Idols Then and Now (Exodus 32:1-14)

Exodus chapter 32, for varying reasons, I felt that trying to preach

Philippians 4, 1 through 9 probably wasn't the best idea. So we are in Exodus chapter 32, a familiar passage, and we are gonna be reading from verses one through to 14.

Exodus chapter 32, beginning in verse one and reading through to verse 14, if you grabbed one of the

Red Hardback's week giveaways, should be page 75, page 75, Exodus chapter 32, and verses one through 14.

Can I invite you to stand with me out of reverence for God's word? Exodus chapter 32, and reading from verse one through to verse 14.

Exodus chapter 32, verses one through 14, page 75. This is what God's word says.

When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, "'Come, make

God for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him.'

Aaron replied to them, "'Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.'

So the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron.

He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool and made it into an image of a calf.

Then they said, "'Israel, these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.'

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it and made an announcement. "'There will be a festival to Yahweh tomorrow.'

Early the next morning, they arose, offered burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to party.

Yahweh spoke to Moses, "'Go down at once. For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly.

They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them. They have made for themselves an image of a calf.

They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, "'Israel, these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.'

Yahweh also said to Moses, "'I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff -necked people.

Now leave me alone, so that my anger can burn against them, and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.'"

But Moses sought the favor of Yahweh, his God. "'O

Yahweh, why does your anger burn against your people you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?

Why should the Egyptians say he brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and eliminate them from the face of the earth?

Turn from your fierce anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for your people.

Remember your servant Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. You swore to them by yourself and declared, "'I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, and will give your offspring all this land that I have promised, and they will inherit it forever.'"

So Yahweh relented concerning the disaster that he had said he would bring on his people."

Pray that God will bless that reading of his word and give us understanding. Let's pray, ask for the Spirit's help, and we will get to work in God's word.

Oh heavenly Father, we thank you that we have your word, that you speak to us as your people, and that all of that word, all of the scripture is profitable.

And so Father, as we come to a text that for some, no doubt, is very familiar, I pray that the lesson of this text and the truths found in this text would not be lost on any of us.

May we see your greatness, see your power, but may we also see your goodness and your grace as we look at this passage.

Father, we take a moment to pray for our friends at Covenant Life Fellowship in Roseburg. Thank you for just all that you are doing there and blessing that fellowship.

Pray for their pastor, Pastor Dave York, as he seeks to minister to the community of Roseburg. Pray for their upcoming events in the month of September, both a counseling conference and a pastors and church leaders conference that they're going to be having up there.

Pray that you bless their labors, bless their elder team, deacons, all the workers who are involved there, every person who calls

Covenant Life home. May they know your blessing, and may we know it now as we open your word. For we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen. Please be seated. This afternoon,

I wanna speak to you from the subject Idols of Then and Now. Idols of Then and Now.

One of the great challenges of preaching is preaching familiar texts in the kind of way that folks actually learn anything.

I think there's a danger that if you've looked at certain texts long enough, or you know them, that there's a sense in which they become so familiar you feel like you can't learn anything from them.

And Exodus 32 happens to be one of those. If I mentioned the golden calf, you all probably know something of that story.

If you're like me, one of my favorite movies of all time is The Ten Commandments, the Charlton Heston version, of course.

You know the memorable scene where he basically like caber tosses the Ten Commandments into this calf.

It's one of those texts that if you've been around church for any length of time, you know and you know somewhat well.

But beneath the simple narrative of this chapter, there's actually a powerful lesson about the human heart and one of its greatest temptations.

There's also a lesson to be learned here about the nature of our God. There's a lesson to be learned about temptation.

There's a temptation that is very apparent in this passage. It's a temptation that goes all the way back to the

Garden of Eden and our first parents. It's a temptation that has plagued the people of God throughout their existence.

It's a temptation that if you're not careful, can derail you in your own walk with the

Lord. You probably guessed what that temptation is as we read this passage. The temptation

I wanna talk to you this afternoon about is the temptation of idolatry.

