Matt's Messages - The Broken Covenant

"The Broken Covenant"
August 7, 2005
Exodus 32:1-35

Let me remind you where we have been. Israel has been camped at the foot of Mount Sinai. The LORD has rescued them from Egypt, brought them to Himself at Mount Sinai, and came Himself at Mount Sinai in an amazing manifestation that would have left Steven Spielberg in shock. Then, at Mount Sinai, God gave them the Law, made a Covenant with them, and called Moses up to fellowship with Himself at the top of the mountain.

Moses has been up there 40 days and 40 nights receiving the blueprints for the building of the tabernacle and the instructions on establishing the Aaronic Priesthood. In the meantime, Aaron himself has been left in charge of the people camped at the base of the mountain.

Let me ask you, what is the next thing that should happen in this story?

The next thing that should happen is that they build the tabernacle just as the LORD commanded. Moses should come down the mountain with the Tablets of Testimony inscribed by the very finger of God (whatever that means!) and armed with the blueprints for the tabernacle and the priesthood. And the people should immediately begin building the headquarters for the Great Holy King of Israel and place the Tablets of Testimony which stand for the Covenant with God inside of the Ark of the Testimony at the very center of the Tabernacle.

Is that what happened?

Alas, no.

No. Instead, before Moses can even come down from the mountain, the covenant that He has mediated between God and Israel is broken. Completely broken.
And Exodus chapter 32 is the sad, sad story of the breaking of this covenant.

As we read it this morning, I want to point out to you six things.

Who is the "main character" of the book of Exodus? Is it Moses? Is it Aaron?

No, it is God.

God is the main character of the book of Exodus. Even as His covenant is broken by a stiff-necked Israel, God is the main character of the story. And I want to point out six things about God as we read Exodus chapter 32 and apply them to our lives.

Let’s pray and then get started.

[prayer]

Exodus chapter 32, verse 1.

"When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.’" Pause there.
Are you ready for this act of betrayal? I don’t think Aaron was.

The people were probably pretty scared. They had had a frightening year. They had seen a lot of amazing things happen. And it all seemed to swarm around Moses.

But Moses was nowhere to be seen. He had been gone for more than a month. And the people were getting scared.

And they were getting rebellious.

Instead of trusting, instead of waiting, instead of praying, they turn to their own devices. They ask Aaron to make them a god (or gods).

"Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."
And Aaron, the great High Priest, immediately gives in. V.2

"Aaron answered them, ‘Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, ‘Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.’" Pause there.

This is a direct violation of the 2nd Commandment which was just given to these people about a month ago. It is not (technically) another god like that which is prohibited by the 1st Commandment. It is a graven image. This golden calf is meant to stand in some way for YHWH. Probably emphasizing His strength. But of course, those kinds of idols always lead to false worship of other gods, as well. This is so evil, so wrong. "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."

And there is Aaron in the middle of it! He’s probably trying to control things by playing along with their wishes but supposedly making it all about YHWH. "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD" Yeah, right. V.6

"So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry." Pause there.

1 Samuel 15:22 and 23. "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry."

There is no obedience here.

Remember what they said at least three times before Moses went up the mountain?

Exodus 24, verse 7, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey."

There is no obedience here. There is an outward show of religiosity, but there is no obedience. And God sees it.

The golden calf cannot hear or feel or see their worship.

But God can.

#1. GOD’S SIGHT. V.7

"Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' ‘I have seen these people,’ the LORD said to Moses, ‘and they are a stiff-necked people." Pause there.

"I have seen these people." They may not know where Moses is or what Moses is doing. But God knows where they are and what they are doing.

"I have seen these people."

God sees.

There is nothing hidden from God.
God sees their covenant-breaking behavior.
God knows what is going on.

The Bible says, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

Do you know that? Do you live that way?

Do you live in God’s sight?

Or are you trying to get away with something? You put on a good show before others, but inside or when no one is looking...There is never a time when absolutely no one is looking.

Someone is always watching.

That website you visited this week. That email you shot off. That business deal that you conducted under the table. That agreement you made with a friend. That thing you said under your breath.
Someone is always watching. What a difference it would make if we lived like it.

We live in God’s sight. V.9 again.

‘I have seen these people,’ the LORD said to Moses, ‘and they are a stiff-necked people."

That’s not a thing that you want said about you. Stiff-necked. It’s a farm-animal illustration. A donkey, an oxen, a horse that won’t turn its head when the rope is pulled. It means stubborn, willful, rebellious, stiff-necked.

And that kind of behavior (seen by the LORD) brings His wrath.

