Exodus – “The Story of God’s presence”
Part 13 wrap up
“I don’t get it Big Dan’
Exodus 32
Ya’ll know I love movies and you also know I really like the movie
“Oh Brother where art thou”
I have used quotes and stories from this movie several times in the Exodus series that we are wrapping up today
In one particular scene
Everret and Delmar meet a man named Big Dan
They go out to have a pick nick lunch
Thinking they are going to discuss a business deal
Big Dan has other things on his mind
After lunch he breaks off a club from a tree and begins beating Delmar
Everret sits there looking pretty dumb
And says
“I don’t get it big Dan”
Just before Big Dan
Whacks him with the club and takes all their money
I don’t get it Big Dan-- really
I hate to say this Everret
But it should have been pretty obvious
You should have seen this coming
As we continue in our Study of Exodus this morning
I want to say the same thing to the Israelites
Let me recap to build the scene for today
A lot of this will be very familiar to you
It should be
We are 13 weeks into this study
Unless you just showed up
You have heard all of this before
God’s people had ended up in slavery
For 400 years they suffered
Then God in his mercy sent a man named Moses
A man handpicked by him
To lead them from that life
After blasting Egypt with 10 plagues for their failure to listen
The People ended up in the wilderness
Getting their first taste of freedom
But
Old Pharaoh changed his mind
And went after them
He chased them to the Red Sea
Pharaoh should have turned back
Instead God parted the sea and let his people pass through on dry ground and they drowned the entire Egyptian army when they tried to follow
Then standing on the far side of the of the sea
The bodies of the Egyptians and their horses washing up in the surf
The Hebrews raised their voices in song for the first times in their lives a true free peole
God had delivered them
He had saved
Then as we studied he had provided for them
When they were thirsty he sweetened bitter water
He bought water from a rock when they were in a dry part of the wilderness
He provided their need for food with manna from heaven
He provided some of their wants with the meat that the quail provided
He led them
Protected them
Provided for them
God loved them
And then as we saw two weeks ago
He spoke directly to them
God gave them his commandments directly
At the foot of Mount Sinai
And then he confirmed Moses as their leader
And then he called Moses away for just a short time
40 days God’s word says
And the wheels fell off- the whole deal came unbolted
You see while Moses was up on the mountain receiving the stone tablets that God himself wrote
While God was giving Moses the instructions that he was to give the people to assure a close personal relationship with him
The people forgot
40 days
And they forgot that God had delivered them
40 days
And they forgot the hardships of slavery
40 Days
And they forgot the blessings that God had poured out on them
Over and over again
40 days
And they couldn’t see Moses
40 days
And they couldn’t feel God presence
So they quickly began breaking all the rules that just over a month earlier they had sworn to keep
Let’s read Exodus 32: 1
When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”
---They did not get it----
How quickly they had forgotten
How quickly they returned to their old lives and their old sins
Make us some gods that we can see
Like the ones we had in Egypt they cried
God had promised them blessings for keeping his commands
And death if they did not
But obviously they did not get it
So they went to Aaron
Moses’ brother
The man who God had called to be the high priest
The holiest man next to Moses in the whole world
And said
Make us some gods
His reaction should have been to refuse
His reaction should have been to walk away
Or run away
Or to remind them of their promise
To remind them of their Covent with God
To remind them of all that Yahweh- I Am
Their rescuer and deliver had already done for them
And to remind them all he had promised to do
But
Aaron did not get it either- he was as oblivious as the Israelites
He was as oblivious as Everett as he watched his friend get whacked with a club
He should have known better
He should have expected the walloping that was coming
But
Instead he says in verse 2
So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”
And then in verse 4
Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
If I could talk to Aaron
I would have to say
Man what were you thinking
Have you lost your mind?
You are the high priest
God’s chosen priest
Are you crazy?
But
I don’t believe Aaron would have listen to me
I don’t believe he would have listened to anyone
The people were crying out
And he was trying to fix it
So he did something really stupid
And then things went from bad to worse
Aaron had made this thing- this lifeless calf
I seem to remember a commandment
You shall have no other God before me
It seems that not long ago God said
You shall not make idols
And here they were worshiping a stupid golden calf
And then they went farther
They built and altar and sacrificed to this stupid, lifeless thing
And promptly set out to see just how many of God’s commandments they could break
Verses 5-6
Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the LORD!”
6 The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.
I told ya’ll 2 weeks ago
That God gave the people his commands
I told you 2 weeks ago that he meant what he said
I told you two weeks ago that they had agreed to the terms of the covenant
And now
They deserved the full judgment of God
They could not deny that they had broken the deal
They could not deny the calf, it was right there
They could not deny their sin
They were dancing and drinking and practicing pagan revelry
Guys they were having an orgy
Seeing just how many of God’s laws they could break
And this is where the people in the world that believe that the God of the Old Testament
Is only a God of Judgment
And not Mercy
And where the ones who believe that the God of the New Testament is only a God of Mercy and not Judgment
Fail to see the big picture
You see like Everett they don’t get it
This passage of scripture completely blows that theory out of the water
Why
Because God had every right to zap the Israelites
He had every right to hit reset
To just scrap the whole deal and start over
And I know that if God was only a God of Judgment
That is exactly what he would have done
In fact this is what he originally wanted to do
And this is exactly what he would have done had it not been for Moses
This fellow Moses the Israelites had called him when he had been gone for just over a month
This man they had forgotten about
Intervened for them
He interceded for them
He pleaded with God not to destroy them
To the point he even was willing to give his own life and his own eternity to prevent God from destroying them
Exodus 32:31
So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a terrible sin these people have committed. They have made gods of gold for themselves. 32 But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, erase my name from the record you have written!”