Idolatry is a, again, I wrote age old problem in my notes. I'm thinking about that. But actually, it's a human race old problem.

And it requires some pretty big guns to fight it. And I think this text in Exodus chapter 32 was going to yield some answers in helping us to fight the temptation to idolatry.

So we're gonna spend our afternoon for a few moments in Exodus chapter 32. Since we are not preaching a series in Exodus and we're kind of parachuting really towards the end of the book, allow me to reconstruct some of the context of Exodus for just a moment.

Exodus is the second volume of a five -volume history of God's people we know as the five books of Moses.

The more technical term is Pentateuch, Penta, five, two crosses the Greek word for book, five books.

We've actually been studying the first volume for quite some time. And Lord willing, in the fall, we will continue that study in Genesis.

But our English Bibles breaks up Genesis' etymology as five, but actually they're intended really to be one book.

It's one continuous history of God's covenant people. And as you come to Exodus, Exodus, like I said, is volume two.

Genesis ends with the people of God in Egypt after the death of Jacob and the death of Joseph.

Well, Exodus is the story of how they make their way out. In fact, that's what the word Exodus means. It means way out.

And it chronicles the story of God's deliverance of his people from the land of Egypt and the beginning of their journeying towards the land that God had promised his friend

Abraham and subsequently promised to his sons. Now, as you read the book of Exodus, the key to the book of Exodus, though it's called

Exodus, the way out, the story of Exodus is really not so much about the way out. The way out only covers a couple of chapters.

Now, it's not so much about that as much as it is about the God who leads his people, and catch this, it's gonna be important for our study in this passage, the victory of his name and his reputation.

That's a massive theme. In fact, I would say that's really the theme that ties this book together, the theme of God's name and his reputation.

A few passages in Exodus, I think, make this point. I'm gonna fly kind of quickly, so I'll encourage you to write some of these references down.

Exodus chapter six, God is, I'm gonna do them out of order, do them out of order for a reason. Exodus chapter six, that's another really famous account, the burning bush.

Exodus chapter six, verse two, it says, then God spoke to Moses, telling him, I am Yahweh, I appear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but I was not known to them by my name,

Yahweh. Well, back up to the beginning of the burning bush incident,

Exodus chapter three, Moses says to God, if I go to the Israelites, Exodus chapter three, verses 13 to 15, if I go to the

Israelites and say to them, the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name, what should

I tell them? God replied to Moses, I am who I am. That is who you are to say to the

Israelites. I am has sent me to you. Yahweh is a form of that phrase,

I am. God also said to Moses, say this to the Israelites, Yahweh, the

God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, this is how

I am to be remembered in every generation. Well, next little passage,

Exodus chapter seven, verse five, now Moses is basically being sent out, Exodus 7 .5, God says, the

Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh. There's an emphasis on the name again.

When I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the Israelites from among them. Even in the 10 commandments, you see an emphasis on God's name.

So Exodus 20, verse seven, do not misuse, often we know it as don't take the name of the Lord in vain, literally, don't misuse the name of Yahweh, your

God, because Yahweh will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses, who takes his name in vain.

Exodus 34, 14, God says, because Yahweh is jealous for his reputation, not just his actual name, but what that name carries, his reputation, you are never to bow down to another

God. Everything you read in the book of Exodus is fueled by the vindication of God's name and his reputation.

So always have that in the back of your mind when you read passages in Exodus, what is going on here that declares the name of God and vindicates the name of God?

Well, as you come to Exodus chapter 32, this is really the story of God's own name being trifled with, not by his enemies, but by his very own people, because the reality is the true

God's name and reputation are attacked when his people fall into idolatry.

When his people find themselves falling into idolatry, it's his name and his reputation that is thrown into the mud.

