St Theodore's Sermon 14/6/98

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

Sermon of the Week 14/6/98

And Out Came This Calf
Exodus 32

You may have seen the bumper sticker that says: "Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost Too!" It'd be funny, if it weren't so often true that just because someone is out in front and moving forwards doesn't necessarily mean they're moving towards the right goal. One of the important things if you're a leader is that you know where you're going and that your goal is the right one. There's nothing sadder than a leader who's as lost as the people they're leading. Today's passage highlights that, as we look at what could be called the tale of two leaders. Two leaders who encounter difficult circumstances but deal with them quite differently.

Now remember that last week we saw how God had called Moses and Aaron, and Aaron's sons, and the 70 elders, up to the top of the mountain while he renewed the covenant with the people. And back in ch 19 it was Moses and Aaron who had gone up the mountain to receive the 10 commandments in the first place. As they had throughout the history of the Exodus, Moses and Aaron had both been at the centre of things, leading the people together and now, together receiving God's law.

But now, Moses had returned to the top of the mountain to receive the tablets of stone and the more detailed instructions about the ordering of the Nation's religious life. Aaron is left behind in charge of the people. And the days pass, and the people begin to get restless. It's been six weeks and they've heard nothing. The people are getting bored, they're even starting to wonder if something might have happened to Moses and maybe he won't return, and they're anxious to move on from this wilderness to the promised land. So the murmuring begins, until it spreads throughout the camp. "Let's move on." "Who needs Moses." "Why can't Aaron lead us. After all he was the official spokesman at the beginning." And so they all gather around Aaron, clamouring to be heard. "Come, make us Gods who will go before us!" They want a visible sign, something they can touch, a symbol they can look to that will assure them of success. The sort of thing they grew up with in Egypt. They're no different from so many religious people today really. People who want a religion that they can feel; who want religious symbols they can relate to, religious acts or ceremonies that touch them, until they end up depending on the religious experience rather than on God.

Well, Aaron had heard the same words as Moses and the people: "You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." He knows that God has specifically forbidden this. So here is the first real test of his leadership. What will he do? It's sad isn't it how quickly he gives in. One wonders what was going through his mind. Was it the suggestion that Moses wasn't coming back that made him think this was his big chance? Was he secretly pleased to have this opportunity to do some religious innovating. To give his Priesthood some depth and meaning. Or was he just plain scared that the people were going to start a rebellion and overthrow Moses and himself.

Well, whatever it is, he folds under the pressure. He says "OK. Take off your gold earrings and bring them to me." He melts them down and casts them into the shape of a calf. Now let's not miss that because it's important to what comes later: (Exo 32:4) "He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf."

Now even if we don't know what was going through Aaron's mind at this stage, there's no doubt what the people were thinking. When they saw the calf they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" And they began to worship them. How quickly they'd forgotten that there was only one God. Here was a god they could see and understand, just like the gods they'd seen in Egypt: a god that could be the focus for their worship. In a sense it didn't matter to them who it was they were worshipping as long as they had something to focus on. This idol satisfied the human need to worship something, even if they weren't quite sure what they were worshipping.

But Aaron immediately realised his mistake. Or perhaps this was his plan all along. He couldn't have them returning to paganism, so he quickly built an altar in front of the calf and told the people 'Tomorrow there will be a festival to Yahweh, to the Lord.' This is a classic compromise isn't it? If the people must have an idol, at least let them concentrate their devotion on the true God. It sounds like a convincing enough case doesn't it? Never mind that the two are incompatible. Never mind that God has commanded them not to make graven images. We can have our cake and eat it too! But it doesn't work. Again, this is something that people today are still trying to do. People, for example, who try to follow Buddhist mysticism in the guise of Christian meditation. They'll chant a mantra that uses Christian words but in the end what they're doing has more to do with a Buddhist world view than the Christian gospel. At the other end of the spectrum are those, like many of the Tele-evangelists, who try to use the techniques of mass media marketing and mass hysteria to promote the gospel, rather than letting the gospel promote itself.

