Faith in the Wilderness
The Golden Calf
March 29, 2020
Exodus 32:1-8 NIV
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” 2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
They were separated from all that was familiar. They had lived in Egypt for 400 years.
They were separated from their leader. Moses had been gone a month.
They were unwilling to wait, so they returned to what was familiar.
They wanted something to dazzle them. They wanted to be entertained, not challenged or changed.
Bovine idols were common in Egypt.
It was easier to get the people out of Egypt than to get Egypt out of the people.
v.1 - When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain.
They wanted something they could see and touch.
v.8 “They have been quick to turn away”
Matthew 13:31-33 NIV
He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." 33 He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."
Both a mustard seed and yeast are small and seemingly insignificant.
Both are hidden— one in the dirt, the other in the dough.
Both work slowly in their context.
God may be moving slowly, but his finished work is bigger than anything we can do on our own.
How is our faith tested?
1. It does not happen how I planned.
2. It does not happen when I planned.
Waiting with faith is the currency of God’s economy.
We can trust the God who sent us Jesus.
