Exodus 32:15-24

Transcript

00:00:01:33 – 00:00:30:01
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Happy Thursday. Thanks for joining us. As we close out the week and the book of Exodus covering some interesting ground again as we make our way through this 32nd chapter, the story of the Golden Calf. We saw yesterday that the people have rebelled. They’ve sinned. God was ready to be done with them. Moses has intervened and and convinced God or at least helped God changed direction.

00:00:30:01 – 00:00:52:57
Clint Loveall
And now we see the third scene in the story. We’ve seen what was happening on the bottom of the mountain. We’ve listened in yesterday on the discussion at the top of the mountain. Now we see Moses descend the mountain and confront the people. And in some ways, this is a very interesting part of the story. So let me read for a few verses, then we’ll get into it.

00:00:53:24 – 00:01:17:18
Clint Loveall
Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands. Tablets that were written on both sides, written on the front and the back. The tablets were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God engraved upon the tables. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There’s the noise of war in the camp.

00:01:18:16 – 00:01:39:45
Clint Loveall
But Moses, it is not the sound made by victors or the sound made by losers. It is the sound of revelers that I hear. As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses anger burned hot and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them on the floor of the mountain.

00:01:40:13 – 00:02:01:58
Clint Loveall
He took the calf they had made. He burned it with fire. He grounded in the powder. He scattered it on the water and he made the Israelites drink it. Why don’t we stop there, Michael? So interestingly enough, Moses comes down. Joshua, you might remember there was a group of people waiting at the bottom of the mountain. Joshua is one of them.

00:02:02:20 – 00:02:31:44
Clint Loveall
Joshua thinks there’s something going on in the camp. Moses says No, it’s Raveling. This word that we’ve already looked at. And then fascinating. Moses Anger burned hot. This is almost verbatim the language that was used of God that now Moses seeing what is happening as he lays his eyes on it, it overwhelms him. And now his anger breaks loose and he throws down these tablets that we’ve already been told are sacred.

00:02:31:44 – 00:03:03:23
Clint Loveall
They’re engraved with the word of God. And this is both a sign of how mad that Moses is. And it’s a symbolic gesture in which the law of God has been shattered, The people have broken it, the covenant is broken. The tablets of law represent the law. They are broken. And Moses throws these down and then he grinds up the calf, He burns it, he grinds it, he scatters it on the water, and he makes the people drink it.

00:03:03:23 – 00:03:33:16
Clint Loveall
And I’m trying to, you know, again, Michael, we’ve seen some water in the story. There’s something thrown in the water. But in that in that instance, it clarified the water. It cleansed the water here. It’s the idea of kind of punishment. The idea that they have to to literally ingest the wrong that they’ve done and the disobedience that they’re there, this thing that they’ve made, it’s now been destroyed, but it is a part of them.

00:03:33:16 – 00:03:44:52
Clint Loveall
And they they have already expressed their sinfulness over it. And now they take it in upon themselves. Really interesting scene that happens here.

00:03:44:52 – 00:04:12:18
Michael Gewecke
The connection that really resonates with me is this connection that happens when it says that Moses says anger burns hot because it’s such a striking change to what we had in yesterday’s study. And if you weren’t with us yesterday, I recommend pausing this. You know, we’ll wait for you, jump back over, watch that and then come back here because there it’s God’s anger that burns hot.

00:04:12:25 – 00:04:40:49
Michael Gewecke
Moses In that moment stands as the intermediary. One wonders, what is it about Moses seeing this, hearing these cries? What is it about this encounter that inspires the exact same language as God? The idea, I think, is clear that both to Moses and to God. This is clearly reprehensible. Between the two of them, they have the exact same read of the situation.

00:04:40:49 – 00:05:21:55
Michael Gewecke
Their response is identical. But what’s striking to me is Moses ostensibly knew what he was going to see, right? I mean, he had already been told by God about this thing. He he’d already stood up to God and called upon God’s covenant and God’s own faithfulness on in defense of the people. But as that intermediary, as he literally leaves the high place and comes to the low place, as he leaves the presence of God and He comes into the presence of the people, there’s something in that coin that’s flipped that sets Moses off and that his anger is kindled and that he does immediately move to consequence.

