The Unholy Cow
Exodus Series - "God's Dwelling Place" • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 3:15
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Exod. 32:1-20; 30-35
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.” 2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 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, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 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. 7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 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, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ 9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 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.” 11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 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’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 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.’ ” 14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. 15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. 16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.” 18 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.” 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. 20 And he took the calf the people 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.
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 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. 32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” 33 The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.” 35 And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen retells a tale from ancient India: “Four royal brothers decided each to master a special ability. Time went by, and the brothers met to reveal what they had learned.
"I have mastered a science," said the first, "by which I can take but a bone of some creature and create the flesh that goes with it."
"I," said the second, "know how to grow that creature's skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones."
The third said, "I am able to create its limbs if I have the flesh, the skin, and the hair."
"And I," concluded the fourth, "know how to give life to that creature if its form is complete."
Thereupon the brothers went into the jungle to find a bone so they could demonstrate their specialties. As fate would have it, the bone they found was a lion's. One added flesh to the bone, the second grew hide and hair, the third completed it with matching limbs, and the fourth gave the lion life. Shaking its mane, the ferocious beast arose and jumped on his creators. He killed them all and vanished contentedly into the jungle.”
“WE TOO HAVE THE CAPACITY TO CREATE WHAT CAN DEVOUR US.” (Henri Nouwen)
This doesn’t really come as a surprise to any of us, I think. When I was younger the nuclear arms race was talked about much more than it is today. And I remember hearing repeatedly about the fact that there were so many nuclear missiles that were ready to launch that if all of them were released, enough explosive capacity would be released to destroy dozens of planet earths. Remember that? “We too have the capacity to create what can devour us.”
So, you ask, how does this connect to our text for this morning?
In our text this morning, God’s people, the Israelites and their self-appointed leader, Aaron, have created an idol. And as we go through the story, what do we find? Well, to borrow words from Henri Nouwen
“Ultimately, the idols that we create, will devour us.”
And this principle doesn’t just come to us through our text, but is one that gets explicitly named throughout the Biblical story. “We become what we worship.” That’s how the Scriptures put it.
In fact, this story we read this morning becomes a kind of paradigm defining story. Again and again the poets and the prophets in the Bible remind God’s people of this story. Remember it! They want to say. And let it be a warning to you about what happens when you give yourselves over to idolatry.
Consider these words from Psalm 115. The Lord here is speaking about the nations, the peoples of the earth.
Psalm 115: 4-8
4 But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. 5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. 6 They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. 7 They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. 8 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
“We become what we worship”
No listen to these words from Isaiah 6. Remember what we just read in Psalm 115—eyes but cannot see, ears, but cannot hear… Listen to these words from Isaiah that describe God’s people who have given themselves over to idol worship.
Isaiah 6:9-10
9 He said, “Go and tell this people: “ ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
God calls Isaiah to speak these words to His people.... and essentially Isaiah is saying, “you have ears but you can’t hear and eyes but you can’t see, because you are worship deaf and blind idols.”
You have become what you are worshiping. And ultimately our idols will devour us.....
And as I said a moment ago, our story this morning becomes a kind of paradigm defining story that reveals this to God’s people. “You become what you worship, and ultimately our idols will devour us.”
The first two commandments of the Covenant that God made with his people are: Have no other gods before me. AND, You shall not make for yourself any image or idol, do not bow down or worship them.
And here that place at the foot of Mt. Sinai—remember this was a kind of temple of the One True God—we talked about that a few weeks ago—here in that place were heaven and earth were united, that place and that time in history where God was ushering in “new creation”—God’s people broke covenant.....they crafted an idol, they were worshiping a false god… they broke covenant and that’s exactly what Moses made visible to them.... when Moses threw down the tablets of the covenant and broke them on the rocks…that was a prophetic sign of what the people had done. They had broken covenant with the God who delivered them, who loved them as His firstborn son, who provided for them, who guided them, who established them as his treasured possession and as his new creation people.
