Week Eleven will be covered in two parts. Inside the study guide, there is a discussion of Great Revivals and Chapter 32 and 33 in Exodus. I have reproduced (by permission the author – me) a lesson on Exodus 32 and 33.
One of the Greatest
Revivals of the Bible
One of the things that I find remarkable about the Bible is that the principles that are illustrated through the history, that we have recorded here, are as true of people today as they were 5,000 years ago. When a person, no matter how sincere, tells me that they just can’t relate to the Old Testament, I wonder if they are reading the same Bible that I am. Who among us can’t understand the story of a gardener, when caught in sin, who attempts to blame God for giving him the wife that he had? We can relate to the jealous, younger brother, who slays his sibling because he found favor in the eyes or the Lord—jealous rage, which led to anger, which led to murder. Or how about the wife, while running from the evil of a town that was known for it’s corruption, couldn’t resist one final glance even though she had been warned not look back, and is assaulted? Each one of these accounts shows us that people are still basically the same. And if we have the heart to admit it, God is still the same. Each one of these accounts was recorded to offer us a lesson through the lives of others, so that we might follow the good examples and avoid the bad ones. Each account is also given so that we might understand more and more about God. In fact, that is what Romans 15:4 tells us “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instructions, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope”
This morning, we are going to look at one of the worst times in the history of Israel and one of the best times in the history of Israel. We will watch how low these wanderers in the desert can crawl and then we will watch them as they make choices that seem to make them soar like spiritual eagles. From the lowest to the highest. Isn’t that they way things seem to go? I hope you’ll be able to grasp some valuable lessons this morning. Some lessons we will hope to avoid, to be sure. Some lessons, we will hope to replicate, to imitate, to bring into our lives so that we can walk with God like these men and women walked with God.
Turn with me to Exodus. Just to get your minds in the right frame of reference, let me take the time to remind you about this period of history in the nation of Israel. Exodus starts out with the children of Israel serving hard time in Egypt. They have been in the land for about 400 years and they are slaves. Not just “clean the window” slaves, but hard labor slaves. The great nation of Egypt was built on the shoulders of these people who’s lives were controlled (in every sense of the word) by the Egyptians. Then up steps Moses. Born of an Israelite. Raised by an Egyptian. Moses believes he is to deliver the Jews from their bondage. However, he blows it. He kills an Egyptian and has to run for his life. He spends 40 years in the desert. Then, in God’s time and 40 years later, God speaks to Moses and tells him to go back to Egypt to deliver his kinsmen. At first, he isn’t willing but eventually he agrees. Then, through a series of miracles known to the Egyptians as plagues, the Jews are set free.
But the freedom of the nation of Israel included certain frightening things. Scary things like a nation of warriors chasing the fleeing nation of Israel. God took care of them. Then there was the issue of the where would they get water in the desert. God took care of that too. And then the issue of what do you feed two million people who live in the desert? Well God took care of that too.
While the Israelites are wandering in the desert, God speaks to Moses again. It is during this time that God calls Moses up on Mt. Sinai and it is there that God gives Moses the 10 commandments plus quite a few more. All that time and instruction that God gave Moses took a considerable amount of time. So while Moses in on the mountain getting instruction from God, the people of Israel were down in the valley thinking about worshipping the idols that the God of Moses had just destroyed. The first verse of Exodus 32 sets the feeling of the people for us. It tells us that the people requested Aaron to make god for them, to lead the way. As for Moses, we haven’t seen hide nor hair of that old goat.
Those of Fickle Faith
I want to be brutal on the nation of Israel at this point but I also want to walk softly here. Can you see what happened? Can you put yourself in their sandals for even just a minute? If you’re honest you might see a little bit of your own heart in their actions. Here they have been led out of bondage by this man of God, who obviously has some supreme power behind him. Then they get out in the desert and that man disappears. He walks up on a mountain, the mountain is surrounded by smoke, and no one hears from him for a long period of time. You might start to wonder if the God who did these marvelous wonders was a God of Israel or only the God of Moses. Unless you could remember that when Moses’ God did all those remarkable things, He did them to deliver the nation of Israel. Every action of God was done for the benefit of the entire nation, not for just one single man.
So the nation becomes impatient with the progress that is being made. Impatience isn’t always wrong. We can be impatient when we are dealing with unrighteousness. However, with impatience comes a greater possibility of doing the wrong thing. In this account, that is exactly what happens. In a desire to have something visible, something they could touch, the nation of Israel was ready to abandon the true God for something they themselves had created. And Aaron, who had been at the side of Moses during the entire process of redemption of Israel, was ready to lead them down that path of destruction. Not only did they try to build their own god, then they sacrificed to it to seek for direction. To you and me that sounds totally ludicrous, but to a wild crowd who were under the impression that God had abandoned them, it seemed to make perfect sense. The moment that you or I begin to believe that God has abandoned us, from that point in time forward we make poor decisions, we take bad counsel, we make serious errors. The sooner we can straighten out that wrong thinking, the sooner we can get back on a path that will cause us less trouble, less heartache, less loss time.