00:05:21:55 – 00:05:47:33
Michael Gewecke
He immediately seeks to grind this calf and and to make the people literally take into themselves the gravity of the sin that they’ve committed against God. And I just think that there’s I don’t know if there’s a whole theological lesson in that as much as just a restatement. In another way, not only is God angry, but Moses is angry.

00:05:47:40 – 00:06:10:54
Michael Gewecke
They both see the situation for what it is. Let there be no doubt to us, the reader, what has happened in this camp is a violation of the covenant with God. It’s a violation of the relationship of the people who were saved by God. And it is despicable. It’s deplorable. The highest words must be used because the text goes out of its way.

00:06:10:55 – 00:06:12:27
Michael Gewecke
Make it clear that’s what’s happening here.

00:06:12:34 – 00:06:34:13
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And interesting as we read this text, particularly as we get back to the to kind of the aftermath, which we’ll look at on Monday, it it’s hard to read this text chronologically because, you know, this idea that Moses took this calf and did these things with it, that would take some time that we’re going to see Monday.

00:06:34:13 – 00:06:59:31
Clint Loveall
The people are still running around wild and Moses has to deal with them. In a moment, we’re going to look at him addressing Aaron and holding him accountable. So I think rather than trying to read this as here’s what happened, A, B and C in some linear fashion, it’s more the memory of everything that happens. It’s the explosion that happens in all of the things that go with it.

00:06:59:31 – 00:07:32:13
Clint Loveall
And if you’ve ever had that moment where you’ve seen something that just angered you, particularly if it’s occasioned by somebody hurting another person or doing something wrong, That’s it. That’s the that’s the feeling here. That’s the emotion that is packed into this. Moses is furious with the people and he makes them, to some extent, trying to face what they’ve done by making each of them ingest the idol.

00:07:32:25 – 00:07:55:48
Clint Loveall
And then he turns that anger on. Aaron. As we continue here with verse 21, Moses said to Aaron, what did these people do to you that you brought such a great sin against them? And Aaron said, Do not let the anger of my Lord burn hot. You know, the people they are bent on evil. They said to me, Make gods who shall go before us.

00:07:55:48 – 00:08:15:30
Clint Loveall
Ask for this Moses, the man who brought us from the land of Egypt. We do not know what became of him. So I said to them, Whoever has gold, take it off. And they gave it to me and I threw it in the fire and out came this calf. I have always lopes. I have always loved this passage.

00:08:15:30 – 00:08:40:31
Clint Loveall
This is I think I don’t Biblical humor is a little bit tough. Hebrew humor is is strange creature. But I’ve always wondered if this is supposed to be funny. I mean, this is the this is the best example I can think of of a lame excuse in the old. I mean, I’m not I don’t be mad at me.

00:08:40:31 – 00:09:01:47
Clint Loveall
I threw some gold in the fire. You know, these people, they talked me into it and out came this calf. And remember, a couple of days ago, I said, pay attention to the fact that it said that Aaron made a mold. You know, we know this isn’t the story. We know that Aaron had a role in this, but he doesn’t own up to it.

00:09:01:47 – 00:09:30:36
Clint Loveall
He seems to want to be innocent in all of this. And and again, notice that he tries to answer Moses in the way that Moses tried to answer God in yesterday’s passage. You know, do not let your anger burn. But this is the this is the mountaintop of of the dog ate my homework kind of stuff. Like I was just I, I took gold off, threw it in a fire and out came calf then.

00:09:30:37 – 00:09:37:40
Clint Loveall
Not really my doing. I can’t. I don’t know what we’re supposed to learn from that, but it makes me smile every time I read it.

00:09:38:00 – 00:09:57:09
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, it is striking because this story goes out of its way to be verbatim all the way up to that point. I mean, you have the retelling of, you know, the people who said, make us gods who go before us, right? I mean, there’s this literal quote that we can look back and we can see there’s a kind of parity with the story that came before.

00:09:57:09 – 00:10:17:11
Michael Gewecke
But what happens in this moment is we, the reader, see that right up to the point, whoever is going to take it off. Yep, that’s an account. They gave it to me and I threw it into the fire. That’s the end of Aaron and the story. Aaron throws it into the fire because the people are evil and that’s what they want.

