You remember Moses, right? Moses spoke to God in the burning bush. The ten plagues were announced by Moses. Moses lifted the staff and the Red Sea parted so millions of people could walk through with water like walls on either side of them. Moses brought water from a rock, manna in the morning, and quail to eat at night (six days a week). Moses walked up Mt. Sinai to speak with the LORD, then came down with the ten commandments.
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. (Exodus 32:1-6 NIV)
Moses and the miracles were still not enough. People wanted to celebrate the way THEY wanted to celebrate. They wanted to thank God the way THEY wanted to thank God. What God thought wasn't important to them. So, they thanked God by doing things He finds abominable. They created and worshiped an idol.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." (Exodus 32:7-10 NIV)
Sometimes it works this way. Satan tempts us to do something that will bring the wrath of God upon us, even before we know how God feels. We can avoid this trap, though, by simply asking God before proceeding. We can read His Word to see what he communicated to people in the past. We can talk to Him in prayer to find out what He thinks today. God will gladly tell us what He thinks...if we will only ask.
But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.'" Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. (Exodus 32:11-14 NIV)
God doesn't want to destroy us - even when we deserve it. Instead, He really wants to walk with us, talk with us, and enjoy life with us...forever. That cannot happen without mercy, patience, and forgiveness when we mess up. So, He waits.
Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "There is the sound of war in the camp." Moses replied: "It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear." When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. He said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?" "Do not be angry, my lord," Aaron answered. "You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.' So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me." And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'" The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. (Exodus 32:15-28 NIV)
There's also no excuse for our sin. Aaron's peer-pressure plea worked just as well as Adam's defense pointing to his wife or Eve's defense pointing to the serpent. They sinned. Their penalty was death.
The number of people on our side doesn't help either. Adam and Eve made up 100% of the population of their day, yet they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Lot and his daughters were saved, but Sodom and Gomorrah was completely destroyed. The earth was wiped clean of humanity except for Noah and his family. When you're against God, more people on your side just means more people who will end up with you in the end. It doesn't mean you will end up with God.
God's patience doesn't change what we deserve. The wages of sin is death. That's the penalty. There's no plea bargaining. There's no lesser sentence. There's no parole. The penalty stands - when we sin we deserve death.
Then Moses said, "You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day." The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin--but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written." The LORD replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin." And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made. (Exodus 32:29-35 NIV)
Millions of Israelites were there that day. We don't know how many worshiped the golden calf. We do know that they learned the principle all of us need to learn: no one goes up against God and wins.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way." When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments. For the LORD had said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.'" So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb. (Exodus 33:1-6 NIV)
The Israelites had already taken their earrings and formed them into a false god. Now, the LORD shows them how they can repent of their sin. It has nothing to do with sacrifices or festivals. It has to do with a changed life. Taking off their "ornaments" (other fine jewelry), the Israelites were showing the LORD that they didn't want false gods and weren't going to make any more like they did this last one. Leaving their "ornaments" behind, they were turning around - asking to walk together with God again.
How about you? Are you ready to leave behind the "ornaments" that tempt you to rebel against God? Are you ready to stand firmly with Him even if it means overwhelming peer-pressure is against you? Are you confident in your choice to walk with Him, knowing that God+1 is always a majority? Will you walk with Him even around peer-pressure sin?
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