s patience, mercy, and love in this life, finding ourselves spending eternity under His wrath because our hearts were not wholly surrendered to Him.

Again we see Moses pointing to the Master Himself, as we read verses 30-32, as he would stand guilty before God for the sake of the people, as a man moved by God-given compassion. Moses points to the perfect sacrifice, to Jesus’ atoning death on Calvary’s cross, giving a semblance of Jesus’ words, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34).

In verses 33 through 35, we see the magnified implication of sin, while it stands in contrast to the need for an arbiter between God and humanity. The need for a vicarious substitute to take our sins and guilt to be consumed in God’s perfect wrath. The reality is that God’s wrath did not actively placed Christ on the cross; it is the sin of generations past and our collective sins that drove the nails to the cross, and drove the thorn-laced crown upon his brow. Jesus willingly submitted to the Father to rescue those that could not deliver themselves. (Acts 5:30)

What a joy to stand on this side of history and the promise of salvation, through Jesus Christ, who is the holy Lamb of God, who was capable to consume the perfect wrath of a holy God, that we may not suffer eternal death, but be eternally present before the Living God with not blemish; all because of the man on the middle cross on Calvary’s hill. (John 14:1-6)

Conclusion/Invitation.

Dear one, are you an idolater?

Do you hold something equal to or in greater regard than the Living God?

Do you long for freedom from the burdens of this life and the crushing weight idols place upon your life? Tearing at you and demanding from you everything you are?

Come. Surrender. Taste and See that God is good, indeed! Come and find life, a life that reaches beyond the grave and bursts into an eternity spent with the Living God.