Well, the scene switches to the top of the mountain. The Lord says to Moses: (Ex 32:7) "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;" Notice that they're no longer 'My people.' They're now 'Your people whom you brought out of Egypt.' God is disowning them. Then he says (Ex 32:9-10) "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. ¹⁰Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation." Notice what's going on here? It's as though God is asking permission of Moses: "Let me alone." "Don't try to stop me." The God of heaven and earth is asking permission of Moses to destroy these people whom he's just rescued from Egypt. And he's offering to make Moses the new father of a great nation in their place. Or is it that what God is doing, is placing before Moses the greatest test yet of his leadership?

Well, how will he respond? Aaron has folded in the face of pressure from the people. How will Moses react to this test from God? Will he accept the offer, or will he look for an alternative? He responds (v11) by pleading with God on behalf of the people. Here's a classic example of a prayer to God for mercy. Notice that he doesn't plead their innocence. He doesn't claim that they're worthy of God's forgiveness. He doesn't suggest that they're basically good people who just made a bad mistake. No, he pleads on the basis of who God is. He reminds God that this is still his special people, whom he rescued from Egypt. He points out what the Egyptians would make of it if the nation were to perish now. And he appeals to God's promise to Abraham. It was Abraham, not Moses, who, God promised, would be the father of many nations. How could God go back on his word now. So God relents. He listens to Moses and doesn't destroy the people as he'd threatened.

Moses shows all the characteristics of a godly leader. He isn't interested in his own welfare, rather in the welfare of his people. He knows God's word and depends on it. And his primary interest is in God's glory.

Well, the people have escaped destruction, but they haven't entirely escaped judgement. Moses goes down the mountain, carrying the tablets of stone engraved by the finger of God - these precious symbols of the covenant between God and his people. But when he sees the calf and the revelry he explodes in anger. He smashes the tablets on the rocks, symbolising the breaking of the covenant. He takes the calf and destroys it. He burns it in the fire, he grinds it to dust and finally mixes it with water and makes the people drink it as a symbol of their integral involvement in this act of apostasy. It's just like the way last week we saw how he sprinkled the blood of the covenant over them to symbolise the seriousness of the covenant God was making with them. So here they're made to actually consume the remains of the calf.

Then he turns to Aaron and asks (Ex 32:21-24) "What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?" He can't believe that Aaron could have stood by and let it happen. "Did they torture you?" he seems to be saying. Well, no, they hadn't had they? What had happened was that Aaron was afraid of losing control. He thought he had a rebellion on his hand. So he'd compromised. But in fact, in the very act of capitulation he'd lost control far worse than he'd imagined. But now, as he's confronted by Moses he makes it worse. He tries to pass the buck. "You know what these people are like. They're bent on evil. They virtually forced me to make them an idol." He passes the blame first onto the people. But then he goes on "Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" Wonder of wonders. "I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" Do you see what he's saying? It's God's fault. All Aaron did was to throw the gold into the fire. God must have shaped it into a calf. Now of course we know that this is a complete distortion. We've already read that Aaron formed a mold and cast it into the shape of a calf. But here he's just slightly retelling what happened so the blame doesn't fall entirely onto him.

Isn't it easy to do? Isn't it easy to pass the buck. Isn't it easy to emphasise some parts of the truth and forget others, so that we can blame anyone other than ourselves. Isn't it easy to think that our actions are justified because of what someone else has done to us in the past. To even think that God is to blame for the wrong decisions we've made. I've known people who have refused to take responsibility for their own actions because of the way they've been hurt in the past. People who continue to live out those hurts in their current situations and relationships rather than face them and do away with them altogether. Worse still, who use them as excuses, often subconsciously, for hurting others. We need to be honest with ourselves about our own failings, so we can be honest in our dealings with others. If you're someone who's been deeply hurt by someone in the past, then you have a right to be aggrieved. What was done to you was wrong! But don't let that hurt live on as an excuse for your own failures. When we read Aaron's excuse we can see how weak it was. He couldn't pass the buck onto others and especially not onto God. He needed to accept his own responsibility honestly. He'd failed as a leader of his people and this idolatry was the result. Worse, the judgment that was about to come on the people was largely due to his failure as a leader.

Moses saw that something needed to be done quickly if this orgy wasn't to get totally out of hand. So he calls all of those who are for the Lord to come to him and to exact a ruthless punishment on the people, and 3000 people die before the orgy is stopped.

