Exodus 32-40
A Second Chance
Manuscript
Today is our last sermon on the Exodus series - chapters 32-40. I hope you’ve read up on them, because today’s sermon will make a lot more sense if you have. What have we looked at so far in Exodus? We started off with the birth and call of Moses, in which God revealed His most profound name to Moses - I AM – or Yahweh. And then God revealed to Moses not only His name, but that He had seen the cries from the Israelites, because at that time the Israelites were an oppressed people living in slavery under the Egyptian owners. They had cried out to God – and He had heard. And now God sent Moses to deliver the Israelites. We learnt how the Egyptians didn’t want to let the Israelites – their free labour go. So God had to send plague after plague – 10 in all – to force their hand. And then on the last and most terrible plague of all in which every Egyptian first born was killed, eventually the Egyptians relented and let the Israelites go. And we learn that when all the first born of the Egyptians were killed, that none of the Israelite firstborn were killed. Why? Because God gave them a sign: the blood of sacrificed lamb on their doorframes s a sign that they were God’s. And this was called the Passover, and 1500 years later Jesus fulfilled that Passover when He died on the cross. His blood was shed so that when the Day of the Lord comes, when Christ returns in judgement, if we repent and trust in Christ, then His seal is on our lives and we will also be passed over in judgement on that great and terrible day.
Then we learnt how God led the Israelites to Mt Sinai. We saw what amazing and terrifying spectacle the presence of God was. When the presence of God was made known on Mt Sinai it was shock and awe. And God gave the Israelites the 10 Commandments and a whole lot of other laws, and made a covenant with them. But we saw that there was a problem, and that problem was that God is Holy and perfect and the Israelites were sinful. How could a holy God live amongst a sinful people? And so God told Moses in Exod 25:8-9:
Exo 25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. 9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
And so this santuary – that is - a holy place; this tabernacle – that is – a dwelling place. This holy dwelling place would be built so that God could dwell amongst a sinful people. And then we looked at this tabernacle. We saw that in order for God to dwell, to live, among the Israelites, that this tabernacle – a tent - was like no ordinary tent. It was not an open tent but it was closed. It was difficult to get into. And the heart of the tabernacle was the Holy of Holies, also called the Most Holy Place. Only one representative of all the Israelites could go there – the High Priest, and only once per year. And he couldn’t just wander in. He had to be consecrated beforehand. He had to wear special robes designed specifically for the purpose, and most importantly of all – he had to offer certain set sacrifices. The sacrifices of animals killed as a price to pay for his own sins and for the sins of the people. Then and only then could he go into the Holy of Holies and make atonement for the Israelites in the Holy of Holies in front of the atonement cover – also called the mercy seat - that covered the ark, or chest of the covenant. Inside that chest, that box was the covenant between God and Israel carved in stone, representing the very presence of God.
And this tabernacle and everything in it had to be made exactly the way God said. Exactly. There was no room for innovation, for artistic licence on our part. Exactly. Why? Well, firstly, because God said it - that should be good enough reason for us. But also because this earthly tabernacle was a model of the heavenly one. And that’s important for us as Christians, because we looked at our access to God. Surely, the God of the Exodus is the same God who sits on His throne today. If God couldn’t dwell amongst the sinful Israelites without the tabernacle and all its offerings and sacrifices, then how can the Holy God live among us who are also sinful? And we looked at Jesus, who as John says:
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
That is – Jesus – the Son of God, God Himself, came to dwell among us – to tabernacle among us! Like us- as a human being in all ways except He was without sin. And then we looked at what happened wen Jesus died on the cross, at the very moment He died:
Mat 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
The curtain of the temple was torn in two! This is the curtain that separated us from the Holy of Holies, from the Ark of the Covenant and its Atonement Cover. This curtain that separated us from the very presence of God was split, torn in two, showing that through Christ – and only through Christ - we now have access to God! As it says in:
Hebrews 9:11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Wow! Now that’s good news! But back then at Mt Sinai Moses was given instructions to build this tabernacle, so that the Holy God could dwell amongst the sinful Israelites. Now, Moses was actually up on the mountain for quite a while God was giving Moses these instructions. And he was up on the mountain for quite some time as it tells us in:
Exodus 24:18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
40 days and nights – that’s over a month. And while Moses was up there on the mountain, the rest of the Israelites were camped on the plain, camped there for over a month. And as we’ve already seen in Exodus, the Israelites were not the most patient bunch of people. Bit like us really. Exodus 32:1 says that the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain. So do you know what they did? Well let’s read the rest of Exod 32:1
Exo 32:1 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."
