Exodus 32:7-14

Transcript

00:00:01:26 – 00:00:31:11
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. Mid-week, as we continue through the book of Exodus. Glad to have you back with us as we go through. I don’t know, Michael, maybe in some ways, what is one of the signature chapters, Signature stories of the Book of Exodus? The Golden Calf we saw yesterday, the the initial part of the story where the people in Moses absence talk, Aaron, in possibly to helping them craft an idol.

00:00:31:12 – 00:00:56:29
Clint Loveall
And as it as it does both in the story and I think spiritually as well. Idolatry leads to revelry. And so that’s where we left off the story that the people sort of essentially break loose. They go crazy. And this is a wonderfully told story in that the scene shifts from bottom of the mountain to top of the mountain.

00:00:56:29 – 00:01:20:11
Clint Loveall
And and the way the story is told is kind of these vignettes of what what is happening. And then God and Moses having a conversation about what is happening. And that’s the part we pick up today here in verse seven of chapter 32. The Lord said, Moses, go down at once. Your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted perversely.

00:01:20:49 – 00:01:40:42
Clint Loveall
They have been quick to turn aside from the way I commanded them. They have cast for themselves the image of a calf and they have worshiped it and sacrificed to it. They have said, These are your gods or Israel who brought you from the land of Egypt. The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this. People, how stiff neck they are.

00:01:41:06 – 00:02:11:06
Clint Loveall
Now let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And of you, I will make a great nation. So we had some conversation yesterday about exactly what or wasn’t happening here in regard to the Golden calf and the sacrifices. God sort of clears that up today. God tells Moses, you know, the people are guilty, they’re worshiping an idol, they’ve sacrificed to the idol.

00:02:11:20 – 00:02:35:02
Clint Loveall
They’ve even said, these are your gods who brought you out of Egypt. I, I think that the part that makes me smile here and we have we haven’t talked about this for a while because of where the text has taken us. But early on in the Book of Exodus, we had several conversation about Moses being this middle person, this mediate intermediate between God and the people.

00:02:35:42 – 00:03:06:37
Clint Loveall
The people complained to Moses. God sometimes corrects Moses. There’s just this spot in which Moses often finds himself, which is kind of stuck between them and at times that must be a rock and a hard place. And I can’t help but notice that I think we start there. Michael, go down at once. Your people who you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted perversely and all of a sudden these are Moses people and I’m giving a little away.

00:03:06:37 – 00:03:28:31
Clint Loveall
But this isn’t the last we’re going to hear of this conversation. And so I just think it’s very interesting that God starts this by saying, look, your people, the ones you you led here, they’ve got it wrong. And I am angry at them. And it had to be one of those moments where maybe Moses wanted to say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, when did they become people?

00:03:28:42 – 00:03:54:43
Michael Gewecke
Stop that train. But here’s a really fascinating kind of turn in this story, because it is a abundance of contrasts where, like you led with Clint, the idea of you have on the mountain and at the foot of the mountain, you also have the God of gold cast by Aaron, this inhuman thing made from the gold that they took from their Egyptian oppressors.

00:03:54:43 – 00:04:23:08
Michael Gewecke
And here that in animate not a live thing is getting worshiped by the people while the living God who’s literally watching it and recounts I mean that’s the interesting part of this section is that God’s literally saying they made themselves an image they’ve worshiped, that they sacrificed, that God’s been watching this gods been the living God has been over this whole ordeal while the people have been giving all their adoration, worship, praise.

00:04:23:09 – 00:04:59:00
Michael Gewecke
We even talked about last time together, how that went beyond just kind of a spiritual practice to a very carnal kind of giving in to the base desires. And God’s watching this absolute sort of devolving happening amongst the people. And in the midst of that, God comes and has this this conversation, this living God comes and has a conversation with with Moses and says, you know, I’ve seen this people and how stiff neck they are and cling again, to your point, you got to wonder if Moses wouldn’t say, well, yeah, like at what point haven’t they been God?

00:04:59:00 – 00:05:21:28
Michael Gewecke
I mean there’s a very kind of, you know, oddly equal relationship in a place that you wouldn’t expect it between God and Moses. God saying, these are your people. You know, I see how stiff neck the Israelites are. We can almost empathetically imagine Moses in the midst of this exchange, feeling like he would have words to say back.

00:05:21:28 – 00:05:24:32
Michael Gewecke
And I think that’s an interesting nature of this kind of text.