Notice what happens next. I guess Moses hadn't realised just how serious the people's sin was when he was with the Lord. But now he returns to the mountain top to plead with God, to try to make atonement for their sin. And what does he do? Rather than distancing himself from the people, he identifies with them. He begs for forgiveness. And he offers his own life in their place. He does exactly what Jesus does as the leader of the new people of God. He's prepared to give up his own life in order to bring life to his people. And God grants him his plea. He'll let the people live, although there will come a time when he'll punish them for their sins.

So we have here two examples of leadership. Aaron, who fails because he doesn't trust God to protect him against the crowd, and who doesn't take God's word seriously, and Moses, who remembers not just God's law but also God's promises and who in humility puts the welfare of his people and the glory of God before his own welfare. And as we look at Moses example, we're reminded of Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but emptied himself taking the nature of a servant. Christian leadership involves humility and the willingness to give up ourselves for the sake of those we lead. Giving up ourselves may entail giving up our time, our careers, our ambitions, our comfortable lifestyle. For example those who serve on Vestry, or who serve as leaders of youth group or Theo's Crew or Bible studies commit that most precious commodity, time, for the sake of those they lead. In the Christian Church, leadership means service.

Even if you don't see yourself in a position of leadership, this passage still speaks to you. The temptation to idolatry that the people of Israel faced wasn't unique. The temptation to look to idols for security or for religious fulfillment is just as great today as it was back then. But God has revealed the truth to us about security and religious fulfillment. That is, that the only way to be secure, the only way to be truly fulfilled, is to have faith in Jesus Christ. And he's placed us in a Christian fellowship so we can encourage one another to remain faithful to Jesus Christ rather than turning to the idols of our day.

Let's pray for ourselves that we'll avoid the temptation to look to gods other than the true and living God and his Son Jesus Christ, and lets pray for our leaders that they'll be Godly men and women who follow the examples of Moses, and of Jesus: prepared to lead by example, in humility, even if it means giving up their lives for the sake of God's people.


