An Image of Idolatry

Moses had left the Israelites at the base of Mount Sinai and had gone to speak with God. But while Moses was receiving the law, the people were in rebellion, calling on Aaron to fashion a golden calf to fulfill their desire to worship something tangible. In this session, we will see what the heart of idol worship looks like and God’s rightful response to it—judgment. But once again, as we have seen so often throughout Exodus, we will see that God offers grace in the midst of His people’s disobedience.

Session Outline

++1. By nature, mankind always impatiently and blindly pursues self-fulfillment (Ex. 32:1-6).

++2. Mankind’s sinful pursuits are powerless to change God’s Decree (Ex. 32:7-10).

++3. God’s decree constantly and continually provides hope and grace (Ex. 32:11-14).

Session in a Sentence

While mankind by nature pursues self-fulfillment impatiently and blindly, God's unstoppable promises still offer hope and grace.

Any worship of something or someone else besides God is idolatry and is condemned by Him, but God is merciful to provide forgiveness.

question on page 103 in the DDG.

What are some “I want” moments in your favorite stories?

How do these wants compare to the wants we have in our own lives?

(be prepared to give answers of your own to jump-start the conversation)

Every classic Disney movie includes a significant moment, one which drives the action in the film. These moments—often with singing—center on the main character expressing his or her greatest desire. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle yearns for a grand life outside of her small town. In Robin Hood, Robin is in love with Maid Marian and desires to be with her. In The Emperor’s New Groove, Kuzco wants a summer home to show off his power and riches.

DDG (p. 103), connecting our desires to the idolatry in our own hearts.

People are, by nature, driven by their desires.

We reveal what we want through our words and deeds. It is evident in what we talk about, how we spend our time, how we use our resources, and what we post on social media.

Often, the things we want are good, but sometimes, instead of allowing our desires to drive us to God, the One who provides all we need, we worship those desires instead. And often we don’t let go of those desires, even when we come to see they are not for our good, for the good of others around us, or for God’s glory.

In these times we see how idolatry did not merely exist in the days of the Old Testament; it exists today within our own hearts.

Big Idea: While mankind by nature pursues self-fulfillment impatiently and blindly, God's unstoppable promises still offer hope and grace.

Point 1: By nature, mankind always impatiently and blindly pursues self-fulfillment (Ex. 32:1-6).

Say: All of us are worshipers. It’s just a matter of what we worship, which is whatever captivates our hearts and influences our lives. The first two of the Ten Commandments required the people to worship only God and prohibited them from making idols or visual representations of God. In essence, God was teaching His people to worship Him by faith. Yet the people weren’t satisfied. They wanted something good, something immediate, something that fulfilled their immediate wants—God’s presence—but they wanted it sinfully and on their own terms. Even more, they wanted to have a god that catered to ignored their driving desire to fulfill themselves.

Read Exodus 32:1-6 (DDG p. 104).

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.

Note 3 things:

++They were focused on delay v. 1

++They created what they wanted God to be (LORD-YHWH) vv. 2-5

++They just wanted to eat and play in place of true worship of the LORD v. 6

DDG (p. 104)

Their intention may have been to worship the Lord (although I might even question that), but God has called on His people to worship only Him and only in the way He has prescribed.

The golden calf may or may not have been an outright rejection of God. The Israelites mixed a some desire to worship the Lord with elements they had carried over from their pagan worship in Egypt, where the cow was a symbol of strength and fertility. 1 But the people lapsed into idolatry because they focused on what they wanted—a god they could have on their own terms—rather than the Lord Himself. In this we see that the means of worship matters as much as the object of worship.

Idolatry is not just a sin of the past. We are in just as much peril as the people who fashioned the golden calf because the worship of our hearts can be just as easily directed away from God. Our idolatry usually just looks different. We have replaced pagan practices with the desires of the heart (health, relationships, jobs, etc.). We all are still guilty, at times, of fashioning the image of God in our mind in ways that are not consistent with the actual nature and character of God.

In what ways to people nowadays think of God? What are ways mankind wrongly fashions God in his own mind?

Fill in the blanks: DDG (p. 104) Three Characteristics of Idols:

1. Idols are things that captivate our hearts or imaginations.

2. Idols are things we trust in, in place of what only God can give.

3. Idols aren’t God.

1. Idols are things that captivate our hearts or imaginations.

The people may have been at Mount Sinai, but their hearts were still in Egypt, enslaved to sin. They wanted to be certain that God would lead them to their homeland, but this desire turned their hearts back to the idolatry of the Egyptians. Likewise, we often try to manufacture our own custom god: one who looks like us, sounds like us, and wants the same things we want.

2. Idols are things we trust in, in place of what only God can give.

The things the Israelites wanted—to sense God’s presence, to know or even self-determine where they were heading, to have a homeland—were good things, but the Israelites couldn’t get these things on their own. And without God and His representative visibly present when they wanted Him, they turned to a manufactured calf to give them what they wanted, but it could never satisfy their longings. We too look to people and things for what only God can give.

