Exodus 32 - Rebellion, Catholicism & The Book of The Living (Part 2)

Let's go ahead and turn to Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32, we covered the first 10 verses last time, so we're going to pick up in verse 11 of Exodus 32.

Moses Intercedes for Israel After the Golden Calf

And Moses pleaded with the Lord his God.

Turn from the face of the earth, turn from your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of, I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.

So the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people. And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides, on the one side and on the other they were written.

Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there was the noise of war in the camp.

It is not the noise of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear.

So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses' anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder.

He scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it.

Moses said to Aaron, What did these people do that you have brought so great a sin upon them? Do not let the anger of my Lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil, for they said to me, Make us gods that shall go before us.

As for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire and this calf.

Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained, for Aaron had not restrained them to their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me.

And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him, and he said to them,.

Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Let every man put his sword on his side and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp. And let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.

So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.

Then Moses said, Consecrate yourselves today, that he may bestow on you a blessing this day. For every man has opposed his son and his brother.

Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people,.

You have committed a great sin, so now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement.

Then Moses returned to the Lord and said,.

These people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a god of gold. Yet now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray, blot me out of your book which you have written. Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book.

Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.

So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.

Why Exodus 32 Still Matters for the Church Today

So last week we did part one of Exodus 32 and we covered the subject of leadership. Remember that Moses was the strong leader and Aaron the weak leader. Moses was on the mountain 40 days with the Lord and he left Aaron in charge.

During that time when Aaron was in charge, that's when things all started to fall apart. So the idolaters came to Aaron and they demanded that he make them gods out of gold. He makes this golden calf.

He caved in in what I think is an attempt to sanctify their rebellion. Because remember what he did. He made the idol and then he said, well, the next day is a feast day to the Lord. So by doing that, we saw the blending of the true faith with pagan idolatry.

And we spent some time on the fact that that is still going on today in the name of the Lord. The most obvious example of that is what we have to contend with within Roman Catholicism. The bowing down to graven images, praying to them.

And that's what we have here. A picture on the screen of them doing exactly that. If bowing down to a statue and then praying to it, if that's not idolatry, then the word has no meaning. Now say, well, why do you have to bring that up?

I mean, are we in Exodus chapter 32? Like what's the point of bringing that up? Well, number one, it's true.

It's true.

We need to be mindful that it's our job. It's my job. I believe. I think it's the job of Bible believing Christians to say you're doing something wrong. You're worshiping idols. So number one, it's true.

And then number two, we have to make application with the text. So we're in Exodus chapter 32. This happened a long, long time ago.

Right.

If you read the New Testament epistles, you say, well, it happened a long time ago. What relevance is there for us? Well, if you read the New Testament epistles, the apostles are always going back, quoting the Old Testament and applying it to things that were happening in their modern day.

A thousand years later, 1500 years later. So this should be standard operating procedure in the church to take what the Bible says or even what the Old Testament says and say, OK, how does that apply today?

How does the scripture apply to us? Now, when you when you do that and you try to apply it to something that is happening in 2021, there's always going to be some, you know, I think there's going to be some people who are maybe naysayers about that.

They'll say, well, don't get into this topic. Don't get it. Don't touch on that controversy. Just preach the gospel. I'm sure you've heard that before. Just preach the gospel. Never mind with all of this other stuff.

Well, we do preach the gospel. We will preach the gospel, but we can walk and chew gum at the same time. So I'll remind you once again what the New Testament says about the Old Testament, that all scripture is profitable for doctrine.

Second Timothy 316 and that these things in Exodus were written for our admonition. First Corinthians 10 11. And actually, let's turn there. Go ahead and turn to First Corinthians chapter 10, because in First Corinthians 10, it gives us Holy Ghost inspired insight to what was happening in Exodus 32.

And as you're turning there, just to continue the point on how important it is to make application. Here's the thing. If you don't ever do it, if you don't ever bring the scripture to bear on what's happening today, I'm sure there will be people who think because of that, that the Bible just isn't all that relevant.

I mean, a group of people worshipped a golden calf in the desert 3500 years ago.

So what?

