The Golden Calf
Download MP3This reading comes from Deuteronomy 818 through 20. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. This is the word of the lord.
Collin Hansen:Will you pray with me? Father, we are desperate people. We're desperate people in need of your word. Father, we need your revelation. Father, as we just sung, life is very hard and difficult, and we need your truth in the midst of the storms that we face.
Collin Hansen:So father we ask that that your spirit would teach us tonight. Father, I don't I don't have anything to bring, But father, through your spirit, we ask that you would teach us. That you would show us truth, and that we would be challenged and changed to be more like your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and our savior. We pray these things in His name. Amen.
Collin Hansen:So I'm Jeff, by the way. Now that we're not strangers anymore. We're gonna be in Exodus 32 tonight. So if you wanna go ahead and start making your way there while you're turning, I just wanted to read this again. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.
Collin Hansen:Now is the point in the sermon where you tell, like, a really funny story or an illustration or something like that, but we have so much to get to imagine that I said something really, really funny, and we're just gonna segue right into scripture. We good? All right. Let's dig in. Okay.
Collin Hansen:So Moses has been gone for a while. He's been up on the mountain, and the people are starting to get very scared. You might know what this is like. If you've ever, gone through a season that was particularly difficult, where worship seemed hard, where reading the Bible seemed very draining, Those seasons, maybe some of you are in that season right now, or you've just come out of it, or you're heading into it. They were very fearful.
Collin Hansen:And so tonight we're gonna look at what they did, what they chose to do. And hopefully, hopefully we can gain a better understanding of what worship really is and who God is. See, Moses had been their leader. He had been their connecting point. Israel looked to Moses for this connection to God, and now he was gone.
Collin Hansen:This is right after, that whole scene with, the blood that that was poured on, you know, the bull that was cut and the blood poured upon the people. This covenant has been made. The 10 commandments, they were, they were spoken, and then Moses was called back up and the stones were being written on by god himself. And so he had been gone for a while. They had just heard these new rules and regulations for life.
Collin Hansen:And now that man that was leading them, the one that gave them these instructions, he's nowhere to be found. And they start to panic, understandably so. I mean, all all the things that they have gone through, and now they know that god expects something from them. Some very explicit instructions are given, and now he's just gone. And they said that they wanted to follow these things, they wanted to to keep these commandments.
Collin Hansen:And now he's gone. So they start to get scared, and so they go to Aaron, Moses's brother. And look with me at verse 1. Rise up. Make us gods who shall go before us.
Collin Hansen: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. That man, Moses, they want gods to go before them. Because if if you remember, as we've been walking through this story of the Exodus, that this cloud that would go before them, they they they had a God that led them, and now now they're out there alone. And they start thinking, well, maybe Moses is dead. Maybe he broke one of those laws, because, I mean, god was telling all these things that we have to do, and so maybe he broke one of those and god just killed him right then.
Collin Hansen:We need a connecting point. We need god on our terms. And so they go to Aaron, and they ask for a god. And Aaron, maybe even in in a way to dissuade the people, he asked them to go get gold. If you remember, they the the Egyptians gave them gold.
Collin Hansen:They they had some gold with them, the this jewelry. It was it was not only a sign of, of their wealth and that prosperity that the lord had given them, but it it was kind of a reminder of this exodus, this journey that the Lord has taken them on, and so He asks for it, this costly offering. He asks for it and they do not hesitate. They run to their homes, and they gather up, even the the earrings from their ears and the gold that their children had, they they gather it all together. They were eager to do whatever it would take to make a visible god, to quiet their fear their fears and to make them feel better.
Collin Hansen:And so Aaron took the gold, and he melted it down, and he fashioned a calf. He worked tirelessly in melting melting it down, and and really, some craftsmanship went into this. See, it was very costly financially, in the gold, and then in the time that went in to make this. There's a lot of hard work that went in to making such easy, easy worship. Look with me at verse 4.