3. Idols aren’t God.

This seems simple, but think for a second about common idols today, even the idols in your life. How do they compare to God? The God who created the world and everything in it, the God who became a human so we could know Him and be forgiven of our sin, the God who promises life to us. Every single idol leads us to the same place—open rebellion against the God who created us and has promised to provide for us. It promises fulfillment, but only gives isolation and emptiness in return.

Question: Are you willing to increasingly turn from any idolatry in your heart and instead, strive to know and worship the one true God who teaches through His Word how to seek Him and has revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ?

Point 2: Mankind’s sinful pursuits are powerless to change God’s Decree (Ex. 32:7-10).

The scene shifts from the foot of the mountain, where the people were throwing a party for their handmade god, to a conversation between God and Moses. A piece of gold fashioned to look like a cow didn’t know people were worshiping it, but the God who they completely failed to worship, who seemed so far away from their perspective, knew exactly what was happening.

Read Exodus 32:7-10 (DDG p. 105).

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

The underlined is not shifting blame like Gen. 3 with Adam and Eve, but rather God emphasizing Moses’ obedience in contrast to to the people’s disobedience. Note in contrast, they turned aside quickly, made for themselves, and they were stiff-necked.

DDG (p. 105)

Idolatry is always direct rebellion against the holy God.

Perhaps the people thought they were worshiping the one true God, but they broke His commandments. Our idols always reveal rebellion against God. In our foolishness, we turn our backs to God for a created thing that will never satisfy our desires.

Commentary: We don’t directly disobey by mistake. We do it on purpose.

Every time. And each time we do, we reveal the rebellious heart within us that willfully made the wrong choice.

Romans 1:21-22,25 paints a stark picture of how God sees direct disobedience or rebellion: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools … they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

What are some people or things people expect to satisfy them?

How do we respond when they fail to truly satisfy?

(we pretend we are happy; we fall into a depression; we get angry; we return for more or we try to find satisfaction elsewhere; we feel guilty and ashamed; we blame God; we turn to God in repentance)

DDG (p. 105) Idolatry is robs God of the praise to His glory that is due Him, but it is powerless to stop God’s eternal decree.

The golden calf robbed God of the praise to His glory that should be given only to Him. This is the precise thing that Satan wants for himself. The idols of our hearts likewise seek to steal God’s glory. They make our desires, and more precisely us, the most important part of our story, but God made us for His glory (Isa. 43:7).

Our idols will always fall short of what we expect them to do because they are created things meant for our enjoyment and self-fulfillment, yet can never satisfy. Idolatry severs our relationship with God and renders us guilty and ashamed before Him outside of salvation and isolated and feeling alone as a child of God. There is no loneliness like that of the loneliness that accompanies realized sin, especially intentional sin.

Voices from Church History

“For whatever resemblance created nature may have to its Creator … we cannot legitimately bear to them sovereign respect, since there is nothing so abominable in the eyes of God and man as idolatry, because it renders to the creature the honor that is due to none but the Creator.” 2 –Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Idolatry is so terrible not only because we reject God but because we often seek our own glory from the very gifts God has given us. Remember the gold the people of Israel took on their way out of Egypt, the plunder God had given them (Ex. 3:21-22; 11:2-3; 12:35-36)? It was meant for the tabernacle, a true visual reminder that God was present and dwelling with His people, but they took that gold meant for God’s glory and used it for their own glory instead.

If God’s response to the people’s idolatry seems extreme, it’s because we don’t understand the weight of their rebellion against God. Our God, perfectly holy and perfectly just, will not tolerate sin, nor will He allow it to deter Him from what He has decreed.

Fill in the blanks: DDG (p. 105).

Guilt and Shame: Guilt refers to the objective status of someone being found guilty for a wrong committed as well as the incurring of punishment that comes with it. Shame is the emotional pain that comes from sinful actions. Scripture teaches that human beings are guilty in an objective sense and also feel the weight of shame in a subjective sense.

Essential Doctrine “Guilt and Shame”: Guilt refers to the objective status of someone being found guilty for a wrong committed as well as the incurring of punishment that comes with it (Matt. 5:21-22; Jas. 2:10). Shame is the emotional pain that comes from sinful actions. Scripture teaches that human beings are guilty in an objective sense and also feel the weight of shame in a subjective sense.

Point 3: God’s decree constantly and continually provides hope and grace (Ex. 32:11-14).

Say: Our idolatry, like all sin, always separates us from God. Because God is holy, glorious, and good, only He is worthy of being worshiped. The only way for the Israelites to be reconciled to God was for God to give hope and show mercy and grace to these undeserving people through Moses.

Read: Exodus 32:11-14 (DDG p. 106).

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

DDG (p. 106) Moses served as a mediator for God’s people, made his appeal to God for hope and grace.

God had told Moses to step aside, to stay out of the way, so He could destroy the Israelites (v. 10). But Moses came to the people’s defense—just what God wanted him to do. After all, why would God need Moses out of the way to judge His people?