	Contact us	Preaching Program	Home		Last Week's Sermon

	You may have seen the bumper sticker that says: "Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost Too!" It'd be funny, if it weren't so often true that just because someone is out in front and moving forwards doesn't necessarily mean they're moving towards the right goal. One of the important things if you're a leader is that you know where you're going and that your goal is the right one. There's nothing sadder than a leader who's as lost as the people they're leading. Today's passage highlights that, as we look at what could be called the tale of two leaders. Two leaders who encounter difficult circumstances but deal with them quite differently.
	Now remember that last week we saw how God had called Moses and Aaron, and Aaron's sons, and the 70 elders, up to the top of the mountain while he renewed the covenant with the people. And back in ch 19 it was Moses and Aaron who had gone up the mountain to receive the 10 commandments in the first place. As they had throughout the history of the Exodus, Moses and Aaron had both been at the centre of things, leading the people together and now, together receiving God's law.
	But now, Moses had returned to the top of the mountain to receive the tablets of stone and the more detailed instructions about the ordering of the Nation's religious life. Aaron is left behind in charge of the people. And the days pass, and the people begin to get restless. It's been six weeks and they've heard nothing. The people are getting bored, they're even starting to wonder if something might have happened to Moses and maybe he won't return, and they're anxious to move on from this wilderness to the promised land. So the murmuring begins, until it spreads throughout the camp. "Let's move on." "Who needs Moses." "Why can't Aaron lead us. After all he was the official spokesman at the beginning." And so they all gather around Aaron, clamouring to be heard. "Come, make us Gods who will go before us!" They want a visible sign, something they can touch, a symbol they can look to that will assure them of success. The sort of thing they grew up with in Egypt. They're no different from so many religious people today really. People who want a religion that they can feel; who want religious symbols they can relate to, religious acts or ceremonies that touch them, until they end up depending on the religious experience rather than on God.
	Well, Aaron had heard the same words as Moses and the people: "You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." He knows that God has specifically forbidden this. So here is the first real test of his leadership. What will he do? It's sad isn't it how quickly he gives in. One wonders what was going through his mind. Was it the suggestion that Moses wasn't coming back that made him think this was his big chance? Was he secretly pleased to have this opportunity to do some religious innovating. To give his Priesthood some depth and meaning. Or was he just plain scared that the people were going to start a rebellion and overthrow Moses and himself.
	Well, whatever it is, he folds under the pressure. He says "OK. Take off your gold earrings and bring them to me." He melts them down and casts them into the shape of a calf. Now let's not miss that because it's important to what comes later: (Exo 32:4) "He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf."
	Now even if we don't know what was going through Aaron's mind at this stage, there's no doubt what the people were thinking. When they saw the calf they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" And they began to worship them. How quickly they'd forgotten that there was only one God. Here was a god they could see and understand, just like the gods they'd seen in Egypt: a god that could be the focus for their worship. In a sense it didn't matter to them who it was they were worshipping as long as they had something to focus on. This idol satisfied the human need to worship something, even if they weren't quite sure what they were worshipping.
	But Aaron immediately realised his mistake. Or perhaps this was his plan all along. He couldn't have them returning to paganism, so he quickly built an altar in front of the calf and told the people 'Tomorrow there will be a festival to Yahweh, to the Lord.' This is a classic compromise isn't it? If the people must have an idol, at least let them concentrate their devotion on the true God. It sounds like a convincing enough case doesn't it? Never mind that the two are incompatible. Never mind that God has commanded them not to make graven images. We can have our cake and eat it too! But it doesn't work. Again, this is something that people today are still trying to do. People, for example, who try to follow Buddhist mysticism in the guise of Christian meditation. They'll chant a mantra that uses Christian words but in the end what they're doing has more to do with a Buddhist world view than the Christian gospel. At the other end of the spectrum are those, like many of the Tele-evangelists, who try to use the techniques of mass media marketing and mass hysteria to promote the gospel, rather than letting the gospel promote itself.
	Well, the scene switches to the top of the mountain. The Lord says to Moses: (Ex 32:7) "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;" Notice that they're no longer 'My people.' They're now 'Your people whom you brought out of Egypt.' God is disowning them. Then he says (Ex 32:9-10) "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. ¹⁰Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation." Notice what's going on here? It's as though God is asking permission of Moses: "Let me alone." "Don't try to stop me." The God of heaven and earth is asking permission of Moses to destroy these people whom he's just rescued from Egypt. And he's offering to make Moses the new father of a great nation in their place. Or is it that what God is doing, is placing before Moses the greatest test yet of his leadership?
	Well, how will he respond? Aaron has folded in the face of pressure from the people. How will Moses react to this test from God? Will he accept the offer, or will he look for an alternative? He responds (v11) by pleading with God on behalf of the people. Here's a classic example of a prayer to God for mercy. Notice that he doesn't plead their innocence. He doesn't claim that they're worthy of God's forgiveness. He doesn't suggest that they're basically good people who just made a bad mistake. No, he pleads on the basis of who God is. He reminds God that this is still his special people, whom he rescued from Egypt. He points out what the Egyptians would make of it if the nation were to perish now. And he appeals to God's promise to Abraham. It was Abraham, not Moses, who, God promised, would be the father of many nations. How could God go back on his word now. So God relents. He listens to Moses and doesn't destroy the people as he'd threatened.
