Rebellion and Renewal

Book of Exodus Chapter 32

Rebellion and Renewal

Book of Exodus Chapter 32

Rebellion is the attempt to have things your way.

We should keep in mind that never before this, had any people been so privileged, as the Children of Israel!

Never before had Jehovah so blessed any people as He did these people.

Remember Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden for far less than what these children of Israel had done!

Jehovah had only been known to them as Elohim, the true God.

His name Jehovah was being much more personal with them.

We should completely understand that our LORD wants a personal relationship.

Even then, they chose to call Him Adonai saying His name was too sacred to pronounce.

We do not have to have so much fear to not call our Lord by His name, but we must not ever take His name in vain!

We must respect Jehovah at all times! He is a Mighty Awesome God!

It should be noticeable that it was Elohim as Jehovah, who made first contact with humanity.

He had watched, only speaking to a few men such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and I believe Job since the time of the flood that covered this entire world.

Remember we hear almost nothing from Noah after the flood.

Now through Moses, Jehovah wanted to speak to all His creation and offer His Testimony.

This nation of Israel had been chosen to be witnesses of God’s testimony to all the other nations in this world.

Their first message was that there was only One True God and He had spoken to them and given His Testimony.

Moses had now in His possession the words that God had written with His own finger.

Exo_31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Deu_9:10 And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

It is human nature to rebel when we think we can get away with it!

Even babies will do this.

In fact, the worst of our enemies is our own flesh!

Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

This is not saying our good side is fighting with our bad side. This is saying our flesh is fighting against God’s Holy Spirit who abides in every believer.

We do not have a good side!

Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

So let us see what Jehovah thinks of rebellion.

1Sa 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Samuel was speaking to King Saul here in this passage.

We could say God does not like any rebellion against His Words.

Chapter 32 verse 1

*Exo 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

We should keep in mind that these people had already agreed to do everything that Jehovah had told them to do.

They had made a Covenant with Jehovah.

But this obedience did not last very long!

Most of the people on this earth do not believe there is a God, and you can add to that, all those that do not believe that God keeps a watchful eye upon us.

It is a fact that Moses had been in contact with Jehovah for forty days continuously and these people had all sort of imaginations about what might have happened to him.

Mount Sinai was a rough old mountain, but these mountains cannot be compared to high mountains.

So, we see these people had no patience and we can see that this was Jehovah’s first test.

We can be sure the Lord will test our sincerity and our faith from time to time!

They may have been anxious to get to the Promised Land, but they would have been slaughtered if they even made it there without God.

So they decided they needed some gods and they had seen the Egyptian make their own gods for centuries.

All a false god had to do was to ride in a wagon in the front and go wherever the driver went and then get the driver to wipe the dust off occasionally.

This is all the power a false god has.

To worship false gods is to have Spiritual ignorance and a willful turning away from the Spiritual knowledge and worship of Jehovah.

A group of these people gathered unto Aaron.

The next Scripture has confounded many people.

*Exo 32:2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
Exo 32:3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

These same people wore earrings because they had seen the Egyptians wear them.

It is a sad thing that if a few people do something stupid and ridiculous, it is not long before many others will do the same thing.

In a sense they wanted to be like the free Egyptians.

Reminds me of our government today who at one time were bound to the Constitution, but who now want to be like the European Union and use those laws. How foolish can we be!

The EU is the most liberal group of nations on the face of the earth and who is foolish enough to be like them, many of our own politicians. Fools.

We have to understand that our hearts are full of sin!

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

What makes them so foolish?

Psalms 36:1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.

These Israelites were proud of their gold, but they wanted a false god the more.

There are some who believe that Aaron asked for their gold thinking they would not give it up, but they did willingly.

Exo 3:22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.

So what did they do?

*Exo 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

So, silver and gold and idols became the gods of the children of Israel!

The Book of Psalms, the song book of the children of Israel had this song in it:

Psa 106:19 They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.
Psa 106:20 Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
Psa 106:21 They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt;
Psa 106:22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.

There can be no doubt that Satan was involved in these things.

We see that Jehovah made them sing about it when they gathered together in the Tabernacle and Temple.

There can be little doubt that this calf was similar to the false god Apis, of the Egyptians.

We know that the Holy Ghost caused Moses to write all these things down because Jehovah does not hide anything from us.

I am sure Moses was ashamed to write these things as instructed.