Collin Hansen:And Aaron brought the calf before the people, and they rejoiced and they cried out, these are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. This is the exact phrase that starts off the 10 commandments. And and as Joel, walked through with us just last week, if we are to look at these kind of like marriage vows, this this ceremony, this wedding, This would be that opening pronouncement, and here they are attributing to this piece of metal what Yahweh had done for them. So I think that leads us to start to think about what what are they breaking here? What what, of the Ten Commandments that we have, what are they doing?
Collin Hansen:And and some will will, point straight to idolatry. And then others will say, well, it's also the graven image that they've made. But if we're thinking about this as a wedding between the people of God and God himself, perhaps one of the ten commandments that it's most like would be adultery. That they have run to another lover. I mean, think about that.
Collin Hansen:When it says in Deuteronomy that they would go after another god, think about that. To go after another, an easier, more manageable other that satisfies the needs right away. So Aaron, he sees the comfort that it brings to the people, how happy they are to see this idol. And he says in verse 5, tomorrow shall be a feast to the lord. A feast to the lord.
Collin Hansen:A feast to Yahweh. We have to keep this in mind here. I mean, Aaron is not, although although he's saying these are your gods, which is Elohim, which is the strange way that it's Elohim is also the god of Israel, but but now he is attributing very specifically Yahweh, the one who has carried you out of Egypt, Yahweh. We will have a feast to him, the God of Israel. So now we see that maybe they're not necessarily leaving god behind for another lover, but they're trying to honor and worship the one true god in their own way.
Collin Hansen:That's like having an affair and buying presents for the person that you're having the affair with and thinking that they go to your spouse. It's absurd. And yet these are the grounds that they think that they are worshiping Yahweh, a feast to Yahweh. It wasn't an issue of just random idolatry. This is idolatry passed off as worship to God.
Collin Hansen:It was active and sacrificial, and yet it was adultery. They were using this cultural tradition of how they would worship through these idols, and they were using that to worship the one true God. They were given this option out. They were sold by the priest Aaron, this cheap way to worship. How often do we come in contact with this?
Collin Hansen:How often do we come in contact with a Christian culture that will give us what we want, but not what we need? And God forbid that we would come together and we would say the things that we say as Redeemer Community Church, and that we would we would go through these confessions, and we would sing these songs, that we would do these things, and we would be doing it just because it's what we want. Because we run this risk, because we are not so different from Israel. We like to put that distance there. We like to think about crazy Israelites down there, and and and it's just gonna be a children's story, or we're just gonna we're gonna put it aside and not see how much we are like these people.
Collin Hansen:And that our fears are the same, and our concerns are the same, and our needs are the same. So they rose up early the next morning, verse 6. And they offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. I mean, if we're thinking of this solely from a leadership perspective, Aaron has done an incredible job here. He sees a problem, a need, comes up with an answer.
Collin Hansen:The people are ecstatic. They're they're so happy. They are playing. The Hebrew word for play there is is used in other times in scripture for laughter. The people are completely satisfied, and they are very happy.
Collin Hansen:You know, I'm not gonna just wait till the end and, like, do this, like, tie up of how we relate here. I mean, right now, the people are happy. Do we see this? Do we ever wonder why are Christians just so happy? Do do we sit in services and we wonder how it's all so joyful in their trombones and trumpets and PowerPoint.
Collin Hansen:It's all just so exciting and so exhilarating. What are we so excited about? What is it that we are rejoicing in? Now it doesn't mean that we're always going to come up with a with a with an evil intention there, or that we're going to locate sin there just because we're happy. That's not the point, but we have to ask the hard questions.
Collin Hansen:Worship must be deliberate. It's on purpose. That question of purpose will come up later in the interrogation of Aaron. There are also sensual connotations to the play that they partook in. There was this feasting and laughter and all of this to Yahweh.
Collin Hansen:You know, we pass things off so often. Well, it's to Jesus, you know, it's, it's got the Jesus stamp on it. Or maybe you can identify with this, the friend that is engaged to marry someone that you don't think they should marry, and you result in in that that final statement of, well, at least she's happy. Can can we get away with that? Can we get away with at least they're happy, where we see the happy service, where everyone's smiling and all the Christians are singing the songs together, can we just say, well, some things might be a little off kilter here, but at least they're happy.
