Welcome to another Exodus study number 64 in Exodus chapter 32 and we're going to Breeze through the entire chapter this time. There's not a lot of comment needed In most of this chapter, so we'll move quickly through it all Lord willing and the church don't rise. I So this would be more of an overview and maybe even a review Unless you're new to this kind of verse-by-verse Bible reading and Bible study Then it will be new to you But first we're going to start with a hillbilly holla going out to sister Sandy Dunaway in Alabama Here's your hillbilly holla sister Sandy. Oh And we love all of our hillbillies who listen, no matter what state you're in or what country you're in. And with that, we'll open with a word of prayer and get into the Bible study. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your book. We thank you for your spirit who teaches us and guides us. And I just pray that what I say will be accurate and that all of us will be teachable. under you Sitting under you as your as our teacher and our guide and when we pray for your help in Jesus name. Amen, we are now going to Turn to an ugly scene. I remember Lester Roloff Referring to this and saying it was an incident with a carnal associate minister or associate pastor and the Minister of Music And there have been over the years, I've actually known a number of situations where the associate pastor, in this case Aaron, the high priest under Moses, made some really bad choices, bad decisions. and so we're gonna get right into that in uh... exodus thirty-two and you might hear the thunder rolling in the background we're getting a pretty good storm out there so uh... exodus thirty-two verse one says 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 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 want not what has become of him Moses has been on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments and He spent 40 days and 40 nights up there, and it wasn't just the Ten Commandments. It's what I think I've called the revised code. Not that it changed anything, but the revised code basically provides Additional comments so we can understand the Ten Commandments like thou shalt not kill Doesn't mean that killing is always wrong and in the revised code given in addition to Exodus 20 as Moses has been on the mount We've had it explained that if you kill someone self-defense then that's Actually not a sin But it's not as the new versions change it to thou shalt not murder Because there's also times where you may not be murdering somebody, but it's still a sin for example If you're careless You may not be purposely trying to kill anybody, but because you're careless, you could cause death and so forth. So I'm not defending the people, but we need to go sit out in the middle of nowhere for 40 days and nights. and uh walk in their sandals so to speak in order to grasp the reality of what led up to this incident again not defending what they're doing but i think we kind of read this and get the idea they're just very impatient like kids who have to sit out in the car for a half hour um waiting for the parents to do something 40 days that is a long time uh but It doesn't excuse what we're about to read. We have to have patience with the Lord. And we have to also recognize what our impatience can cause us to get into. I could confess some mistakes and sins I've made because I was impatient with the Lord. So Aaron responds to their request for gods foolishly. But he seems to have feared for his own well-being, and fear can cause a man to do foolish things. And again, no excuses, but just a fact that sometimes you're afraid, or afraid of things falling apart, so you take matters into your own hands instead of letting God take care of things. So let's just read what happened, beginning in verse two. It says, 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 and all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron and verse 4 says 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. Now that's a slap in the face to God, big time. But you notice there, it clearly says that Aaron received the gold and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf. So Aaron turned their jewelry into a dead statue, and they, not Aaron, took it and ran with it. But Aaron then gets the big idea for what he seems to have thought. He thought of this as a sort of controlled opposition thing. In verse five and six, it says, And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. Now, that may seem like good intentions, but God is not going to be honored by a feast that involves idols. Verse six says, and they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. So this is just a mess. And anyone who's ever been to a drunken party knows what the words rose up to play means. And it's a very reserved way of describing what drunk people do. And the omnipresent and omniscient Lord God is seeing all of this. And so verse 7 and 8 says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed thereunto and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." The Bible says God is a jealous God. He certainly does not want to be lumped in or misrepresented by idols, dumb idols. So God is going to offer to relieve Moses of this burdensome people and start all over Verses 9 10 and the Lord said unto Moses. I've seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation now First of all, we have to recognize that a lot of people will see this and say, oh, I couldn't believe in a God like that. Well, listen, God is who God is, and you choosing not to believe in him isn't going to change anything. But you also have to start right in order to end right. And you have to start with the understanding we're talking about the holy God of the universe. The omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. All these characteristics of God. He is beyond our comprehension. Arguing with him is just insanity. And we have to realize he cannot stand sin. And then you talk about this type of sin and what's going on here for him to be ready to just wipe these people out and start all over. If you have a problem with that, you're just not thinking straight. And most people don't think straight. We have to conform our thoughts to the word of God if we want to think straight. So verses 11 and 12 describe this. And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou has brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Now, God's going to or Moses is going to appeal to the Lord and he's going to appeal to God's own word. as he is really serving as an intercessor at this point. Verse 12 says, wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth. Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people. Now, the antinomian, hyper-dispensationalist crowd will pounce on passages like this in their efforts to remove repentance of sin from the gospel message and from the Christian life altogether in some cases. Moses is pleading to God and asking Him to repent of, quote, this evil. He's calling on God to change his mind and heart intentions. to use human or anthropologic terms uh... we cannot fully understand the mind and heart of god as i said the on omnipotent omniscient omnipresent god i mean we he's beyond our understanding the bible gives us in human terms uh... words and expressions that we can understand and uh... this leads to an unresolved discussion of God acting in time. versus his unchanging foreknowledge, which is omniscience. He can't learn anything new. God knows everything, past, present, future. And he is outside of time. So again, we don't have time to go into great detail with this, but I mean, there's been probably hundreds of books, thousands of hours of lectures, thousands of hours of debate over this and everything. But I'm just going to tell you what I believe the Bible clearly teaches, and that is that God is timeless. He exists outside of time. He created time. And so when he comes into time to deal with us on a personal level, as we see in the scripture, as we see him dealing with Moses here, then we are given the understanding of what's happening in our terms, in our language. But God, when he says this evil, it's not sin. Anything that is bad is called evil, but it's not necessarily sin. Hell is evil. The lake of fire is evil. But when God casts the unrepentant unbeliever into the lake of fire, he's not sinning, but he is bringing evil on those who have rejected the free offer of salvation, those who have rejected God's offer of salvation. So you need to meditate on that and get that straight in your mind and understand that, first of all, when God repents, it's not of sin. And also, evil in any general sense is not sin. Uh, look at the words. Number one, they're spelled different. So, you know, they're not exactly the same, um, but they're not, uh, synonyms either. They have different meanings and therefore the words are used differently in scripture. Sometimes though, here's the thing is sometimes evil is sin. Um, but sometimes evil is not sin. Sin is always sin and sin is always evil, but sometimes evil is not sin. And like I said, it takes some time to think about that. So God's wrath on these wicked Hebrews would be an evil thing just because wrath and death and all that, it's an evil thing, but it's not sin. And so God is not repenting of sin. He's repenting of the evil that would come upon these Hebrews that they brought on themselves. So Moses appeals to God based upon his own word, God's own word, and the terrible testimony it is to violate God's word in the eyes of the godless. And that's the basis of what we read and what is referred to here. And I just want to say this as well. I believe God knows the end of these discussions he has with people like Moses, where he says these things. and he says, listen, you step back and I'll destroy them all and we'll start all over. That's not really his perfect will or intent, but it is an option. And he knew Moses' response. And just the same thing with Abraham back in Genesis, when he told Abraham to offer Isaac, he knew from the beginning he was going to tell Abraham to stop and Abraham wouldn't actually kill Isaac. But Abraham demonstrated his faith in God by simply obeying his word, trusting that if he did kill Isaac, that God would raise him from the dead. That's all in Hebrews 11. So with that explanation, And again, something to think about, pray about, come to an understanding of. We continue in verse 13 and 14, it says, Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and sayest unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he had thought to do unto his people. Again, regardless of the implications of that, He's acting in time, and we're being given this understanding in time. It doesn't change the eternal plan of God or His knowledge. And again, it's not sin. Repentance itself is a neutral word and it only regards sin when it does. It's just a weird thing when you talk to some of these people who want to deny repentance and keep repentance out of the gospel message and everything. And they'll say, well, God repented. So if repentance always means repentance of sin, well, it doesn't always mean repentance of sin. But when it comes to the gospel, it does mean repentance of sin. Christ died for our sins. In this case, it's not about sin. It's about the evil that these Hebrews were bringing upon themselves. So now Moses is going to head down the Mount to deal with these people. Verse 15, and Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand. The tables were written on both their sides, on the one side and on the other were they written. Sometimes you'll see that misrepresented, but it's not a big deal. But you know, if you want to be biblically accurate, then when you draw the 10 commandments, there should be four, because you have two tables and they're written on both sides. So verse 16 says, and the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables. You talk about priceless. But don't get too attached to these artifacts. We'll see in our reading, I believe it's in 1 Kings. when the ark is brought in, when Solomon's dedicating the temple, I think it's around chapter seven, there about, and there's nothing left in the ark except these tables. The budding rod of iron and the manna, by that time, are missing. Now, by the time Herod's temple comes, after the Babylonian captivity, And the temple is rebuilt and Jesus shows up Around 500 years after the captivity ends and there's no mark at all in the temple just something to keep in mind as we continue and says verse 17 when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted he said unto Moses there is a noise of war in the camp and And verse 18, Moses is speaking, and he said, it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery. Neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome. But