These things were written for us here today!

Many Christians today want to see a visible God.

It is a fact that I am sure that Jehovah has shown up at many to our services at Gethsemane where I attend.

If you worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, the Lord will show up.

I do not need to see some object that tells me what God would look like!

These people had worshipped the false gods of Egypt.

Jos 24:14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

Aaron had been one of those who had worshipped this false god.

We may not know who made the mold in the earth, it does not point out individuals because they were all guilty.

It does point out that Aaron took a graving tool and finished the work when the work of the mold was complete.

In reality we again see a type of Christ!

Just as Moses was away and upon the Mount; so Christ is away from this earth.

Before Christ went away, He told His disciples these words.

Joh 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

The Lord Jesus Christ is to be the only “object” of our faith!

Even after we have studied and seen all the things in the Scriptures including future prophecies, the Lord Jesus Christ says, “let not your heart be troubled”.

In other words, we have no reason to worry about anything!

The Lord Jesus has all this world under His direct control!

He has been gone much more than forty days, but it is not time to make some idol resembling Him to worship.

We do not worship the cross we worship our Lord Jesus who took our place on the cross.
We do not worship the virgin, Mary; we worship her son Jesus as named by Jehovah and whose Father is the Holy Ghost.
We do not worship the Bible, we worship the God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ.

These children of Israel had been taught to do the same thing by Moses before he went upon on Mount Sinai and these people should have patiently waited on him just as we are to patiently wait on the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Aaron made another mistake which was even worse.

*Exo 32:5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
Exo 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

What is the cause of terrible sin?

We have seen that these Children of Israel: They were not patient enough to wait on God.

1) They lost “Faith” in God.
2) They turned away from God.
3) They chose to do things their own way.

They broke the Commandments of God, the same commandments that were explained to them by Moses and that they had agreed were good commandments and they had agreed to follow.

These children of Israel were already on their way to the Promised Land.

They had only stopped at Mount Sinai under direction of the same God, Jehovah who had released them from bondage.

Moses had stopped under the direction of Jehovah because the Pillar of Cloud had stopped at this location and Moses and the elders of Israel could receive the laws that would guide and govern their nation.

It had been nearly six weeks that Moses had gone up onto the Mountain and neither he nor Joshua nor those elders had been heard from though Moses had been with Jehovah all this time.

Again we can see “in type” that is what we are seeing today. The Lord Jesus Christ has not yet returned to take us to the true Promised Land.

What is patience?

1) We can learn patience by studying these Old Testament teachings!

Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Rom 15:5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Rom 15:6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2) We can learn patience by keeping our faith.

Jas 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Jas 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
Jas 1:7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

Terrible sin can also be influenced by weak leaders as we see today in our own government.

Aaron was a weak leader who should never have been left in charge!
Aaron did not have enough backbone to stand up for God nor even for his brother Moses.

Terrible sin is believing in false gods!

We can say that none of these things have changed today.

Our world has not gotten any smarter in fact, we could say our world has gotten dumber, still seeking false gods.

Still placing weak leaders in place, leaders that have no fear of Jehovah God.

We do not know why Aaron built an altar, but to build an altar before an idol is a terrible sin.

Aaron had heard his own brother teach the Word of God and he too had agreed to it.

Exo 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,
Exo 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exo 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

It did not take much time for these children of Israel to sink in sin and immorality.

Guess what, God was watching all these things even as He was speaking with Moses.

*Exo 32:7 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
Exo 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

We must clearly understand that Jehovah sees everything that goes on in this world at all times.

You can say that this is impossible, and I will tell you that I serve the God that does impossible things, and His name is Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jehovah is not blind to the things of this world!

Jehovah saw terrible sin and He became angry.

We should also understand that even though Jehovah knows what will take place before it takes place, He still can be angry to show us His feelings.

The purpose of the Bible is to teach us about our Heavenly Father and His Savior!

People need to understand that we cannot hide corruptness!

We cannot hide wickedness!

Our own government thinks we are blind to corruptness, but we are not, nor are we blind to their wickedness!

Jehovah states “they have corrupted themselves”.

Gen 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Gen 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

People think our world has changed, but in reality, nothing really ever changes!

The entire world is corrupt before God today in fact, more corrupt than it has ever been because this world has denied God’s Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

People are always quick to turn away from the commandments of God because the Word of God exposes their sin in fact, all of our sin.

Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

They still think that the Word of God is a book of suggestions and not a book of commandments!

These children of Israel had in fact become children of false worship!

They had bowed themselves before a manufactured piece of metal that resembled a cow.

They were making the statement that salvation and deliverance are manufactured! How foolish.

The only thing this home-made cow could do was shine if someone took the time to keep it clean.

How many times have we seen lost souls go to the altar and be led in the sinner’s prayer and never change their ways?

They say yes to committing to the ways of the Lord Jesus and then, return to their old ways.

How does the Word of God compare this?

Pro 26:11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

We cannot deliver ourselves!
We have no goodness within us!
We cannot reach the Heavenly Father without the Lord Jesus Christ!
We cannot please the Heavenly Father without “Faith” in His Holy Words!

We are certainly fools to sacrifice to manufactured gods!

Jehovah pointed all these things out to Moses because these children of Israel needed a true leader, one who would also be their “Intercessor”.

Again, Moses would become a “type” of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Exo 32:11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Exo 32:14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

We must all be “Intercessors” for our family, for our friends, for the lost, and sometimes even for our brothers and sisters in Christ!

*Exo 32:15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
Exo 32:16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
Exo 32:17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
Exo 32:18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.

Does Jehovah have the right to be angry with us? You better believe He does!

Anger against sin is justified!
Anger against sin can even be said to be righteous!

Joshua did not know what Jehovah had said and he thought his brothers and sisters of Israel were being attacked, but Moses knowing what Jehovah had said, told him that the noise was not that of war but of singing and partying.

They were indeed dancing and drinking, some intoxicated and even immoral conduct and Moses was indeed angry, so angry that he cast the Word of God to the ground, breaking those tablets.

These are the same tablets that would be placed inside the Ark of the Covenant. The broken laws.

We all have broken the Commandments of God just as these children of Israel!

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

We always see pictures of these two tablets showing the Ten Commandments and that may have been all they contained.

They could not have been exceptionally large for one man to tote them both.

We see in verse fifteen that these tablets were written on both sides and that they were the work of Jehovah in verse sixteen.

What does God teach us about anger?

Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.

The Devil will take advantage of our anger if that anger lingers.

Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Ecc 7:9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.

Psa 37:8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

Pro 19:11 The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.

We need to get rid of our anger as quickly as we can and work toward presenting the truth of a “loving God”!

*Exo 32:19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

These children of Israel had served the false gods of Egypt and the government of Egypt gave them little choice, but we must keep in mind that we always have a choice, and that choice must always be to serve and worship our Creator, the One True God!

The vast majority of these same children of Israel had little or no faith!

Deu 32:19 And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
Deu 32:20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.

We should understand that just like Moses, our Lord Jesus is going to come down from the mountain and right now if He came, He would see little faith even in His own house and the people would be playing around false gods being full of immorality and wickedness.

Exo 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

We are warned as the Apostle Paul writes to the Church.

1Co 10:7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
1Co 10:8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
1Co 10:9 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
1Co 10:10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

The Book of Revelation:

After destroying the two prophets of God who came with God’s message of repentance.

Rev 11:10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

They tormented them with the truth of a Holy God!

If we read our lesson Chapters, then we know that Moses returned to the Mountain to meet Jehovah and again as a type of Christ he returned to the people.

In type we know that our Lord Jesus will return in two stages. First to get His Church and take them home and a second time seven years later He will return in wrath!

And Moses saw the calf.

*Exo 32:20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

What is an idol, something that can be beaten into dust?
Something that be burnt into nothingness!

Deu 9:19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.
Deu 9:20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.
**Deu 9:21 And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.

What is Jehovah’s commandment to Christians?

1Jn 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
1Jn 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Idol worship is sowing to our flesh!

Gal 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Moses then turns to Aaron.

Aaron was allowed to become the High Priest, but he lost two of his sons who also did not listen to the Word of God and Aaron was not allowed into the Promised land.

Our Preachers and Pastors need to take heed. God makes these men responsible for many things of the Church Age!

Rev 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Notice who are those held responsible:

Rev 2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

Rev 2:8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;

Rev 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;

Rev 2:18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;

Rev 3:1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

Rev 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

It was time for these children of Israel to decide if they were on the Lord’s side or not!

This is the same message we have today. When the Holy Spirit comes calling it is our time to decide if we are on the Lord’s side or not!

Amen