Add correct line breaks, correct capitalisation, correct punctuation, correct Australian English spelling, and correct KJV Bible verse quotations and references to my paragraphs where applicable. But do NOT — I repeat — do NOT alter or change ANY words from my paragraphs under ALL circumstances.
The Israelites’ first graven image
I. THEY WERE UNWILLING TO WAIT
Which of the ten commandments did they break?
Have you tried to wrestle control from God?
II. THEY WERE UNWILLING TO FORSAKE
They had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left them
The root must be dealt with!
III. THEY WERE UNWILLING TO ACKNOWLEDGE
The abuse of their resources
The abuse of their gifts
The abuse of worship
Conclusion
Our text for tonight's message is taken from Exodus 32:1–6.
So far, we have learned about God giving instructions to Moses on how the Tabernacle ought to be built, how the priests ought to be ordained, how the sacrifices ought to be offered, and how He promised to dwell in the Most Holy Place, represented by the Ark of the Covenant. All these instructions had to do with the worship of God. In fact, that was the reason Moses first gave to Pharaoh, to let God's people go to the wilderness to worship Him (Exodus 7:16), and, of course, Pharaoh refused, which led to the ten plagues, the opening up of the Red Sea, and the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt.
The Israelites’ first idol
At this point in time, Moses was communing with God on Mount Sinai, receiving those instructions. He had been away for quite a while, and while he was away, the children of Israel were getting impatient. The longer Moses was away, the more impatient they became. They started to have doubts, not only about Moses but ultimately about God. Their doubts became murmurs, and their murmurs soon became complaints. Finally, they decided to take matters into their own hands, and they went to Aaron, who was the next leader, to demand that he make them their own gods according to their desires.
Sadly, Aaron succumbed to the pressure, and that was how the golden calf was made. This was the first instance whereby the children of Israel worshipped idols. One important lesson we can learn from here is that the golden calf was something they had learned from their days of slavery in Egypt. In other words, at the first instance of trouble, they ran back to Egypt. God recorded this incident in the Bible for our learning and edification. How do we know? 1 Corinthians 10:6–7 says: "Now these things were our examples”—referring to what the children of Israel did while they were in the wilderness, especially in building the golden calf—”to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."
Dear friend, when things get difficult, so often we try to return to the Egypt of our sins—whether it be our old habits, old friends, old relationships, or old ways of life. We must never do that.
The title of our message is “We Forget So Quickly”. The reason why I have titled this message as such is because, remember, the children of Israel had repeatedly said, ‘All that God had said, we will obey’ (Exodus 24:7), emphatically, which included the Ten Commandments. But nothing was further from the truth. When they were faced with delay, when they became impatient, they broke their promise, and interestingly, the very commandments that they broke were the first two commandments, and subsequently the third commandment as well.
I. They Were Unwilling To Wait
Our first point is: ‘They Were Unwilling to Wait’.
Let us begin with verse one of Exodus 32: "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him."
Which of the ten commandments did they break?
Biblical scholars have often debated which of the two commandments they broke. Was it “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” or “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image”? (Exodus 20:3-4a) The answer is both. The violation of the second commandment was obvious—they had made the golden calf—but, they also broke the first commandment because they said clearly to Aaron, "Make us gods" (Exodus 32:1). Basically, the first commandment prohibits worshipping the wrong God, and the second commandment prohibits worshipping the right God in the wrong way. And they had violated both these two commandments.
Some people may argue that they did not make gods, or images, as in many, but only one golden calf. However, once they made the golden calf, there was no stopping them. Other gods would surely follow. We saw that happen when King Jeroboam built the golden calves for worship, both in Dan and in Bethel, in the northern kingdom. Subsequently, King Ahab established the worship of Baal, and subsequently, there were many high places, or places of idol worship, all over the land of Israel.