Collin Hansen:Can we do that? Because Aaron saw tremendously happy people. We have to be cautious with this. Look at verse 7. Someone else was watching this happen.
Collin Hansen:High atop on the mountain, see, we've gotten so used to the to to down from the mountain now. Now now let's pan back up to the top of the mountain where Moses is. Go down, god says. For your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them.
Collin Hansen:And they have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, these are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the lord said to Moses, I've seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff necked people. Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you. Regardless of the intentions, regardless of the intentions of the people of Israel, the Lord recognizes there in verse 8 verse 8, that they have made a calf and worshiped it and sacrificed to it. The feast that they intended to go to Yahweh has gone to an it, this static object.
Collin Hansen:They had these great intentions, and they have gone against what the Lord had put out there for them. And in doing so, they have completely missed it. They've put finances, they have put energy, time into this very costly worship. It was not flippant, and yet they have completely missed it. They worshiped it, not him.
Collin Hansen:It's a frightful thought that this worship that we offer, the songs we sing, the words we lift up, the way that we take care of the poor and the widows, the fatherless, as Job was talking about. The way that the the the way that we worship fully, not just a couple of songs together, but the way that we live these lives of worship, that the lord is aware of these things. He knew the exact phrases that the people were saying down below. Is this not terrifying, that he is aware of what we are doing, even if our intentions are good and and we're so off the mark that he is aware of these things, it's beautifully terrifying. Now God is very angry and he is telling Moses that he's going to start over.
Collin Hansen:In Moses, Moses begins to beg God. Verse 11, it says, Moses implored the lord his god, and said, oh lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand. Notice how god was saying, Moses, these are your people. You did this. The your people are rebelling against me.
Collin Hansen:And Moses says, you are the one that brought them out of the land of Egypt. You are the one. It was your mighty hand. You see, Moses remembers. This is one of the most central aspects of worship, remembering the Lord and what he has done.
Collin Hansen:We will see ourselves turning more and more to idols the less and less we remember the Lord. That is central to understanding authentic worship. Are we remembering the lord? When I was driving here, I got lost. I've been here a couple of times, but I was thinking about all that I needed to do and all the things I needed to look over, and if I got all the right copies, because there's were 3 copies that I printed, and there's all this stuff.
Collin Hansen:And so, I just I ended up in the wrong place. I had no idea where I was, and I thought, I'm just wasting time. I'm wasting this time. I have such little time, and I'm wasting it driving around aimlessly. And then I remembered back in in high school, I used to intentionally get lost all the time.
Collin Hansen:I would just take off driving. That was also when gas was like 13¢. But I would just take off, and I would just get lost, and I would listen to music. I thought of my I just I looked down. I was I was at a stoplight when I finally started getting my bearings, and I was like, what?
Collin Hansen:Who is this guy? Who is this guy that's so different than who he was 10 years ago when I was just driving around? Time. I'm wasting time. Is that not what worship is supposed to be?
Collin Hansen:Where we would waste time before the lord? Wasting it in in in the earthly sense of of what are they getting out of that? What are they benefiting from that? That we would go to the lord and beautifully waste that time. There's a book.
Collin Hansen:I wanted to show it to you because, I want you to be able to recognize it when you go look for it in Barnes and Noble this week. A royal waste of time, magnificent book on worship. It's by Marva Dawn. Marva, just like you would think it was spelled, dawn also. But this idea of wasting this time before the Lord to remember him, to remember what he has done, who he is, how faithful he is.
Collin Hansen:And that that is what Moses appealed to, the Lord's faithfulness. See, where where the people of Israel had been adulteress, the lord was faithful. The Lord was faithful. Even though he full fully knew what was happening down there, he was faithful. And as Moses begged God, and as he remembered, and in a sense, for lack of a better way of saying it, he reminded God of what had gone on, what the Lord had done.