the noise of them that sing, do I hear? and that's just funny because rock music has always been described as noise by the older generations and again referring to Lester Roloff talking about this he called it a rock concert and if you listen especially some of this stuff coming out today it just it's all it does sound like noise I know I sound old saying that but that's I go back and listen to some of the stuff that in the 80s when I was a kid I'm thinking wow what a racket but you know it was popular and all the kids go along with the popular stuff so verse 19 says and it came to pass as soon as he came nigh under the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing Moses anger waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mount of course the old joke is Moses was a good Baptist because he didn't believe in dancing but in this case The dancing the problem is it's a drunken Orgy and it's godless now later. We'll see King David danced before the ark and Other references to dancing that means not necessarily a sin to dance but most of what's called dancing today is kind of sexual gyration and that sort of thing and that's probably closer to what was going on here and And verse 20 says, And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. So it's an ugly response to an ugly scene. There wasn't a thing wrong with Moses acting ugly, by the way, under these circumstances. And it's about to get uglier as Moses confronts Aaron and then exacts punishment on the people. But I have to say, I don't know that I've ever done this in ministry, but as a parent, there's probably been times where someone walked in on me and heard me raising my voice, beet red in the face, and on a few occasions spanking the kids. They would have thought, oh, what a terrible sight. Well, when you're dealing with sin, sometimes it gets ugly. And go read about, Laughter when it comes to God. He's going to mock and laugh mockingly in the face of the wicked and it's not gonna be a pretty sight and when he comes back in Revelation 19 to destroy the beast and the false prophet and the enemies of God it's Described the Old Testament as like one who's been raised having too much wine like a mad drunken rage And that's just something else to look into on your own time. But verse 21 says, And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And like Adam in the garden, the woman thou gavest to be with me. That kind of thing is the response so often with people. And here that's Aaron. He's going to pass the buck or should we say he's going to pass the calf. Verse 22 through 24. Let's read this. And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, 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 want not what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me. Then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. Now go back to verse 4 and compare what actually happened to Aaron's report here in verse 23 and verse 24 and you'll see that he's not really being honest. But it's obvious to Moses, I'm sure. And that's how people do. When they get caught in the act, they just don't tell it like it is. You can almost hear Moses saying, do you think I'm stupid? You don't just toss gold into a fire and a calf jumps out. But you know, it sounds as stupid as the Big Bang Theory or spontaneous generation or any of the other things these smart intellectual skeptics and Christ rejecters come up with today. But Moses is pressed upon to deal with the even more disgusting scene before him in verses 25 through 27. And when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked under their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from the gate, from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbor. Bloody scene actually, basically like martial law. And it's the way they should have been putting down the Antifa and BLM riots here in 2020 and 2021. Verse 28 continues, and the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people that day about 3,000 men. So it's not a huge number of dead, but this is by the sword. There'll be many more die of the plagues. straight from the Lord But just like that it's done and Moses sets things up for closure to use a modern word and Getting everyone back in order under God's guiding hand verse 29 for Moses had said consecrate yourselves today to the Lord even every man upon his son and upon his brother that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day and And verse 30 then says, and it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, ye have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord. Peradventure, I shall make an atonement for your sin. And this serves as an example to us. When you do something wrong, the Holy Spirit convicts you. Repent, confess your sin. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then get back to work. Don't let your failures or the failures of others, even if it's your pastor or your spouse or your best friend. Don't let anything stop you from serving the Lord. Get things right and get back to it. There's a time of restoration. And then then let's get back to it. Don't let Satan use it as a victory to kill your work for him. verses 31 32 continue and moses returned unto the lord and said oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not blot me i pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written you notice that it's the only time i remember seeing it in the scripture yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and then there's this line as though there's this pause And if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." Now, it's not exactly the same, but it serves as a type of the intercession made on our behalf by Jesus. Jesus is the one mediator between God and man. But before he came in Israel, you had the high priest. And as the high priest system's being set up, you had Moses as a mediator. And 1 John 2, 1 and 2 says, My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Now, Moses could not be the substitution for the sins of these people, but he served as a mediator and an intercessor because he's a sinner like any other man. And we continue and close out the chapter. And the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, mine angel, capital A, shall go before thee. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord bled the people because they made the calf which Aaron made.