You would think God's people would know that, but as we look at this passage, it becomes apparent something has happened where they seem to have forgotten that despite all that God has done up to this point.

The temptation of idolatry just seems so, so alluring.

Well, why is that? Why is it that the temptation of idolatry can be so alluring for us as God's people?

Even as those who know him, we can still find our hearts divided and tugged at by the pull of idolatry.

What is it about idolatry that is so alluring, even for those who know the one true, well, kind of leads to my big idea for this message.

Simply put, we fall prone to idolatry and unbelief because we forget the gospel and what

God has done for us in Christ. Pretty simple point,

I should think. We fall prone to idolatry and unbelief because we forget the gospel and what

God has done for us in Christ. That's the heart of why the temptation to idolatry is so alluring.

The temptation to idolatry begins where forgetfulness of God begins.

Well, for the rest of our time this afternoon, as we think about this idea that we fall prone to idolatry and unbelief because we forget the gospel and what

God has done for us in Christ, I want to consider three lessons about spiritual idolatry and how our only hope is something outside of us.

Because the reality is, as you read this passage, the people don't really have much to commend them.

We learn a lot about idolatry and we learn about the only hope that we have in light of the temptation to idolatry and how that hope is something outside of us.

So three lessons about spiritual idolatry. The first lesson that comes to us from this passage is a pretty simple one.

Idolatry happens, number one, because we forget God and his work for us.

Idolatry happens because we forget God and his work for us.

Verses one through six make this point in our passage. Again, a little more context. We're in Exodus 32, since chapter 19,

Moses has been up on the mountain of Sinai. And as chapter 32 begins, he's still up there.

So look with me at verse one, Exodus chapter 32, verse one. When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, come make gods for us, who will go before us?

Because this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.

Moses has been there a while. And a very weird move has happened in the minds of the people between chapter 19 and chapter 32.

They've gone from, picture this with me, Moses is missing, presumed dead, to let's make new gods.

It's a bit of a wild move, you think about it. It doesn't really make much sense. Moses is dead, hey, we need some new gods.

Think about why it doesn't make sense with me for a moment. Remember, these are the people who had seen

God basically go to war with the gods of Egypt. If you read the 10 plagues, that again, we're all very familiar with.

Egypt gets hit with 10 plagues. The last of them is the death of the firstborn. Each of those plagues is a systematic attack on one of the gods of Egypt.

God went to all out war with the gods of Egypt and won. They watched it happen.

Think about it, we read about it, they saw it. They had seen a whole sea split in half and walked on its bed.

Again, I mentioned one of my favorite movies, The Ten Commandments. Pretty great CGI scene for its time considering they did it in the 50s.

And you see this scene of millions of people in complete bewilderment as they walk on the seabed that they shouldn't be able to.

Again, we read about it, they saw it. They had seen food literally come from nowhere.

This mysterious bread. I know there's a brand of bread in the store we call Wonder Bread. This was the original

Wonder Bread. So much so that that's what they call it, manna, what is it?

For 40 years, God was their caterer. In fact, the psalmist says it like this in the poetic language of the

Psalms. They ate the food of angels for 40 years. Of course, they complained about the menu because that's what human beings do.

And so what did God do? I believe it's Exodus chapter 19. The text says that he brought in a east wind and it just brought a bunch of quail.

You don't like this on the menu? Fine, I'll provide you something else. God had literally provided food out of nowhere.

Think about what kind of task it is to cater for 2 million people in the wilderness and not miss.

That's what makes verse one so astounding. They had no reason to say any of this. But somewhere between the deliverance of the

Exodus and this moment, they have very clearly forgotten what God had done.

And what is the only thing more striking than this moment of collective spiritual amnesia is the fact that Aaron, Moses' right hand man, the one who

God said, not Moses, God said that Aaron was like Moses' prophet, the spokesperson for Moses.

He's involved in this. So look at verse two. Aaron replied to them, take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters and bring them to me.

So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool and made it into the image of a calf.