00:05:24:32 – 00:05:53:29
Clint Loveall
Yeah. I think when we get to the next passage, we’ll see that he he does, in fact, have words to say back to that. But before we get there, you know, there’s an interesting this phrase, how stiff necked they are. I mean, clearly that means stubborn, it means wayward. But it’s an interesting tie, perhaps with the idea that they’ve built a golden calf because the most common use of this would have been a bull or an ox that wouldn’t be yoked.

00:05:53:30 – 00:06:24:34
Clint Loveall
You know, that that would blow up and would fight against being harnessed. And that’s the that’s essentially the imagery here that the people refuse to go the right direction. They refuse the leadership of God. They refuse the direction that God has given them. And I maybe the last time we saw something like this, we certainly saw God lashing out early in Exodus.

00:06:24:34 – 00:06:51:45
Clint Loveall
But the last time I can remember really kind of seeing this exact type of language, Michael would probably be Abraham bargaining for Sodom and Gomorrah. You know, the idea that let me let me burn against them, I’m going to lash out. I’m going to consume them, and I’m going to essentially start over with you, Moses And whether or not that’s a temptation of Moses.

00:06:51:45 – 00:07:41:49
Clint Loveall
You know, we don’t get told that Moses reflected on that. We go right into the next part of the story, which is Moses advocating on behalf of the people. But I suppose that this could be troubling the idea. But we’ve already been troubled by we’ve already seen God eliminate those who are unfaithful or who stand against him. That’s the very premise of the Book of Exodus in how God took care of or addressed Egypt and here God is is so angered, so offended by the sinfulness and the rebellion of the people that he’s ready to turn that wrath against them, even if it means that he just start over with Moses.

00:07:42:25 – 00:08:12:54
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And I do think another image that comes to mind, you mentioned Abraham bargaining with God. I think what also comes to mind is Noah. And in fact, the word here that we have translated that they have been they’ve acted perversely. This word actually is explicitly listed in that Noah narrative, that idea of ruin or destruction. And I think it’s it’s worth noting that while the people have a stiff neck, right, they won’t they won’t.

00:08:12:54 – 00:08:41:20
Michael Gewecke
They’ll bow up and they won’t submit to God’s leading. It’s interesting that they’re literally bowing to an idol. So this text just has these wonderful kind of opposites living together. The reality that the people have been saved from destruction, but they’re behaving in a way that is the image and the reflection of destruction they’re living in, the way that destroys God’s plan and would even destroy themselves.

00:08:41:20 – 00:08:58:57
Michael Gewecke
That God’s anger burns against them. God desires to be done with them. This is happening at the same time that these people are trying, as the text lays out, to have a new kind of allegiance to to worship in a new way. It it’s a fascinating mixture of opposites, and I think it’s intended to be that way.

00:08:58:58 – 00:09:34:06
Clint Loveall
Glenn Probably more so in ages past. Did our fathers and mothers in the faith talk about the wrath of God? There are elements of the Christian family where the wrath of God is still a fairly common theme. It is probably something that in the reformed Protestant tradition, particularly the Presbyterian tradition, we acknowledge but don’t often dwell on. And, you know, this is the Old Testament is full of reminders.

00:09:34:06 – 00:10:08:27
Clint Loveall
But I think, you know, this is certainly one that reminds us or puts us back in connection with the idea that God really does appall sin. I mean, God is infuriated God. God is ready to destroy over the rebellion and over the waywardness, over the the idolatry of the people. Our sin, human sin really does have that effect on God.

00:10:08:27 – 00:10:47:13
Clint Loveall
It’s not something that we like to think about. And being a tradition that so often emphasizes grace. It’s probably okay that we we don’t use it improperly or or maybe we don’t get carried away with that idea. But this is one of those moments I think, that maybe stops us short and helps us remember that that God does not look kindly upon human disobedience, that there is well, this language I mean, there is a rage here, a hot and burning fire against those who are against God.

00:10:48:05 – 00:11:10:33
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And let’s just name explicitly this text your verse ten. God says, Let me alone. I think that’s a very, very striking statement. This idea that God is saying to Moses, sort of get out of the way, in other words. And I think the idea that you mentioned, Clint, that Moses as mediator, I think we might find some humor in that.

00:11:10:33 – 00:11:45:34
Michael Gewecke
You know, Moses caught in the middle between an angry God and these people. But there is a kind of once again, going back to your example of Abraham, I think it’s worth noting there is a tradition that has happened already in Genesis and here there’s a real kind of courage, even gall, you might say, as Moses responds to that, as Moses, not only stands before God that says, Get out of the way, I’m going to just make a great nation through you instead of Moses thinking, Well, that would be great for me to be the person who it’s all about.

