Exodus 32:7–14
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 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.”
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, You have given us Your own Son, Jesus Christ, who has won for us the victory against Satan, sin, and death. Your grace towards our sinful race is beyond our understanding. Grant that we believe it! Guard our hearts from idolatry and sin and teach us to trust in Christ our Mediator, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.
What Were You Thinking?
I. Israel’s Sin
II. God’s Grace
Dear Friends in Christ,
There is a PBS television series called Finding Your Roots. In this show, a journalist tracks down the family trees of different celebrities and reveals it to them. Oftentimes, he discovers ancestors and family history which is quite surprising to the guest. Sometimes, people hear about their family tree and are inspired and encouraged to see where they came from. Other times, people find out some truths about their family history which they would prefer not to have anyone else know.
As believers in Christ, we are the true sons of Abraham. In the Bible, we have accounts of God’s people that truly inspire us and serve as wonderful examples—like Abraham trusting in God’s promises, Elijah who fought against the prophets of Baal, or Daniel who was thrown in a den of lions for refusing to worship the king. However, as we have been studying Israel’s history these past few Sundays, we have not only seen good examples, but also moments of great disappointment and sin. In today’s lesson, we learn about Israel’s great sin of idolatry, where they abandoned the true God in favor of worshiping a man-made idol, a golden calf. As we hear about what our spiritual ancestors did, we find ourselves saying, “What were you thinking!?”
Psalm 106:19–21 states, “At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt.” The people of Israel had witnessed God’s great deliverance and seen his glory on Mount Sinai. He had even made a covenant with them and was at this very moment explaining to Moses the way in which they were to worship him. Yet, right when everything seems to be going right for God’s people, they fall into an egregious sin.
When the people saw that Moses was delayed on Mount Sinai, they went to Aaron to get him to make them an idol. To us, this seems very strange and foreign. Why would you want an idol, an object to worship? But this is what the Israelites would have known in Egypt. The Egyptians worshiped many gods, one of them was even a young bull. They believed that different gods gave you different things. Certain gods gave you wealth, some fertility, some abundant harvests, and so on. If you were a powerful nation, then your god must be powerful. The Israelites missed what they had in Egypt—the amenities, the parties, and the sexual immorality. So, Aaron makes a golden calf which symbolized fertility and power. And the Israelites, credit this false god with what God had done for them. They drink, dance, and “play,” which refers to sexual immorality.
Israel’s sin separated them from God. The Lord told Moses, “Go down, for your people… have corrupted themselves.” The Lord doesn’t call them “My people,” but “your people.” How could a holy and righteous God have anything to do with a nation that had made itself filthy with sin! They were a stiff-necked people! Like a stubborn animal that is unwilling to be led the way it should go, the people of Israel would not listen to God. The Lord tells Moses to leave him alone so that he might burn with anger and destroy them and make a new nation for Moses. God does not take idolatry lightly. It is the breaking of the first and greatest commandment—“you shall have no other gods.”
When we hear about Israel’s idolatry, we can be tempted to scoff at their foolishness and weakness. What were they thinking? How could they be so foolish? Yet this example shouldn’t boost our pride but humble us. Paul uses the example of the Israelites to warn us, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (I Corinthians 10:12). You don’t need a statue or image in your backyard or house to be guilty of idolatry. We typically think that a false god is something like a golden calf. But it’s more than just that. If you break any commandment, you are committing idolatry—we are not fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things. All sin is rebellion against God.
In Luther’s explanation to every commandment in the Small Catechism, he begins with the words, “We should fear and love God, so that…” He does this to show that if we break any commandment, whether it be misusing God’s name, dishonoring our parents, hating our brother, taking what is not ours, or coveting what belongs to another—we are guilty of idolatry. You love, trust, or fear that thing or person or idea, more than God. A person who is holding on to hate, lust, or greed in his heart is saying that what God calls a sin is not a sin or that he doesn’t care what God says. He is making his own god.
It has been said that man’s heart is a factory of idols. Even though God is the one who delivered us, we are always pursuing things that we love, trust, or fear more than God. We find our pet sin so alluring or so valuable, that we put it above God. The idols that we make are often more foolish looking than a golden calf. But it is just as deserving of God’s wrath and punishment. What were you thinking?
The people of Israel, those stiff-necked people, had turned aside. They had corrupted themselves. They had worshiped a false god. So the Lord told Moses, “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.” He is telling Moses, leave me alone so that I may punish them and make you a new and greater nation. God is rightfully angry with Israel, but in this statement, he leaves the door slightly open when he says, “let me alone.” Why? Because if Moses were to plead to God, he would relent. He could and would forgive.
Moses here receives a chance from God to make his own nation, but he doesn’t. Instead, he serves as a mediator between an angry God and a sinful people. Why are you angry against “your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand.” Moses is showing that these are not his people, they are God’s people. What would the Egyptians say? Would they accuse you of destroying the very people whom you saved? Finally, Moses pleads, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants…” Remember the promises you made to the fathers of this nation!
The Lord was faithful to his promises and “relented.” He didn’t destroy Israel. He is the God of all grace who promises to hear the prayers of his children, and he wants them to hold him to his word of promise. As Scripture says, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself” (II Timothy 2:13).
The Lord wants us to hold him to his word just as a child holds to the word of their parent. A child asks, “Will you play with me?” A father responds, “After I finish this, I will play with you.” If the dad forgets, what will the child say? “You said you would!” While a father might fulfill his promise with reluctance—your good God does not. God wants us to hold him to his word.
Moses didn’t ask God to forgive the people of Israel based on their past faithfulness or even his own faithfulness. He pleaded with God based on his promises. We cannot come to God based on our own goodness or noble intentions. If Moses broke the two tablets of stone in his hand—we shouldn’t expect to do any better. Our only hope is in God’s promises—but that is good news. This is a hope that will not disappoint—for it is hope in Christ.
God promised to send a Savior, and he did just that. Christ was the greater Moses who came to deliver us. Since we could not fulfill the Law of God, Christ did for us. He lived a holy life in our place and carried our sins to the cross on Calvary. Israel’s idolatry, shame, and sin was paid for by Jesus. Your sins and mine were paid for by Jesus. It is finished! And now as our risen Lord, he intercedes on our behalf to save us (Hebrews 7:25). He bears in his body the very marks of the nails, as testimony of the forgiveness that he has earned for us.
Our Lord Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. He died for a people who have sinned against him, mocked him, and ignored him. And we rightly think, “God, what were you thinking?” Why would you do this for us? Why would you give up your only begotten Son? But Christ told us why. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God’s love for the world is beyond our human understanding. It is undeserved. It’s all by his grace.
When we consider our own history and lives, there can be things in our past that we are not proud of. Things that bring us sorrow and regret. Sins which we would prefer no one else to know. And the devil, that evil foe, uses these sins to accuse us and lead us to despair. But remember your history! Jesus has paid for those sins on the cross. Satan’s arrows all lie broken. He is all bark and no bite. When you were baptized you were made a child of God. When you confess your sins and receive God’s forgiveness they are remembered no more. Your history has been wiped clean. Your name is written in the book of life. God no longer remembers your sins, but he will remember you in his kingdom.
The Bible is the history of God’s love for the world. He saved Israel and he has saved you. It is good for us to study the history of God’s people because it only magnifies the goodness, mercy, and patience of our God. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He will save those who call upon him for Jesus’ sake. This is a history that we can be proud of and a history that we have been made a part of by God’s grace.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever;
With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations! (Psalm 89:1).
Amen.