Trouble on the Mountain
Sermon
Trouble on the Mountain
Sermons For The Middle Third Of The Pentecost Season
A man was riding on a train. He was pacing back and forth and one of his kids was yelling, "Papa, Papa, I want a glass of water. I want a glass of water." The harried man just kept walking back and forth, and the kid kept yelling. Finally, the man smacked the kid on the seat and told her to shut up. A nice old lady across the aisle stopped him and said, "Mister, I'm going to call the conductor and make trouble for you!" The guy said, "Lady, you're gonna make trouble for me? That kid there is my Becky; she just ripped a hole in her new dress. My Rosie over there is crying for a glass of water. The other girl is just sixteen, is in a family way, and no husband. My wife just died and is in the baggage car ahead. I lost my tickets, and now I find out I'm on the wrong train. Go ahead, make trouble!"
Big trouble is brewing on Mt. Sinai. Oracles are handed down from the mountain while orgies are going on in the valley below! God is giving rules to Moses, the people are already breaking them in the plain. Punishment is promised from above, and partying is in full swing in the valley!
Look at this narrative and see what's going on.
Moses has gone to the mountain of Sinai, and Aaron has been left in charge on the plain below. The people, just five or six weeks earlier, had been sealed into a Covenant with God. The Ten Commandments had been given, and the Jews had solemnly promised, "All that the LORD hath spoken, we will do." (Exodus 24:3) They had been sprinkled with the blood of the Covenant, and now, before it is hardly dry, they have forgotten their vows.
The Defection
Moses has been on the mountain for forty days. The people become impatient. The reality of Moses and of God is becoming just a dim memory and these people ask Aaron for a god. With Aaron's consent and counsel, they melt down their golden earrings, and mold them into the form of a golden calf. They make a bull calf as a sign to them of the presence of God!
A teacher caught a rabbit on the school grounds and took it into her classroom to show the children. They were delighted, and asked many questions about it. Then someone asked the inevitable question, "Is it a boy rabbit or a girl rabbit?" The teacher said, "I don't know yet, but I'll find out." One little girl had a suggestion she thought would hasten the process. She suggested, "Teacher, why don't we vote on it?" This trouble in our text seems to be something that carried the vote of the whole nation of Israel. Aaron tries to soften this universal revolt, rebellion, and disobedience to God by building an altar and proclaiming a festival to honor the Lord. But just as all weak, self-justifying acts fail, this feast of worship degenerates into an orgy of drinking and sex.
The situation is desperately grave. The Israelites have unanimously turned to apostasy. We don't hear of a single protest. None of the faithful spoke for God or remembered his laws, especially the first two; "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." Theirs is an ingratitude of the worst sort. I heard a humorous story which illustrated thanklessness. A man from the city went to visit his country cousin, a farmer. The first thing the city dude saw was a pig with a wooden leg. "Why," asked the man from the city, "does that pig have a wooden leg?" "Let me tell you about that pig," said the country cousin. "My tractor fell on me one afternoon, and the pig ran for help and saved me from dying. Sometime later, my son was drowning in that pond over there, and the pig swam out in the water and saved him. And then, still later, my house caught fire, and the pig woke us up and saved our lives from that burning building." "That's really great," said the city fellow, "but why does the pig have a wooden leg?" The farmer replied, "Don't you know anything? You don't eat a pig like that all at one time!"
Such a poor return for the kindnesses of God did the nation give. Not one of them seemed to remember Moses had been a good and faithful leader. No one recalled the deliverance from the death-angel, the Red Sea crossing, the deliverance from the Egyptians, the water from the rock, or the manna in the wilderness. No one spoke for God and his goodness and mighty acts. No one even bothered to look toward the mount where Moses had gone. Had they cared enough to look, they would have seen the glowing red flames on the mount.
And even worse, when confronted with their defection, and asked for an explanation for deserting God to espouse the worship of a bull, all they could offer was a lot, of lame excuses. Who would ever believe such shallow excuses to justify their disobedience?
They said, "What happened to this man Moses?" They knew where he was; he was on Mt. Sinai with Yahweh. Aaron and the elders could have told them that. The fire and the smoke on the mountain could have laid all their doubts to rest.
Aaron's weak compliance is a pitiful picture of a leader who compromised for the sake of expediency. The demands of the populace frightened this man who, until Moses returned, had an influential position, so he yielded to their request to make them a god. (He was much like a vacillating Pilate who, when his position was threatened by Jesus, called for a wash basin and tried to wash his hands of any responsibility.) Aaron compounded his crime and tried to diminish the seriousness of it by proclaiming a "fast to the Lord." It was all a bumbling attempt to save his own face and whitewash his sin by putting God's name to it, sort of as an afterthought. His disclaimer as to how it happened is the most ridiculous and stupid of its kind; "Don't blame me!" he said. "They wanted it. I just took the gold they gave me, and threw it into the fire, and there came out this calf!" (If you can believe that, I've got a piece of beach-front property in Idaho that I'll sell you real cheap!)
The bull calf they danced around was a blatant disobedience. You can never truly worship God and flagrantly defy his commandments. If you broke one of the Ten Commandments last night, or last week, you cannot truly worship God without having first genuinely repented. Flagrant disobedience calls for earnest sorrow for sin. That's why we have a confession of sins in the worship service. Confession should never be omitted from a worship service, nor made optional. We sin against a holy God in thought, word, and deed - sometimes unknowingly, other times presumptuously.
When we consider the defection, the disobedience, the silly excuses of these Jews, we may be tempted to judge them harshly, but let's be cautious. Do we not often forget God's tender mercies, his gracious revelations and provisions, and even his terrible warnings against all sin and wrongdoing?
