Look at the pictures on the screen. Which one shows real gold, and which one shows fool’s gold, also known as pyrite? Pyrite is usually found as angular pieces and is brittle. Thin pieces of pyrite will break with pin pressure, while gold ore will bend or dent because it’s very soft. Still, the two can look quite similar deceiving many.
As we continue our Moses sermon series, “Made for More,” we’ll see how the Israelites mistook fool’s gold for real treasure when they worshipped a golden calf, declaring it to be the god who had brought them out of Egypt. How could the Israelites make such a mistake? How do we often make the same error and sin against the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods? And what is God’s reaction to such sin? Listen to selected verses from our text.
In our sermon last week, we learned how after hearing God speak the Ten Commandments from within the fire and smoke on top of a quaking Mt. Sinai, the Israelites not only promised to do everything God had said, Moses also ratified that promise by spattering the Israelites with the blood of animal sacrifices. Like a child who puts in writing that he will clean his room on time and in accordance with Mom and Dad’s standards, the Israelites had bound themselves to obeying God. And why wouldn’t they? This is the God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt! Binding themselves to God would be like hooking up a broken car to a tow truck.
After the covenant had been ratified, Moses hiked back up Mt. Sinai to receive the rock-solid, tablet-of-stone version of the Ten Commandments inscribed by God himself. Moses also received many other divine directives, like how to build a place of worship called the tabernacle. However, when his absence stretched to 40 days on top of a mountain that continued to be covered in the smoke of God’s glory, the Israelites below got tired of waiting and decided they could follow their own plan for spirituality. You can understand how they felt, can’t you? When you’ve been waiting in the ER for hours and still haven’t even seen the triage nurse, you’re tempted to walk out and treat yourself the best you can. That’s what the Israelites tried in regard to spiritual matters and the result was disastrous.
Like disgruntled air passengers who crowd around a gate agent, the Israelites surrounded Aaron, the brother of Moses and second in command. They demanded: “Get up, make us a god 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.” (Ex. 32:1) You’d expect Aaron to object—to say something like, “Make a god? Why would we want to do that? The elders and I saw the true God on Mt. Sinai when we ate in his presence there. That was after we all promised three different times to obey him. No. I will not make an idol for you.”
But that isn’t how Aaron responded. He didn’t even suggest that they wait a few more days for Moses, or send out a search party for him. Instead, Aaron directed: “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” (Ex. 32:2) If Aaron thought he could call the Israelites’ bluff by demanding their treasures, he miscalculated badly. The sacred record says that the people took off their earrings and gave them to Aaron.
Where did these refugees who had been slaves for hundreds of years get gold earrings? Do you remember? These treasures and much more had come from the Egyptians. They had willingly given them to the Israelites as they left Egypt. Why? Because God moved the Egyptians to do this. In other words, these gold earrings, and every other treasure the Israelites had, came from God. But now they were going to use these God-given gifts to pursue their own aims.
Your money. Your vehicles. Your success. Where did they all come from? Oh sure, you may have worked for them. But who gave you the strength, the smarts, and the opportunities? God did. And yet how often don’t we use what God has given us to pursue our own aims and to worship gods of our own making? Hobbies become all-consuming leaving us breathless. Things we own become status statements. And what exactly are we stating? “I’m better than you because I have more”? But Jesus said: “To whom much has been given, much will be demanded.” (Lk. 12:48) God blesses us abundantly that we may be a blessing to others, not so that we can run off and do our own thing while we leave God in the dust.
But that’s what the Israelites wanted to do at Mt. Sinai. How would Aaron respond now that a huge pile of gold earrings sat in front of him like a snow berm deposited in front of your driveway? Our text describes this sad scene: “He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.” (Ex. 32:4) Aaron would later tell Moses: “I threw the gold into the fire and out came this calf!” (Ex. 32:4) as if he had no control over what had happened. The truth is, Aaron carefully designed and crafted the thing. But why a golden calf? Perhaps because it was a well-known god to the Egyptians and therefore familiar to the Israelites—a god known as Apis—the supposed god of might and sex.
At least the Israelites were not atheists. They still believed in God. They just wanted to worship him on their terms like many today who say, “Oh, I’m not religious but I am spiritual.” We might tisk-tisk at such a statement, but could it be that we too worship a god of our own making—a god who smiles indulgently at our pet sins rather than the true God who calls us to repent of them?