You may think, why did they pick the image of a calf? Well, one of the gods of Egypt, Hathor, the goddess, I should say, of love and protection was pictured with the head of a calf.

It seems apparent that Aaron had probably, in his time of slavery, worked as something of a sculptor, as something of a mason, if you will.

He knew something of how to construct these things. But here he is, the one who was

Moses' prophet, now being the one leading the way in this moment of idolatry.

But that's not the only crazy thing. That's bad enough. But did you catch something in the reading of this passage?

Look at verse four with me. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool and made it into the image of a calf.

Then they said, Israel, these are your gods. Now there's a debate here how you translate this.

And I think the CSB gets it wrong here. I'll say that publicly. The CSB says,

Israel, these are your gods. The problem is the word for God is one of the standard Hebrew words for God.

You can't translate it as both a plural or singular. And so there's some debate, which one do you go with? I think it's a singular.

Let me tell you why. So verse four says, then they said, Israel, these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

Verse five, when Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it and made an announcement. There will be a festival to who in this passage?

Talk to me, who does Aaron say he is? They will have a festival to?

To the Lord, to Yahweh, Israel's God. I don't think he was trying to create a whole new

God. I think Aaron designs this thing in a twisted attempt to worship

Israel's God. He uses Yahweh's name and even uses

Yahweh's own prescribed way of worship. Yahweh from the beginning had commanded his people to offer sacrifices to him.

But clearly and obviously, Aaron can call this the worship of Yahweh, but it's not.

You can call it the true God, but the reality is if it's not the true God in the way he revealed himself, by the way,

Deuteronomy chapter five, God made it very clear. You're not to make any images of me because when you heard me speak, actually

Deuteronomy four, in Deuteronomy four, he says, when you heard me speak, you heard words, but you saw no form.

That's why in the reformed tradition, and I've actually changed my view on this over the years to come to agree with it. In the reformed tradition, we have this view that you shouldn't have images of Jesus.

Why? Because God doesn't prescribe a form for what he looks like.

God wants you to believe his word, not what he looks like. But here, what's happened here?

Aaron has decided to give the God who cannot be seen a form that can't be seen. And he picks the worst form, a creature.

Look, if you've made it in the form of a man, man is the image of God. I mean, it's wrong, but at least that makes some sense.

You went for a cow, but isn't that the heart of all idolatry?

Isn't the root of all idolatry the fact that you replace the true God with a God of your own making? I used to think when

I was a kid, as you know, I mentioned this last week, I'm from Ghana by descent. I used to think that when

I was a kid, especially as a kid from an African background, we talked about idolatry. Idolatry was always some statue that someone had.

My grandfather, Williams Worth, was a fetish priest for a while until he was converted very late in life. So my dad had many a story about idolatry.

So I always had this idea as a kid that idolatry was like having a scary looking statue in your house and calling that God and offering all sorts of things you really shouldn't say in public to that God.

But as I got older and I read the Bible a little more, I came to realize that idols aren't objects. Not always, sometimes they are, but they're not always objects.

In fact, one of the great helps in thinking about this, my pastor at the time recommended me to go read a sermon. I think he gave me a copy of it.

It was a Puritan sermon. And the sermon was called, and you can actually get this online for free. The sermon was called,

Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven. Soul idolatry,

S -O -U -L. Idolatry that springs from the soul excludes men out of heaven.

And that was super helpful. In fact, I mentioned in the study guide, there's a reference to a resource called the

Free Grace Broadcaster, issue 189 is on idolatry. You can read that sermon in its entirety for free in that issue. And in that sermon,

David Clarkson, who was the author of that sermon, he makes a distinction between two kinds of idolatry.

He says that there is such a thing as open and outward idolatry, which is what we often think of.

Someone builds a statue or they make an image and they call this their God. And he says that as bad as that is, that's not the most dangerous form.

He says there's another kind of idolatry, the secret and soul kind.