00:11:45:34 – 00:12:05:00
Michael Gewecke
Now Moses understands his position of leadership as requiring stepping into the gap. And for all of Moses, says, frustrations that have been both not named but also explicitly name Clint. I mean, I think we should give him credit for what’s about to happen as he responds to God.

00:12:05:00 – 00:12:33:30
Clint Loveall
Yeah, yeah. Moses Part of yeah, part of this being an intermediary is to speak to both sides. And Moses takes that responsibility here. As we continue with verse 11, Moses implored the Lord, which is in strong language, implored the Lord His God, and said, Oh Lord, why does your wrath burn hard against your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

00:12:33:52 – 00:13:05:27
Clint Loveall
Why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath, change your mind, and do not bring disaster on the people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever.

00:13:06:16 – 00:13:47:40
Clint Loveall
And the Lord changed His mind about the disaster that He planned to bring on His people. This is a fascinating passage, Michael. First of all, this idea that Moses implores, and second of all, this language that the Egyptians will find out, the Egyptians are going to say bad things about you. This is going to hurt your reputation. And and then this idea of where Moses is in not instructing God, but certainly asking God and suggesting to God, turn from your fierce wrath, change your mind, and do not bring disaster on your people.

00:13:47:40 – 00:14:16:39
Clint Loveall
Remember your words that I think it’s maybe too strong to say that Moses is holding God accountable. Here, though there are those who would put it that way. I think this represents those traditions that we’ve seen, like Abraham having that conversation with God, a freedom that Moses has to have a very open dialog with the Almighty to say, you know, what happens if you do that?

00:14:16:39 – 00:14:36:52
Clint Loveall
If your anger goes unchecked, then what will be said about it? And what does that mean in terms of the other things you have said to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, the promises you’ve made to your people don’t do this thing. And then we have that, you know, that fascinating verse. At the end, the Lord changed his mind.

00:14:36:59 – 00:15:05:43
Clint Loveall
Sometimes that’s translated, relented, or the Lord turned in his thinking, changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on people. This Moses has clearly intervened here. That mediator role. He’s played that to the hilt, and he has saved the people. I mean, I think that’s really the way it’s written here. And I think that’s the proper way to understand Moses.

00:15:05:43 – 00:15:17:02
Clint Loveall
His actions have saved the people from God’s wrath. Now, that doesn’t mean from consequences there will still be consequences, but Moses has changed the direction that this was headed.

00:15:17:18 – 00:15:56:25
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, make no mistake about the linchpin of Moses argument here is ultimately upon God himself. I mean, when he says that you would be tantamount to you going back on the thing that you swore. I mean, that’s the language we have here. Verse 13, how you swore to them, Abraham, Isaac and Israel by your own self. That’s the linchpin argument, is to say the God, Hey, you promised to be faithful to the covenant, recognizing the myriad of ways that the people of Israel have already broken their side of the covenant, have done so in Genesis, continue to do so here and access.

00:15:57:00 – 00:16:19:46
Michael Gewecke
But the point that Moses makes is upon God’s own covenant. And as we learned throughout the whole of the Scriptures, God is faithful to the covenant. And so it’s with that argument that He stands before God, which I think is worth noting. Clint, you referenced that idea of some Christian traditions do emphasize the Ralph aspect or that’s in their theological vocabulary at a higher rate than maybe others.

00:16:19:46 – 00:16:48:36
Michael Gewecke
I think it’s worth noting, standing before the red hot anger of God, as the text says, it says anger. Standing before that anger, Moses says only recourse is to God himself. And that’s always the answer. By the way, standing before God. Even in that anger, the only hope for rescue, the only promise of salvation, and in that encounter will be upon God’s own faithfulness.

00:16:48:46 – 00:17:29:05
Michael Gewecke
And that’s deeply theological, very deeply historically Christian. And we see, I think, more nuanced and deeper aspects of it in the life of Jesus Christ. And what we come to know that he’s done for the world on the cross. But here, this idea that the Lord changed his mind is radical and let’s not just pass by it. This idea that in the midst of that divine relationship between Moses, the mediator, between the people whose sin is such that God finds it justifiable to wipe them out right in the midst of that moment, Moses stands upon the promise of God.

00:17:29:31 – 00:18:00:12
Michael Gewecke
Moses reflects that promise back to God, and God is as God is faithful to that promise and that relenting that that changing of mind as we have it translated here is ultimately, in some ways, I think, the hope of the gospel. I think that’s the hope of the faith that God is willing to change God’s mind, that God is willing to relent in the face of God’s own covenantal promises, and that that remains with us today a source of hope in our own faith.

