Exodus - Part 13 - Wrap Up- " I Don't Get It Big Dan" Series

Exodus – “The Story of God’s presence”

Part 13 wrap up

“I don’t get it Big Dan’

Exodus 32

Ya’ll know I love movies and you also know I really like the movie

“Oh Brother where art thou”

I have used quotes and stories from this movie several times in the Exodus series that we are wrapping up today

In one particular scene

Everret and Delmar meet a man named Big Dan

They go out to have a pick nick lunch

Thinking they are going to discuss a business deal

Big Dan has other things on his mind

After lunch he breaks off a club from a tree and begins beating Delmar

Everret sits there looking pretty dumb

And says

“I don’t get it big Dan”

Just before Big Dan

Whacks him with the club and takes all their money

I don’t get it Big Dan-- really

I hate to say this Everret

But it should have been pretty obvious

You should have seen this coming

As we continue in our Study of Exodus this morning

I want to say the same thing to the Israelites

Let me recap to build the scene for today

A lot of this will be very familiar to you

It should be

We are 13 weeks into this study

Unless you just showed up

You have heard all of this before

God’s people had ended up in slavery

For 400 years they suffered

Then God in his mercy sent a man named Moses

A man handpicked by him

To lead them from that life

After blasting Egypt with 10 plagues for their failure to listen

The People ended up in the wilderness

Getting their first taste of freedom

But

Old Pharaoh changed his mind

And went after them

He chased them to the Red Sea

Pharaoh should have turned back

Instead God parted the sea and let his people pass through on dry ground and they drowned the entire Egyptian army when they tried to follow

Then standing on the far side of the of the sea

The bodies of the Egyptians and their horses washing up in the surf

The Hebrews raised their voices in song for the first times in their lives a true free peole

God had delivered them

He had saved

Then as we studied he had provided for them

When they were thirsty he sweetened bitter water

He bought water from a rock when they were in a dry part of the wilderness

He provided their need for food with manna from heaven

He provided some of their wants with the meat that the quail provided

He led them

Protected them

Provided for them

God loved them

And then as we saw two weeks ago

He spoke directly to them

God gave them his commandments directly

At the foot of Mount Sinai

And then he confirmed Moses as their leader

And then he called Moses away for just a short time

40 days God’s word says

And the wheels fell off- the whole deal came unbolted

You see while Moses was up on the mountain receiving the stone tablets that God himself wrote

While God was giving Moses the instructions that he was to give the people to assure a close personal relationship with him

The people forgot

40 days

And they forgot that God had delivered them

40 days

And they forgot the hardships of slavery

40 Days

And they forgot the blessings that God had poured out on them

Over and over again

40 days

And they couldn’t see Moses

40 days

And they couldn’t feel God presence

So they quickly began breaking all the rules that just over a month earlier they had sworn to keep

Let’s read Exodus 32: 1

When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”

---They did not get it----

How quickly they had forgotten

How quickly they returned to their old lives and their old sins

Make us some gods that we can see

Like the ones we had in Egypt they cried

God had promised them blessings for keeping his commands

And death if they did not

But obviously they did not get it

So they went to Aaron

Moses’ brother

The man who God had called to be the high priest

The holiest man next to Moses in the whole world

And said

Make us some gods

His reaction should have been to refuse

His reaction should have been to walk away

Or run away

Or to remind them of their promise

To remind them of their Covent with God