Collin Hansen:And so Moses makes his way back down the mountain. And as he makes his way, he meets Joshua, who is stationed somewhere, let's say halfway down. So he meets up with Joshua. Joshua cannot see what's happening down below. Neither of them can, can see really what's going on down there, but they can hear it.
Collin Hansen:They can hear that something is going on down there. And Joshua says, is that is that the sound of battle? Moses says, no. It's not the sound of victory. It is the sound of singing.
Collin Hansen:Joyful, happy singing. A pleasant and sweet sound probably. All these people singing together joyfully as they might not have done for some time. And he makes his way down, And the singing is silenced by the sound of a huge stone crashing against the rock. The law of the lord shattered just as they have shattered the law in their hearts.
Collin Hansen:It shatters, and they turn, and the second stone comes crashing down. And in and scripture is so, it's so interesting here as it keeps repeating that this is the writing of the Lord, the work of the Lord. This this is the covenant that the Lord had made, written by His own hand, smashing down. And it smashes around them, And Moses's anger burns hot, just like the Lord's. See in this, in this story, we see that Moses learns more of the character of God.
Collin Hansen:He become he begins to emulate and imitate these things that he is, he is learning about the Lord, and so his anger burns hot, just like God's. And he goes to confront his brother Aaron, and he says, what did this this people do to you? Verse 21. What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them? What could they have possibly done?
Collin Hansen:What did they do to you? Did did they corner you and then threaten you? Did they have stones? What what did they do? So Aaron has a choice, will he come clean?
Collin Hansen:Will he say exactly what went down? Well, he he he starts off pretty pretty good. He says, let not the anger of my lord burn hot. Verse 22. You know the people, They are set on evil.
Collin Hansen: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. So I said to them, let any of you have gold, take it off. And so they gave it to me, and I threw it in the fire, and out came this calf. He was doing so good.
Collin Hansen:Just putting it all out there, what had actually happened, and it comes to the point where his responsibility comes in, and this somehow this calf just pops out of the fire. This horribly lame excuse. He tries to dodge it and not take the responsibility. Out came this calf. They're starting to retreat from that hard work that went into this cheap worship.
Collin Hansen:And then Moses, verse 25, saw that the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose to the derision of their enemies. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the lord's side? Come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. Then he tells them to take their swords and to go to and fro, gate to gate, and kill those who had led in this false worship.
Collin Hansen:And 3,000 men were killed. They were killed that day by the swords of the Levites. It wasn't random massacre. It was probably those who had been ring leaders in in in pushing for this, the golden calf. Moses goes back up the mountain and intercedes again.
Collin Hansen:He begs God, this time for forgiveness. Before it was that, that he wouldn't consume them with his anger, but now it's that he would forgive them. And so the Lord says that he will remember this sin, and a plague actually went to them and 20,000 people died. So altogether, 23 1,000 people died as a result of this. You see that that verse in Deuteronomy that actually comes, before the story of the golden calf, that the lord would execute justice for those that went after other gods.
Collin Hansen:He was not kidding around. 23,000 were killed. So what's the point? Don't make idols. No.
Collin Hansen:That's that's not it. It's not check your home to make sure you don't have any golden things, that you bow down to. It's it's actually much more invasive than that. It's that we don't get god on our terms. There is a big difference between Yahweh and us.
Collin Hansen:We don't just get to do whatever we want and conjure him up and think that we can buy the presents for the mistress and somehow be buying presents for the wife. It doesn't work like that. And here's the most troubling news of all. The greatest idol is still ourselves. We are the greatest idol.
Collin Hansen:See, really, what the Israelites were doing was pleasing a need that they had, this felt need that that they wanted satisfied. It was themselves that they were worshiping because they were they were appealing to their own needs. God had said this, yes, but we will go about them in the way that we want to. You see, worship is much more than we think it is. How we have boxed it in It is so much more.
Collin Hansen:And so because we do not get God on our own terms, we can we can also look at other events that we've already talked about in here with Exodus. When when Moses was called to go up and strike the rock, and then to go back and and he's told he was told that he could just speak to the rock, but instead he he struck it. See, there's a point to all these rules and regulations. There's a point to all of this. God isn't just trying to make worship difficult and complicated, that it's so hard to get to Him to worship Him.