Clarkson defines it like this. He says, when the mind and the heart is set upon anything more than God, when anything is more valued, more intended, anything more trusted, anything more loved, or our endeavors more for any other thing than God.

He says that is soul idolatry. And the reality is you really can't divorce one from the other.

The people in our passage are clearly guilty of both. Yes, it manifested itself in building this statue, but why did they immediately jump to this?

Because that's what was going on in their hearts. And though we may not be guilty of the first, we can all too clearly be guilty of the second sometimes.

Because the reality is anything can become an idol, catch this, anything can become an idol when its pursuit eclipses our pursuit of God.

When we are more willing to chase something than we are to chase after the living

God, that thing, whether we recognize it or not, or even intend it or not, has become an idol.

And if you think of it that way, our culture has a whole bunch of them. I mean, think of it from a, what are some of the most acceptable forms of idolatry in our culture?

Public image, how I'm perceived by others. Is it convenience and comfort, how easy

I can make my life? For some people, the idol is power, control.

How can I control my circumstances and control those around me? I think none of us would deny that one of the biggest ones in our culture is pleasure.

How does this thing make me feel good? Kevin DeYoung, most of you have heard that name before.

2018, I watched this thing happen in real time and thought it was both hilarious and sad. Kevin DeYoung tweeted that one of the most acceptable forms of idolatry in Western evangelicalism is what he called the idolatry of the family.

And he got smoked, not by the world,

I understand that. People in the church, I have friends who don't read Kevin DeYoung to this day because he said that.

Which I'm like, you all realize you're making his point, right? Could have played it cool, but no, no, you didn't.

Congratulations, you played yourself. It was Calvin who said that the human heart is a factory of idols.

Unchecked and untethered, we will make anything a god. And let's be honest, is caring for your image a bad thing?

No, Proverbs has a lot to say about being cautious for your own reputation.

One of my favorite Proverbs, a good name is worth more than fine gold. Yeah, you should care about your reputation.

Is convenience inherently a bad thing? Nope. Is power a bad thing?

Despite what our culture tells us, not inherently. If it was, that would make God the biggest sinner because he's all powerful and he delegates power to people in his church.

So power in and of itself isn't a bad thing. It's even family, and this was, Kevin DeYoung later wrote an article, so that was like 2012, actually.

2018, he wrote an article to clarify what he meant because that's how social media goes. You don't actually ask people what they mean.

You assume what they mean. So he wrote an article and said, that's not what I meant. But he made the point, is family a bad thing?

He says, no, it just becomes a bad thing when you're willing to put that first and put

God second. Are any of these things bad things in and of themselves? Not really.

I guess the question I'm asking is what makes an idol an idol? Is it the thing itself? I mean, think about this even with like a statue.

Is a statue in and of itself a bad thing? No. What makes an idol an idol?

One word. What makes an idol an idol? Position. Position.

Idols are a problem because they end up taking the number one spot that should only belong to God.

I mean, you see even in this passage, end of verse six. No, verse six. Early in the next morning, they arose, offered burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings.

The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to party. They start to give their best to this calf.

Think about it. If you read Exodus really up to this point, all the people do is complain. This is the first time you actually see them happy about something.

And it's in the context of worshiping a God that isn't the true God. You see, that's the first lesson we learned about idolatry in this passage.

That idolatry happens because we forget God and we forget his work for us. We end up putting something in the number one spot that should only belong to him.

And since it seeks to take that number one spot, since only God should have that, lesson number two, idolatry cannot go ignored.

Idolatry cannot go ignored. Verses seven to 10. If this was a screenplay, you know

I like to use this analogy a lot. If this was a screenplay, while the people are partying it up and having a good time, the word party here is actually a little more graphic than we might think.

We're in church, so I'm gonna keep it clean. Let's just say it was a party of a very carnal nature.

While the people are celebrating and partying it up, the scene, if this were a screenplay, just makes a hard cut to God speaking.