	Moses shows all the characteristics of a godly leader. He isn't interested in his own welfare, rather in the welfare of his people. He knows God's word and depends on it. And his primary interest is in God's glory.
	Well, the people have escaped destruction, but they haven't entirely escaped judgement. Moses goes down the mountain, carrying the tablets of stone engraved by the finger of God - these precious symbols of the covenant between God and his people. But when he sees the calf and the revelry he explodes in anger. He smashes the tablets on the rocks, symbolising the breaking of the covenant. He takes the calf and destroys it. He burns it in the fire, he grinds it to dust and finally mixes it with water and makes the people drink it as a symbol of their integral involvement in this act of apostasy. It's just like the way last week we saw how he sprinkled the blood of the covenant over them to symbolise the seriousness of the covenant God was making with them. So here they're made to actually consume the remains of the calf.
	Then he turns to Aaron and asks (Ex 32:21-24) "What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?" He can't believe that Aaron could have stood by and let it happen. "Did they torture you?" he seems to be saying. Well, no, they hadn't had they? What had happened was that Aaron was afraid of losing control. He thought he had a rebellion on his hand. So he'd compromised. But in fact, in the very act of capitulation he'd lost control far worse than he'd imagined. But now, as he's confronted by Moses he makes it worse. He tries to pass the buck. "You know what these people are like. They're bent on evil. They virtually forced me to make them an idol." He passes the blame first onto the people. But then he goes on "Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" Wonder of wonders. "I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" Do you see what he's saying? It's God's fault. All Aaron did was to throw the gold into the fire. God must have shaped it into a calf. Now of course we know that this is a complete distortion. We've already read that Aaron formed a mold and cast it into the shape of a calf. But here he's just slightly retelling what happened so the blame doesn't fall entirely onto him.
	Isn't it easy to do? Isn't it easy to pass the buck. Isn't it easy to emphasise some parts of the truth and forget others, so that we can blame anyone other than ourselves. Isn't it easy to think that our actions are justified because of what someone else has done to us in the past. To even think that God is to blame for the wrong decisions we've made. I've known people who have refused to take responsibility for their own actions because of the way they've been hurt in the past. People who continue to live out those hurts in their current situations and relationships rather than face them and do away with them altogether. Worse still, who use them as excuses, often subconsciously, for hurting others. We need to be honest with ourselves about our own failings, so we can be honest in our dealings with others. If you're someone who's been deeply hurt by someone in the past, then you have a right to be aggrieved. What was done to you was wrong! But don't let that hurt live on as an excuse for your own failures. When we read Aaron's excuse we can see how weak it was. He couldn't pass the buck onto others and especially not onto God. He needed to accept his own responsibility honestly. He'd failed as a leader of his people and this idolatry was the result. Worse, the judgment that was about to come on the people was largely due to his failure as a leader.
	Moses saw that something needed to be done quickly if this orgy wasn't to get totally out of hand. So he calls all of those who are for the Lord to come to him and to exact a ruthless punishment on the people, and 3000 people die before the orgy is stopped.
	Notice what happens next. I guess Moses hadn't realised just how serious the people's sin was when he was with the Lord. But now he returns to the mountain top to plead with God, to try to make atonement for their sin. And what does he do? Rather than distancing himself from the people, he identifies with them. He begs for forgiveness. And he offers his own life in their place. He does exactly what Jesus does as the leader of the new people of God. He's prepared to give up his own life in order to bring life to his people. And God grants him his plea. He'll let the people live, although there will come a time when he'll punish them for their sins.
	So we have here two examples of leadership. Aaron, who fails because he doesn't trust God to protect him against the crowd, and who doesn't take God's word seriously, and Moses, who remembers not just God's law but also God's promises and who in humility puts the welfare of his people and the glory of God before his own welfare. And as we look at Moses example, we're reminded of Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but emptied himself taking the nature of a servant. Christian leadership involves humility and the willingness to give up ourselves for the sake of those we lead. Giving up ourselves may entail giving up our time, our careers, our ambitions, our comfortable lifestyle. For example those who serve on Vestry, or who serve as leaders of youth group or Theo's Crew or Bible studies commit that most precious commodity, time, for the sake of those they lead. In the Christian Church, leadership means service.
	Even if you don't see yourself in a position of leadership, this passage still speaks to you. The temptation to idolatry that the people of Israel faced wasn't unique. The temptation to look to idols for security or for religious fulfillment is just as great today as it was back then. But God has revealed the truth to us about security and religious fulfillment. That is, that the only way to be secure, the only way to be truly fulfilled, is to have faith in Jesus Christ. And he's placed us in a Christian fellowship so we can encourage one another to remain faithful to Jesus Christ rather than turning to the idols of our day.
	Let's pray for ourselves that we'll avoid the temptation to look to gods other than the true and living God and his Son Jesus Christ, and lets pray for our leaders that they'll be Godly men and women who follow the examples of Moses, and of Jesus: prepared to lead by example, in humility, even if it means giving up their lives for the sake of God's people.

And Out Came This Calf

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