We, too, are skilled in excuse-making, however preposterous they may be. I read some notes which a teacher collected that parents sent to school with their children, explaining their absence for having missed a day of school. These are some of the actual excuses she received. "Marge could not come to school because she was bothered with vary close veins." "John was absent from school because he had two teeth taken out of his face." "My sun is under the doctors care and should not take P.E. Please execute him." "Please excuse Blanche from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday she fell out of a tree and misplaced her hip." Silly, aren't they? But are they any crazier than some of the unbelievable excuses we offer for not attending worship, for not obeying the laws of God? In my ministry, I've heard all of the following excuses given, and far more.
"I can't do it. God asks too much."
"After all, I'm only human. What else can you expect?"
"Everybody else does it. Why can't I?"
"I'm not a very religious person. I leave all of that for the preachers to do."
"God is a loving God and he understands why I sin."
"I don't go to church because I was made to go when I was a kid."
"Sunday is the only day I have to sleep late and relax."
"I knew a preacher once who didn't pay his bills (or told a lie, or committed adultery, etc.), and he turned me off of the church."
"The services are so dull and uninteresting."
"They just don't do it like they used to."
"They don't sing the 'old' familiar songs anymore."
"The church is full of hypocrites."
"If acting the way 'they' act is being a Christian, then I want no part of it."
"You can't be a Christian and stay in my kind of business."
"Preachers preach too long (or are too dull, too simple, too deep) and the services are not over by twelve noon."
"It's too cold in the winter and I'm afraid of snakes in the summer!"
Will these excuses for our defection stand the scrutiny of the allseeing, all-knowing eyes of God in the Judgment Day?
The Rejection
God sees it all. God knows exactly what's going on. God is not fooled. And God is mad!
When God sees those people whom he had redeemed out of slavery only a short while ago, those people who had acknowledged him as Lord, had entered into Covenant with him, had recited vows of faithfulness, now brazenly denying the reality of God, he is angry! They are renouncing their Emancipator and shamelessly worshiping a pagan bull calf. How low could they go? They made themselves a deity which was a pagan representation. It would seem, if they would make a graven image at all, the least they could do would be to form it into a lamb. After all, the slain lamb had stood for them, by its blood, between life and death. But no, they sank to the depths of such apostasy they chose to worship a bull. No wonder God is furious.
God disowns them. He separates himself from them. He wants nothing more to do with them. He casts them off utterly. He even says to Moses, "Thy people, which thou broughtest up."
God knows the worship, no matter what Aaron said, is not truly worship of him. We may hide our sins from ourselves and from everyone else, but God is not fooled. We are open and transparent to him, and our rank idolatry he will neither accept nor tolerate!
It is true, absolutely true, God is a God of wondrous love, but love is only one of God's attributes. He is also a holy God, a God of justice and wrath. God has, indeed, prepared a heaven for his own, but he has also prepared a hell. People will go to one place or the other. The choice is always ours. God never sends anyone to hell, but if we choose to serve another God, if we choose to go our own determined, delinquent, willful way, then God will have no choice but to allow justice to be done and judgment to fall.
The Gospel is either/or. We choose the broad way or the narrow way, life or death, salvation or destruction. We accept or reject. The option is ours. God longs for us to choose life and live, and it breaks his heart if we do not, but he utterly rejects those who ignore him, his Son, and his way of salvation.
The writer of Hebrews says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews 10:31) The Psalmist said, "God is angry with the wicked every day." (Psalm 7:11) God said, through his prophet, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:4)
When Ahab and Jezebel conspired to cheat Naboth of his vineyard, it was so easily and cleverly done, but they failed to take into account that God will not be trifled with. The dogs licked the blood of Jezebel and punishment fell upon Ahab's son and family as a result of their father's sin. (1 Kings 21:17-26 and 2 Kings 9:21-37)
David, great king that he was, apparently felt he could commit the terrible sins of adultery and murder and get by with it, but a just God, a sinned-against God, said the child conceived in sin would die, and he did. When God says "No," he means "No."
When God speaks in grace, mercy, love, peace, kindness, and promise you can believe it. But when he speaks in anger, you can well believe that, too. So the defectors, the despisers of God's law, are in big trouble now!
God says to Moses, "Don't try to stop me! I am angry with them, and I am going to destroy them! Then I will make you and your descendants into a great nation."
The Interception
God, in his anger at the people, promises to destroy them, and to make Moses into a second Abraham. But this great leader is not interested in promotion and prestige. The people have repeatedly maligned him, they've often forgotten all the good he has done for them, and now Moses is confronted by a God who will no longer own them as his people. Moses intercedes and pleads for them. What a great heart! No wonder God chose him to be a leader.
Moses doesn't deny they have grievously sinned. He doesn't make a single excuse for the people. Moses accepts God's verdict on them, and does not challenge it.
Moses has in mind he must try some other way to reach God on their behalf. Some other approach is necessary. Pastor Ed Montfort told me of a man who went off on a safari and was anxious to share the good news of the opening day with his friend back home. He started to write, "Dear John, Lovely trip over, and I shot two mongooses today." He wasn't sure about that word, so he scratched out "mongooses" and wrote "mongi," then scratched out "mongi" and wrote "mongeese." Finally he gave up, took a new card upon which he wrote, "Dear John, Lovely trip over. I shot a mongoose today." At the bottom of the card he added, "P.S. I shot another one."
Moses knew it wouldn't work with God to plead the ignorance of his guilty people. He knows they have sinned and they know they have sinned. So he tries another tactic. With a magnanimous spirit and magnificent courage he steps before an injured, wounded, wronged, justly-angered God and begins to make entreaty on their behalf, on other grounds. Since he can't appeal for them on the basis of innocence, he must find another avenue of escape for them. Thus, he pleads God's honor and God's promises to the Patriarchs.
Moses asks God to reverse his decision, not because the people are deserving, but he persuades God by saying, "The people of Egypt will say you never intended to deliver them, you just brought them into the wilderness to destroy them. And God, it won't look good for you and your honor if you do this. And, too, Lord, you made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and you can't go back on your Divine Word. For those reasons, not because this nation is worthy, but for your own sake, do not destroy them!"