Because remember, Moses is up on the mountain. He's been up there for quite some time. Verse seven,

Yahweh spoke to Moses, go down at once, for your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly.

Please know that God has just said, Moses, these are your people.

If you miss why that's a big deal, I encourage you to go back and read the early chapters of Exodus. Because all

God says in the burning bush incident is my people, my people. I have heard the cry of my people.

Moses is told to go to Pharaoh, the message, Yahweh says, let my people go.

But in this moment, God says, now let's be clear. I don't know these people, these are your people. In fact, it's crazy what

God, I wanna be careful, God is not crazy. But the words in and of themselves sound crazy when you read them.

For your people, you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly. Moses didn't do anything.

Think about it, he didn't wanna go. When he did go, God did all the pyrotechnics, if you will. And now

God says, these are my people.

Is God having a tantrum moment here? I don't think he is. You see, in this moment, the redeemed people of God were not acting like the redeemed people of God.

They had rejected the true God in favor of a God of their own making. They had spurned

God's commands in favor of their own choices. They had given the credit.

Remember what they said? This is the God who brought us out of the land of Egypt? No, that wasn't.

Yahweh was the one that did that, the one that they couldn't see, they could only hear. They had given credit for his work to a created object.

And that's really what is crazy about this whole text that we are reading. And you know what's even more crazy?

This is what all humanity does outside of Christ. So Paul can say it like this,

Romans chapter one, verses 18 to 23. For God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes. Interesting, he pulls this language of the invisible again. His invisible attributes, that is his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made.

As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude.

Sounds like our passage, doesn't it? Instead, verse 21 of Romans one, their thinking became worthless and their senseless hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four -footed animals and reptiles.

I have to wonder when Paul writes Romans one, is he thinking back to this incident? That this is what humanity estranged from God does.

God sees the idolatry of human hearts and Paul's point in Romans one is that God can't ignore it.

He has to judge it. That's how he ends the section of Romans one. If you take a note, verse 32, although they know

God's just sentence that those who practice such things deserve to die.

And that's what God says in this passage. Turn back to Exodus 32 if you turn away from there. What does he say in verse nine?

Yahweh also said to Moses, I have seen this people and they are indeed a stiff neck people. Yeah, no kidding.

Now leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.

God says, you know what, let me just, let's do a total reset. I mean, think about it.

It's not like God hasn't done that before. Remember the flood? Imagine this would be a lot easier than the flood.

The flood was all of humanity. This is just 2 million people in the wilderness. And God says, you know what,

Moses, I can't, I want to be careful how I say this. It's almost as though God says, you know,

Moses, let me, let me just finish it. You know what? Me and you, we're like this.

Let me start with you. Might be less headache. And would

God have been just to do it? Absolutely, because the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. You put in the work, you get paid.

You may not like what you get paid, but you get paid. And the reality is that outside of God in Christ, all men deserve death, both physical death and even worse, eternal death.

And if that is the case, if all men deserve to die, not just the ones in our passage, but all men deserve to die because of their sin, including the sin of idolatry.

If idolatry truly cannot be ignored, how can men escape that sentence?

I mean, this is going to sound so bad, but one of my favorite shows when

I was younger was Dog the Bounty Hunter. Mostly because you get these people, it's always people who jump bells.

Like, I don't know why you think that's a good idea. Like, they've jumped bells. So of course, that's what a bounty hunter does. You're going to go get them.

And so, I mean, yes, they did it. So that's why they're running, but they don't want to pay them.

You know what I mean? You want to do the crime, but don't want to do the time. Okay. And it sounds so bad.

You know what my favorite part of the show was? It was always the part where he would pounce and sometimes physically pounce on these folks who thought they could run.

Just like, what do you think? Do you not watch this show? Seriously? If this man pulls up on you, don't do this.