Now Andrew, you might say, where is this language of new creation coming from? Well it’s actually coming from the part of the story that we are in. Let me highlight that for us.
Actually last week Pastor Jun was drawing our attention to it and I’m so glad he did. As Jun mentioned last week, Bible interpreters have notice a very important literary parallel in this part of Exodus with the creation account in Gen.1-2. Jun mentioned last week that the material in Exodus 25-31 is broken down into “7 divine speeches”. And that literary structure is intended to bring us back to the seven days of Creation in Gen.1-2. There are a number of different parallels that would take too much time to explain in detail, so let me just remind us of two of them.
What did God create on the sixth day of creation? God created humankind, in his image, and breathed into them his life, and he placed them in his Garden Temple to care for it, cultivate it, and to steward it. Well, the sixth divine speech in Exodus comes at the beginning of chapter 31, remember last week. And there God appointed his Spirit breathed servants, Bezalel and others who would construct the dwelling where God would be present. Do you see the parallel?
Or think about the seventh day. In Genesis we read God rested. God instituted a sabbath, resting from his good work. And what does the seventh divine speech say in Exodus 31:12, “Observe the Sabbath” why? because
Exodus 31:17
17 It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”
All of this to say, God rescuing his people from bondage, Bringing them through the baptismal waters of the Red Sea, bringing them in the presence of a new temple, that is Mt. Sinai, giving them instructions about how to live so that all people might flourish and experience shalom… these seven speeches impress on us that God is inaugurating a kind of “new creation”.
I don’t know about you but when I see how this is so beautifully laid out in the Bible, my heart becomes so full. “God, your work and your story, for us and about us, is truly amazing!”
But now, what happens in Genesis 3. God’s image bearers rebel against God. They want to be gods of their own lives, and they fall into sin. Now here in this story of new creation, God’s chosen people, the ones he set apart to bring blessing to all the nations of the world, they break covenant!… they make their own god, and fall right back into the bondage that they were rescued from!
Many people have said something like what I’m about to say right now. “It’s one thing to take God’s people out of Egypt. It’s quite another matter to take Egypt out of them.”
Everything we know about the nature of addiction illustrates this truth very well doesn’t it. “It’s one thing to remove an alcoholic from the presence of alcohol. It’s quite another matter to take the desire for alcohol out of the alcoholic.”
The very fact that the reality of Egypt was still in the hearts of the Israelites is shown in the making of a golden calf.
This is a picture of an Egyptian Apis bull that is in the Louve museum in France. It was excavated from the Sarapeum in Saqqara in Egypt, a place that I visited when I was there a few years ago. It was a burial place of Apis bulls, sacred bulls that were incarnations of the ancient Egyptian deity Ptah. It was believed that the bulls became immortal after death.
One thing that was significant about the Apis bull was its worshipers believed the bull became the incarnate presence of the actual god. So the Israelites, only several months away from the deliverance from Egypt, construct this calf because they wanted a god that was incarnate and with them when Moses and his god had disappeared. Moreover they wanted something they could touch and see and understand, and not some cloud / fire or some distant God that was invisible and high on the mountain. And finally, they wanted a god that they could worship in a familiar way, in dancing and revelry (the Hebrew word suggest the kind of revelry that had an active sexual component to it).
Indeed, “it’s one thing to take God’s people out of Egypt. It’s quite another matter to take Egypt out of them”
Now, you might say, Andrew this expression of idolatry seems so foreign and distant to us. Why is it so important for us to pay attention to?
Well, the apostle Paul, in the New Testament helps answer that question for us in 1 Cor. 10.
In the first 5 verses Paul recalls the wilderness experience of Israel… the Red Sea passing, manna from heaven, water from a rock, and then he writes this:
1 Cor. 10:6-12
6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 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 revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. 11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
Listen to the well known Bible teacher A.W. Pink writes about what an idol is:
“Anything which displaces God in my heart. It may be something which is quite harmless in itself, yet if it absorbs me, if it be given the first place in my affections and thoughts, it becomes an “idol.” It may be my business, a loved one, or my service for Christ. Any one or any thing which comes into competition with the Lord’s ruling me in a practical way, is an “idol.” A.W. Pink
[ Idols of money, sex, power, idols of consumer choice.... one idol that I want to spend a moment or two thinking about with you, is an idol in the sense that it presents a false or corrupted image of God.