00:10:17:22 – 00:10:51:54
Michael Gewecke
And then boom, out comes the outcomes. The idea, as you hear Aaron tell it, we might actually, as the reader be led to believe that this is some kind of supernatural act, that something happened in that fire, that this God came out. But no, the the writer of Exodus, the the text itself has been careful in laying down all the steps necessary so that we, the reader, know, though, Aaron doesn’t know the extent to which we know that this is a lie.

00:10:51:54 – 00:11:12:23
Michael Gewecke
And so yes, there is. Maybe as a parent, I think anyone who has parents can get a little bit of a laugh out of that memory that this will raise for you of the time when your kid said, well, the dog did it, or my sister did it, or I don’t know how that thing happened. And you, of course, know that there’s something to the story.

00:11:12:23 – 00:11:44:00
Michael Gewecke
But remember, this isn’t about I lost my homework. This is about the people of God rescued miraculously on dry ground through a sea from an army of the greatest nation in the world chasing them. The people miraculously fed by God in the wilderness, them creating an idol and claiming it as their God, and then falling into disarray immediately following having been given the ordering document for their lives.

00:11:44:27 – 00:12:13:53
Michael Gewecke
That moment is the one in which we enter. And here, the one who had stood before Pharaoh, ostensibly speaking for God, is now saying, Well, the calf just popped out. I mean, it’s a kind of revealing how deep the brokenness in how endemic and institutional that’s not even the right word, how fundamental the brokenness with the people’s ability to keep God’s command.

00:12:13:53 – 00:12:48:19
Michael Gewecke
Actually, yes. And I think at this point, the writer of Exodus has delivered us, the reader, to a place where we have to admit the only way forward beyond this point is God. The people have showed clearly their capacity to live into this new covenantal relationship with the God who saves them and everything. From this point on, there can be really no mistaking it that even the priesthood itself of Israel, who’s going to come later, is going to be directly connected to this kind of idolatry.

00:12:48:19 – 00:12:56:24
Michael Gewecke
And that is a thing that an astute reader of the Bible will recognize is a theme that pops up beyond Exodus over and over again.

00:12:56:24 – 00:13:25:35
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I mean, for the rest of history, the thing that will be remembered about the Israelites in regard to this text is essentially as soon as they got free of Egypt, they tried to make their own God. And the consequence and punishment of that, which again is still coming. I want to be clear about this, Michael, because I think I’m leaving interpretive grounds and I think I’m sort of maybe moving on to preaching grounds.

00:13:25:35 – 00:14:01:01
Clint Loveall
So I’m not claiming that this is in the text, but I think it’s interesting as we read this, there is some sense in which our idols always surprise us, right? We never we never set out to make a thing that we’re going to worship, whether that’s money, whether that’s status, whether that’s success or house or achievement or whatever, all you alcohol, whatever becomes first in our life.

00:14:01:21 – 00:14:30:36
Clint Loveall
We generally don’t mean to put it there in a sense that I’m going to create for myself this thing that is going to be more important to me than everything else. There is a sense in which, as we experience it, our idols do probably pop up that because we’ve we’ve taken small steps to get there until we’ve gotten far enough off the path that we’re shocked to find that we now stand in the wrong place.

00:14:30:36 – 00:15:02:09
Clint Loveall
And, you know, if you’re preaching a text like this or if you’re reading it devotional, I do think there’s a sense in which maybe Aaron’s his his His Lai may be Aaron’s explanation. And Aaron’s excuse here, at least, is kind of human. It is kind of it has some truth in it in that I put these things in my life and the next thing I know, I had a golden calf that I was bowing down to.

00:15:02:09 – 00:15:19:51
Clint Loveall
I didn’t really mean to, but I kind of found myself there. I’m not saying that’s what the text teaches. I’m certainly not saying that’s Aaron’s experience. But but I do think there’s a sort of opening to reflect in that direction that the story gives us.

00:15:20:06 – 00:15:48:19
Michael Gewecke
I’m going to just insert that footnote that you just offer. But I want to add here note how Aaron responds here in verse 22. You know that the people are bent on evil, right? And he goes on to to bring out this whole point. They are the ones that said this to me, Make us gods. They will go before us.

00:15:48:32 – 00:16:13:22
Michael Gewecke
Because then the people say, the man who brought us all the way of Egypt, we don’t know what’s become of them. I think there’s this deeply human aspect to this story that does show how we go to great lengths to play some kind of game of mental gymnastics to justify getting the thing that our brokenness wants us to give in to.