Men often think they can escape the sentence. It's the book of Proverbs that says this. Because judgment is not executed in a hurry, men's hearts grow cold.

But the reality is you can't dodge this one. How can men escape this sentence?

How can anyone be delivered from this? Think about it. If God sets his mind to something, you might be able to run from earthly justice.

There's a famous, if you're from the UK, you know the story of Lord Lucan. He was a peer in the

House of Lords. Some people say he didn't do it. I think he did. He murdered his wife and murdered his children and went on the run.

To this day, they've never found him. I think he's dead personally, but that's the one conspiracy theory

I hold to. I think he died very early on in the chase, but that's just me. But he escaped human justice.

Humans might escape human justice, but you can't escape divine justice. If you can't escape divine justice, how can anyone be delivered from this?

If the story ended here, this would be pretty bleak. But praise God the story doesn't end here because there's a third lesson we learn about idolatry from this passage.

Idolatry happens because we forget God and what he's done. Idolatry cannot go ignored. But praise

God, point number three, idolatry can be forgiven through a mediator.

Idolatry can be forgiven through a mediator. The wrath of God is very clearly stirred up by the time we get to verse 11.

And then Moses steps in. Please look at verse 11 in your own Bible. The Moses sought the favor of Yahweh, his

God. It's interesting that the narrator of Exodus, who is

Moses, feels the need to tell us that Moses sought the favor of Yahweh.

God's anger towards the sin of his people was both just and justified.

Nobody could argue after all that God had done, bringing the most powerful nation in the world to its knees, delivering a people, providing for their every need.

Exodus, excuse me, Moses could say at the end of his ministry to those people, you know you walked in the wilderness for 40 years, even the shoes on your feet didn't wear out.

If anybody had the right to be mad, it is God. After all, idolatry was an affront to this

God who was the only one worthy of worship. And if God's wrath is going to be satisfied in this moment, one of two things needs to happen.

Either the people suffer it, which they rightly deserve, or a mediator has to step in.

And that's what we see in this passage. And what's interesting is that as Moses steps in and seeks the favor of Yahweh, he does so on two grounds.

There's two realities that he grounds his mediation in. First of all, the mediator appeals to God's reputation.

Remember I told you that this theme of God's reputation is big in this passage? Well, look at verses 11 and 12.

But Moses sought the favor of Yahweh, his God. Yahweh, why does your anger burn against your people?

You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand. Why should the Egyptians say, he brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and eliminate them from the face of the earth?

Moses, go, go, go, go, go. This is not good PR. Oh, this is not good advertising.

You just crippled Egypt. No doubt they were still recovering from this. You know how it is.

You know, what was it, Mark Twain? He said that bad news goes around the world before good news puts, oh, excuse me, a lie goes around the world before the truth puts its shoes on.

And that's generally true about good and bad news. You'll hear bad news really quickly. You'll never hear good news. And Moses is like, do you really want this going around?

Yahweh, this all -powerful God who crippled the empire of the day, that this

God basically brought them out just to kill them in the wilderness. Go, go, go, go, go. Think about your reputation here.

Think about what the nations will say. Think about what the nation you just crippled, what they'll say. So the mediator appeals to God's reputation, but he doesn't just appeal to God's reputation.

He appeals to God's promises. He appeals to God's promises. So look at verse 13.

Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. I think it's interesting he doesn't say Jacob. He says Israel, the prince with God.

You swore to them by yourself. You basically put it on your own name and declared,

I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and will give your offspring all this land that I have promised and they will inherit it forever.

He says, think about the covenant promises you made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We can't have come all this way for you not to fulfill your word.

And Moses' mediation, this is the surprising thing. It's successful. So verse 14, so Yahweh relented concerning the disaster he had said he would bring on his people.

Success, at least for now. Moses has managed to stave off the righteous judgment of God towards his people.

But if you read this story, and this is the end of the story, verse 15 to 35 is a new scene.