So Yahweh changes his mind, Moses prevails, and the undeserving nation is spared. Moses' life was tied up in that of his people. Their well-being was his well-being. Later, in this chapter, we learn he would be willing to die if Israel could again be restored to favor with God. One of the greatest prayers in the Bible is his petition for them, "Alas, this people have sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if thou wilt forgive their sins - and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou has written." (Exodus 32:31-32)
God relented, changed his mind, and said, "I will not destroy them, but the time is coming when I will punish these people for their sin."
Moses is a good type of the Savior who was to come. The supreme act of self-sacrifice was not too great a price for him to pay for his people. What a tremendous story of interception and intercession. The story is still sweeter when told in the light of the cross of Christ, because there the Divine Intercessor did die so the justice of God might be satisfied. The price of the sins of the world, your sins and mine, were meted out in full fury upon Jesus, who paid it all that we might live.
Two Mountains
An old French poem tells the story of an adventuress who enticed a young man from his mother's home. The adventuress, wishing to be sure the youth retained no lingering affection for his mother, said to him, "As a proof of your devotion to me, I want you to murder your mother, tear out her heart, and bring it to me." The young man committed the horrible crime, but as he was returning from his evil mission, carrying his mother's heart in his hand, to prove his submission to his new love, he stumbled and fell. Immediately, from the heart he held in his grasp, came his mother's voice, "Are you hurt, son?" Such love, and greater, was the love of Jesus on Calvary's hill. Our sins nailed him to the tree; we can plead no innocence of the guilt. He was sacrificed for our offenses, and yet the voice from that blood-stained mountain says, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!"
We are in deep trouble if the only mountain which speaks to us is Sinai. From that rumbling, quaking, smoking place comes judgment for our sins. But a mighty One, carrying a cross, ascends another mountain, Golgotha, and there the wrath of a righteous God is met by the blood which covers, and the voice from that holy hill is one of acceptance and redemption. Can any one of us turn a deaf ear to such a call of love?
Proper 21 (September 24--October 1)
Ordinary Time 26
Exodus 33:12-23
He Lights Up My Life!
When this narrative begins, it is about as lacking in optimism and hope as the story my brother, B. J., tells about a farmer in southern Missouri who hired a man to split some post oak for his farm. Post oak is notoriously hard to work with, but it makes excellent fence posts and rail fences. It is so tough, that it's like trying to split rock. The farmer hired a man who was not too fast at thinking, and told him he'd pay him three dollars a dozen for the posts. After two or three days the farmer came to the hired hand and found him hard at work. He asked him how he was getting along. The man replied, "Well, pretty good! When I finish this one, and then one more, I'll have two done!"
The people of Israel just can't seem to get it all together either. The making of the golden calf caused a huge rift between God and Israel. God has promised Moses, because of his intercession on their behalf, that he will not destroy the people, but he will punish them. (Exodus 32:14, 34-35)
Moses is now in the Tent of Meeting, outside the camp. (I wonder, was the camp where the people lived so defiled with the idolatrous worship of the golden bull calf that the meeting place with God had to be outside the camp?)
The people look on from the distance and see the familiar cloudy pillar hovering at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Moses is in there - meeting God - talking with him about them! What will the verdict be?
Mourning spreads over the camp. Hoping to appease God's anger a bit they strip themselves of all their jewelry and wear it no more. They are just waiting to see what God will do with them. (Waiting for an unknown punishment for a known sin is not exactly a comfortable way to spend your time.)
When I was a child, when I had disobeyed my mother, she would often say, "Just you wait until I get you home, young lady! Then you are going to be punished!" Waiting for the axe to fall is a part of the terrible price I had to pay for disobedience. My imagination would work overtime as I'd think of all kinds of monstrous penalties; would she whip me with a limb off the mulberry tree, would she make me do dishes for a week, would she ground me and not let me be with my friends? I always knew, whatever happened, I'd pay dearly for a few moments of pleasure while I was misbehaving. Then I would try to avert disaster by shaping up as soon as I got home. I'd wash the dishes, do the dusting, carry out the garbage, say "Yes, ma'm," and "No, ma'm," walk softly and speak respectfully. Anything to make the retribution I deserved easier to bear!
"I Will Not Go With You" (Exodus 33:13)
The first word from God was a good news-bad news" Word - rather like the son who came to his father and said, "Dad, I've got good news and bad news for you. The good news is you get a new car. The bad news is I totaled the old one!" God said to Moses and the people, "You will go to the promised land; I will drive out the enemy before you, but I will not go with you myself. You are so stubborn I might destroy you on the way. I'll send an angel to guide you."
So, God hands over his care and leadership to that of an angel. It could be worse, but it could be a lot better, too. I've nothing against angels; I thank God they are ever around us to help, aid, protect, and do all the nice things he has them do for us. But, if God himself is not with us, we suffer a terrible loss.
It is difficult for us, since we live in the light of the Cross, to put ourselves in the place of ancient Israel, and know what this word would mean to them. We comfort ourselves often with the words of Jesus who said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20) However fearful Israel might have been of God's august presence, they still knew they could not live without it!
Taylor Caldwell (in Answer As A Man, p. 131) said, "Better a terrible world with God in it than a painless world without Him."
Everything you or I can possibly name, however good it is, is a sad second-best to that Wonderful Presence. An angel (terrific as they are) is a poor substitute for the Presence of God.
