A Parody of Praise
Actually not going to just read through it today. It's not on the slides. And so,
And so Moses casing and he puts the the gold Into the Fire and heat it up, any forms it, and he uses a tool to create a God, that looks like a cat.
And then he says these are your Gods o Israel and right there. They break the second commandment. You shall make no graven images and probably the first you shall have no other gods before me. Whether they were describing this Idol to be Yahoo. Or not, we don't have clear indication. But because that that that is plural. And now the word, your father that is used here or Elohim rather is not plural in the Hebrew. It's made plural by the word surrounding it. These are your Gods. You don't use the word V's. If you're talking about one, you said this. Not this is your gods. These are your Gods. The initial readings probably would have been confused by it as well. What it, what are we talkin about here? A Pantheon of gods multiple gods. What is clear is that this is not God, as he reveals himself to the people of Israel. Do the people take off the ring to receive the gold Moses for Aaron Fashions. This this Beast made out of gold. And then what does he say?
Just working to make a parody of praise.
Go back to verse 22, chapter 24, keep your finger there if you will.
Moses wrote down all the words. He wrote early in the morning built an altar at the foot of the mountain.
When Aaron saw this, this is verse five and 32, he built an altar before it and made a proclamation and said tomorrow, she'll a feast shall be a feast to the Lord and you Rose up early the next day and offered burnt offering and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat
It's a parody. It is attempt to copy it. Say we done this before, and if you remember eating eating is something that is, is I don't want to use quite the word sacred, but it's special. You don't eat with people. You don't like you, you eat with family, you eat with people that are of one Accord with you. And so when God eats with his people and chapter 24, there is a there is the establishment of the Covenant.
And so, watch this carefully when the people sit down to eat before the golden calf, they are doing no less than making a counterfeit Covenant. A counterfeit Covenant a parody of Praise with a dead deity.
You remember the context, the end of 31 is God in his own hand, writing down the laws that he is giving the Covenant that he is giving to the people of Israel. And then he expects the the the proverbial signature in the bottom and that is the establishment of the sabbath-day. The establishment of taking a Shabbat This is what's going to govern is the law.
What is a people do? Moses on the mountain, receiving the tablets of stone, the Israelites were the bottom of the mountain and they are establishing a counterfeit Covenant. They're attempting to have a parody of Praise with a dog that is not real. They are striving something real. Just someone that didn't do it for what happens. They start to say. These are your Gods who brought you up out of Egypt? Did God bring them up out of Egypt? Absolutely. But it was not this Dead Danny, it's not an idle. It's not a Graven image. There is striving something real, something, wonderful. Something that does require and demand praise. And thanks and adoration, but they're praising and thanking and I have to worry. Something that is not the one true God.
They're trying to seek an alternative method. In that moment, where they sit down to eat.
They established.
False religion. A cult something that looks and smells and acts very very similar similarly to the one true way of worship that God said, this is how you were to do it.
It doesn't actually look that different from the real. If you think about it, God's presence is supposed to reside in a place at the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant inside the holy of holies. There's a place where God wants to innocence interact with his people from that place.
most Old Testament Scholars would agree that they were not worshipping the calf but the calf was the representation we're God's presence would come down, not too unlike The Mercy Seat.
So they're doing it in a way that is so similar to the way that God has prescribed, but it is not the way that God is prescribed. And this is how this is, what alternative spirituality is. It sounds it looks in case it tilts field. Sometimes it's the same words. Has one way.
But it adds or subtracts from the word of God. It says, well this is how you want to be close to God and prayer and Bible reading and other Christian practices have failed. You then let's let's Dabble. Let's do some dabbling in in other religions and let's just add that on to our understanding of Christian Dior takes away. You don't have to do all that stuff. You have to pray. You have to read your Bible. Not that sell Vivek, but you don't have to participate with Jesus in your salvation. All you have to do is walk through life being a good person and it either adds or takes away from the text of scripture and what it requires for us to be saved, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be safe. Go all-in on Jesus.
But instead,
I'm walking the way that God gives them, the Israelites come up with a party of perversion. Looking for 6, they rose up early. The next day off for burnt offerings brought a peace offering and the people sat down to eat and drink. Okay? So far it looks like chapter 24, but what did they rise up to do? They rose up to play worship service? I want to be at, we're going to do some playing, you know, everybody's going to get a champion or guitar if you don't, you don't sing. Well, Go over to Genesis 26. Flip, Flip over to Genesis 26. That's what this word play. A little bit.
Give a little bit. Contacts.
Genesis 26, verse 8.
I hear lots of page-turning. That's good. What happens when you take the text off the screen?