#2. GOD’S ANGER.

Did you notice what pronoun God used about Israel in v.7?

It’s the scariest thing He’s said in the whole book of Exodus so far!

"Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt."

Whose people? Moses’ people? That’s not what He used to call them. Now he gets to threatening. V.10

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

God’s anger.

God is angry. And well He should be. He has done everything for them, and they repay Him with this kind of rebellious treachery!

God is angry. And He even threatens to wipe out the entire nation.

And start over again. This time with Moses. Moses will be the "new Abraham."

God is angry with their sin.

God must hate sin because it is an offense against His holiness.

And this is idolatry of the first rank.

In the New Testament, this story is used by the Apostle Paul to warn us against the dangers of idolatry. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 7, Paul says, "Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.’"

Do not be idolaters. It brings the wrath of God.

Do not put something, anything in the place of God.

Only God should be God to us. Anything else is dangerous to us and inciting to wrath for Him.

Now, our idolatries don’t always look like this one.

Very few of us have had a drunken, orgy-like festival in front of a gold calf idol.

But we have all succumbed to the temptation to put something else before God. (And even thank God for it!)

And our idolatry does not make the Lord happy. Quite the opposite.

So we need to turn from it. Is there something in your life (perhaps hidden from others) that serves as an idol that must be toppled?

I know what mine is. Do you know yours? ....

The LORD was ready to wipe out Israel for their covenant breaking. Was Moses ready to let that happen? No. He began to intercede for his people. V.11

"But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. ‘O LORD,’ he said, ‘why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? [Notice how Moses turns around the pronouns!] Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.'’" Pause there.

Do you see what tack Moses takes with His prayer? Do you see the main thing that Moses uses as an argument before God for sparing His people?

#3. GOD’S GLORY.

Moses knows what God cares about most. The preservation of His glory. And so, it is the backbone of the argument of His prayer.

God’s Glory. (There are three parts to it here.)

- His Rescue of His People. V.11

"‘O LORD, why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?" You are glorious. You saved them. You rescued them at the Red Sea! Why would you destroy those whom you saved?

- His Reputation on the Line. V.12

"Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'?"

You are glorious! Why should the Egyptians be able to talk trash about you? You wiped their faces! Don’t let them have anything on you.

- His Promises to the Patriarchs. V.13

"Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self [Gen 22]: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.'"

What do we call that, O Genesis scholars? The Abrahamic Covenant. Even if they break the Mosaic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant still stands.

Moses reminds God what we learned again and again in the book of Genesis.

God always what? God always keeps His promises.

The whole book of Exodus is a testimony to that.

God is glorious. He always keeps His promises. He can’t stop now.

That’s what Moses reminds Him.

The thing that is most important to God is God’s glory. And it is the centerpiece of Moses’ prayer.

Do you pray like this? Do you remind God of what He has promised? Do you pray for God’s glory? Do you pray based upon God’s glory?

Was Moses doing the right thing by entreating God like this? You bet He was!

And we should do something similar in our prayers.

And here’s the amazing thing!

#4. GOD’S RESPONSE.

God relents! God (humanly speaking, on one level) changes His mind. V.14

"Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened."

God yielded to Moses’ request! He said, "Okay. I won’t."

His response was to relent.

That is absolutely amazing!

The Lord of Heaven and Earth listened to Moses and changed His course of action.

Now, that raises a whole host of questions, doesn’t it?

I thought God was unchanging!
I thought God always did what He wants to.
I thought God wasn’t a "man that He should change His mind" (Num 23:19, 1 Sam 15:19)

And you know what, those are all true. (Even though there are movements in theology today that try to deny them.)

But this is the story from our perspective. Down on our level. Right here, we aren’t privy to God’s secret and unchangeable will.

Instead, what we see right here is God being responsive to His servant Moses.

We see God allowing Himself to be entreat-able. Allowing Himself (from our limited human perspective) to be persuaded.

We see God allowing Himself to be responsive to the prayers of His servant.

I’m sure that in the "grand cosmic scheme of things" with a wide-angle lens, we would see that this was God’s unchanging plan all along.

But in the right here and the right now of this story (which is how we live a lot of our stories, isn’t it?), we see God responding to His servant’s prayer.

And that gives us great hope for our prayers, doesn’t it? Our prayers actually affect God. We don’t understand how. But we see it right here, don’t we?

We talk to God. God acts.
We pray. God answers.
We pour out our troubles to Him, and He doesn’t turn a deaf ear.

Our unchanging God is unchangingly responsive to His people!

V.14 again. "Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened."

