False and Foolish

Series on Exodus

IX. The Compromise of God’s People

A. The Corruption of the People, Text: 32:1-8

Title: False and Foolish

Introduction

Here in our text is a story that would be unbelievable were it not recorded upon the sacred and inspired page. One will forever wonder how a people so marvelously, dramatically, and gloriously saved from Egypt could so quickly turn from the God who had delivered them. We know it’s true and even common sense reminds us that there would be no point or advantage to telling this story if it were not true. Even more shocking is the fact that there was no one including Aaron who opposed this idolatrous golden calf. We are amazed at the brother of Moses who could speak so well that he was appointed Moses spokesman but now he has nothing to say. This is the man who had summoned the plagues upon Egypt and now he is making an idol like the gods of Egypt which he had a part in destroying. This is the man who was with Moses in the mount according to Exodus 19 and 24, and knew that God revealed himself in a consuming fire on the top of the mountain. In no way could you make an image of Him, and yet he does. Here is the man entrusted with the care of the people in Moses absence, and yet he is complicit in the rebellion. If ever you had faith in sinful human nature, others or your own, abandon it now. There is no height to which we can rise, from which we cannot plummet in our own strength. None. But let us look at this incident-a flagrant idolatrous outrage, and see its falsehood, its folly, and its fear.

I False Worship

Let us look first at the nature of this idolatrous worship as false. having made the calf, we read they worshiped it, v.5,6, When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord”. So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings.” Now we must take note of the fact that Aaron calls this a feast to the LORD, meaning Jahweh, the covenant name of God which he had revealed to Moses. They were not so stupid as to think that the golden calf was Jahweh. In fact even ignorant idolaters and animists do not identify the idol or the tree with the god himself but rather see it as a point of contact, a place which the false god indwells, or where it manifests itself. Such were the Israelites here. They try to bring the infinite eternal unchanging God of the universe, the one who created all things out of nothing, and who is spiritual and invisible, down into this form they have created. This is what God had forbidden in the second commandment. Do not make any graven images or any likeness of anything on earth to represent God. It conveys not truth but falsehood. It distorts our understanding of who God is. In the second commandment we have a long warning about God’s judgment reaching to the third and fourth generation and the declaration that God is jealous. We must understand that God is not merely jealous of another god being portrayed, believed in, or worshiped as if there were other gods. No. God is jealous also of any representation that brings him down and reduces him to the level of those gods who can share the universe with one another. The God of Moses and the Bible cannot share the space with anyone. This is his nature. To understand this is to understand who he is and to worship him rightly. Today people make him small in their minds, not sovereign, and they think of other religions and their misrepresentations of gods as having validity. All this contributes to false worship. This is why God is so angry at this incident and talks of destroying the nation he has redeemed.

II Foolish Worship

However strange the folly of this worship may seem to us, considering the experiences of the Israelites, it is not strange when we look at the world around us. People are willing to spend all kinds of money in an effort to fill their empty souls. The Israelites gave their gold jewelry for the creation of this golden calf. So people today spend millions of dollars in this country as followers of the new age, or as followers of cults that only bring them into bondage. They are trying to put value into god by using their gold. It seems to their foolish darkened hearts as if the value of a god will be derived from their service, and sacrifice. The truth is the true God derives nothing from us, He only gives. It is the difference between the works of the law and salvation by grace. Note the specific warning given in Exodus 20:23, Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold. Their folly is also manifested in the Biblical commentary on this profane festival of worship is given by Paul in I Corinthians 10:7 and 8, Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did-and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. Here in Exodus we are only told they rose early, but, as Paul says, they rose early to indulge in revelry. Like so many they thought religion consisted of the ceremony, the celebration, and they disregarded holiness. God’s covenant was instituted to produce changed people not mere religious activity.

III Fearful Worship

What brought them to this place? Fear!!! Not the respect, the awe, the reverence for God that is appropriate in worship but selfish fear, fear of man and of the world and of the future. A fear that came from not heeding the Word of God that Moses had spoken to them. they were afraid of three things.

A They were afraid that they would not reach the promised land. Moses who was leading them was not their God, yet when they think he is gone they say make us gods to lead us. Matthew Henry says, “They are hastening to a land of milk and honey and cannot stay to take their religion along with them.” If we try to advance God’s timetable we court disaster. The promises will be fulfilled in God’s time. It is for us to live and learn here below in the wilderness. They were weary of waiting for the reward, but does not the Scripture counsel us just the opposite, Do not be weary in well doing for in due time we shall reap if we faint not.
B They were afraid because Moses did not return as soon as they expected, verse 1, 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.” He was great when he was here where we could see him but now he’s out of sight. So Moses reputation experiences a fast slide into oblivion. To find a parallel to this today we need only look at ii Peter 3:4 where he speaks of the second coming of Jesus being scoffed at, They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” And what is the counsel of the apostle at this point? He writes, But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
C Lastly they were afraid of being without a religious worship. They thought it better to invent one than to wait for the one God was revealing and commanding. They had been told in Egypt that they would serve God in this mountain. They do not consider waiting upon his word to be of service. The New Testament description of this in Acts reminds us that in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, Acts 7:39 and 40, But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. They told Aaron, “Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt-we don’t know what has happened to him!” Have you ever heard that obedience is better than sacrifice. This contest between formal religious worship and obedience is a major theme of the prophets. See Isaiah 1:11-16, “The multitude of your sacrifices- what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong!”

Conclusion

They were afraid their hope of the promised land (heaven) was gone, their help and deliverer (Savior-Moses) was gone, and their harbor of safety (salvation) was gone, and they said forget God. Are there ever times when Christians feel that their hope has fled, and they doubt their Savior, their salvation and their hope of heaven? Yes, there are, but God is not so easily forgotten by his chosen people as we shall see. And for us, we must take refuge in the promises not yet fully realized just as Old Testament believers did and not turn from the true God. Hebrews 11:13-16, All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.