Collin Hansen:That's not the point. The point is that we have to learn. We have to be educated. See, we don't just understand his character the moment we are converted. We don't just understand all these complexities.
Collin Hansen:He does this to teach us. There was a point to speaking to the rock, because the rock represented Christ. There was a point to that, and there was a point to the way that God had outlined why worship was going to have this particular structure. It wasn't to just make it complicated. God put these rules and regulations in place to teach his people, and we learn this more and more as we worship, especially when we remember the lord.
Collin Hansen:As we remember Him, we know Him better. As we get into His word, we hear more of what He has done in history, and we know him better. But we still run that risk of worshiping the self. If we make worship all about what he has done for us, and worship all about what I get, then we are missing the point. Now we rejoice in those things.
Collin Hansen:We do not cast that aside. We rejoice in those things, but we must see that he is supreme over those gifts, that he is above those things which he has given us. We rejoice and we experience thanksgiving over those things. And I pray that you are are going to think about those things so much over the coming week, but we need to remember that he is above the gifts. He is the giver.
Collin Hansen:If we just think about the benefits, then it could be ourselves that we're trying to creep in in worship. And so as Moses got to know his lord better, so will we as we remember him. Because worship the the three things if you if you have a pen, you wanna write these things down. This is three things. Everything else has just been kind of all over the place.
Collin Hansen:I'm sorry. But these three things, worship exposes, disarms, and conquers idolatry. It exposes, disarms, and conquers idolatry, because worship will take us to Yahweh, and we will remember what he has done and why would we go after other gods. A friend of mine from high school made some bad decisions in his marriage. He went after others, and one day it was too much for him to handle, and he told his wife.
Collin Hansen:It was really messy. But she, she took him back eventually. You see the story of idolatry and adultery, of going after others. It teaches us so much more. Yes.
Collin Hansen:It teaches us about our unfaithfulness, and we have to own up to that, but it teaches us so much more about the faithfulness of god. And we remember that, and we cling to that, and it exposes the idolatry in our lives. It disarms it, and Christ conquers it, as we put to death the idols, particularly the idol of ourself. Because we were created to worship. This is why we were made.
Collin Hansen:And as the lord purges idolatry, we will see the work of Christ in such a liberating way, liberating us to worship. To love him, to receive those benefits, to receive those gifts, to waste time with him, and to gain so much more than the world could ever understand. Because it is only Him. Only Him. Hear, oh Israel, the Lord your God is alone.
Collin Hansen:He is 1. There are none beside him. There are none near him. He is worthy of the worship. He is worthy of the praise.
Collin Hansen:And so I I hope I hope that as we continue as a community to think about some of these things, for those of you in small groups, as you come together throughout this week to talk about some of these things, that the spirit will lead in you to illuminate the areas of idolatry, because the Lord wants to illuminate those areas. He wants to. This will not be this complex guessing game. He's not trying to trick you and lead you down different paths just to slam a door in your face. He wants to illuminate these areas because he loves you.
Collin Hansen:Because that commitment, that that marriage commitment that was made, he is faithful to it. And and let me read something to you. Actually, if you wanna if you wanna bow your heads before we move into this time where where we are going to sing some songs in worship. But let me read something to you, and we'll we'll move. We'll move on.
Collin Hansen:This is coming from Hebrews 11. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. It's not our faithfulness.
Collin Hansen:It is his faithfulness to us. Pray with me. Father, we are so thankful for your word. We are thankful for your faithfulness. That when we go astray and we chase after idols, When we seek to worship ourselves even, and to call it worship to you, you are still faithful.
Collin Hansen:You are so faithful. We do not deserve it, but you are. We praise you for that. We praise you because you are holy. We praise you for who you are, not just for what you have done for us, but for who you are, holy, righteous, perfect.
Collin Hansen:Teach us as a community how to worship you in spirit and in truth, in your spirit and your truth. Grow us, challenge us, change us. All for your sake and glory. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.