Once again we see a great leader interceding for people who have sinned
Well I can tell this
God got it
He saw Moses’ dedication
He saw Moses’
Love for the Hebrews
So he forgave their sins
Exodus 34:8-11
Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped. 9 And he said, “O Lord, if it is true that I have found favor with you, then please travel with us. Yes, this is a stubborn and rebellious people, but please forgive our iniquity and our sins. Claim us as your own special possession.”
10 The LORD replied, “Listen, I am making a covenant with you in the presence of all your people. I will perform miracles that have never been performed anywhere in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people around you will see the power of the LORD—the awesome power I will display for you. 11 But listen carefully to everything I command you today. Then I will go ahead of you and drive out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
I like to think when Moses told the people what God had planned and how he had showed mercy instead that they -------got it
So you may be sitting there this morning saying
I don’t get it Big Dan
You may be saying
I get that they messed up
And I get that they should have been punished
And I get that God forgave them
But once again these are old dead people
Living lives so long ago
What does all this have to do with me?
Let me see is I can begin to make this relevant for you
2 weeks ago we learned about the 10 commandments
We learned about the penalty of breaking them
And I do not believe that anyone here can argue with the fact that these guys definitely broke most of them
I don’t think anyone could argue that they deserved judgment
But God in his mercy spared them
Guys they broke most of the commandments
The commandments given directly to them by God himself
40 days after they got them
They broke 1 and 2 by making the calf and worshipping it
I’m pretty sure that pagan revelry breaks at least a couple more
Aaron lied about how the calf was made
Listen to this from Moses to Aaron
Exodus 32:21-24
Finally, he turned to Aaron and demanded, “What did these people do to you to make you bring such terrible sin upon them?”
22 “Don’t get so upset, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know how evil these people are. 23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’ 24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.’ When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!”
And Moses himself if we truly believe what Jesus taught about anger and murder even broke one when he smashed the tablets in his anger
So we have people who received instruction straight from God
And chose to sin
People who deserved to die because of their sins
Being spared
Because they had someone to intercede for them
This brings us to today
If God can forgive them because of intercession
Can
Or better yet
Will he forgive us because of intercession?
Yes and no
It depends on who is doing the interceding
I don’t think God would have listened to Aaron
He did not get it
I don’t think he would have listened to anyone else except Moses
When Moses interceded God listened
And God forgave
In order for us to be forgiven
We need an intercessor
But we need the right intercessor
And His name is Jesus Christ
Emmanuel – God with us
The one and only son of God
The son of Man
Fully God and Fully man
The sinless spotless lamb that takes away the sin of the world
He is our intercessor
He and he alone is how we can be forgiven
Listen to me
We need to pray for our brothers and sisters
We need to pray for the sick and the lost
But we need to pray that Jesus would intercede on their and our behalf
And never begin to think we have the ability to save anyone- especially ourselves
A priest cannot intercede for us to God
A priest cannot forgive our sins
They claim they can
But they cannot
A preacher
A Teacher
A Mother
A Father
A Friend
A Husband
Or a wife cannot forgive our sins
No one can save us except Jesus
All of those mentioned can pray and ask Jesus
But only Jesus has the power or the authority to free us from the penalty of our sins
Listen to me
This is important
Baptism cannot save you
Penance cannot save you
Church member ship cannot save you
Good works cannot save you
Giving money or time cannot save you
Buddha
Mohammad
The Pope
The Virgin Mary
Joseph Smith or the Angle Maroni
Cannot save you
They cannot forgive you of your sins
They cannot intercede for you
None of the so called lifeless gods of other religions have the power to free you
It is Christ and Christ alone that sets us free
This passage of scripture tells me that if they can be forgiven
Then I can be forgiven
And if I can be forgiven
You can be forgiven
And it is because of the love of Jesus that this is even possible
I believe in all of my heart one of the most powerful shows of the forgiveness of Jesus lies in the story of the woman caught in adultery
John 8:1-11
Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
This woman had been caught in her sin
So have we
She could not deny her sin
Neither can we
She deserved to be punished for that sin
So do we
But Jesus steps in and says
Go ahead chunk a rock if you have no sin
The men drop their rocks and walk away
I love this part
Where are your accusers he asks her?
Did not even one of them condemn you?
No – Lord
Neither do I – Go and sin no more
Neither do I
She called him Lord
She called him savior
She cried out
He interceded
And she was forgiven
I think she got it!
You too can be forgiven
How you may ask
It really is easy
1 John 1:1-9
We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning,[a] whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.[b]
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus[c] and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
Focus with me on verse 9
If we confess our sin to him
Jesus Christ
He is faithful to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all righteousness
Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life
No one comes to the father except through him
You cannot be saved – forgiven apart from Jesus
Do you get it?
Close from the heart
Pray