Scripture is clear. What Aaron created was an idol, a false god (Acts 7:41). What’s more, Aaron also built an altar for it and then declared a feast day (Ex. 32:5). Accordingly, the people rose early the next morning to sacrifice to the golden calf (Ex. 32:6). Do Israelite actions hit close to home? Often a 9:30 am Sunday church service seems so early and so hard to get out of bed for. But should we want to take a hike, or bag an elk, or get a jump on I-17 traffic, we don’t think twice about the early morning hours. Is it because we think that we don’t really need what God offers here?
Friends, I’m not saying that you should never miss Sunday worship. I’m just pointing out how rotten our sinful natures are—how it wants us to think that there are greater treasures out there than hearing the Word of God. But that isn’t true. There is nothing greater and more important than the Word of God because nothing else can connect us to eternal life. Keep making worship a priority. And when you’re not here for church, take God’s Word with you wherever you go, and feast on it.
While Aaron was fashioning a golden calf, God was carefully engraving the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone. But he wasn’t ignorant of what was happening at the foot of Mt. Sinai. God told Moses: “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 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.” (Ex. 32:7-8) Don’t we often think that God doesn’t know what we are doing—what websites we visit, how much of our homework we cheat on, or how many hours we waste at work? But he sees it all! And what is he going to do about it? God said to Moses about the golden-calf-loving Israelites: “Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.” (Ex. 32:10)
But was the situation really that bad that God should threaten such violence? Consider this. As Moses trundled back down the mountain, he heard the sound of singing coming from the Israelite camp. What were they singing as they danced around the golden calf—the hymn Moses had composed after the rescue at the Red Sea—the hymn that proclaimed: “Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Ex. 15:11)? If so, wouldn’t that be like we Lutherans singing the hymn of the Reformation, A Mighty Fortress, at a drunken Halloween party? When Moses saw for himself how the Israelites were running amok as if at a wild frat party (Ex. 32:25), he smashed the two tablets of stone to pieces. He then burned the golden calf and ground what remained into powder, mixing it with water and making the people drink it (Ex. 32:19-20). Perhaps Moses was mocking the claim that Apis was a god of strength. Why, it couldn’t even defend itself against an 80-year-old!
But Moses wasn’t done. He called for those faithful to the true God to rally to his side. After the tribe of Levi snapped to attention, Moses gave this astounding order: “Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.” (Ex. 32:27-28) They did. And about 3,000 people were put to death. When the deed was done, Moses said to the Levites: “You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.” (Ex. 32:29)
Wait. The Lord blessed the Levites because of this slaughter? Why? Moses would explain later when he spoke about the Levites, speaking about them as if they were an individual: “He did not recognize his brothers or acknowledge his own children, but he watched over your word and guarded your covenant.” (Dt. 33:9) Faithfulness to God’s Word was more important to the Levites than family connections. Didn’t Jesus himself, the loving Savior of the world, say the same thing? “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword… 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. 37Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matt. 10:34-35, 37)
Friends, when our brothers and sisters and when our sons and daughters chase after that which glistens but provides no grace, do we stand up with Moses and say, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me”? Or is Aaron our role model and we just…let it happen? “Well, you know how they are,” we say pathetically as did Aaron (Ex. 32:22). But when we stand by and watch our sons and daughters separate themselves from the true God, when we listen to our friends and neighbors praise false gods that lead to the dead end of hell and say nothing, we are not being understanding; we’re being unloving. (Phil Bigelow)
Why don’t we speak up? Is it because we don’t want people to think we’re party-poopers when we condemn sin? I’m sure that’s what most Israelites thought of the Levites as they ran through the golden calf party swinging their swords. But they were a blessing from the Lord, as was Moses who did not simply turn and go back up the mountain when he saw the golden calf. They both kept the gangrene of sin and rebellion from spreading throughout the camp. Without their intervention, how many more Israelites would have ended up in hell? That’s why we’re also called to bring each other to repentance.