If you read this story and you only stop with Moses being a mediator, if you only stop there, you'll miss out on the riches of this passage.

Let me explain why. God's wrath in this moment is indeed placated. He is.

He doesn't judge the people, at least not to the degree that he says he will.

But later down the line, fast forward to volume four of the history, book of Numbers, they play with God one too many times and God finally says, since you have made a conscious decision not to believe me, here's what's gonna happen.

You said your kids are gonna get destroyed in this wilderness, guess what? Your kids will go into the land. All of you who are 40 and over, except for Joshua and Caleb, you will all die in the wilderness.

In fact, he uses a very graphic word picture. Numbers chapter 14, he says, your carcasses, Numbers 14, 26, they will drop dead in the wilderness.

You'll just be walking, and one day, done. One by one. Moses was a good mediator, but even he couldn't stave off the eternal wrath of God.

There needed to be a greater mediator. I think, let's give

Moses his credit. Moses was a good mediator. He appeals to God's great name and his reputation.

He appeals to the promises of God, and in the moment, he is able to placate the righteous wrath of God.

That's what the greatest mediator, the mediator who would not just cover the sins of a few people in the wilderness, but all who would repent and believe in him.

That's what that mediator needed to do. One who could appeal to God's great name and reputation.

Well, that's what Romans chapter three tells us, that God presents Jesus as the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation, the one who satisfies

God's wrath. Why? To demonstrate his righteousness, to protect the very reputation of God.

What about the promises of God? Second Corinthians 1 .20 says, for every one of God's promises is yes in Christ.

Human beings break God's covenant, and will continue to break God's covenant until the new creation comes. But guess what?

Jesus never broke God's covenant. And so all of God's promises are fulfilled in him.

What about the wrath of God? We need one who can satisfy that wrath, not just for a temporal moment, but for eternity.

One of my favorite verses, 1 John chapter two, verse two, says of Jesus that he is the propitiation, the sacrifice that absorbs anger for our sins.

And not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world. You see, you're supposed to read this passage and see the need for a greater mediator.

And then you cross that little divide over into the New Testament. And we now see who that greater mediator is.

One who is both God and man, who can represent us before the father. One who was fully obedient to God's law in thought, word, and deed when we broke it.

One who was fully dependent on and fully receives the promises of God.

One who gives his life as the penalty that satisfies the wrath of God against sin, not just in a moment, but for eternity.

Ultimately, do you know how we deal with idolatry? We deal with idolatry with the good news of the gospel.

Ultimately, the cure for the idolatry of our hearts. What's the song that we sing? Prone to wander,

Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. You know how we deal with that proneness to wander?

We bring it to the foot of the cross because the cross is the

Lord Jesus, God's appointed mediator who the Bible says he advocates for us, 1

John 2, 1. He is the representative before the father for us.

And his advocacy is always successful. His mediation always works.

All who run to him in faith find refuge from God's wrath against sin.

So how do we fight idolatry? We ultimately fight idolatry with the gospel, with the good news that in the work of Christ for us, our idolatry can be forgiven and fought and conquered once and for all.

And so how do we deal with the idols of then and the idols of now? View them through the lens, all satisfying work of Jesus for us, even when we fail.

And heavenly father, we thank you that we do indeed have a mediator.

We do indeed have one who satisfies the wrath of God on our behalf.

We do have one who, because he gave up his life, we can receive eternal life.

Not just in the future, but we can know that life even now. And even in our moments of weakness and failing, when we come back before him and we acknowledge what we have done, we can walk in this world with our heads lifted high.

Not because we are perfect, not because we deserve it. Father, we've broken your law in a thousand ways, but because he is perfect.

And his righteousness is credited to us. That our standing before God is as secure as it will ever be if we know you.

And if anyone is here who doesn't know you, on this side of eternity, there is still hope.

I pray that anybody who doesn't know you would reach out in repentance and in faith and would receive the righteousness that only you can give.