My John is, next to Jesus, the best thing that ever happened to me. Our teaching/preaching ministry sometimes means we have to be in different locations for a week (and once-in-a-too-often-while), maybe two weeks. How I miss John's warm, beautiful, physical presence. I think about him when we are apart, and if I can catch some unsuspecting soul and get them to listen, I talk about him. Of course, I carry his picture, and stand it up in every motel room I inhabit. That's all fine, but it's not enough. Sometimes on a Monday or Tuesday of the week's mission I am in, the pastor will hand me a "love-card" John has sent to me, in care of the local church. That helps a lot, but it also lacks a lot. And then, there are the phone calls (we've bought A.T.&T. several times over!) which let me hear his voice. That's even better than the card. But when Thursday comes, the revival is ended, and I get on a plane or head my car toward wherever he is; at day's end, when I get to see him, be with him, touch him, and be in his real presence, then I know how paltry all other things are that simply made do until we are together again!
Angels which stand-in as an understudy for God himself are far from satisfactory. That's true of most replacements for the real thing.
You don't want margarine if you can get butter,
You don't want imitation powder if you can get cream,
You don't want instant if you can get brewed coffee,
You don't want Pepsi if you can get Coke (excuse me, if you think it should be the other way around),
- and you don't want angels when you've been used to having God!
Nothing else, absolutely nothing else can take his place!
"If You Don't Go, We Don't Go!" (Exodus 33:15)
God relents a bit, and tells Moses he will go with him, because he is pleased with him. But this man Moses, leader and intercessor for his people, identifies himself with them and says, "If you do not go with us, don't make us leave this place. How will anyone know you are pleased with your people and with me if you do not go with us?"
Doesn't that remind you of Jesus, our great High Priest, who so completely identified himself with us that he went so far as to even assume our humanity?
So Moses says to God, "I and thy people - if you do not go with us, don't make us leave this place." He as much as tells God, "What good is the promised land without you? So what if we are victorious over the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (and all the other "ites") if you are not with us? What if it is a land of milk and honey to which we go, what good is any of it if you are not there? We'd rather stay right here in the wilderness, we'd rather be nomads without a homeland, and you be with us, than to be in Canaan without you!"
Moses was right. Without God, no matter the wealth and largess of the place, we are poor, homeless, lonely, and lacking in wholeness.
There is a lot of real loneliness an our world. Many young peopie are abjectly lonely because they feel they have no one - parents, teachers, or peers - who understands them. The elderly are often lonely, sometimes because of the death of a spouse, or because of children who are inattentive to them as they have grown older. Often they are lonely because they feel their aches and pains set them apart from a healthy world of humans who are bursting with physical fitness.
Psychologist James J. Lynch, author of The Broken Heart: The Medical Consequences of Loneliness, says, "Loneliness kills. We have a biological need to form human relationships. If we fail to fulfill that need, our health is in peril. We must love one another or die."
All loneliness is sad and traumatic, but no suffering is as severe or tragic as the loneliness which comes from being estranged from God and his presence, of feeling bereft of him.
"I'll Go, I Will Do as you Ask" (Exodus 33:17)
The prayer of Moses prevails, and God relents, saying, "I will do just as you have asked." In other words, "All right, I'll go with you!"
When our daughter, Jodi, was very little, about three years old, she would often ask, as we'd pass the Dairy Queen, "Daddy, could we stop, could we?" And her daddy would always say, "Yes." But there were times when he did not stop, and Jodi would cry and question, "But, daddy, you said we could stop!" "I know," her daddy would respond, "I said we could, but I didn't say we would!"
Moses knew all along God could go with them, but he was not so sure he would! Think what it meant, when God said, "I will do as you ask. I'll go. I will go with you!" The Promise of the Presence! Who can live without it?
Can you recall a time when you sinned, that is, you did something you knew good and well you ought not to have done? And do you remember how you felt? Did you think maybe God had left you completely and forever? (Could that be why the Scripture says to "Grieve not the Holy Spirit"?) There is no worse feeling in the whole wide world than to be lonely for God. It is, without doubt, the emptiest feeling a mortal can know. We get so accustomed to having that gracious, tender, gentle, comforting, guiding, powerful Presence with us. No wonder we border on frantic hysteria when we feel the absence of God!
Maybe that's the reason so many folks love the simple, old Gospel song which says,
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
The late E. Stanley Jones said, "There is more joy to the square inch in Christ than there is to the square mile without him."
Only the assurance of that Presence can make us happy. One day John Tauler, the fourteenth century German mystic, met a beggar on the highway, and, as was his custom, he addressed the beggar, saying, "God give you a good day, my friend!" The beggar answered, "I thank God I have never had a bad day." "Well then," said Tauler, "God give you a happy life." But the beggar responded again, "I've never been unhappy." "What do you mean?" asked Tauler. "Well," said the beggar, "when it is fine, I thank God; and when it rains, I thank God. When I have plenty, I thank God; and when I am hungry, I thank God. And since God's will is my will, and since whatever pleases him pleases me, why should I be unhappy?" "Who are you anyway?" asked Tauler. "I'm a child of the King," came the reply. "You, a child of the King?" laughed Tauler. "Where is this King?" "In my heart," whispered the man in rags. "In my heart."
He Lights Up My Life!
You might well ask the question, "How do we get and how do we keep the Divine Presence? We know, first of all, the Presence of God comes to us when we are born anew into the Kingdom of God, through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the abiding Presence who comes to live within us, and without it we are strangers to God. And we keep the Presence by obediance to him. All disobedience is sin, and sin separates us from God. God doesn't move from us, but when we willfully disobey, we move away from him. That causes estrangement, a breach, a wounding of the hallowed Presence. Unrepentant hearts seldom feel the Presence, but walk in the lonely darkness of their own making.
Goethe once said something worth thinking about. "There are four things I hate: first, tobacco smoke; second, lice; third, garlic; and fourth, the Cross." That's a strange combination, but he was speaking truly about a lot of people. We hate the cross because it calls for our sins to be nailed to that tree. When we reject the Cross, we reject Christ, and God, salvation, hope, peace, and the marvelous Presence.