So often, like the children of Israel, we say to God that we would never do something ever again, and almost immediately, we go ahead and do it anyway. Alcoholics say to God that they will never go back to the bottle again—but they did. Gamblers say to God that they will never gamble again—but they did. Sex addicts say to God that they will never go back to pornography and committing acts of immorality—but they did. Do you find yourself going back to committing those sins which you promised never to commit again? If the answer is yes, then it just goes to show how we forget so quickly.
The children of Israel were unwilling to wait for God's instructions on worship. They knew what they wanted, and they wanted it now. They had every reason to believe that God knew what He was doing. He had brought them out of Egypt. He had saved them by opening up the Red Sea. He had provided manna from heaven, and water from the rock. If they needed any further reassurance, all they needed to do was to look back and see how God was always with them in every situation. But as the days passed, they started to grow anxious and impatient. They started to grumble.
First, they grumbled against Moses, the servant of God. They called him “the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:1). By calling Moses “the man”, they showed how little respect they had for him—the servant and prophet of God. In modern-day terms, it would be like saying, ‘This fella’—’We do not know where this fella is or what has happened to him’. Actually, their statement was contradictory in itself. On one hand, they acknowledged Moses as the one who brought them out of the land of Egypt, but on the other hand, they showed little respect for him.
But the truth of the matter was that Moses was working harder than anyone else. He was carefully receiving instructions from God on Mount Sinai. He had been gone for forty days, and when he returned, he would reveal the divine instructions on how the Tabernacle ought to be built and how God ought to be worshipped. Then, when the time was right, he would lead the children of Israel out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land. In a sense, God was progressively revealing His plans. All they needed to do was to wait patiently.
Have you been wrestling control from God?
We fall into the same sin when we fail to wait patiently for God to work His plans in our lives. God knows what He is doing. You and I don't. When we try to run ahead of Him, we are trying to work things out on our own. We are setting our own plans and agenda. We are determining our own future and destinies independent of God. In reality, we are wrestling control from God.
Isn't it true? We get impatient with God to heal us from our sicknesses—we want it now. We are impatient with God to provide for our needs—perhaps a new job, a new house, a life partner, etc. We get impatient with God in leading us out of our trials, troubles, and afflictions. We get impatient with God in bringing about spiritual change—whether in our lives or in the lives of the people around us. Impatience will lead us to make spiritually irrational and foolish decisions. And when we do that, it is like we are saying to God, ‘I don’t think you understand my situation, I don’t think you hear my prayers, I don’t think you know what’s best for me. So this is what I’m going to do: I’m going to do what I think is right and best for myself.’
Oftentimes we fail to understand that God's delay is no delay at all. It is for our benefit. God wants us to be where we are to build up our faith, patience, endurance, and trust in Him. Or He wants to take the present situation we are in to bring us to the next spiritual growth. Or even when we are lying on our death beds, God wants to use the instrument of death to take us to the best place you and I can ever be, and that is Heaven.
All of us need to understand this important and valuable lesson—to wait patiently upon the Lord, who knows all things and desires the best for us.
II. They Were Unwilling To Forsake
Our second point is: ‘They Were Unwilling to Forsake’.
Although the Bible does not record for us that the people asked Aaron to build the golden calf, the fact that he gave in to the pressure and built the golden calf tells us that he knew what they desired to have.
Now, the Egyptians had several gods or idols which were represented by the calf or cow. They worshipped the idol Hathor, which had the head of a calf. They worshipped the idol Isis, which had the horns of a calf on her head. They worshipped the idol Apis, which was a large black horned calf.
They had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left them
In other words, they had gone back to the Egyptian way of worship. This proves one important point, and that is: it is more difficult to get Egypt out of the Israelites than to get the Israelites out of Egypt. So the truth was that they had never entirely forsaken the gods of Egypt. They had promised to worship the one living and true God, but in their hearts, they still cherished their old idolatries.
Essentially, sin is a matter of the heart. We all struggle to overcome certain sins. We are being tempted to give in to those sins again and again. The reason why we struggle is because the sin is in our hearts. As one theologian rightly said, the absence of Moses simply gave the children of Israel the opportunity to worship openly what they were worshipping in their hearts. They did not need anyone or anything to tempt them with an idol; they simply needed the opportunity to manifest the idolatry that was already in their hearts.