What? What were they thinking? I mean, you think about it, what the Israelites said beggars belief. God has delivered the Israelites from Egypt. He’s performed the 10 plagues. While the Egyptians have been suffering from the 10 plagues the Israelites were not affected by them – especially the last one when all the firstborn were killed – the Israelites were passed over. And God did this all through Moses. Then God parted the Red Sea – no mean feat. Again, God did this through the hand of Moses. And then God led them through the desert, supernaturally providing them with food and water - again through the hand of Moses. And then they come to this mountain. They see an amazing spectacle on Mt Sinai - shock and awe. The Israelites are terrified, and rightly so. They have the fear of God put into them – literally. God makes a covenant with them, which they readily agree to, and then they are so frightened of going close to God that they send Moses to speak to God on their behalf.
So God summonses Moses to go up the mountain. And while he’s gone, in Exodus 24:14, Moses leaves Aaron and Hur in charge during his absence. So the people who’ve seen all this now, who’ve sent Moses up the mountain, now grow impatient and say forget Moses. He’s taking too long. And as for God, well, they say to Aaron, “make us gods.” Excuse me, how do you make gods? How do you make someone who was supposed to have made you? It’s just ridiculous when you think about it. But that’s what they said. And Moses had left Aaron and Hur in charge. What does Aaron say to them?
Exodus 32:2 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!"
Great, the guy you leave in charge does this! What should Aaron have done? Well, I think we know. Why did he do this? Maybe he was scared of a few million Israelites making these demands. Anyway, he not only lets them make false gods, he actually organises it – and makes the false gods for them! But then if we go down to verse 5 we see something interesting:
Exo 32:5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD."
That’s interesting. Why? Well – Aaron’s made these false gods, and then – he says it will be a feast to the LORD. “LORD” is in capital letters – that means in Hebrew it is Yahweh. That is – Aaron has made this image of a golden calf, and then he’s saying this calf is the LORD – this golden calf is God, it is Yahweh. Seems like Aaron is a bit confused. Or perhaps feeling guilty. In some ways still wanting to worship the one true God, but doing it his own way – or the way of the people. And it is extremely ironic that all this is happening while Moses is on the mountain getting very specific instructions about the tabernacle.
You see, what were the Israelites doing? They were making God in their own image. They even paid some sort of lip service to the true God by calling this golden calf “the LORD” - “Yahweh.” But they were fashioning God they way they wanted Him to be. And they were worshipping God the way they wanted to, not the way God wanted them to. God told Israel to make a tabernacle. How? Any old way? Was it up to them how they were to worship God? NO! Exodus 25:9 says they were to make the tabernacle exactly the way God said. And here they are making up their own way to worship God!
Now what’s this got to do with us? Well – everything! You see, we saw last week that God has also given us the way to get to God, to worship Him, and it is through Jesus Christ that we can have access to God. But it is only through Jesus Christ. Jesus told us that in John 14:6 when He said:
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
There is only one way to the Father, to God, and that is through Jesus Christ. We live in a pluralistic world. That means, we live in a world where there are many claims to how we get to God. The Muslims say you get to God through Mohammed and his teachings. The Buddhists say you get to enlightenment through the teaching of Siddharta Gautama – the Buddha. Scientific atheism says there is no god – but we get to the truth through rationalism. Postmodernism or relativism – which is what most Aussies believe - says that you can get to God any old how – whatever works for you is good.
But is this what the Bible says? Is this what the one true God says? No! He told the Israelites that the only way He could dwell among them was through the tabernacle constructed exactly as he said. And He tells us that the only way to Him is through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ – no-one else. So, not many of us here would disagree with that, that we can only come to God through Christ. But here’s where the rubber hits the road for us. You see – this tabernacle – had to be made exactly the right way. And the Israelites had to follow the commands of God exactly. It wasn’t just good enough to invent their own way of worshipping God, even if they still called it God. We have to worship and live the way God wants us too. You see, there are lots of people who call themselves Christian, even evangelical Christian, who say they worship God, who say they worship Jesus, but don’t worship Him the way He tells us too. You see in the Bible, one of the the words for worship is the word to serve. So the way we live our life – that is worship. And where do we find the way God wants us to live our life – to worship Him? In the Bible. Remember back in Matthew 7:24 Jesus said:
Mat 7:24 "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
And likewise:
Mat 7:26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
Now of course, we are still sinners when we come to Christ, but we must be progressing towards doing things His way, and not our own way. And we must be careful to do the words of Jesus. There’s a tendency in the the church in an effort to try and be relevant to today’s society, to try and water down some of the teachings in the Bible we don’t find so palatable, to try and make Christianity and Christ more acceptable to the modern world. Well – that’s all well and good if in so doing we aren’t compromising the commands of Christ. But if we are – well then we are being just like the Israelites not following the exact commands of God, and making God in our image, the way we want Him to be, and worshipping Him the way we want to.