A few years ago, a popular song, "You Light Up My Life" was made a hit by Debbie Boone. Some folks said it was just a simple love song. Others said that, like "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," it could apply to human love or to the love of Jesus Christ. Regardless of what the song writer, or Debbie Boone intended, it speaks to what I personally feel concerning the Divine Presence in my life. Life is utterly hopeless and dark without him, but life shines with Divine radiance when he is near. As no other, in heaven or earth can do, he lights up my life!
Big trouble is brewing on Mt. Sinai. Oracles are handed down from the mountain while orgies are going on in the valley below! God is giving rules to Moses, the people are already breaking them in the plain. Punishment is promised from above, and partying is in full swing in the valley!
Look at this narrative and see what's going on.
Moses has gone to the mountain of Sinai, and Aaron has been left in charge on the plain below. The people, just five or six weeks earlier, had been sealed into a Covenant with God. The Ten Commandments had been given, and the Jews had solemnly promised, "All that the LORD hath spoken, we will do." (Exodus 24:3) They had been sprinkled with the blood of the Covenant, and now, before it is hardly dry, they have forgotten their vows.
The Defection
Moses has been on the mountain for forty days. The people become impatient. The reality of Moses and of God is becoming just a dim memory and these people ask Aaron for a god. With Aaron's consent and counsel, they melt down their golden earrings, and mold them into the form of a golden calf. They make a bull calf as a sign to them of the presence of God!
A teacher caught a rabbit on the school grounds and took it into her classroom to show the children. They were delighted, and asked many questions about it. Then someone asked the inevitable question, "Is it a boy rabbit or a girl rabbit?" The teacher said, "I don't know yet, but I'll find out." One little girl had a suggestion she thought would hasten the process. She suggested, "Teacher, why don't we vote on it?" This trouble in our text seems to be something that carried the vote of the whole nation of Israel. Aaron tries to soften this universal revolt, rebellion, and disobedience to God by building an altar and proclaiming a festival to honor the Lord. But just as all weak, self-justifying acts fail, this feast of worship degenerates into an orgy of drinking and sex.
The situation is desperately grave. The Israelites have unanimously turned to apostasy. We don't hear of a single protest. None of the faithful spoke for God or remembered his laws, especially the first two; "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." Theirs is an ingratitude of the worst sort. I heard a humorous story which illustrated thanklessness. A man from the city went to visit his country cousin, a farmer. The first thing the city dude saw was a pig with a wooden leg. "Why," asked the man from the city, "does that pig have a wooden leg?" "Let me tell you about that pig," said the country cousin. "My tractor fell on me one afternoon, and the pig ran for help and saved me from dying. Sometime later, my son was drowning in that pond over there, and the pig swam out in the water and saved him. And then, still later, my house caught fire, and the pig woke us up and saved our lives from that burning building." "That's really great," said the city fellow, "but why does the pig have a wooden leg?" The farmer replied, "Don't you know anything? You don't eat a pig like that all at one time!"
Such a poor return for the kindnesses of God did the nation give. Not one of them seemed to remember Moses had been a good and faithful leader. No one recalled the deliverance from the death-angel, the Red Sea crossing, the deliverance from the Egyptians, the water from the rock, or the manna in the wilderness. No one spoke for God and his goodness and mighty acts. No one even bothered to look toward the mount where Moses had gone. Had they cared enough to look, they would have seen the glowing red flames on the mount.
And even worse, when confronted with their defection, and asked for an explanation for deserting God to espouse the worship of a bull, all they could offer was a lot, of lame excuses. Who would ever believe such shallow excuses to justify their disobedience?
They said, "What happened to this man Moses?" They knew where he was; he was on Mt. Sinai with Yahweh. Aaron and the elders could have told them that. The fire and the smoke on the mountain could have laid all their doubts to rest.
Aaron's weak compliance is a pitiful picture of a leader who compromised for the sake of expediency. The demands of the populace frightened this man who, until Moses returned, had an influential position, so he yielded to their request to make them a god. (He was much like a vacillating Pilate who, when his position was threatened by Jesus, called for a wash basin and tried to wash his hands of any responsibility.) Aaron compounded his crime and tried to diminish the seriousness of it by proclaiming a "fast to the Lord." It was all a bumbling attempt to save his own face and whitewash his sin by putting God's name to it, sort of as an afterthought. His disclaimer as to how it happened is the most ridiculous and stupid of its kind; "Don't blame me!" he said. "They wanted it. I just took the gold they gave me, and threw it into the fire, and there came out this calf!" (If you can believe that, I've got a piece of beach-front property in Idaho that I'll sell you real cheap!)
The bull calf they danced around was a blatant disobedience. You can never truly worship God and flagrantly defy his commandments. If you broke one of the Ten Commandments last night, or last week, you cannot truly worship God without having first genuinely repented. Flagrant disobedience calls for earnest sorrow for sin. That's why we have a confession of sins in the worship service. Confession should never be omitted from a worship service, nor made optional. We sin against a holy God in thought, word, and deed - sometimes unknowingly, other times presumptuously.
When we consider the defection, the disobedience, the silly excuses of these Jews, we may be tempted to judge them harshly, but let's be cautious. Do we not often forget God's tender mercies, his gracious revelations and provisions, and even his terrible warnings against all sin and wrongdoing?
We, too, are skilled in excuse-making, however preposterous they may be. I read some notes which a teacher collected that parents sent to school with their children, explaining their absence for having missed a day of school. These are some of the actual excuses she received. "Marge could not come to school because she was bothered with vary close veins." "John was absent from school because he had two teeth taken out of his face." "My sun is under the doctors care and should not take P.E. Please execute him." "Please excuse Blanche from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday she fell out of a tree and misplaced her hip." Silly, aren't they? But are they any crazier than some of the unbelievable excuses we offer for not attending worship, for not obeying the laws of God? In my ministry, I've heard all of the following excuses given, and far more.