Some people laughing cuz he just read it when he had been there a long time. I've been electing of the Philistines looked out of the window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah. His wife, does anybody in the room? Think that the reason that they got in trouble with their laughing together? No, they weren't laughing. They weren't playing. They were participating in marital acts with each other. We can look at Potiphar's wife and you accusation that she gives against Joseph and says he came to to laugh at us and then cut, that's not the problem. The problem is out that Joseph was a joke Accusation was not how you know what he thinks. He's a funny guy and he's just not. Like that. Nobody laughed. I mean not a funny guy. The problem is, is that he's being accused of being inappropriate with Potiphar's wife at the accusation that she is making to them. So, this word play normally has sexual undertone in. So they, they sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to do inappropriate things.
when we add or subtract when we practice alternative spirituality,
Sin of the flesh is not far away. They sat down to eat and to drink, they rose up to play.
And they begin to make a mockery. They continue to make a mockery of what God has done, what he has saved them for. He saved them to be a holy people and instead
they are living large.
So Moses is on the mountain. He's receiving the law from God, he's being handed. These tablets that has the very words of God written by the very hand of God and he must be holding them in his hand at this time. In verse 7 says that the Lord said to Moses, it's God's turn to talk now go down.
Go down for your people who brought up out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. What is God called, the people of Israel, time, and time and time, again, he calls them. My people, he calls them, Those whom I love what he does not do is distance himself. but what Israel has done and coming up with a
Covenant. That is counterfeit. Is there a break? The break, the Covenant with God. They're saying we are not God's people. We are now this God's people, we have created a New Covenant and it's not a New Covenant by the blood of Jesus. It's simply an alternative direction for trying to find the one true God, that isn't revealed to them by God. And so God told him, your people go down for your people who you brought up out of the land of Egypt. Moses have corrupted themselves, they have turned aside quickly out of the way that I command you. And I so quickly have the same heart in us that they did. I turn so quickly. So easily away from the Covenant that God has made with us as a people of God through the Covenant of the blood of Jesus Christ. I turn so easily to sin. I turn so easily towards Pride I turn so easily towards anger and I don't think I'm the only one in the room that does
Turn so easily towards resentment. Turn so easily towards holding a grudge.
Insert the things that you struggle with hear you. And I
Are sinners.
By Nature, we are born that way and by choice, we choose to sin.
We turn so quickly away from the things that God has commanded us to do and not to do.
God tells Moses that they have turned away, and they've made themselves, a golden calf. And if worshipped it and sacrifice to it and said, these are your Gods o is real. Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt kids, can you imagine it? Can you imagine?
Aaron making a calf, an idol made out of gold. can you imagine people saying people who had seen the acts of God, seen the things that got it done and they said, you know what this, this golden calf represents God knows and they worshipped at the CAF. Can you imagine them going up onto the mountain? I'm sorry. Can you imagine Moses being up on the mountain? And their God says they are no longer my people in effect.
They are a stiff-necked people. The Lord says now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them in order. That I may make a great nation of you. God is preparing to make Moses the new Abraham. His made promises to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to make their name great, but Moses is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He can just start over. Like he started over with Noah and Noah's family. And God says, I will punish them all. I'm going to wipe them out. I'm going to kill them and we're just going to start over with you Moses. And look at the progression. Look at the growth that God has done in Moses. Moses first was met by God when God Moses, first met God at the burning bush and how excited he was to represent the people of Israel before. God, I'm going to send you the all sent. You guys love to do that. Man, I've been praying for an opportunity to lead. Do y'all go? Make me do it? That's what he said. I can't talk to him up with excuses and God said I'm going to have you do it anyway? I think the Moses that first met God would have been fine with God's initial. Declaration on the mountain. I think the Moses that first met God in the wilderness and he said, I have seen this people to hold is a stiff-necked people. Most what it said, you know it. I tried to save them, I'm a prince of Egypt and they wouldn't. Let me they cast me out, go ahead and take them out. I'll start over with you, I think I'm pretty great too. But now God has grown Moses into being an intercessor for his people. So what is Moses response to God? Verse 11, Moses, implored the Lord his God instead.
He's got still Moses. Got right. Oh Lord, why does your Rathburn hot against your people rhetorical question, right? Well, because They're never party perversion. Download on the bottom of mountain because they've made a parody of praising. They're praising something that I did praising them for something that I didn't, this isn't even a real God.
Why did you reffered hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt and with great power to Mighty hand verse 12? Why shouldn't You Gyptian stay with evil intent? Can you bring them out to kill him in the mountains and it consumed them from the face of the Earth turn from your burning anger, and relent from This Disaster against your people remember, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or Israel, your servants to whom you swore by your own self and said, I would multiply your Offspring as two stars in the heaven.
God. Relent.
I hope your prayers are like that.
Pray the promises of God, back to God.