What difference does that make in my life? Or what difference does this make in the church today? So leaving these stories in the past, number one, it makes it seem like this stuff is irrelevant. Number two, keeping it in the past.

I think this is why a lot of people do it by keeping these stories in the past. It keeps us comfortable. What do I mean by that? Because once you make application to the modern day, then all of a sudden your Roman Catholic aunt, your niece, your neighbor who is enamored with Eastern religion, who's bowing and meditating or doing yoga in front of an idol of Buddha.

All of a sudden, this becomes real. See, it's comfortable when it's in the past. Because we all agree, Catholics, Protestants, we all agree they shouldn't have worshipped the golden calf. But once you said, what about today?

What about the idolatry today? Now, all of a sudden, it's like, oh, this is happening. Now I feel like, am I supposed to do something about it? Am I supposed to say something about it? So look at first Corinthians 10 verse five.

Has God's feelings changed? So first Corinthians 10 is how many years after Moses? 1500 years, give or take. Has God changed his mind? First Corinthians 10 five. But with most of them talking about the Israelites here, God was not well pleased, but their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

OK, so why should Christians today or back in Paul's day care about this story? Well, he tells them verse six. Yeah, look at verse six. Now, these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted and do not become idolaters, as were some of them.

As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. So they were drinking, they were dancing. And, you know, when people drink and dance with someone who's not their spouse, what does that sometimes lead to?

Keep going, right? Verse eight. Paul tells the church, nor let us commit fornication or sexual immorality as some of them did.

Why?

Because in one day, how many died? Twenty three thousand fell. That's a lot of people. A lot of people died because of this. That in and of itself tells us how God feels about idolatry. So why did this happen?

Because the Israelites weren't covenant with God. They had made an agreement. God said, if you obey me, I'll bless you beyond your wildest imagination. But if you disobey, I will curse you. And you remember what they said?

All the words you have spoken, we will do. So they agreed to the covenant. And then they went and they broke the covenant. And then God punished them quite severely. Someone inevitably will say, and in the day and age we live in.

Well, my God wouldn't punish somebody like that. Well, you're worse being a different God then. I don't know what God you're talking about because the God of the Bible did. What were you going to say?

I said my God will.

Yeah.

Like the only God that exists did. That's what we know for sure. Paul says, nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. That will get to that eventually. Nor complain as some of them also complained.

And they grumbled against God, complained against God's ordained leader, Moses. And what did God do with the grumblers who are blaspheming? He destroyed them. And here is the verse that I referenced a few moments ago.

Verse 11. Now, all of these things happen to them as examples. So there are examples for us. And they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, here's the conclusion.

Therefore, based on that, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls. So people in churches today or we might be tempted to think, well, yeah, that was bad. What they did. But, you know, I would never do that.

Well, you probably in your life will never worship a golden calf. That's probably true. But we need to be careful when we read about these stories in the Bible. Why I would never do this. I wouldn't be among that group that did that thing over there.

Well, but if we drift away from the Lord, there's no telling what kind of things that we'll get into. You know, you might find yourself in a situation you never thought you would be in. But one thing leads to another, to another.

The children of Israel had been rebelling for quite some time. And this is kind of the climax. This is where it was all going.

Marcus.

We need to be careful that we don't worship the cross. His honor.

Have you come across anyone?

Well, I see lots of people wearing crosses.

Right.

That it is some sort of talisman or something like that. I don't, you know, I even see kids on my bus. So, gee, does that give me the right to ask them and start a conversation?

I think so.

I wouldn't be surprised if the school would make that sort of ornament.

Yeah.

I mean, obviously, we don't want to be worshiping any object, no matter, no matter what it is. So, yeah, one thing can lead to another. If you drift away from God, there's no telling where you will end up.

I'm sure Aaron never dreamed that he would be facilitating a pagan worship service. Essentially, that's what he's doing. If you had told Aaron a month prior, this is what you're going to do. No way.

Right.

And Moses, Moses wouldn't have thought that.

Larry.

Colossians 3, 5 says, Therefore, put to death or mortify your members which are on earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. So all those things are forms of idolatry or Kennedy.

Sure.

You know, we're not just talking about some little god of gold that we're worshipping or a calf or whatever.

