Let’s start with a question you didn’t get in the email this week. What caused Israel to sin with the golden calf so quickly when Moses delayed in coming down the mountain?
I think at this point in their walk with G-d they had a miracle-based religion.
They wanted Instant gratification.
G-d parted the water, supplied their food and water
Every need was taken care of.
If your religion is based on miracles it will not sustain you.
If you need instant gratification – instant answers your faith will not sustain you.
I don’t think they were actually asking to worship a golden calf.
Their actions said, “We don’t know how to do this. We need a G-d in front of us to give us immediate miracles. We don’t know how to work any other way.”
Also they turned a man into G-d.
They were looking to Moses instead of G-d for their security.
Never turn a human being into G-d.
No man is G-d. No leader is G-d. Not Moses. Not anyone.
Our faith isn’t built on fireworks.
It’s not in the big supernatural experiences.
Miracles do happen but that’s G-d’s department.
Faith is showing up every day, doing what’s right even when no one’s watching and there are no miracles in sight. (taken from an article by Ari Fuld)
1.In Exodus 32:10-14 G-d tells Moses he will consume the children of Israel because of their sin. Moses pleads with him in these verses not to do it. Verse 14 says G-d relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. Did G-d change his mind? What do you think G-d was doing here?
Did G-d change His mind?
Numbers 23:19, “G-d is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
G-d did not destroy Israel
He knew beforehand that He would not destroy Israel.
Why did He put Moses into this place of interceding for the children of Israel?
He wanted to see what Moses would choose.
Would he say, “you’re right, destroy them and make a new start with me!”
G-d wanted Moses to develop a heart for the people
Moses had a heart of love and compassion.
Moses prayed just as G-d wanted him to – as if everything depended on his prayer.
Moses did not put himself first.
He did not jump at the chance to begin a new nation with him – as G-d offered.
G-d wants us to show His compassion.
He puts us into situations where we will have to choose.
Will we choose our comfort and ignore what we see?
G-d wants us to have that same heart and compassion for people and for situations that He brings into our view. He wants us to take the time and energy to intercede when intercession is needed.
2.In Exodus 32 G-d threatened to consume the children of Israel for their sins. Moses pleaded for G-d to repent and asked Him to forgive them. Then in Exodus 33:18-34:7 Moses requested to see G-d’s glory. What exactly was Moses asking from G-d?
Exodus 33:18 says, “And he said, I beg you, show me your glory.”
So exactly what was Moshe asking?
Moses needed reassuring that G-d was still G-d
Exodus 32:10 G-d was threatening to destroy the people of Israel
G-d understood what Moses needed
What did He do?
Exodus 33:22-23, “And it shall come to pass while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand while I pass by; And I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”
G-d’s glory is simply G-d Himself.
Moshe was asking to see G-d in all His glory.
He needed reassurance from G-d that He was still committed to being with the people even after their sin of the golden calf.
Can you think of others in the Messianic scripture that like Moses took bold steps looking for answers?
Matthew 15:22, “A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “L-rd, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” This woman overcame the racial tensions as a Canaanite and pushed through the disciples to Yeshua to get the answer she and her family needed.
Matthew 11:2-3 John’s disciples, “When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciplesto ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Mark 5:25-33 The woman with an issue of blood, “And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Yeshua, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Yeshua realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ But Yeshua kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
A question for us: how strong is our desire to see the Father?
Many things can pull us off track.
People, problems around us, can discourage us and take our attention.
However, if we push ahead as Moses did we will be able to push through into His presence and see His glory.
3. This week we read of Israel’s sin of worshiping the golden calf. Worshiping a golden calf happened again. In I Kings 12 why did the king make two golden calves and what led the people to worship them instead of obeying G-d’s commands? What can we learn from the story of King Jeroboam?
In I Kings 12:27-33 we read where Jeroboam had two calves of gold made for the people to worship.
I Kings 12:27-33, 26 Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the L-rd in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.” 28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.[d]
31 Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. 32 He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made.33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.
Why did Jeroboam decide to make the calves?
He had political reasons.
He was afraid if the people went to Jerusalem to make sacrifices in the Temple he would lose control over them and they would give their allegiance to Rehoboam, Solomon’s son.
What reason did he tell the children of Israel for making the calves and setting up places to offer sacrifices?
He wanted to make worship easier for Israel.
Sounds thoughtful doesn’t it.
Here’s the real reason.
I Kings, 12:26-27, “Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the L-rd in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”
Warning bells should have gone off when the people heard his plan.
G-d had already designated a place for the people to worship and make sacrifices to Him
Now Jeroboam had two new places to worship
He picked other men to be priests that were not of the house of Levi.
No evidence in scripture that people questioned his decisions.
Maybe the over-riding thought was how much easier this was going to be for them.
Instead of obedience to G-d,
idolatry was sanctioned,
unacceptable places for worship were built
a new priesthood—persons loyal to Jeroboam—was inaugurated.
Jeroboam never openly denounce G-d’s commandments.
Instead he merely “made things a little easier” for Israel to worship.
In I Kings 12:28 Jeroboam even used exactly the same words with the two golden calves he made as the children of Israel used in Exodus 32:4, “These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” This should definitely have been a wake-up call. But it wasn’t.
Does any of this sound familiar?
What was Jeroboam’s sin?
He used the power G-d had entrusted him with to secure his own political position.
This was not necessary.
G-d had chosen him and given him 10 tribes because of the sins of Solomon.
I Kings 11:31, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the L-rd, the G-d of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes’”
What was the sin of the people?
They did not question the decisions Jeroboam was making.
They followed along.
They got involved in idolatry instead of following G-d’s commands.
Do we ever get caught following along with what a friend or leader tells us to be true instead of checking it against G-d’s word. We are all responsible for our own actions. When we find ourselves in a place we should not be we cannot blame it on someone else. If someone had challenged Jeroboam would this story have ended differently? We will never know.
We must be extremely careful to “prove all things” according to G-d’s Word and “hold fast” to what we recognize to be His clearly revealed truth and will.
1 Thessalonians 5:21, “but test everything; hold fast what is good.”
Leading others to sin is a serious thing.
Jeroboam remains infamous long after his death,
Scripture repeatedly speaks of him as one who “made Israel sin”
(2 Kings 10:31; 13:6; 14:24; 15:9, 18, 24).