August 31, 2003 Exodus 32-34
When I read the confessions of our Lutheran church, there is not one doctrine that I am embarrassed about or feel is contrary to Scriptures. I am firmly convinced that EVERY teaching is in accordance with God’s Word. That is not to say that we don’t have any teachings that are hard to swallow or offensive to people. One of the most offensive doctrines we have, ironically, is the very doctrine that we have pure doctrine. The reason people get worked up over a claim to true and pure doctrine is because we live in a synchronic society that says - “you believe what you believe, I’ll believe what I believe, and we’ll all get along just fine. We all have different interpretations, but don’t tell me you’re right, because then that insinuates I’m wrong.” It’s much easier just to proclaim the truths of the Bible, without mentioning the fact that we have the truth or somebody else doesn’t. But there’s a danger involved if we never address this idea that there are false religions and doctrines, as sour as it may be. What’s the danger? Today we’ll see how -
“Sinchronicity” Doesn’t Mix With Jealousy
I. You can’t synchronize the LORD
Three times the Israelites promised the LORD that they would do EVERYTHING the LORD told them to do - both before and after they received the Law. Even so, it didn’t take but 40 days for the Israelites to break their promise.
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.” . . . All the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 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, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.” (Ex 32:1-5)
It seems incredible at first glance to think that the Israelites would actually have a golden calf made and claim that it led them out of Israel. How could they be so blind to the many miracles they had seen? How could they deny the LORD so quickly? Were they that influenced by the Egyptian bull god Apis that they would worship it - even after the plagues and what not? It seems incredulous. Yet after further examination, it appears that Aaron and the more “conservative” Israelites tried to somehow appease the minority of the Israelites by combining their religion with this calf god. By building the altar in front of the calf and proclaiming a festival to the LORD, Aaron was seemingly trying to use this bull as a visual representation of the LORD - to claim that they were actually worshiping the LORD THROUGH the bull.
The question is - did it work? Did the LORD accept this “new religion”? How did Jealous respond to their sinchronicity? 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, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ 9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” (Ex 32:7-10) God would not allow them to combine religions because, like it or not, He is a Jealous God.
Unfortunately, every day there are literally millions of people who call themselves Christians who are trying to do this very thing - to make Christianity synchronize with the religions of our world. The golden calf of our world is MATERIALISM and ME. So we have many “Christians” who claim that God is the number one person in their life, yet try to sinchronize their sinful wants with their faith. How can you claim to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, and use your temple to have sex outside of marriage? How can you say God is your God if you aren’t even willing to worship him once a week or pray to Him or seek His guidance on a daily basis? How can you say you are controlled by the Spirit when in reality you are unwilling to curb your temper and anger? How can you say you’re a God fearing man when you ignore your spouse and verbally abuse your children? Yet the world is full of these kinds of “sinchronizing Israelites”, who think they can call themselves God’s children while living a lifestyle that is obviously against God’s Word. What they’re trying to do is combine the Christian religion with the religion of the world.
The second problem I see is with many “Christian” religions today who are catering to this idea. If the people want homosexuality, the theologians find someway to claim that they can worship God with that lifestyle. If people are too “smart” for creation, they create a doctrine to try to combine evolution and creation. If kids want to be entertained, then they are willing to throw away any mention of sin, and do whatever they can to bring people into their church. If people don’t want to hear about hell, then they don’t talk about it. Surveys are taken to determine what exactly people are “seeking”, so the right bait can be thrown out to catch them. What have we ended up with in America? Instead of asking, “what does God want me to do?”, we ask, “what can we do to cater to you and keep you in our worship service?” In the name of peace, today’s religion has ignored any Word of God that might offend people or cause divisions to build their non-denominational cathedrals. And the saddest part is that they actually claim to be worshiping God by preaching humanism, ignoring God’s Word, babying people and fearing their wrath instead of God’s. It has led to complete chaos within religion. I think the world will be very surprised to see Jesus come in condemnation of the very people and religions who thought they were glorifying God, when in reality they were only worshiping a golden calf.
II. You can pray for those who are
But what about those who haven’t done this? What can you do if you have refrained from worshiping the calf? First of all, be careful, because there’s another test that comes to the innocent - it’s the same as what Moses was tested with. What is the test? Did you notice what the LORD said to Moses? He said YOUR people, whom YOU brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. . . . Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make YOU into a great nation. Moses could have said to himself, “yeah, God - I have been faithful to you. I have been a great leader. I deserve your deliverance! But these people have done nothing but complain and moan. You want ME to be the great nation - I like that - I like that a lot!” So the test for Moses was to take credit for where they’d been and wish evil on others for his own glory.
But what did Moses do instead? But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 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, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” (Ex 32:11-13) Moses reminded the LORD of two things - His reputation was at stake and His promises had already been made. Instead of going along with God’s suggestions of destruction, He held God to His promises of salvation and begged for his patience.
But this wasn’t the end of what Moses did. When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. . . . He stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him. 27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. 29 Then Moses said, “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 32:19-29) On coming down the mountain, Moses showed complete outrage at their behavior, smashing the Ten Commandments at his feet. He wanted everyone to know this type of religion was not acceptable. He then called the people to fight. Think about what he asked them to do. If your friends, neighbors, or brothers are continuing to worship this calf, then put them to death. He called them to make a stand - to not only speak against the evil - but to put it to death.