Our unchanging God is unchangingly responsive to His people!

Do you pray?

God has given His creatures the dignity of being used in the running of His universe by designing prayer.

He responds to our prayers.

We need to pray along the lines of God’s glory.
But we also need to expect to see God answer.

Our unchanging God is unchangingly responsive to His people!

Israel’s Sin.
God’s Sight.
God’s Anger.
God’s Glory.
God’s Response.
Now, God’s Men.

#5. GOD’S MEN. V.15

"Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. [What did these tablets symbolize again? [The whole covenant.]] When Joshua [Moses’ assistant who must have been with him or at least some of the way up the mountain...when Joshua] heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, ‘There is the sound of war in the camp.’ [Uh oh! But] Moses replied: ‘It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.’ [It sounds like a party. Like some kind of a festival or celebration. Moses knows what it is. Now, he sees it for himself. V.19] When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. [What’s that mean? This covenant is broken!] And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it [They had to own this covenant breaking by drinking it in.]. He said to Aaron, ‘What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?’ ‘Do not be angry, my lord,’ Aaron answered. [I can’t handle it when people are mad at me!] ‘You know how prone these people are to evil. [I blame it on them!] They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.' So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!’
Yeah, right. It just happened! It was a miracle! I don’t think so, Aaron! V.25

"Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, ‘Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.’ And all the Levites rallied to him. [Both Aaron and Moses were Levites, too.] Then he said to them, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'’ The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. Then Moses said, ‘You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.’" Pause there.

God’s Men.

Moses could see that order and holiness needed to be restored.

And it wouldn’t be an easy job.

So he said, "Who is on the Lord’s side?"

And God’s Men showed up. They loved God and God’s glory more than their own families and friends. And they stood for God’s glory. I don’t know if they stood for God during the "festival" on the previous day. But they did this day. And they were blessed for it.

The Lord Jesus said we must love Him so much that it looks like we hate our families in comparison. (Even though loving Him means loving our families for Him.)

God’s Men are loyal like Levi.

They are fiercely loyal to God and His glory and His Gospel!

Are you one of God’s Men?
Or God’s Women?

Are you fiercely loyal to God even when the world around you goes the wrong direction?

God is not asking His men in this age to take up arms for His name.
He is asking them to lay down their lives for His name and to share His name with the nations.

Are you one of God’s Men or Women?

Fiercely loyal no matter what your neighbors are doing?

Aaron wasn’t that day. He had the Fear of Man so strong.

So often, I have been an Aaron! I ashamed of my half-heartedness and cowardliness.

But I want to be loyal like Levi.

And I want it for you, as well. I want this blessing for you.

The sixth, and last thing I want us to see is God’s Mediator.

#6. GOD’S MEDIATOR.

That’s what Moses has been doing. Now, he tries to do it one more time. V.30

"The next day Moses said to the people, ‘You have committed a great sin. [You have broken the covenant!] But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.’ [Remember, there is no tabernacle yet. And Moses knows that God’s anger requires propitiation. He heads back up the mountain, up to the "Holy of Holies," what will this great man offer as a sacrifice? V.31] So Moses went back to the LORD and said, ‘Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin–but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.’ [Take me, instead.] The LORD replied to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. [The answer is no. However, v.34] Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of [the Promised Land], and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.’ And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made."

The story is not finished here. The status of the covenant is still: "broken." It is unclear what the relationship is between Israel and the YHWH.

Moses will go back to interceding next week in chapter 33.

But we’re going to stop here for this week and consider his offer to be "blotted out" instead of Israel for their sins.

Question: Why didn’t YHWH accept Moses’ offer?

Answer: Moses wasn’t pure enough.

Yes, a sacrifice was needed for atonement.
Yes, in fact, Moses was right that a man would be needed to mediate this sacrifice.

But Moses was not without sin himself.

As great an intercessor as Moses is proving to be (what a change has come over Him over the course of this book!), he is not great enough to stand as substitute for all the people.

No.

One greater than Moses must come for that.

The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s Perfect Mediator.

The Bible says, "God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

That’s what was happening 2000 years ago on the Cross.

Jesus was doing what Moses could not do.

He was being "blotted out of the book" on our behalf.

The God Who sees what we do in secret...
The God Who hates sin and must punish it...
The God Whose glory is uppermost in His heart...
Was the God Who responded to our Savior’s choice to take on our sins,
And because of His sacrifice forgave us our sins and gave us eternal life and gives us the ability to be God’s Men and Women, fiercely loyal to Him and His glory (zealous to do good works!).

All because of God’s Perfect Mediator.