00:18:00:21 – 00:18:32:58
Clint Loveall
I think it’s clear that we understand that Moses is not telling God that God is wrong. Moses is is asking God for God to consider another path, and that the tension here, we see it in the Old Testament, I think perhaps a little more clearly, but it exists in the New Testament as well. Is this struggle between love and justice, love and righteousness.

00:18:32:58 – 00:19:13:44
Clint Loveall
God is merciful and God is angry at sin. God loves us and hates our disobedience. And the interaction of those two realities makes for volatility in that middle where they overlap. It’s a dangerous place because God is nature of perfection, God’s nature of holiness is to lash out against sin, is to deal with evil and the people that God has loved him being good to have turned on him have done evil, have replaced him, literally saying, These are our gods now.

00:19:13:44 – 00:19:38:24
Clint Loveall
These gods brought us out of Egypt, not that God, these other gods that we made. And God is ready to to sort of take take his anger off the leash. And Moses is not telling him he would be wrong to do so. That’s not Moses. This place. Moses is saying, Remember that other part of your nature? Remember that covenant that you’ve given?

00:19:38:24 – 00:20:24:07
Clint Loveall
Remember the promises you’ve made and reconsider. Think about a different direction. And ultimately God is willing to extend another chance. God is willing rather than follow the path of punishment, of eradication, at least of destruction, to follow the path of mercy. Now, again, I want to put a small pin in that, because there is going to be punishment, there’s going to be serious consequences, but it will still be in the context of relationship of God and people.

00:20:24:07 – 00:20:27:54
Clint Loveall
There’s not an all altogether wholesale new start.

00:20:28:51 – 00:21:01:15
Michael Gewecke
The the text that we have before us is troubling, though. I think some of the outgrowth that will follow this story has its own form of troubling. And I think the fact that God relents in this moment is good news. I think some of the some of the communal destruction we’re going to see that will follow this story is unto itself very, very hard to read.

00:21:01:15 – 00:21:23:56
Michael Gewecke
I think that we might read a text like this and think, oh, they’re out of the woods. And I don’t think that is the case. In fact, I think Moses here who stands in the middle, is going to have a very interesting reaction in tomorrow’s study as he comes down the mountain himself. There are many waves that will come out of this golden calf experience.

00:21:24:16 – 00:21:57:18
Michael Gewecke
And that, I think, is relatively reflective of our own lives. I think that we often don’t see the waves of consequences of our own sin and brokenness, both the things that we are aware of. And if we’re going to ask the things we’re not aware of, those things have ripples. They go out in many different aspects. And being a person of faith, recognizing the gospel, being grateful even for God’s grace, doesn’t immediately spare us from the impact of the sin and destruction that’s happened because of actions taken either by us or maybe sometimes not.

00:21:57:30 – 00:22:16:40
Michael Gewecke
Maybe the things that have been done to us and in other in whatever way that happens, we we discover a God who will remain faithful with the people. But faithfulness does not necessarily mean a kind of blank slate response as the story moves forward.

00:22:16:55 – 00:22:43:49
Clint Loveall
Yeah, if you’ve you know, if you’ve painted you understand this. There are moments where the actions of your children need to be dealt with. There needs to be consequences. There needs to be punishment. But what there isn’t is the severing of relationship and ultimately God sides with relationship. The people are going to be held accountable. There’s going to be a terrible price to pay for what they’ve done.

00:22:44:20 – 00:23:21:12
Clint Loveall
But it’s not a total price. It’s not wholesale destruction. And ultimately, God is going to choose here, changing his mind, choosing instead not to sever the relationship, but to continue as graciously and and patiently be in some sense as possible with these sinful people who, by the way, aren’t going to all of a sudden shape up. I mean, God is not wrong in his assessment of the people.

00:23:21:12 – 00:23:45:25
Clint Loveall
They are stiff neck and that will continue to be the case. And so there’s a kind of volatility to their relationship that the people test God and God gets to his last nerve and then the whole thing starts over. And that’s a little bit the story we see with God in Israel, far beyond the pages of Exodus. It’s kind of woven into the human story.

00:23:46:26 – 00:24:00:41
Michael Gewecke
I think that both summarize this the story today as well as much of where we’ve been thus far. I hope that there’s been something interesting in this conversation today, and I certainly hope that you’ll join us tomorrow as we see what happens as Moses comes down the mountain. Until then, be blessed.

00:24:00:45 – 00:24:09:27
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.