Have I given you the impression that Moses was one big grouch on this day? He wasn’t. Listen to what else he did: he pleaded for God’s mercy on behalf of the Israelites. “Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them...’ …please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” (Ex. 32:12b-13a, 32)
Wow. What love! First, Moses implored God to remember his own promise that Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, would be numerous and would take possession of the Promised Land. Moses was doing what you do when you point to the warranty on your new car. There in writing is the company’s own promise to repair that which breaks at no cost to you.
And if that wasn’t enough, well, Moses was willing to die for the rebellious Israelites. This was such a pivotal moment in Bible history that the psalmist commented hundreds of years later: “At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt…and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. So he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.” (Ps. 106:19-23)
While Moses was willing to step into the breach to spare Israel from God’s righteous anger, it was a futile gesture—like trying to stop a speeding bullet with a paper shield. Moses was just a man and had sins of his own that were deserving of God’s anger. But there is one who has what it takes to stand in the breach between God and sinners: Jesus the Son of God and the son of Mary. The writer to the Hebrews says about Jesus: “…he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” (Heb. 7:25)
On another mountain far away from Mt. Sinai in time and distance, God’s wrath for all sin of all time was blasted at Jesus. What was the result? The God-man died on Mt. Calvary. That’s how potent God’s wrath over sin is. But like an individual wearing body armor who can stand again after getting blasted, Jesus, the Son of God, rose again proving that his death succeeded in stopping God’s anger over our sins. Have we now been freed to worship God on our terms as did the Israelites with the golden calf? No. The Apostle Peter states: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness…” (1 Peter 2:24)
Did a chastened Israel manage to change their ways and live for righteousness? They did for a while at least. God invited Moses back up Mt. Sinai to complete a replacement copy of the Ten Commandments. In other words, God was restoring the covenant with his rebellious people. And even though Moses spent another 40 days on the mountain, this time the people waited patiently for his return. When Moses did finally return, his face was shining because he had been speaking with the Lord (Ex. 34:29). Moses’ face was so bright that even Aaron ran away from him. Of course, Aaron had every reason to run considering what he had done. But God would show, as he explained to Moses, that he was indeed “…the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (Ex. 34:6-7) He did so when he chose Aaron, of all people, to be the first…high priest!
As we learned in a previous sermon, God has also called each of us to be priests, that is, to be people who stand apart from sin and encourage others to do the same. When we fail, we should hang our heads in shame. But thanks to Jesus, we can also hang these and all other sins on the cross. We can also drink deeply of God’s love and forgiveness. We do that quite literally in Holy Communion don’t we? While Moses forced the Israelites to drink water laced with the remains of their pathetic cow-god, the Holy Spirit invites us to drink wine and eat bread miraculously laced with the body and blood of the God-man, Jesus. And what is the result? We’re not only assured of forgiveness. We’re not only reminded how God has set us apart. We’re also empowered to stand apart and encourage others to do the same as we pursue true treasure rather than fool’s gold. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
(pre-service warm up) Due to the length of the sermon text, Pastor will not read it in its entirety during the service. Do so now from the bulletin. Underline any detail that interests you.
Finish the sentence: When the Israelites bound themselves to the true God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt it was like…
Moses spent 40 days on top of Mt. Sinai. The Israelites became restless waiting for his return. What did they do next in the name of “spirituality”?
(2 questions) Aaron instructed the Israelites to hand over their gold earrings. How had former slaves secured such treasures? What’s the warning for us in the way Israel used these treasures?
The Israelites got up early to worship the golden calf. How might we often be like them in this regard?
While Aaron was fashioning a golden calf, God was carefully engraving the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone. But he wasn’t ignorant of what was happening at the foot of Mt. Sinai. What’s the warning for us?
(2 questions) Why did Moses say that the Levites were blessed for slaughtering their fellow Israelites? How does Jesus call us to take similar actions as the Levites did?
Moses was angry with the Israelites, but how did he show that he also loved them dearly?
Explain: What Moses offered to do at Mt. Sinai, Jesus did at Mt. Calvary.
How did God show to Aaron especially that he is a God of compassion, mercy, and love?
Fill in the blanks: When we fail to keep God’s commands, we should hang our _________ in shame. But thanks to Jesus, we can also hang these and all other __________ on the _______.
(2 questions) While Moses made the Israelites drink their pathetic god, how do we get to eat and drink the true God? What are the benefits?