MTD, not MTV. MTD - Moralistic, Therapeutic, Deism. A way of thinking about God that has made subtle, sometimes not so subtle inroads into the church. EXPLAIN
Idolatry is ultimately about CONTROL..... (Dr. Margaret Cottle talk? PAS is finally about our need to control)
But our idols consume us..... We will never find ourselves to be good enough… we will never be happy enough, or have enough pleasure....and we will always find within ourselves an emptiness that a distant Deistic God cannot fill.
There’s an important word that is used in the story to describe this covenant breaking, idol making people. 2x God says they are “stiff-necked”. The word can be used to describe a bull or an ox that is stiff necked.....it refuses to take a yoke, an instrument that enables it to receive guidance and direction from the master to carry out its assigned task. God says, you’re stiff-necked just like the bull idol that you are worshiping.
Remember what the Psalmist said in Psalm 115
8 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
The narrative helps us see and understand the Lord’s disappointment, and frustration and anger.
v.7 The Lord says to Moses, “go down because your people have become corrupt.”
A simple reading of the dialogue that follows might suggest that God’s lost his patience and has thrown up his hands. “I’ve had enough of them....leave me alone....let me destroy them.”
But that’s a simple reading. What we find beautifully told beginning at v. 7 is how God’s interaction with Moses opens up more fully a role that God intended Moses to step into. We already know that Moses is God’s appointed mediator, but in this story the role is opened up and filled out most beautifully.
When God says to Moses, “leave me alone”…that opens up space for Moses to implore God and to intercede for God’s people. It opens up space for Moses to pray for the people. v. 11-14; 31-32. . Remember your promises God. Remember how much you love them and remember that you are going to make their descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.
I will go down to them.... I will speak words of judgement, I will speak words of warning,.... but let me go down and make atonement for their sin....did you hear that in v. 30.
Please forgive them, but if not, take my life instead. v. 32.
Do you see how God very wisely and intentionally opens up space for his appointed Mediator to more fully step into his role.
I’m sure that many of us can see how this narrative quite powerfully points ahead to the True Mediator of God’s people, namely our Lord Jesus Christ....
prays for us.....brings words of warning and judgement....but has come down to make atonement for our sin, and to become our substitute.
In fact in this story God is beginning to reveal quite powerfully something of his own nature.
God is not a solitary being but a communal being. He is God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It’s as though this story is opening up for us a conversation that is happening within the Holy Trinity.....
Do you hear the voice of Jesus? I will pray for them. I will go down and bring words of warning and judgement, yes, I will go down and make atonement, I will go down and substitute my life for them. I will take on their own flesh adn blood. I will unite myself to them in every way except for sin, and I will keep covenant for them. I will do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
And this my friends is precisely what Jesus has done for us. Precisely what he is doing for us.
So remember the words of Paul:
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.
Quote brings us back to the story that we started with....and concludes by putting a prayer in our heart....
We too have the capacity to create what can devour us. Goals and dreams can consume us. Possessions and property can turn and destroy us--unless we first seek God's kingdom and righteousness, and allow him to breathe into what we make of life. Henri Nouwen
I love Jesus, but want to hold on to my own friends even when they do not lead me closer to Jesus. I love Jesus, but want to hold on to my own independence even when it brings me no real freedom. I love Jesus, but do not want to lose the respect of my professional colleagues even though their respect does not make me grow spiritually. I love Jesus, but do not want to give up my writing, travel, and speaking plans even when they are often more to my glory than God's.
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Henri J.M. Nouwen, from his diary; in New Oxford Review (April 1987). Christianity Today, Vol. 32, no. 15.