Right.

Something like that. It can be.

Absolutely.

There's quite a list.

Absolutely.

Yes, Marcus.

Or even the book itself, even the Bible. People think, oh boy, this is really, really special. This, I have this with me. And of course, it's closed, and that's the way it stays.

Moses as a Type of Christ

All right. Let's go back to Exodus chapter 32, and we'll go through the material that we didn't cover last week. But hopefully, after all of that, we won't struggle to find the relevance of this subject of idolatry, because as you can see, this is a modern photo.

There's people doing this all around the world, bowing down to graven images. So going through the Old Testament, we always want to do two things. And I've been trying to do these two things, make application to the modern day, make application to the New Testament church, and then try to show how this is pointing ahead to Christ.

And Moses is, that's what we see. Moses is acting like a type of Christ.

All right.

So we ended last time around verses nine and 10. Look at Exodus 32, nine, it says, and the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stiff necked people. Now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation.

So we see how serious idolatry is that God was ready to wipe out the entire nation and start over with Moses. Moses doesn't want that. He now intercedes on their behalf, acting as a type of Christ, standing in between God, who's ready to pour out his wrath.

Moses is standing in the gap in between God and the sinners, in between God and the people. So we see how Moses is the type of Christ here, obviously, right? Look at verse 11. Then Moses pleaded with the Lord, his God, and said, 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?

Of course, Moses knows the answer to the question. He knows why God is angry. So what I see him saying here is, OK, Lord, I know you're angry, but why destroy all of.

Them?

Like, why destroy the whole nation? Deal with the idolaters, which is what ends up happening. But don't don't destroy the whole nation.

Why?

Verse 12. Why should the Egyptians speak and say that he brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath and relent from this harm to your people.

So this, in other words, Lord, this is going to give you a bad name. This is going to provide an opportunity for the Egyptians to blaspheme that you just brought them out here to destroy them all. So Moses is interceding.

And who have we seen so far in our study of the Old Testament that interceded like this back in Genesis?

Who did this?

Remember, Abraham interceded on behalf of his nephew Lot. When Abraham interceded on behalf of Lot and his family, he appealed to God's righteousness.

Right.

Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Like, Lord, you're too righteous. You wouldn't do that. But now Moses is appealing to God's faithfulness to his covenant promise. So Moses says to the Lord in verse 13, remember Abraham, remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have spoken of.

I give to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever. I think what we see here, I think this is always true that God delights when his people remind him of his promises, not because he needs the reminder, obviously.

But what does it show that his people trust in him? Like Moses believes this promise. He trusts this promise. So I believe the Lord delights in that.

Marcus.

And to modern day, these are the scriptures that were used in the formation of Israel becoming a nation again, which in the course of all history seems like a miraculous thing. But it is because of God's promise way back then that in 1948 it became a nation again.

Right. Yeah.

The promise promises of God explain it.

Right.

That he's, he's not going to be done with this people. He may, he may punish them and he has, but he's, he's not going to abandon them.

Dennis, I believe Moses is described as like one of the meekest man on the face of the.

Earth.

I'm getting a little taste of that right here with him. He's, you know, he could have sat back and went, Oh, I get to be the father of a whole nation. Start the whole thing over again. No, he just was a meek man.

Absolutely.

Good point.

Yeah.

He could have been the new Abraham. He would have been like Abraham and the law giver, mediator, the old covenant, all in.

One.

He could have been the greatest man. He wasn't interested in that.

Jim.

I wasn't sure that I heard Dennis, all he said, but my take on it is, is that God cared for the people so much that he had to see for them.

Moses.

All right.

Moses. You mean?

Right. And, um, and, and, and, you know, he had the full responsibility of this people and he could have like said, he could have said, Hey, I don't want any more of this. You know, I, I, I will, I will be that new Abraham for you.

But because he cared for them, uh, that he, he, uh, he's still in the gap.

Right. And because of that, look at verse 14. So because of this says the Lord relented from the harm, which he said he would do to his.

People.

So Moses acts as a type of Christ because it is Christ who intercedes on, on our behalf. Uh, what's the devil called? Uh, and was it revelation 12? He's called the accuser of the brethren. Uh, that's what the word devil means.

