Who Are God’s People?
Exodus 32:1-14 Philippians 4:1-9 Matthew 22:1-14
Our first reading from Exodus is not difficult to understand. The Israelites have gotten impatient waiting for Moses so they ask Aaron to make them gods who will go before them.
They had had many highs and lows on their way from slavery to freedom. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, the giving of manna and quail, and the parting of the Red Sea were visible signs of God’s presence and provision. Now during a peaceful and calm time they got impatient. God isn’t doing anything visible so they assume He is no longer there and they didn’t trust He was still taking care of them.
They don’t want so much a new god as a new leader. They want guidance with a strong hand. They want a god they can see (but they are forgetting they have a God who can see them!)
God has already shown that he is on the mountain in thick fire and smoke. He has already given them the oral version of the Ten Commandments. They know they are not to have any other gods and not to make any graven images. Yet they ask Aaron to make them gods who will go before them.
Aaron caves in to the wishes of the people. He wants to be popular more than he wants to be a priest. He asks them to turn over their jewelry and he fashions a golden calf from their donations. So it “feels like” they have donated toward their worship as they had donated things to build the tabernacle.
Then they assigned glory to the idol by saying this was the god who had brought them up out of Egypt, and Aaron built an altar in front of it and declared “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.”
Now he says it is to the Lord, but he is identifying with the gods of Canaanite and Baal worship practices. They gave credit to the idol for doing what Go had done for them.
So they got up and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings and ate and drank and participated in dancing and sexual orgies just as the heathen nations around them did when they worshipped their gods made of stone.
This was both unbelievable and unbearable and could not go unnoticed or unpunished by God.
They had “corrupted themselves” and turned aside quickly. This was not a gradual drifting away but a deliberate choice.
The scene changes to the mountaintop where God has seen their disobedience and is angry. He calls them “Moses’s people” instead of His people now. He tells Moses to get out of the way so that He can destroy them and says he will make another people from the line of Moses.
They have gone from impatience to insurrection to idolatry and now God is infuriated… but there is an intercessor!
Moses stands in the gap and prays for His people. He reminds God they are YOUR people made for YOUR purpose and given YOUR promises.
Moses never said the people should be spared for any worth or merit on their part. He based His plea upon the nature and character of God. He knew God promised and God would be faithful.
Then the Lord relented and did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened. God had left the door open for mercy when He allowed Moses to stand in His way. And pray for the people.
God knew the people were like children who needed to be taught repeatedly what the “rules” are. They couldn’t be slaves one day and heroes of the faith the next. They must grow in faith and knowledge of God.
Moses wouldn’t give up on them and neither would God.
(For the rest of that story you will have to come back next week!)
Now as we look at our reading in Philippians we notice Paul is concerned that “his people” remain as “Christ’s people” by standing firm. They are to resist the attacks of the enemy on their faith and commitment.
He mentions a local church quarrel between two Godly women who have helped him spread the gospel and calls upon others who are also church leaders to help them find unity and accord.
Paul knows that discord among believers can steal the joy of serving and knowing the Lord. He says they should rejoice always and he has joy even while he is imprisoned because the joy of the Lord is in his heart.
He says their gentleness should be known to all. The word he uses can also mean let your softness or graciousness or moderation and patience be known. This implies they would be considered fair-minded not fanatics who were rigid and impatient with others. They would not apply the letter-of-the-law but show mercy, because the Lord is “near.”
I thought of the parallel back in Exodus. The people were impatient and had no concept of the Lord being near and knowing their actions. Yet they were shown mercy and God had patience with them. As God’s people, we must forgive each other and show mercy, too.
Paul goes on to say we should not be anxious about anything and pray about everything. We need to understand that to be troubled, to be worrisome, to be fearful or fretful means we do not trust God’s sovereignty, God’s wisdom, God’s faithfulness and God’s goodness.
We now have a great High Priest, Jesus, who stands as our intercessor always pleading our cause. No matter what sins we remember, He has covered them. It bothers me to hear people say they don’t feel worthy to pray or deserving of an answer.
We must understand that God sees us through the perfect goodness of Jesus. Moses had not participated in the disobedience and God accepted his prayer for the people.
How much more will He accept Jesus praying for us?
We make our requests with thanksgiving. Remembering how God has answered prayer and blessed us in the past gives us faith to believe He will continue to answer and bless us. And His peace will guard our hearts and minds after we have prayed.
The God who gave the Ten Commandments on that mountain has poured out His wrath on all sinners by shedding the blood of His own Son on mount Calvary so that we have peace with God now and no condemnation. We must never feel God is mad at us or that we have sinned so greatly we cannot receive forgiveness and mercy and answers to our prayers.
Paul says finally, elevate your thoughts to whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.
In other words, think positively. Eliminate negative thinking and worry. Whatever you are worried about, talk it over with God and then go on in peace expecting God to take care of you.
Now Paul goes on to say, whatever you have learned or received or heard put into practice!
Do what is right and honest and just, and get rid of everything that would debase your soul.
Act kindly in your dealings with everyone to bring glory to Christ. You are always living in the presence of God, so behave as if you are aware of this.
Now let’s look at the third reading from the gospel lesson this morning in Matthew. Jesus is telling another parable about how Israel has continued to spurn God’s attempts to save them.
This one is about a king who planned a wedding feast and sent out early “save-the-date” invitations but no one replied.
Then he prepared the wedding feast and invited them to come and enjoy it but they still made excuses and refused to come.
So the king invited both good and bad local folks to come to the wedding feast. They willingly accepted. But one did not attend in a proper wedding garment and this one was thrown out.
Now let’s examine the meaning of this parable in more detail.
The first ones invited represent Israel who refused both the prophets’ early invitations and then Jesus’s invitation when he came as their Messiah.
The “good and bad” local folks represent the Gentiles, both “religious and non-religious” but all sinners. They accepted the invitation by repenting and exchanging their unrighteousness for the righteousness of Christ.
Then there was one who thought he was good enough to enter as he was. This one was cast out.
You see, “whosoever will” may come to Christ, but only those who believe on Him and accept his covering for their sin will receive their robe of righteousness and enter into eternity with Him.
Many are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, but the few who are chosen are the ones who have chosen to repent and believe on Christ. He is the door that opens heaven for us.
Many are too busy with their own business in this life to hear the call of Christ to prepare for eternal life.
Many believe because they live a good moral life that they will be accepted.
But God’s gift of grace is given to those who believe on Him and repent of their sins and accept His blood shed on the cross to pay for their sins and make them wholly righteous in the sight of God.
Idolators, quarrelers, and all kinds of disobedient people can be saved by the mercy of God. They can become God’s people.
But stiff-necked people who refuse His offer have no hope of eternal life with God.
Are we getting the message out in a winsome way to win them?
If you tell them there is forgiveness and freedom from worry and joy and peace of mind to be gained, wouldn’t they want to become God’s people too?
Go now in peace. Amen.