After Moses did this, he once again sought the face of the Lord. The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” (Ex 32:30-32) After having tried to deal with the sin, Moses returned to the LORD and offered to go to hell in their place! What a powerful and loving prayer! What concern Moses showed - to offer his very soul - his eternity - for theirs.
We can learn a lot from Moses in the way he dealt with this problem. He showed both humility and strength. Instead of taking credit or using this as an opportunity to build himself up, he prayed for God to have mercy on the Israelites. In the face of their disaster, he tenaciously held to God’s promises and wouldn’t let go of them. He was firm with the sinners and dealt with them, yet he also showed a great compassion for those who were repentant of their sins.
We can sit back and shake our heads in disgust at the “Christian” community that is attempting to sinchronize Christianity with sinful humanity. But we also have to confess that we probably aren’t guiltless in this situation. Like Aaron and the Israelites, we have been living in the middle of blatant sins and often remained silent to the sinchronization of our Christian brothers and sisters. If we simply sit back in our lives and condemn others while never praying for them or confronting them personally, we have fallen prey to arrogance. God calls on us - not to take on physical swords - but the sword of the Spirit - the Word of God. These “Israelites gone wild” need not only our prayers - but also to be confronted with God’s law- so that they can repent of their lifestyles. The Episcopalians need our prayers with their struggles against homosexuality. The Missouri Synod needs our prayers to fight against the liberal element within their synod. Adulterers need our prayers for the strength to leave their lives of sins. This takes courage to openly stand up against evil in your congregation or family. It takes confrontation. It takes passion! If you think about the compassion of Moses and compare it to yours, where do you stand? How many of us have been bold enough to outwardly and openly confront sin and false teaching? How many of us would offer our very souls for people who hated us and accused us of being unloving and uncaring people? Dealing with these kinds of sin takes great humility, love and help from God, so we can have the courage to speak up. We have sinfully failed. Like Aaron, we have enabled the sinners instead of confronting them. We, like Moses, need to seek the face of the LORD.
III. You rely on the LORD to be Himself
This, of course, brings us to the climax of the story - the response of the LORD. How would he respond to these Israelites - who both committed the sin and allowed the sin? Would he go ahead and stick with plan A and wipe them off the face of the earth? Or would he take up Moses’ offer to blot his name off of God’s book of life instead of the Israelites?
The answer is really simple. The LORD would be the LORD. Who is the LORD? He described Himself to Moses as “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Ex 34:6-7)
So this is what the LORD did to the Israelites. For those Israelites who refused to repent of their sins when Moses came down - they were put to death by the Levites. Since they wanted to live without the LORD, God let them live that way eternally. As for those who ignored their brothers’ sin, he also disciplined them by bringing a plague on them for allowing the sin. But AFTER the plague, what did the LORD do? In His compassion and grace, the LORD MAINTAINED His love for the Israelites - as He continued to accompany them on their journey into the Promised Land. He remained FAITHFUL to His promise to keep the Israelites alive - so their Savior would eventually be born. Instead of condemning the nation, He continue to save it. In reality, the LORD could do no other thing - because that’s what HE IS. He is the I AM. He doesn’t change.
It’s this same LORD, then, that revealed Himself in the same way over a thousand years later at Mt. Calvary. It’s here that He said, “Moses, I can’t accept your offer to go to hell for your people - you just aren’t good or great enough to pay for the sins of the world, I’ll have to do it myself.” At Mount Calvary He said to Jesus, “you are no longer My beloved Son. You are now going to become the worst sinner of the world, and I am going to punish you for it. I am going to erase your name from my book of life!” Even though He knew why this happened, as Jesus hung there, he cried out “why?” As you sit in that pew - you know why. It’s your fault - and it’s my fault - that this terrible thing happened to Christ. Yet after Jesus was thrown into the depths of hell, He rose again from the dead. God accepted His sacrifice. So now, through faith in that sacrifice - God wrote thousands of names in His book of life with the blood of Jesus Christ as the ink! That’s why God did that to His Son. When we look at the cross - we see the most visible picture of the LORD being Himself. We see a JUST LORD who threatens to PUNISH sin, but also a GRACIOUS LORD who PAID for our sin! What more compassion and grace could God have than to do such a thing?
If there’s nothing else you take from this sermon series - I want you to remember this fact - the LORD IS FAITHFUL. If you’ve been honest with yourself, you’ve either been a sinchronizer or an enabler of one. There aren’t too many Moses’s around. Most likely you’ve allowed yourself, your friends or neighbors to believe and do things that are obviously against God’s Word and His Law without so much as a Word to condemn them. You know that God has every right to wipe you off of this earth as He did some of those Israelites. But you also know that when Moses humbly sought the face of the LORD, instead of destroying, the faithful LORD was compassionate and gracious. He revealed Himself as He never had before - telling and showing Moses how faithful and forgiving He really is. It’s this same LORD who made a promise to you long ago that through the sacrifice of Christ - though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. (Isaiah 53) He promises us that if we confess our sins, He is FAITHFUL and JUST and will FORGIVE our sins and will PURIFY us from ALL unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) God does not lie. He does not change. So you can either sit there and say to yourself, “I’m a sinner who is going to go to hell.” Or by the grace of God you can say, “God’s Word tells me that I’m a sinner who has gone to hell in Christ, and by his forgiveness is headed to heaven.”
In conclusion, in faith let us remember the encouragement that the writer to the Hebrews gives us as He says - You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; . . . The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Heb 12:18-24) Amen.