This situation ranks among one of the lowest points in all the history of the descendants of Abraham. There is no other place where they come so critically close to being destroyed by the same God who delivered them from slavery.
Well why all this is going on, Moses is still up on the mountain with God getting the commandments that will offer structure and truth to the Jewish religion. So Moses is up on the mountain getting the commandments of God and the children of Israel are down in the valley breaking the commandments of God. Does that seem ironic to you? Does that say something about the heart of mankind? It certainly does.
What does God do? Well, He informs Moses that the nation of Israel are an obstinate people. Nothing changes. Ever argue with a Jew? Ever noticed how many lawyers are Jewish, at least back east? Don’t say I’m stereotyping, I’m just agreeing with what is recorded here that God said. But what follows next is rather remarkable. God makes Moses an incredible offer.
God makes Moses an Offer
If you read Chapter 32: 9-10 carefully, you can see where God is going. God sees the basic character of the people of Israel and says to Moses, we could do better. Moses, if you are so inclined, I’m willing to wipe out these people and begin all over with you. If you notice the direction of God’s reference to the nation of Israel, He even disowns them by giving them to Moses, notice in verse 7, “Go down to YOUR people, whom YOU brought up”. It seems as though God doesn’t want to claim them for Himself, nor does He want credit for bringing them out of Egypt.
But Moses pleads for the nation of Israel. Moses pleads for them because of a couple of reasons that show two things.
First, Moses knows what is important to God. In my mind, this is very important to know. So many times we know what is important to us, but we don’t have a clue about what is important to God. Moses pleads with God regarding the perspective of what the Egyptians would say if God destroyed all the Israelites out here in the desert. Moses was concerned about the reputation of God among the heathen. Look with me at verse 12. Moses didn’t want those who didn’t know God to speak badly about Him.
Also, Moses didn’t expect that God would be willing to break a promise that had been made hundreds of years before this generation was even born, promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (or Israel).
Second, he cares for the people that God has called him to lead. As soon as Moses has finished interceding for the nation of Israel before God, he descends from the mountain to intercede for God to the nation of Israel. He not only wanted to preserve the nation from destruction, he desired to see them walk in step with their God.
Moses Confronts Aaron:
There is little of wonder in this, it’s almost humorous. Aaron lies to Moses about what happened. In verse 23 and 24, Aaron says that they threw the gold into the fire and this came out. Look back at verse four if you want the truth. Aaron was a crucial part of the escape from Egypt, but he was never the spiritual leader that Moses was. Even as we read here in verse 25, the people were out of control because Aaron let them get that way.
This is where the children of the house of Levi make their mark on the history. Did you ever wonder why a Jew had to be of the house of Levi to serve the Lord in the temple? This is the passage that explains that! The tribe of Levi stepped forward to cleanse the nation on that day and on that day, 3,000 died.
Now Moses, after seeing how bad the people have been, goes back to the Lord to plead again for their sake, in the hopes that he can make atonement for the sins of the nation.
Moses Speaks to the Lord Again
This time, as Moses intercedes for the nation, he knows how serious their sin is. Moses returns to the Lord and he actually lays his own life before God when he asks the Lord to forgive the sins of this nation. Not only did their sins cost some of them their lives, but it led to Moses offering his own life as well. We sometimes forget that our sin can cause trouble for others, but here is a very clear picture of just that. The sin of the nation causes Moses to offer his own life to God.
God’s Intermediate Response
After Moses pleads for the people, God has an answer. On the surface, it looks like everything is just great. Let’s read that answer. Chapter 33:1-3. Wow, I guess everything is great. Look at what the Lord promised in these three short verses:
• First of all, God gave them direction. He told them to go ahead and go up into the land that He promised to the forefathers.
• Next, He promised that He would send an angel with them, and God would drive out the people who lived in that land. (and He lists them)
• He reminds them how great the promised land will be, it will be a land of milk and honey.
What a deal: direction, protection, and prosperity. But there is something at the end of verse three that made the entire nation stop dead in their tracks. Something that was so bad that all the good things mentioned above couldn’t erase the dark cloud that that little phrase caused. It was that little phrase, “for I will not go with you”.
