Sermon Tone Analysis

Leader Guide ESV, Unit 6, Session 1

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Edited by Lex DeLong, M.A. Feb. 27, 2022.

Summary and Goal

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.