Exodus 32:1-14

When you are feeling scared and alone, what do you look to for help? There are many things in this life that can cause us to feel anxious and isolated. A relational problems, serious illness, drawing near to the end of one’s earthly life, uncertainty about the future, financial or vocational challenges are just a few of the circumstances that can cause us to be fearful or to feel alienated.

Lord knows there are more problems than you can shake a stick at these days. Between the pandemic, the presidential election, a supreme court justice nomination, yet another hurricane, wildfires, hate groups, crime, and unrest, you would have to be unconscious not to have at least some angst.

In this morning’s reading from Exodus 32, we find the children of Israel feeling very uneasy about their circumstances and future.

It seems odd to us that they would be so unsettled. They had seen firsthand the mighty acts of God. They had witnessed the plagues against Egypt. They had seen the waters of the Red Sea part to allow them to escape from Pharaoh’s soldiers who were pursuing them. They had witnessed the same waters collapse on their enemies, drowning them and delivering the fleeing Israelites. They had been led day and night through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud and a column of fire. Water from a rock gushed forth for them in the desert wasteland satisfying their thirst. The bread of heaven appeared each morning covering the ground to feed them. The LORD God had given them the ten commandments. And the glory of God continued to rest on the peak of Mount Sinai. God’s glory had the appearance of a cloud and a devouring fire.

But despite all these experiences, the people felt anxious and abandoned. Moses had been on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. As verse 1 observes, “The people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain.” They went to Aaron, Moses’ brother, and said, “As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

Their fear drove them to make a shocking request of Aaron. They said, “Come, make gods for us who shall go before us.” Given all they had witnessed, their demand seems almost unfathomable, but their request shows how powerful fear and uncertainty are. Their demand was profoundly wrong-headed. It violated the first and second commandments. “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:2). “You shall not make for yourself an idol” (Ex. 20:4). But they were desperate for a leader and for guidance.

Aaron’s response to their request is equally surprising. He does not try to stall them or talk them out of it. Instead, he asks for their gold earrings. In all likelihood these ornaments were part of the plunder of Egypt. After the final plague, the Israelites asked the Egyptians for jewelry of silver and gold and the Egyptians gladly gave it to them to be rid of them (Ex. 12:35-36). Aaron took the gold, melted it, and cast it into an image of bull calf. The Hebrew word implies that the calf was probably in the semblance of a fully grown animal just about to reach maturity.

The Egyptians worships a god called Apis who took the form of a bull. He was a manifestation of Ptah, the creator god. The inhabitants of Canaan worshipped Baal who is often depicted as riding a bull. The bull was a symbol of the strength and power of the deity.

It is difficult to know from the text whether Aaron envisioned the Egyptian god Apis or the Canaanite god Baal, or whether he and the people conceived of the idol as a representation of Yahweh. On the one hand Aaron says, “These are your gods (plural), O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (vs. 4). But there was only one graven image. But Aaron also made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD” (vs. 5). I think it is likely that they borrowed familiar images to depict Yahweh.

In any case, the people offered burn offerings and sacrifices of well-being on the altar Aaron had erected before the image of the bull. It seems it was quiet a party that followed. They sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel (vs. 6). The Hebrew word for “revel” has unsavory connotations.

The people’s fear and anxiety and uncertainty and isolation were gone. Now they had a visible, tangible deity to trust in who would go before them into the promised land.

We might be tempted to have contempt for the Israelites and their idolatrous revelry. But we should guard against imagining that if we had been in their shoes, we would have remained loyal and true to the LORD.

As John Calvin repeatedly observed, the human heart is a factory of idols. We are forever tempted to substitute something that promises security, stability, and certainty for the one true God.

In the times we are living through, we are tempted to look to political leaders or political parties to save us and lead us. We are prone to trust in financial resources, science, technology, or modern medicine to deliver us from our woes. All these things are created by God for our good, but none of them are worthy of our ultimate trust. They cannot provide lasting security or well-being.

The Israelites should have looked to Mt. Sinai and Moses. We should look to God and to God’s mediator for our needs and desires. God is still seated on the throne of his glory in his holy heaven and Jesus Christ is seated at God the Father’s right-hand interceding for us. Come what may, our hope is in the Lord our God who made heaven and earth. The Israelites should have looked to Mt. Sinai, and we should lift up our eyes to the highest heaven from whence comes our help.

In fact, the real action was happening on the top of Mount Sinai. Israel’s was being weighed in the balances and found wanting. The LORD was incredibly angry. You can see God’s displeasure in the way he addressed Moses. The LORD says to Moses, “Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely” (vs. 7). In effect, God was saying, “They are not my people; they are your people.” God is so wroth that he commands Moses to leave him alone so his wrath may burn hot against them and consume them (vs. 10). God even goes so far as to offer to make Moses the new Abraham and start all over again.

Israel was oblivious to all of this. They were busy celebrating while the sword of judgment was ready to strike. They should have been focused on what was happening on Mt. Sinai, instead of partying on the plain. And we must not be unconscious either of the true sources of our bliss. God is the one who weighs us in the balance and determines our destiny as individuals and as a people.

Thankfully, Modes did not follow God’s instruction! Instead, Moses intercedes for Israel before the LORD. Moses makes three arguments to save his people. First, it is kind of like when a parent comes home from work and the other parent says to them, “Do you know what your children did today?” Moses says to God, Israel is your people. You brought them out of the land of Egypt. They are not my children; they are yours.

Next, Moses raises the problem of “What will the neighbors think?” Moses says, “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 your people” (vs. 12).

And finally, Moses reminds God of the LORD’s own words. This is always a clincher in an argument. “Remember what you said?” Moses says, “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’ ” (vs. 13).

And remarkably, the LORD changes his mind! “And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people” (vs. 14).

God has changed his mind about us too. Because of Jesus, our mediator, our intercessor, God no longer reckons our transgressions, our idolatries, against us. I was reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul. “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life” (Romans 5:8-10). Jesus has turned away God’s wrath. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, God has changed his mind about us.

Brother and sisters, we are living through exceedingly difficult times. We all long for deliverance from the things and people that threaten us. But do not let yourself trust in things that cannot save you. Remember what the Apostle Paul said about ancient Israel. “These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So, if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall” (1 Cor. 10:11).

Let us learn from Israel’s mistakes. Let us heed the exhortation of the apostle John. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

Let us keep our faith, our hope, our love focused where it should be, on God who does all things well. Let us look to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who intercedes at God’s right hand for us. Let us lift up our eyes to heaven from whence comes our help. Our hope comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Our hope is in the LORD our God. Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Amen!