"I can't do it. God asks too much."
"After all, I'm only human. What else can you expect?"
"Everybody else does it. Why can't I?"
"I'm not a very religious person. I leave all of that for the preachers to do."
"God is a loving God and he understands why I sin."
"I don't go to church because I was made to go when I was a kid."
"Sunday is the only day I have to sleep late and relax."
"I knew a preacher once who didn't pay his bills (or told a lie, or committed adultery, etc.), and he turned me off of the church."
"The services are so dull and uninteresting."
"They just don't do it like they used to."
"They don't sing the 'old' familiar songs anymore."
"The church is full of hypocrites."
"If acting the way 'they' act is being a Christian, then I want no part of it."
"You can't be a Christian and stay in my kind of business."
"Preachers preach too long (or are too dull, too simple, too deep) and the services are not over by twelve noon."
"It's too cold in the winter and I'm afraid of snakes in the summer!"
Will these excuses for our defection stand the scrutiny of the allseeing, all-knowing eyes of God in the Judgment Day?
The Rejection
God sees it all. God knows exactly what's going on. God is not fooled. And God is mad!
When God sees those people whom he had redeemed out of slavery only a short while ago, those people who had acknowledged him as Lord, had entered into Covenant with him, had recited vows of faithfulness, now brazenly denying the reality of God, he is angry! They are renouncing their Emancipator and shamelessly worshiping a pagan bull calf. How low could they go? They made themselves a deity which was a pagan representation. It would seem, if they would make a graven image at all, the least they could do would be to form it into a lamb. After all, the slain lamb had stood for them, by its blood, between life and death. But no, they sank to the depths of such apostasy they chose to worship a bull. No wonder God is furious.
God disowns them. He separates himself from them. He wants nothing more to do with them. He casts them off utterly. He even says to Moses, "Thy people, which thou broughtest up."
God knows the worship, no matter what Aaron said, is not truly worship of him. We may hide our sins from ourselves and from everyone else, but God is not fooled. We are open and transparent to him, and our rank idolatry he will neither accept nor tolerate!
It is true, absolutely true, God is a God of wondrous love, but love is only one of God's attributes. He is also a holy God, a God of justice and wrath. God has, indeed, prepared a heaven for his own, but he has also prepared a hell. People will go to one place or the other. The choice is always ours. God never sends anyone to hell, but if we choose to serve another God, if we choose to go our own determined, delinquent, willful way, then God will have no choice but to allow justice to be done and judgment to fall.
The Gospel is either/or. We choose the broad way or the narrow way, life or death, salvation or destruction. We accept or reject. The option is ours. God longs for us to choose life and live, and it breaks his heart if we do not, but he utterly rejects those who ignore him, his Son, and his way of salvation.
The writer of Hebrews says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews 10:31) The Psalmist said, "God is angry with the wicked every day." (Psalm 7:11) God said, through his prophet, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:4)
When Ahab and Jezebel conspired to cheat Naboth of his vineyard, it was so easily and cleverly done, but they failed to take into account that God will not be trifled with. The dogs licked the blood of Jezebel and punishment fell upon Ahab's son and family as a result of their father's sin. (1 Kings 21:17-26 and 2 Kings 9:21-37)
David, great king that he was, apparently felt he could commit the terrible sins of adultery and murder and get by with it, but a just God, a sinned-against God, said the child conceived in sin would die, and he did. When God says "No," he means "No."
When God speaks in grace, mercy, love, peace, kindness, and promise you can believe it. But when he speaks in anger, you can well believe that, too. So the defectors, the despisers of God's law, are in big trouble now!
God says to Moses, "Don't try to stop me! I am angry with them, and I am going to destroy them! Then I will make you and your descendants into a great nation."
The Interception
God, in his anger at the people, promises to destroy them, and to make Moses into a second Abraham. But this great leader is not interested in promotion and prestige. The people have repeatedly maligned him, they've often forgotten all the good he has done for them, and now Moses is confronted by a God who will no longer own them as his people. Moses intercedes and pleads for them. What a great heart! No wonder God chose him to be a leader.
Moses doesn't deny they have grievously sinned. He doesn't make a single excuse for the people. Moses accepts God's verdict on them, and does not challenge it.
Moses has in mind he must try some other way to reach God on their behalf. Some other approach is necessary. Pastor Ed Montfort told me of a man who went off on a safari and was anxious to share the good news of the opening day with his friend back home. He started to write, "Dear John, Lovely trip over, and I shot two mongooses today." He wasn't sure about that word, so he scratched out "mongooses" and wrote "mongi," then scratched out "mongi" and wrote "mongeese." Finally he gave up, took a new card upon which he wrote, "Dear John, Lovely trip over. I shot a mongoose today." At the bottom of the card he added, "P.S. I shot another one."
Moses knew it wouldn't work with God to plead the ignorance of his guilty people. He knows they have sinned and they know they have sinned. So he tries another tactic. With a magnanimous spirit and magnificent courage he steps before an injured, wounded, wronged, justly-angered God and begins to make entreaty on their behalf, on other grounds. Since he can't appeal for them on the basis of innocence, he must find another avenue of escape for them. Thus, he pleads God's honor and God's promises to the Patriarchs.
Moses asks God to reverse his decision, not because the people are deserving, but he persuades God by saying, "The people of Egypt will say you never intended to deliver them, you just brought them into the wilderness to destroy them. And God, it won't look good for you and your honor if you do this. And, too, Lord, you made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and you can't go back on your Divine Word. For those reasons, not because this nation is worthy, but for your own sake, do not destroy them!"
So Yahweh changes his mind, Moses prevails, and the undeserving nation is spared. Moses' life was tied up in that of his people. Their well-being was his well-being. Later, in this chapter, we learn he would be willing to die if Israel could again be restored to favor with God. One of the greatest prayers in the Bible is his petition for them, "Alas, this people have sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if thou wilt forgive their sins - and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou has written." (Exodus 32:31-32)
God relented, changed his mind, and said, "I will not destroy them, but the time is coming when I will punish these people for their sin."