This hit this nation harder than the Red Sea hit the Egyptians. Read with me verse 4—“WHEN THE PEOPLE HEARD THIS SAD WORD THEY WENT INTO MOURNING”. The nation very quickly went from making their own god to lead them (which we would have to admit was very low) to recognizing their need for the Lord. At this point, it is implied that the children of Israel said by their actions, “God, if you aren’t going with us, we aren’t going”. Doesn’t matter how good it can be, doesn’t matter how many angels you send, doesn’t matter how close we are, WE DON’T MOVE WITHOUT YOU LORD. When you or I come this conviction in our lives, we are serious about being with the Lord. This is a very spiritual attitude to have. Lord, no matter if we get the best, without you we won’t go. In other words, no matter how good it looks, nothing is worth doing if You are not in it. WOW, that’s something. What a group of psycho’s! First they want to make their own God, then they refuse to move without the Lord.
When those you lead cause you sadness because they don’t know God, as a spiritual leader you will be driven to become more and more intimate with your Lord. You might have noticed this with a family. One member is not walking with the Lord, the parents would spend more time with the Lord pleading for the heart and life of such prodigal child. Maybe you noticed this with a Pastor? When the church isn’t responding to God, the Pastor will spend more time in prayer for that congregation. Now multiple that by 2 million and perhaps you begin to sense the feelings of Moses, the leader of a entire nation. I find it interesting that the book of Exodus takes a few moments here and tells us about how Moses would meet with God during this difficult time. Is the author telling us this to let us know how a spiritual person deals with obstinate followers? Has God put this little window into the heart of Moses in the hopes that we might try to respond as Moses responded? I think that is significant.
Moses Requests More of God
• Moses wants only God–First of all, it seems that Moses knows God, but Moses doesn’t know this angel that will be leading them into the promised land.
• Moses wants to know only God’s ways—because Moses knows that by living in the presence of God he will get to know God better. Moses doesn’t want this to happen between him and God’s messengers (God’s angels). He might be heard saying, why should I spend time getting to know an angel when I could be spending my time getting to the God of all angels.
• Moses knows that getting to know God means finding favor in God’s sight. In other words, this is a worthwhile way to invest your time. As we pursue the knowledge of God and come to know God better this is pleasing to the Lord.
• Finally, Moses asks God to consider the ramifications of this major point—These people are God’s nation. In other words, Moses is saying as strongly as he can, God, YOU MUST GO WITH THEM.
God’s Answer to Moses—My presence shall go with you, singular.
Moses’ Answer to God’s Answer—If Thy presence does not go with US, do not lead us up from here. I find this kind of boldness before the Lord remarkable. Very quickly Moses groups himself with the nation and tells the Lord that they aren’t leaving without Him. We don’t care who else you want to send with us, we don’t care how great the land is where we are going, we don’t care how easy it will be to take over that land, WE ARE STAYING HERE UNTIL WE KNOW YOU ARE GOING WITH US.
There is only one way that the world will know that a people have found favor in the eyes of the Lord, and that is when the presence of the Lord is found among them. People ask what makes the difference with the nation of Israel? Right here is the answer to that. People might ask what makes Christians so different? The presence of the Lord. What a shame when that isn’t asked! What shame we can bring to the Lord when we don’t continually try to live aware of His presence throughout our days. At work, at home, on the road, when we have to request something from the county planners, or from our bad mouthed neighbor, or from our bitter relatives. Always aware of God’s presence in our lives.
God Does Agree to Go with the Nation
I have heard people say that you can’t be responsible for keeping everybody safe and in the will of God. Maybe this is the reason the nation of Israel remembers Moses so fondly, because of this record series of prayers that he pleads for the nation of Israel. But God does agree to go with the nation because of His relationship with Moses, because Moses found favor in the eyes of the Lord and because the Lord knew Moses by name. That’s an interesting phrase. Is there anyone’s name that God doesn’t know? That is not the point of that phrase. It’s more the idea that Moses belongs to God because he has given everything he is and hopes to be to God.
Moses Takes the Next Step—A Closer View of God
Revival leads to an even greater desire to know God. Moses has plead for the nation of Israel now he requests something for himself—To see more of God. But full revelation of God can’t happen because God is too much for any man to take in.
I’m going to ask you to read the rest of the passage yourself to pull out of what the Lord would have you look at but I want to remind you of two things before I close.
• First– The moment that you or I begin to believe that God has abandoned us, from that point in time forward we make poor decisions, we take bad counsel, we make serious errors.
• Second—When you or I come to the point in our lives that no matter what the promise, no matter how good it looks, no matter how much money could be made or how much love could be enjoyed, we refuse to go there without the Lord, THEN we are truly living for God’s glory.