Please and pray the promises of God back to God.
can I just step away for a second and then just Kind of talk to you for a minute. Just me to you. How did the development of Moses love for his people cuz Moses has come to care about his, the people that God has commanded him to leave? Is he not otherwise? Yeah let's do that. That sounds like a great idea. But out of love and responsibility. God has put it in. Moses heart for Moses to care about his people. When I was first called to be the pastor here back in 2019, seems like yesterday in a century ago. I was hesitant. I told the search committee. No, thank you. I said I don't I don't think I want to be a pastor. I specially don't think I want to go back to Kirksville but thanks. and, It became clear over the process of several weeks that God wanted, my family might have moved here back to Kirksville. And it's been a great first few years, I think hello honeymoon. That a church goes through. When when the Avenue pastors is normative, I think covid extended that honeymoon. And I know there's some challenges that are facing us right now. Right to Services. That's kind of hard, interpersonal, relationships. It's kind of hard. I'm not Bob, I'm not Ray, I'm not Dan on Ben. And that has been challenging for all of us in some ways. Let me tell you that God has caused such a great love for you to fall upon my heart that if I were in this position. And I don't think I ever would be right close. Kevin the scripture I don't expect out of you like I'm going to kill Grace.
Got our Centauri right? But I would say God, how could you, what about your prom? What about you? I don't take them. Take me instead. That's where Moses goes on to say.
So thank you as a church. For those of you who've been here for almost 50 years, there's a few of you. For those of you who've been here for 5 months, 5 years, 5 weeks. Got his has created me, such a love for you all.
Enough said on that, I thank you for it.
So God would Lentz, when Moses. Intercedes.
That'd be a great end of the narrative, wouldn't it? And they lived happily ever after?
But that not what happened. God relent. And then verse 15, then can you imagine standing before the god of the universe who is wrath in Holiness, as he is, love and Justice, and got the number to get them and only speaking from the perspective of the author, the only thing standing between God's Wrath in. The people is Moses and he's going to sleep. And then
so then Moses turned it went down from the mountain and we have this descent language from the mountain with two tablets of the testimony in his hand. Moses marches down the mountain. The tablets were the work of God just in case you forgot. And the writing was the writing of God. Engraved on the tablets when Joshua cuz remember he left Joshua there, right? Joshua 2430 need left Joshua, their part way up the mountain. When Joshua heard the noise of the people, as they shouted. He said to Moses, Moses, Moses, and I can just imagine what was like this. Cuz that's a people walk down mountains, right? They just March. Nobody's Moses is going down the mountain Joshua, close to being overpaid, Moses. Moses and he follows Moses down, and there's there's there's a noise coming from the people. No kidding. He's coming from the people like War, but it's not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of Cry of the fee, but the sound of singing I hear
The sound of singing like Miriam in the Israelites Fang and praise of God after they crossed the Red Sea to see how this is nothing, but a parody of praise. It is a replacement of Yahweh with. They have formed in their own desire. They're saying, we want to worship like we did at the Red Sea, we're trying to recreate these wonderful experiences we've had. But instead of doing it in the right way with with with God is the one calling them and leading them and directing them, they are the ones leading and directing and guiding think we're going to go after these experiences. Go after this guy as we, he's, we either understand more as we would like him to be and they sing, and they worship. And they they sacrificed. And it is detestable. It is deplorable.
The singing It's not a positive sounds as soon as this is verse 19. As soon as he came here the camp and saw the calf. And the damn thing, Moses anger, burned pot,
He just saw a piece of the wrath of God and now he himself as the intermediary between Israel and God, he himself gets angry and has righteous wrath towards and against the Israelites.
In his departing is going on as the things that shouldn't happen in public or going on with people that they shouldn't happen with. As all of this debauchery is happening, it was like the sound of thunder or great Applause, or a symbol Moses took.
The tablets.
And he broke them at the foot of the mountain.
He's back.
I didn't die. You didn't look happy to see us. we don't know what's in his hand, but he broke them.
He took the cash that they made and burned it with fire and ground into a powder and Scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel. Drink it a couple ideas, but we really don't know what this practice was.
Maybe it was him grounding gold up, making them drink it and then the the plagues that they perceive as being as a result of eating gold, you know, I could for you. Probably not there. A couple of vague references. We have two other historical documents say I am Bring up the bones of the Dead person's, got to get on the land but whatever it was, it had great meaning to the people of Israel even though we don't know what it was. so, this great, meaning of the people of Israel, understand something that they're doing, they're drinking it and Moses said to Aaron, the high priest of God that Erin
are you thinking? How could that happen? In Aaron has a response let nothing or the anger of the Lord burn hot, you know that the people that they are set on evil for they said to me, you know, make us Gods. So I took their gold and I made I mean I didn't even do it. I just took gold. I threw it into the fire.
