Rev. David Holwick ZK Exodus series, #18
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
November 15, 2009
Exodus 32:1-10
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I. What do you do when God takes too long?
A. Distance doesn't always make the heart grow fonder.
1) Before Josiah went to college, he broke up with his
girlfriend(s).
He didn't want any long-distance relationships.
So he made a clean break.
2) Daniel took the opposite approach.
His girlfriend went out to school in Denver.
So Daniel moved to Denver too.
B. In both cases, they figured the distance would be too much.
1) How much separation could your relationships survive?
a) If your spouse or girlfriend moved away for a year,
would it be "splitsville"?
b) How about six months? One month?
2) Moses had been on Mount Sinai for less than a month.
a) That was too much for the people of Israel.
b) So they came up with an alternative god.
C. Real faith is able to go the distance.
1) It sticks with God, even when God doesn't seem to be around.
2) The real God of the Bible, not a man-made version.
II. The golden calf.
A. The people were tired of waiting for Moses.
1) They crowd around Aaron.
2) A hint of intimidation?
B. Aaron caves in to their pressure.
1) But he puts a spiritual twist on it. 32:4
a) He ties the idol in with the Exodus experience.
b) He sets up a festival, supposedly to honor the real God.
2) Later, when confronted by Moses, he comes up with excuses.
a) He blames their evil character. 32:22
b) They made me do it. 32:23
c) It was a miracle - this calf popped out of the fire. 24
C. God doesn't buy it.
1) Aaron's actions are thoroughly condemned.
III. What kind of idolatry was the golden calf?
A. It was not simply a duplication of Egyptian idols.
1) Egyptians worshipped live animals, not statues of them.
2) Archaeologists have dug up hundreds of thousands of
animal mummies in the sands of Egypt.
B. Canaanites in Palestine had calf statues.
1) Jews were culturally related to them, so it was a short
step for the Jews to adapt to their religion.
2) Recent archaeological finds illuminate this.
It is very stylish among the main-stream media to think of
the Bible as a collection of religious fables.
Ironically, the press itself has provided abundant evidence
that the Bible can indeed be trusted to speak the truth.
One example can be found in the Book of Exodus.
A few years ago, TIME magazine reported on the discovery
in Israel of a prototype of the infamous golden calf.
It said:
"While scientists have unearthed a few examples of bovine
idols, they have never found a calf that predates the
Exodus....
Recently, though, a team of Harvard archaeologists
announced they had done just that."
Archaeologist Lawrence Stager dated the Canaanite calf-idol
to about 1550 BC.
This date, derived from the Canaanite pottery found along
with the idol, "supports the belief that the Israelites
took some of their religious practices from other
Canaanites."
The Old Testament writers were constantly condemning the
Israelites for their tendency to worship Canaanite gods,
and this discovery confirms it.
#4306
C. Was the calf a replacement God or a mediator?
1) It is typical to think of the calf as an idol that was
worshipped.
a) The language in Exodus 32 suggests this: "make us gods."
2) However, some feel the calf was not a god, but a platform.
a) God was thought to hover on top of it.
b) They wanted a physical reminder of God's presence,
something that would act as a go-between.
This would be similar to the divine cloud that hovered
over the cherubim on the mercy seat of the ark.
(which had not been built yet)
c) It would lead the way for them - but not communicate
God's law to them. They didn't want that.
IV. The danger of images, statuary and icons.
A. Catholics and Orthodox Christians emphasize them.
1) Neither teaches the worship of statures or icons.
2) But in both, the people gravitate in that direction.
B. Often, pagan influences creep in.
1) Catholics bury St. Joseph upside down to sell their homes.
2) They pray to statues of Mary and other saints.
a) Visit St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and you'll
see numerous side chapels with statues and candles.
b) The people pray to them because they feel their
personal saint has a more intimate connection with
them than Jesus does.
c) But show me a verse in the Bible that says we cannot
connect with Jesus.
Hebrews 4:15-16 says,
"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who
has been tempted in every way, just as we are
-- yet was without sin.
Let us then approach the throne of grace with
confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help us in our time of need."
3) A Baptist missionary to Ethiopia describes a cross that is
so decorated you can barely see the cross.
a) The art ends up obscuring the spiritual reality.
#31420
V. It's a short step from idolatry to immoral living.
A. "Engage in revelry" suggests a wild party with immorality. 32:6
1) Later, the pagan prophet Balaam got them to do the same
thing.
2) The book of Revelation says Christians can get caught up
in it as well. Rev. 2:14
B. Human-oriented religion feeds the flesh.
1) Too much emphasis on emotional experience often leads to
moral weakness.
2) Some see this tendency among most evangelicals.
a) We want our salvation, but we don't want a lot of
pressure and guilt laid on us.
b) Our faith is based on grace, but that grace operates
within boundaries.
C. There are advantages in having a golden calf.
1) God has a face. And if you don't like how he looks, you
can alter him.
2) It doesn't make any moral demands on you.
a) (liberal theology and human-oriented religion)
b) Contrast with the God of the Bible.
VI. The calf was only half the picture.
A. Up on the mountain, Moses was communicating with God.
1) God informs him he wants to wipe out the Jews and start
over. 32:10
2) His anger is boiling over.
a) This is an anthropomorphism, a way of saying God is
really ticked off.
b) His anger is the anger of a spouse who has been
cheated on.
B. Moses intercedes for his people. 32:11
1) God needs to consider his reputation. 32:12
a) Wiping them out would make God look bad in the
eyes of foreigners.
2) God needs to remember his promises. 32:13
C. God relents. (King James Version: repents)
1) Does God change his mind?
a) Other passages say he cannot. Numbers 23:19
b) But sometimes he seems to.
1> Abraham dickered with him over Sodom.
2> Jonah proclaimed Nineveh's destruction, but
God let them off the hook.
2) Key factors:
a) Someone intercedes with God.
b) The objects of his anger end up repenting.
D. The calf had to be repudiated.
1) The idol was crushed, burned, and then they drank it.
2) Have you turned from your sin?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 4306 Mainstream Media Stories Confirm Bible's Accuracy," by Stephen
Caesar; Bible Proof Ministries, Merrimack, New Hampshire;
Pulpit Helps, January 1997, p. 25. The Time magazine article
is "The Return of the Golden Calf," by Michael Lemonik,
August 6, 1990, p. 57.
#31420 "In Ethiopia, Uncovering The Truth," by Southern Baptist
International Mission Board staff writers; Baptist Press,
<http://www.baptistpress.org>, November 14, 2009.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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