00:16:13:22 – 00:16:42:32
Michael Gewecke
And I think that this happens in a thousand different ways from a pastors perspective who works with people all the time. What is striking is not that people do badly is that every time that they do it, they have a justification, they have a reason. And I think that there is a kind of spiritual invitation in that if you find yourself going to great lengths to give yourself the reasons why things should be okay, I’m not suggesting that by definition means it’s not.

00:16:42:32 – 00:17:09:59
Michael Gewecke
I am suggesting that that generally reflects being on very shaky ground The moment that you start saying, well, we don’t know what’s become of Moses, maybe he’s done. We need to have something to draw us forward into the future. The moment you start playing what is and I don’t knows, and maybe we should, but maybe we should. Lots of times that kind of complexity, that kind of making small things, big things, is really a reflection of our brokenness, winning the day.

00:17:10:15 – 00:17:23:33
Michael Gewecke
And it’s often helpful to go have a conversation with someone outside the circle, talk to a counselor, talk to someone with some wisdom, and allow them to speak what may be simple and yet incredibly difficult clarity into a situation.

00:17:23:33 – 00:18:06:19
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and notice the language there. US, us. And we we, you know, this distancing from God, this distancing from from Moses idolatry generally begins with self. There’s a pastor along those lines, Michael, who said something like the sins of other people may shock us, but ours seem reasonable, you know, rational. The last thing as we sort of make our way to the close here just and I don’t know if I’ve ever explicitly connected these texts, but I think in some ways the last time we heard something like this was way back in the early days of our Genesis study, when God confronts Adam and Eve for eating the fruit.

00:18:06:41 – 00:18:30:00
Clint Loveall
And Adam says, It wasn’t my fault. And Eve says it wasn’t my fault. There is that natural try to pass the blame on someone else. And Aaron here sort of exemplifies that of me. These these words sound familiar and or at least they echo what Adam and Eve tried to do in the garden. Well, I. I just was minding my own business.

00:18:30:36 – 00:18:59:22
Clint Loveall
The people wanted this thing, and then the calf jumped out at me. I didn’t really have anything to do this. You know, the inability to take responsibility for your actions is certainly not a good sign of leadership, and we will see more of that. It’s I’m not going to spoil it, but Monday’s text opens with some lines that seem to indicate that Aaron has failed in that regard pretty significantly.

00:19:00:05 – 00:19:20:04
Michael Gewecke
I guess my only final note here is Clint. You just remember, especially if you were with us a couple studies ago, remember the fact that the calf is a symbol, a religious symbol in in the opponents of Israel, these other foreign people that that is an important detail in this conversation.

00:19:20:04 – 00:19:21:16
Clint Loveall
Not a random image.

00:19:21:18 – 00:19:42:19
Michael Gewecke
No, it’s not as if this idea that the calf jumps out is neutral. I mean, it might be for you and for me, because we can’t imagine the idea of a calf jumping out at us. But for people who have lived in a world where the calf represents another God, another being who has the power to rule and overrule a people or lead them forward.

00:19:42:52 – 00:20:09:46
Michael Gewecke
This to whatever extent we said over and over and over again, Clint, that this story of God and Pharaoh was a war story where God and Pharaoh were at war with one another. Here the people have allowed in the center of the camp like a Trojan horse. They’ve let another God run free. And that is the depravity that that’s the bottom bedrock, horrible brokenness we’re seeing.

00:20:10:04 – 00:20:37:35
Michael Gewecke
It is not sort of a neutral while that’s, you know, a sad choice that they made. No, no. This is the people welcoming in a foreign god in the face of the one true god. And that’s the kind of reversal that Aaron is not only giving voice to, but he’s abdicating, allowing that that’s the huge schism between reality and this sort of imagined world happening here.

00:20:37:37 – 00:20:59:52
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think you could take that so far as to say not only did they allow it, Michael, they traded they they essentially said we rather have that other God than the one we have or the one that brought it. We’re we’re we’re switching we’re switching teams. And there’s a sense in which that’s part of the narrative here that’s happening.

00:20:59:52 – 00:21:19:03
Clint Loveall
If you understand the imagery of the calf. I think so. Lots to think about really powerful passage. It continues for a little bit. We’ll pick it up there in the story on Monday. Thanks for being with us.