And it was either that probably that Aaron was saying this is a miracle. I just had a calf in the Moses accepted it or that this was such a ridiculous response.
A ridiculous claim that it doesn't even justify a response from Moses. You know, what are and I just can't even with you right now.
Read it for they said if you make this God you should go before us.
As for this Moses the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt really, it's your fault for being gone so long Moses. We do not know what has become of him. So I said to him, let any have gold, take it off, so they gave it to me at 3 minutes to the fire.
When Moses saw that, the people have broken loose for Aaron and let them break loose to the derision of their enemies than Moses, stood at the Gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's Side, come to me and all of the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, as the god of Israel, the Lord, the god of Israel, put your sword on your side, each one of them. And go to and fro from gate-to-gate throughout the camp. And each one of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor, there seems to be some sort of a common understanding that there's some instigators. There's some people here. Who are causing others to stumble. There's some who are leading a straight, there are some Rebel Rouser, cell go, hold them accountable,
Doesn't that harsh? When you consider that the the punishment for not building the Tabernacle in the right way, with death. So how much more creating an alternative religion? A copying cult. Would it? Demand a response from God. Do God, responds. The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. In that day, about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said today, you've been ordained for the service of the Lord. Each one at the cost of his son and his brother so that he might bestow blessing upon you. This day, God raises up, the Levites as those who minister in the Tabernacle and in the temple.
It is a harsh response.
Might it might feel harsh to us but what God is protecting is his word. God said, I told you to do this. This is how your, to worship. Here's the way of Mercy that you who are far from me, who broke in my lawn. This is how you can come near me. It's always been by grace through faith, but this is the way that it is happening in this. The way that it is happening is through the law. The people who abolished what the law meant to them. When they signed a contract, that was counterfeit, but the lost power was still over them. For the power of the laws is more Universal, I don't want to deal with a lot. It's not my truth doesn't make a lot, not true. Doesn't make the law not have power over, you doesn't mean you can go the wrong way, down a one-way Street.
Well good for you Lisa semi runs and you know, it's going to you're going to the realities going to set in real quick. when we have,
A desire to know, God, and to know God more, that is wonderful. When we have experiences that we have encountered that we want to replicate. Do you know what? That was? Such a great time of worship working or that was such, a great time of a fellowship or that was such a great celebration fill in the blank but you're willing to do things outside of the texts of scripture. That is where we must be warned. That is where you and I must stand up an alert and say, no, nothing outside of the bounds of scripture.
That all truth is God's truth.
But any religiosity or spirituality that is not.
From scripture. Could be you. And I creating a counterfeit cult. It could be us. Having a parody of Praise. We could be creating our own sort of counterfeit Covenant. I'm not really, I'm not really experiencing the time with God, that I like her that I used to. Or that I hear people talk about a read about if you consider this stuff over here from you know, This Native American spirituality, not trying to pick on anybody. I'm part native American as you can tell.
Or if we go over here and we say, you know what, you really don't need all that.
All you need is faith, faith, and what? Not, just Faith, don't worry about it.
When we are willing to add spirituality religiosity, that is not in the text of scripture.
We have to be careful. Most of the time we simply must reject it. How do we know what, what, what are exact prescriptions for some of this stuff and the easy? The easy stuff for us to do is to do nothing new We don't try new things, right? Like we've never done that before. We don't try new spiritual things.
Reciting at Reed, for example.
We would be in good company to practice reciting a Creed. We're singing A Hymn or doing an Evangelistic Outreach. Not to mention, we see them all in the text of scripture bright 1st Corinthians, 15 by receiving the Lord. That Christ died for our sins.
We have Creed's at least one in the New Testament.
So if you want to know, something not to do it, something that's never been done before.
I want to try something new.
We have to be careful that we don't apply that to our whole lives or even a whole Ministry practice, right? How we we want to. Want to do an Outreach like this? We've never done that before. That's fine. There's a difference between doing something new and practicing new religiosity between practicing alternative spirituality between taking a little bit of this religion syncretistic lie or taking a little bit of this part of Christian doctrine and just kind of sidestepping. It that is the sort of thing that they were doing in the book of Exodus chapter 32, they were mostly doing what God had showed them to do and that they had done by the by the blessing or by the instruction of God, but they tweaked it. And in the end. They were killed for it.
Don't reject God's way of Mercy that he is given to you and Ty through the person of Jesus Christ. You don't need to go anywhere else. You don't need to seek another way. For Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one can come to the father except through me. That's what we need to know. That's what we need to claim and live in practice.
My God, we pray that you help us to live like we believe it. God for anyone in this room that doesn't believe. I pray your calling upon