In Exodus 32 we see an ungrateful, forgetful, sinful Israel. God has called Moses lead Israel out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land, God has saved them by leading them through the Red Sea, fed them in the desert, provided water when they grumbled, and now he is showing them how society works at it’s best. That’s why they are gathered at Mount Sinai.
I wonder how you think of the 10 commandments. Are they good or are they bad? Are they given because God wants us to enjoy life or because he wants to be in control of us?
Imagine I buy a new car, I love Mini’s so I buy a new 5 door Mini Cooper SD. I take it to the garage to fill it up, I glance in the handbook it tells me to only fill it with diesel. Is it because the manufacturer wants to restrict my enjoyment? Imagine I’m standing at a garage by the fuel pump. Now I know the manufacturer told me to put diesel in the car, but petrol is cheaper, 8 pence per litre cheaper. Just imagine what I can do with the extra money? ‘The manufacturer is just holding me back’, I think, ‘I want the freedom to choose which fuel I use, who is he or she to tell me what to do, I want to decide right and wrong for myself.’ Whose fault is it when a few miles down the road the car breaks down? Mine.
At Sinai, God - the creator of the world - is giving his people his handbook for how life works best, how to enjoy life to the full having saved them from Egypt and kept them safe in the desert. But (1-6)Israel have a short term memory problem; ‘Moses is up the mountain, he’s been gone ages Aaron, make us an idol.’ The amazing and tragic thing is that Aaron agrees. Whilst Moses is being given the dimensions for the gold covered temple utensils, Israel are at the bottom of the mountain using that gold to make an idol. Whilst God in his Holiness is in the cloud at the top of the mountain because they cannot see him and live they are at the bottom of the mountain wanting an image of God to worship, a God they can see and touch. An idol to represent God, they haven’t forgotten (5)Yahweh rescued them, they just want a statute of him, something tangible, they can see and touch, to worship.
And look what that leads to(6). All the loving goodness and guidance of God is forgotten. If you reshape God to be just as you like you will reshape God’s words to say whatever you want. If you shrink God down then you will shrink the power of his word. Israel want to choose what God is like and which of his words and laws they like. They party hard, and the author leaves it to our imagination as to what goes on, but the idea is that they do whatever their appetites lead them to do. No thought of right and wrong, no thought of God’s loving handbook on how life works best, just do whatever you want.
Israel aren’t the first. It’s the same lie Satan whispers to Adam and Eve, God doesn’t love you, he’s just holding you back. He doesn’t want you to be happy he just wants you under his control. Go on imagine what freedom looks like, decide right and wrong for yourself, reach out take the fruit…
And he’s never stopped whispering that in the ears of God’s people. He still says the same thing to us. Does God really love you? Isn’t God just holding you back? Isn’t he just restricting you? Those commands aren’t because he loves you but just to stop you having fun. Look at your friends, at what freedom really means?
Or he gets us to reimagine God – God is loving he wouldn’t hold you back would he? If it’s love it’s a good thing. God only wants you to be happy and having that would make you happy so it must be right mustn’t it?
And if we remodel God in line with our imagination we will question his word and his authority and we determine right and wrong for ourselves. That’s what the Bible calls sin, and it is what has destroyed the world around us.
God is bigger than we can imagine. He is YAHWEH, no one and nothing is like him. Don’t shrink God.
(7-10)God is God, he knows, he’s not too busy to notice, he sees their sin. And he’s angry. Here’s the question is God’s anger deserved? Is it just? Is it loving?
We often treat anger and love as if they are opposites. But they aren’t, love creates anger, and anger is often the result of love. Imagine one of my sons comes home and he’s been badly beaten up at school. He has a couple of broken ribs, a broken arm and lots of cuts and grazes all over his face. What does love do? How does it feel? Does love shrug and say ‘Never mind son, it’s another day tomorrow, fresh start.’ No. Love is indignant, it is horrified by the wrong done, by the injustice, by the brutality. God is angry with sin because he, more than we ever will, knows its consequences and the suffering it causes and the danger it poses.
After all God has done, after his gracious rescue, redemption, forgiveness and gift Israel reject him, and this has huge implications, what about God’s rescue plan for the world.
(11)The “buts” of the bible are often hugely significant. So it is here. “But Moses implored the LORD his God…” God is angry, but it’s as if in telling Moses he is angry he is inviting Moses to pray. And Moses does, he pleads God’s covenant and character, and his promises. (14)And in response to Moses prayers God doesn’t destroy Israel. But, it’s important we see this, Israel don’t get away scot free, sin has consequences. Moses (26-29)acts to stop sin, as his execution squad do their job, Israel stop and realise what they have done. They don’t indiscriminately kill, they go through the camp finding out if people will return to God or cling to idol worship. It stops the false worship and the sinful living.
Then Moses prays again to God(31-34), he asks for forgiveness for them. God goes with them but there will be punishment. But notice Israel aren’t wiped out, God doesn’t start again with Moses, the plague is a punishment but is more of a warning than just judgement. Israel must learn that God is holy he hates sin, and sinful people cannot be near to him.
This chapter highlights how much God hates sin. Sin isn’t something trivial, it is not unimportant, sin is cosmic treason. It is challenging God’s rule, it is refusing to recognise God as creator, sovereign and father. It is saying I know better than you how to run my life and the world you’ve given us. I’ll take the world and life you’ve given me but I don’t want you. And God knows the eternal consequences of sin better than we do, it is so serious because it’s effects are so permanent. If we live life saying we don’t want to know God, then one day God will say your will be done, and we’ll spend eternity away from God and anything good that ever will be. Sin separates us from God eternally.
This chapter confronts us with the true horror of sin. It brings judgement not because God is not loving but because he is.
As the chapter ends we are left with a question, what hope is there for people with God? What hope is there for us? We know that we are not perfect. We know that we sin. What happens to that punishment we deserve?
If God is love he has to be angry at sin. In his anger at sin he has to judge. Where does that leave us? It leaves us facing God’s anger because we have rejected God and just wanted the stuff he provides, we have committed injustices, hurt people, and God will punish that. It leaves us facing eternal separation from God. What can we do?
The answer the Bible gives is nothing. In Roman’s 3 we see another of those Bible buts that gives us hope. (v10-22)We can’t do anything but God in Jesus has done everything. Our sin is worse than we’ve ever realised, but God’s grace as Jesus comes, lives, loves and dies for us, God the Son without sin becoming sin, taking mine and your sin and giving us his righteousness – his absolutely perfect spotless record, making us acceptable to God, is beyond our imagination.
When we see God, when we don’t shrink him down to our size, when we see his love in its full scope how can we not simply come and say thank you. I trust you.
As Stephen confronts the Council before whom he is on trial his accusation is that they have done the same, they have shrunk God down and sought to make him manageable. In so doing they have missed the sheer scope, beauty and audacity of God's plan of salvation in Christ. Jesus alone saves.
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