Moses is a good type of the Savior who was to come. The supreme act of self-sacrifice was not too great a price for him to pay for his people. What a tremendous story of interception and intercession. The story is still sweeter when told in the light of the cross of Christ, because there the Divine Intercessor did die so the justice of God might be satisfied. The price of the sins of the world, your sins and mine, were meted out in full fury upon Jesus, who paid it all that we might live.
Two Mountains
An old French poem tells the story of an adventuress who enticed a young man from his mother's home. The adventuress, wishing to be sure the youth retained no lingering affection for his mother, said to him, "As a proof of your devotion to me, I want you to murder your mother, tear out her heart, and bring it to me." The young man committed the horrible crime, but as he was returning from his evil mission, carrying his mother's heart in his hand, to prove his submission to his new love, he stumbled and fell. Immediately, from the heart he held in his grasp, came his mother's voice, "Are you hurt, son?" Such love, and greater, was the love of Jesus on Calvary's hill. Our sins nailed him to the tree; we can plead no innocence of the guilt. He was sacrificed for our offenses, and yet the voice from that blood-stained mountain says, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!"
We are in deep trouble if the only mountain which speaks to us is Sinai. From that rumbling, quaking, smoking place comes judgment for our sins. But a mighty One, carrying a cross, ascends another mountain, Golgotha, and there the wrath of a righteous God is met by the blood which covers, and the voice from that holy hill is one of acceptance and redemption. Can any one of us turn a deaf ear to such a call of love?
Proper 21 (September 24--October 1)
Ordinary Time 26
Exodus 33:12-23
He Lights Up My Life!
When this narrative begins, it is about as lacking in optimism and hope as the story my brother, B. J., tells about a farmer in southern Missouri who hired a man to split some post oak for his farm. Post oak is notoriously hard to work with, but it makes excellent fence posts and rail fences. It is so tough, that it's like trying to split rock. The farmer hired a man who was not too fast at thinking, and told him he'd pay him three dollars a dozen for the posts. After two or three days the farmer came to the hired hand and found him hard at work. He asked him how he was getting along. The man replied, "Well, pretty good! When I finish this one, and then one more, I'll have two done!"
The people of Israel just can't seem to get it all together either. The making of the golden calf caused a huge rift between God and Israel. God has promised Moses, because of his intercession on their behalf, that he will not destroy the people, but he will punish them. (Exodus 32:14, 34-35)
Moses is now in the Tent of Meeting, outside the camp. (I wonder, was the camp where the people lived so defiled with the idolatrous worship of the golden bull calf that the meeting place with God had to be outside the camp?)
The people look on from the distance and see the familiar cloudy pillar hovering at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Moses is in there - meeting God - talking with him about them! What will the verdict be?
Mourning spreads over the camp. Hoping to appease God's anger a bit they strip themselves of all their jewelry and wear it no more. They are just waiting to see what God will do with them. (Waiting for an unknown punishment for a known sin is not exactly a comfortable way to spend your time.)
When I was a child, when I had disobeyed my mother, she would often say, "Just you wait until I get you home, young lady! Then you are going to be punished!" Waiting for the axe to fall is a part of the terrible price I had to pay for disobedience. My imagination would work overtime as I'd think of all kinds of monstrous penalties; would she whip me with a limb off the mulberry tree, would she make me do dishes for a week, would she ground me and not let me be with my friends? I always knew, whatever happened, I'd pay dearly for a few moments of pleasure while I was misbehaving. Then I would try to avert disaster by shaping up as soon as I got home. I'd wash the dishes, do the dusting, carry out the garbage, say "Yes, ma'm," and "No, ma'm," walk softly and speak respectfully. Anything to make the retribution I deserved easier to bear!
"I Will Not Go With You" (Exodus 33:13)
The first word from God was a good news-bad news" Word - rather like the son who came to his father and said, "Dad, I've got good news and bad news for you. The good news is you get a new car. The bad news is I totaled the old one!" God said to Moses and the people, "You will go to the promised land; I will drive out the enemy before you, but I will not go with you myself. You are so stubborn I might destroy you on the way. I'll send an angel to guide you."
So, God hands over his care and leadership to that of an angel. It could be worse, but it could be a lot better, too. I've nothing against angels; I thank God they are ever around us to help, aid, protect, and do all the nice things he has them do for us. But, if God himself is not with us, we suffer a terrible loss.
It is difficult for us, since we live in the light of the Cross, to put ourselves in the place of ancient Israel, and know what this word would mean to them. We comfort ourselves often with the words of Jesus who said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20) However fearful Israel might have been of God's august presence, they still knew they could not live without it!
Taylor Caldwell (in Answer As A Man, p. 131) said, "Better a terrible world with God in it than a painless world without Him."
Everything you or I can possibly name, however good it is, is a sad second-best to that Wonderful Presence. An angel (terrific as they are) is a poor substitute for the Presence of God.
My John is, next to Jesus, the best thing that ever happened to me. Our teaching/preaching ministry sometimes means we have to be in different locations for a week (and once-in-a-too-often-while), maybe two weeks. How I miss John's warm, beautiful, physical presence. I think about him when we are apart, and if I can catch some unsuspecting soul and get them to listen, I talk about him. Of course, I carry his picture, and stand it up in every motel room I inhabit. That's all fine, but it's not enough. Sometimes on a Monday or Tuesday of the week's mission I am in, the pastor will hand me a "love-card" John has sent to me, in care of the local church. That helps a lot, but it also lacks a lot. And then, there are the phone calls (we've bought A.T.&T. several times over!) which let me hear his voice. That's even better than the card. But when Thursday comes, the revival is ended, and I get on a plane or head my car toward wherever he is; at day's end, when I get to see him, be with him, touch him, and be in his real presence, then I know how paltry all other things are that simply made do until we are together again!