Let us be careful to serve the God that is the real God – as He Himself has revealed Himself. And to worship Him, serve Him, live the way He wants, as He has told us and not how we think it ought to be done. And the only way we can find out how we are to worship, serve and to live for God is by reading the Bible and doing what it says.
So – the Israelites went after false gods. And God’s reaction? Well – you can imagine:
Exodus 32:10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.
God was not impressed and Moses went down to the Israelites to see what was going on as we read in:
Exodus 32:21 And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?"
And look at Aaron’s reply:
Exodus 32:22 And Aaron said, "Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, '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.' 24 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."
Well look at that! Now remember who actually made the golden calf? It was Aaron! And what does Aaron say in verse 24? He threw the gold into the fire and hey presto, out came this calf! What a load of twaddle! But before we point the finger at Aaron, isn’t that just like us when we sin? That we don’t take responsibility? That we we blame someone else? I know I do! Let’s be honest – when we sin, we often blame someone else for tempting us. Or we blame our upbringing. Or our circumstances….. “under the circumstances.” Or that we were tired or stressed or going through a hard time. Or we say we forgot what was the right thing. Or we say we thought we knew better than what was in the Bible. Or we say that our sin wasn’t that bad. Or any number of other excuses.
Friends, when we do sin, God wants us to own up, admit it, acknowledge our sin, and then repent of our sin. As it says in 1 John 1:9
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
When we sin, we must confess. And then because of what Jesus did on the cross, God will cleanse us from that unrighteousness. Praise God, our God is a God of second chances! And God gave Israel a second chance. But there was a price to pay. As we read in chapter 32, many of the Israelites, the ones who had rebelled, many of them were killed as a result of their sin. But then the remaining Israelites repented. And Moses made intercession for them before the Lord. And the Lord forgave them and gave the Israelites a second chance. And God renewed His covenant with the Israelites. He again gave the Israelites stone tablets with the covenant on it. And He again outlined some of the conditions for the covenant. A second chance.
And then from chatpers 35-40 – most of 6 chapters, we have the account of the Israelites actually building the tabernacle, its furnishings and the priestly garments. I’ve always thought it was rather interesting that 6 chapters are spent describing in detail how the Israelites built the tabernacle. Why do I find that interesting? Well – because in chapters 25-31 – 7 chapters, which we briefly looked at last week - God gave the Israelites the detailed instructions on how to build the tabernacle. And then chapters 35-40 are basically a repition of chapters 25-31 – except now it’s actually describing how they actually did build the tabernacle. That is, chatpers 25-31 are the detailed instructions of what they are supposed to do. And then chatpers 35-40 is the detailed recording of what they actually did. And it’s amazing the detail it goes in to - even the pegs of the tent. Look at:
Exo 38:20 And all the pegs for the tabernacle and for the court all around were of bronze.
Such detail – even the pegs had to be right! So why does the Bible describe in such detail – almost repeating itself – in 6 chapters what they actually did? Why didn’t the Bible just say, “And the Israelites built the Tabernacle exactly the way God told Moses how to build it?” Well, we don’t know why for sure because the Bible doesn’t tell us, but I think a hint might be in what we looked at today. Because what happened in between God giving the Israelites instructions for building the Tabernacle and the Israelites actually building it? That’s right – they made the golden calf. They went after false gods. They did it the wrong way. And then God gave them a second chance. And this time – this time - the Israelites did it the right way. They built the Tabernacle exactly as they were supposed to, and the Bible gives us 6 chapters of detail to show us that they built the Tabernacle exactly – right down to the tent pegs – exactly as God commanded. This time – they got it right. And the result?
Exod 40:33 And he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work. 34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Wow. The glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. God came and dwelt among the Israelites. Well what do we learn from today? Well – a lot. First, as we’ve already talked about, when we worship God, serve God, live for God, we need to do it God’s way – not my way, not our way. And the only way we know what God’s way is, is to read this book – the Bible – God’s book. And not just read it, but do it.
But we’ve also learnt something wonderful about the forgiveness of God. A second chance. There are many people here today - you all have a different story. Some of you are going well in your relationship with God. Some of you are struggling. And perhaps some of you don’t have a relationship with God at all. And for all of us – some in a larger way than others - but all of us would have areas of our lives where we are not doing things God’s way. Whether it’s not trusting in Christ alone for our salvation, whether it’s not living the way God wants, whatever it is, God wants us to admit to what we’ve done wrong or are still doing wrong. Don’t blame someone else but admit to it. Ask God to forgive you – for a second chance. And then, as much as you can, asking God to help you, then do it the right way, God’s way. And as you do that – then as with the Israelites when they eventually built the tabernacle the right way - God will be with you.