It means an accuser. So the devil accuses us. And of course, I'm sure he makes false accusations, but the reality is Christians do, uh, sin at times. So, uh, because of that, we need, we like the children of Israel need someone to intercede on our behalf.

We need an advocate. First John two verse one, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

So, because God is faithful to keep his promises to the nation. Um, and because he keeps his promises to us, you know, we're not consumed because if it wasn't for Christ and his intercession, um, there'd be no, no hope for anyone.

Not only does Christ, uh, get us saved, he keeps us saved and the holy spirit seals us and keeps us saved.

Marcus.

And not to belabor my love for Israel, but, um, I'm gonna, okay.

Yeah.

This replacement theology is a really, really dangerous thing that is creeping into the.

Church.

Um, and I shudder to think about those that, that, uh, don't realize that God is still at work with his people.

Right.

Um, whether obedient or not, none of us, none of us, uh, can claim, you know, right. Sinlessness in our nation, our nation, which at one point we could, we could sort of claim that as a nation we can't anymore.

Yeah.

Just one quick comment on the replacement theology. Does everybody know what that is? The idea that God, God has finished with the Jews. God's finished with Israel. Now the church is the new Israel. You're the new Israel.

You're an Israelite spiritually or something like that. So, uh, I see that, uh, as nullifying the promises of God. I mean, even people who don't believe in a kingdom on the earth, God's promise failed.

If Abraham and his descendants don't inherit that land and if God doesn't keep his covenant with them, the way I would understand that is that, yeah, God's promises, um, are revocable. Um, I know that's not what they're saying.

Uh, they would probably deny that.

But anyways, that's a, that's a side trail on the radio about replacement theology. And one of the things that I stressed was, is that God has not given up. He's not finished with Israel. He's just set them aside temporarily.

Because we're in the church age and we're, God's dealing with the Gentiles. The Jews are welcome. I mean, they, they are under the same situation as we are. They need to accept Christ as their savior.

But that replacement theology does more harm than any good.

Let's make some application. Because if they're right, if that's true, and God doesn't keep his promise to Israel, why do you have any assurance he's going to keep his promise to the church? I mean, that, that's really the, that's really the issue.

The Tablets, the Calf, and the Death of 23,000

Okay.

Uh, back to the matter at hand. So because God is faithful to keep his promises, he spared the nation. Uh, but for the rebels who remained stiff neck, those people who did go along with this and worship the calf and commit the idolatry, uh, they're going to face God's, God's wrath.

Uh, we'll close with that in a moment. But first Moses meets Joshua on the way down the mountain and they hear this commotion.

Okay.

They're hearing all this noise and they interpret the noise a little, a little differently.

Yeah.

Joshua thinks it's a noise of war. Joshua thinks it's the sound of warfare. Moses says, no, no. He says in verse 18, it is not the noise of the shout of victory, nor the noise, the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear.

And then he goes down and they're dancing and, uh, he kind of loses his mind a little.

Bit.

Uh, I don't know. Maybe he was in complete control of his, maybe he didn't lose his temper. I don't know, but he smashed. Well, he's, he, he was meek. Maybe either way he smashed, uh, the 10 commandments.

Yes.

Well, Larry Moses, um, he had inside information. Cause you go back to verse seven.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That helped him. That helped.

Absolutely.

Verse 19. So it was as soon as he came near the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses anger became hot and he cast the tablets out of his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

These are the tablets that were carved by the finger of God, verse 20. And then he took the calf. This is my favorite part of the chapter. He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it into powder, scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it.

Don't mess with Moses. That's the moral of the story. And now, now he turns to Aaron and he demands an explanation. Like what happened? And then Aaron gives, this is my second favorite part. Aaron gives this, this is the lamest excuse ever.

I took their gold and put it in the fire and out came the calf. Like the calf walked out of the fire. Unbelievable. I think Aaron saving grace, so to speak, is that he did acknowledge that this was wrong.

Verse 22, he says, do not let the anger of my Lord become hot. You know, this people that they are set on doing evil. So it kind of shifts it to them. So Aaron's sin, it appears is not that he personally might be able to argue with this.