Angels which stand-in as an understudy for God himself are far from satisfactory. That's true of most replacements for the real thing.
You don't want margarine if you can get butter,
You don't want imitation powder if you can get cream,
You don't want instant if you can get brewed coffee,
You don't want Pepsi if you can get Coke (excuse me, if you think it should be the other way around),
- and you don't want angels when you've been used to having God!
Nothing else, absolutely nothing else can take his place!
"If You Don't Go, We Don't Go!" (Exodus 33:15)
God relents a bit, and tells Moses he will go with him, because he is pleased with him. But this man Moses, leader and intercessor for his people, identifies himself with them and says, "If you do not go with us, don't make us leave this place. How will anyone know you are pleased with your people and with me if you do not go with us?"
Doesn't that remind you of Jesus, our great High Priest, who so completely identified himself with us that he went so far as to even assume our humanity?
So Moses says to God, "I and thy people - if you do not go with us, don't make us leave this place." He as much as tells God, "What good is the promised land without you? So what if we are victorious over the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (and all the other "ites") if you are not with us? What if it is a land of milk and honey to which we go, what good is any of it if you are not there? We'd rather stay right here in the wilderness, we'd rather be nomads without a homeland, and you be with us, than to be in Canaan without you!"
Moses was right. Without God, no matter the wealth and largess of the place, we are poor, homeless, lonely, and lacking in wholeness.
There is a lot of real loneliness an our world. Many young peopie are abjectly lonely because they feel they have no one - parents, teachers, or peers - who understands them. The elderly are often lonely, sometimes because of the death of a spouse, or because of children who are inattentive to them as they have grown older. Often they are lonely because they feel their aches and pains set them apart from a healthy world of humans who are bursting with physical fitness.
Psychologist James J. Lynch, author of The Broken Heart: The Medical Consequences of Loneliness, says, "Loneliness kills. We have a biological need to form human relationships. If we fail to fulfill that need, our health is in peril. We must love one another or die."
All loneliness is sad and traumatic, but no suffering is as severe or tragic as the loneliness which comes from being estranged from God and his presence, of feeling bereft of him.
"I'll Go, I Will Do as you Ask" (Exodus 33:17)
The prayer of Moses prevails, and God relents, saying, "I will do just as you have asked." In other words, "All right, I'll go with you!"
When our daughter, Jodi, was very little, about three years old, she would often ask, as we'd pass the Dairy Queen, "Daddy, could we stop, could we?" And her daddy would always say, "Yes." But there were times when he did not stop, and Jodi would cry and question, "But, daddy, you said we could stop!" "I know," her daddy would respond, "I said we could, but I didn't say we would!"
Moses knew all along God could go with them, but he was not so sure he would! Think what it meant, when God said, "I will do as you ask. I'll go. I will go with you!" The Promise of the Presence! Who can live without it?
Can you recall a time when you sinned, that is, you did something you knew good and well you ought not to have done? And do you remember how you felt? Did you think maybe God had left you completely and forever? (Could that be why the Scripture says to "Grieve not the Holy Spirit"?) There is no worse feeling in the whole wide world than to be lonely for God. It is, without doubt, the emptiest feeling a mortal can know. We get so accustomed to having that gracious, tender, gentle, comforting, guiding, powerful Presence with us. No wonder we border on frantic hysteria when we feel the absence of God!
Maybe that's the reason so many folks love the simple, old Gospel song which says,
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
The late E. Stanley Jones said, "There is more joy to the square inch in Christ than there is to the square mile without him."
Only the assurance of that Presence can make us happy. One day John Tauler, the fourteenth century German mystic, met a beggar on the highway, and, as was his custom, he addressed the beggar, saying, "God give you a good day, my friend!" The beggar answered, "I thank God I have never had a bad day." "Well then," said Tauler, "God give you a happy life." But the beggar responded again, "I've never been unhappy." "What do you mean?" asked Tauler. "Well," said the beggar, "when it is fine, I thank God; and when it rains, I thank God. When I have plenty, I thank God; and when I am hungry, I thank God. And since God's will is my will, and since whatever pleases him pleases me, why should I be unhappy?" "Who are you anyway?" asked Tauler. "I'm a child of the King," came the reply. "You, a child of the King?" laughed Tauler. "Where is this King?" "In my heart," whispered the man in rags. "In my heart."
He Lights Up My Life!
You might well ask the question, "How do we get and how do we keep the Divine Presence? We know, first of all, the Presence of God comes to us when we are born anew into the Kingdom of God, through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the abiding Presence who comes to live within us, and without it we are strangers to God. And we keep the Presence by obediance to him. All disobedience is sin, and sin separates us from God. God doesn't move from us, but when we willfully disobey, we move away from him. That causes estrangement, a breach, a wounding of the hallowed Presence. Unrepentant hearts seldom feel the Presence, but walk in the lonely darkness of their own making.
Goethe once said something worth thinking about. "There are four things I hate: first, tobacco smoke; second, lice; third, garlic; and fourth, the Cross." That's a strange combination, but he was speaking truly about a lot of people. We hate the cross because it calls for our sins to be nailed to that tree. When we reject the Cross, we reject Christ, and God, salvation, hope, peace, and the marvelous Presence.
A few years ago, a popular song, "You Light Up My Life" was made a hit by Debbie Boone. Some folks said it was just a simple love song. Others said that, like "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," it could apply to human love or to the love of Jesus Christ. Regardless of what the song writer, or Debbie Boone intended, it speaks to what I personally feel concerning the Divine Presence in my life. Life is utterly hopeless and dark without him, but life shines with Divine radiance when he is near. As no other, in heaven or earth can do, he lights up my life!