Take a moment and consider this. Sometimes, we think that we have overcome certain sins because of our actions. We have not been committing that act of sin, but it could be due to the presence of our parents, our husbands and wives, our children, or that circumstances and situations do not permit us to do so. Once those elements are removed, we return to those sins again.
The root must be dealt with!
Our outward sins reveal the true inward condition of our hearts. Sin is not only what we do but what we are. And unless we get to the very root of the problem and put sin to death in our hearts, we will fall right back into the same old sins, doing the very things we promised we would never do again.
Many years ago, I was serving amongst former drug addicts and prisoners in Singapore. I attended a conference organised by the Prison Department. The purpose of the conference was to learn how to help change the lives of the prisoners. The participants were from the police force, prison wardens, lawyers and judges, Christian counsellors, and so forth.
One of the speakers, a well-respected judge who was a Christian, made a statement:
‘We, the justice system, are involved in the reformation of the prisoners.’
And then he pointed to us:
‘They, the Christian counsellors, are involved in the work of transforming the lives of the prisoners.’
Then he made a bold statement:
‘We can only incarcerate the prisoner, but once he is released, he is back to his old habits again. The root problem is in the heart. We need transformation, not reformation, to change the lives of the prisoners.’
By that, he was referring to the gospel.
Indeed, how true! Only the Word of God can transform the lives of people. Like the children of Israel who were physically out of Egypt, but unless they were transformed—unless Egypt was taken out of their hearts—you and I will return to the same old sins again. True transformation, which is the wondrous working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, is the only way to forsake our sins.
III. They Were Unwilling To Acknowledge
Our third and final point is: ‘They Were Unwilling to Acknowledge.’
What makes this sin especially dangerous is that some of the things they did were similar to what God had commanded. When you mix what is true with what is false, that is extremely dangerous—like people going to certain churches thinking that they have the real thing, thinking that they were worshipping the God of the Bible, but they are not.
If we want to worship the God of the Bible, then we must worship Him according to what He has revealed to us in His Word. That is what we call the regulative principles of worship. You and I do not have the right to worship God any way we want. True worship is according to the Scripture, and Scripture sets the principles on how to worship God—through prayers and praises, through reading and preaching God's Word, through confessing our sins, through exercising our faith, through our services, through our tithes and offerings, and through observing the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
To worship God in any other way may gratify our flesh, may make us feel good about ourselves, but it does not glorify God.
The abuse of their resources
Firstly, we see the abuse of their resources. Look at verse 2: "And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me." Verse 3, "And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron." (Exodus 32:2-3)
Remember, the children of Israel were once slaves in Egypt, and they did not have any gold. But when they were delivered out of Egypt, God made their former masters pay what was owed to them—treasures of silver and gold. This was a gift from God, who wanted them to use those resources to build the Tabernacle. But instead of using those resources for God and His glory, they used them for their own selfish purposes—to make an idol, the golden calf.
Dear friend, God has blessed us with many good things and rich resources. For what purpose? To make our lives on this earth a little bit more comfortable? For us to enjoy the pleasures of this world? Is that the only reason? There is nothing wrong with using those resources for ourselves, but we must never use them for sin. And we must never forget that God also wants us to use our resources to advance the gospel. He wants us to wisely use those resources so that the gospel could be preached unto the uttermost parts of the world, whereby souls can be saved and believers can be edified. Do not abuse our resources.
The abuse of their gifts
Next, we see the abuse of their gifts. Verse 4, "And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." (Exodus 32:4) The golden calf was a state-of-the-art idol, and it needed certain skills and craftsmanship to make it. Most certainly, Aaron alone could not have made it all by himself—he needed others to help him.
So those who were gifted with those skills and craftsmanship, instead of using their gifts for the glory of God, used them to make an idol. We need to be very careful that we are using our gifts and talents for God, and not just for ourselves—for His glory, and not for the praises of men.