Moses did not try to dismiss the seriousness of the people’s sin; in fact, he would be enraged by it too (see vv. 19,22,31). Rather, he pleaded for God to cover their sin with His grace on account of His glory and faithfulness. And Moses’ mediation proved effective to teach Moses of God’s grace, so as God planned, He relented or turned away from His just condemnation.

That is mercy that gave hope and preserved the opportunity for grace.

While it may appear that God changed His mind here, God’s plan all along was to glorify Himself by showing mercy to His people. Yes, God is completely just and sin will not go unpunished, but God is also faithful to His promises.

Knowing God’s character, Moses appealed for the lives of the people.

Did God’s declaration of impending judgment bring to the surface of Moses’ mind, hope in God’s grace?

Look at these verses again and see if you can see both hope in God’s faithfulness and hope in the preservation of God’s glory.

· God’s Glory: If God destroyed His people in the wilderness, then the Egyptians would have reason to deny God’s glory and bad-mouth His reputation as the all-powerful, all-good God for His people.

· God’s Faithfulness: If God destroyed His people in the wilderness, then He would renege on His promises to the patriarchs for offspring, land, and blessing.

Jesus came into the world as fully God and fully man. Because He is one with God, He is the perfect mediator between the holy God and sinful humanity deserving His judgment. Moses never could have substituted himself for the people because of his own sin, but Jesus’ sinless life meant He could stand in place of His people and lay down His life in exchange for theirs.

Moses, a Mediator (Fill in the blanks DDG p. 106)

Represented God before the people and the people before God (Ex. 18:19; 20:19)

Interceded for the Israelites (Ex. 32; Num. 12; 14; 16; 21)

Mediator of the old covenant (Ex. 24:8)

Jesus, the Mediator

The one Mediator between God and humanity (1 Tim. 2:5-6)

Always lives to intercede for His people (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25)

Mediator of the new covenant (Heb. 9:15)

Christ as Priest: As our Great High Priest, Jesus accomplishes the work of reconciling us to God. He is the One who intercedes for us before the Father and prays for us to remain faithful.

Essential Doctrine “Christ as Priest”: As our Great High Priest, Jesus accomplishes the work of reconciling us to God. He is the One whose perfect righteousness is presented to the Father for our justification. He is the One who intercedes for us before the Father (Heb. 7:25; 9:24) and prays for us to remain faithful (Luke 22:31-32; John 17).

Exodus 32 shows how far sin can take us and how self-focused we can be, but our Savior’s mercy goes much further.

The Israelites’ sin nearly wrecked their relationship with God, and if God had not been merciful to them, their idolatry would have separated them from Him forever.

We too have worshiped idols over the living God. Though God would be perfectly just to condemn us for our sin, He chose another way to punish sin, one that would reconcile us to Himself. All the punishment we deserved for our sin was placed on our mediator, Jesus Christ, who died in our place and rose again and now sits at the Father’s right hand, where He continues to intercede on our behalf. Praise God that His grace, not our idolatry, has the final word on our relationship with Him.

DDG (p. 107), Are we willing to respond to the truth of God’s Word and be transformed?

Remember:

++1. By nature, mankind always impatiently and blindly pursues self-fulfillment (Ex. 32:1-6).

++2. Mankind’s sinful pursuits are powerless to change God’s Decree (Ex. 32:7-10).

++3. God’s decree constantly and continually provides hope and grace (Ex. 32:11-14).

Know and respect your natural human bent towards self pursuits.

Know the futility of such pursuits to fulfill or give future hope.

Know the unstoppable decree of God which is and will always be laced with Hope and grace for those who truly worship Him, only Him, as He has determined worship should be done.

· Ask the Lord to help you identify idolatry in your heart; then repent and find forgiveness in Christ and pray for help to worship God alone.

· What are some ways your group can help support and intercede for you as you strive for purity in your life and worship?

· How will you pray this week for an unbeliever in light of God’s character in Christ? What steps will you take to share the gospel with this person?

Close in prayer:

References

1. Dorian G. Coover-Cox, “Exodus,” in CSB Study Bible (Nashville: B&H, 2017), 142, n. 32:2-6.

2. Blaise Pascal, in Blaise Pascal: Thoughts, Letters, and Minor Works, ed. Charles W. Eliot, trans. W. F. Trotter, M. L. Booth, and O. W. Wight (New York: Cosimo, 1910), 330.

3. Dorian G. Coover-Cox, “Exodus,” in CSB Study Bible, 142, n. 32:1.

4. Kevin C. Peacock, “Bull & Calf Worship in the Ancient Near East,” Biblical Illustrator(Fall 2011): 60-61.

5. P. G. George and Paul Swarup, “Exodus,” in South Asia Bible Commentary, gen. ed. Brian Wintle (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), 123.

6. Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Exodus (Nashville: B&H, 2014) [WORDsearch].

7. Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2 in The New American Commentary(Nashville: B&H, 2006) [WORDsearch].

8. Dorian G. Coover-Cox, “Exodus,” in CSB Study Bible, 143, n. 32:11-12.

9. Kenneth Laing Harris, “Exodus,” in ESV Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 197, n. 32:10-14.

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