I guess it's not that he personally rebelled. I don't think he was bowing to the golden calf. But what did he do? At the very least, he compromised. He was in the position of leadership.

Yeah.

I mean, it was his responsibility and he folded like a deck of cards. But Aaron is spared. And starting in verse 26, Moses now calls upon the people to make a choice. Who is on the Lord's side and who's on the Lord's side?

Who is to say the Levites? Now the Levites, Moses was a Levite. Aaron was a Levite. The Levites are the priestly tribe. They're on the Lord's side. So they stand with Moses and Moses commands them to take a sword, go out and slay all those who were involved.

And it says that the Levites killed 3000 people. But we know from first Corinthians 10, Paul says 23 ,000 died. So that means 20 ,000 died from the plague that the Lord sent. Now again, in the modern day, there's going to be those people.

This seems kind of harsh. 23 ,000 people. Now, I don't think that. I mean, they all deserve it, obviously, because whatever the Lord says is right. But there's going to be people who maybe think this is an overreaction.

They're wrong. But let me try to give you a little perspective on this. You can almost look at it like this was a revolution, almost like this was an overthrow of the newly founded nation of Israel. You can look at it this way, that at Mount Sinai, with the giving of the law, that was like the nation receiving their constitution.

Moses was the human leader. God was their king. But the idolaters were trying to lead. I'm not going to say an insurrection, but I just did, I guess. They were trying to overtake the nation. Don't read into those comments.

You guys know better than that. So they're trying to take over the nation. But remember, the nation of Israel was to be God's vehicle to bring the Messiah into the world. I think Satan knows that. So his goal is to corrupt the nation from the very beginning.

Any questions or comments so far? Yes, Marcus.

Is there anything in our bylaws about dancing?

I don't think so. I don't remember anything.

Would you go so far? I mean, often.

Oh, here we go.

Often at weddings, there's dancing. Is this similar, only proper by those betrothed to each other? What about the twist?

Okay, you want to know my position on dancing?

Sure.

Okay, this will be fun.

Or the Bibles, you know,. David danced.

Yeah, David, that's what everybody uses. David, the joyful dancer. Well, it led to his divorce, right? I'm not saying he was right or wrong. I don't know.

Or his wife.

But since you asked, in and of itself, I'm not going to say there's anything wrong with dancing. If you're married, you shouldn't be dancing with somebody that's not your spouse. I'll just stick with that.

Or if you're engaged, you shouldn't be dancing with anyone. Anyways, we'll move on.

Waltz is okay.

Not waltz.

I don't know all the dances.

Marcus is back.

So, all right. See, now you made me lose right now. Let's finish the chapter. This really highlights Moses acting as a type of Christ.

The Book of the Living and Moses' Atonement

Verse 30.

Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, you have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, oh, these people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a God of gold.

Yet now, if you will forgive their sin, they said, but if not, I pray blot me out of your book, which you have written. I mean, that really tells you how much Moses. He loved God. He loved God's promises.

He really did care for the people. That's what makes a good leader. They actually care for the people and they're willing to die for the people, not manipulate the people to somehow serve their interests.

Now, what about this book? We'll close with this idea of the book. He says, I pray blot me out of your book. Well, in the New Testament, you might remember in the book of Revelation that it mentions the Lamb's book of life.

Some people might assume that that's what it's talking about. I don't believe that's what it's talking about at all. I believe this is almost certainly a reference to the book of the living. Yes, that's mentioned in Proverbs or excuse me, Psalm 69, 28.

So in the New Testament, the Lamb's book of life, as I understand it, deals with eternal life. So if you're saved, if you have eternal life, you are in the Lamb's book of life. That's the book in the New Testament.

This Old Testament, the book of the living is just whether or not you're alive or dead.

Yeah.

So what's Moses saying? Blot me out, send me to hell for all eternity. I don't think that's what he had in mind. He's saying, Lord, kill me because he mentions atonement a few verses earlier. So here he is as a type of Christ willing to die on behalf of God's covenant people.

So I am willing to lay down my life for them. And then the chapter ends with verse 35. So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf, which Aaron made.