January 12, 2007

“QUICK TO TURN AWAY”

Exodus 24 & 32

Do you remember how to play “leap-frog”? You know, the kids’ game where all the kids form a line and bend over, and the last kid in line comes vaulting over all the other kids until he gets to the front of the line. I hope you remember how, because we are going to be doing a lot of leap-frogging in the second half of our sermon series in the Pentateuch. We are going to leap-frog through the text, following the thread of narrative, the story line which is found in the maze of all the legal literature.

Last week we were in Exodus 20 and the account of the giving of the Ten Commandments. We are going to leap-frog over Exodus 21-23, and land in Exodus 24 today, and after spending a few minutes there, we will leap again and land in Exodus 32, the passage we read a few moments ago in the Scripture reading.

Exodus 24 is a very significant chapter, linked very closely with the account in Exodus 19. In Exodus 19, I pointed out that God came down to form a covenant, a kind of treaty, with the nation of Israel. The broad outline of the covenant is laid out in that chapter and in chapter 20. What is taking place in Exodus 24 is the actual ratification ceremony of the covenant. It is fascinating to see how this chapter closely parallels the human customs of covenant formation.

First of all, an invitation is issued in Exodus 24:1-2: (Read)

Before they ascend the mountain, however, certain ceremonial rites must be completed.

Read Exodus 24:3: The people first signal their willingness to enter into the covenant and to abide by its conditions.

Read Exodus 24:4a: Moses wrote down the details. I believe this consisted of God’s words that are contained in our Bible in Exodus 20-23.

Read Exodus 24:4b-7:  This is a busy time. An altar is constructed, memorial pillars are put up, young bulls are sacrificed and the blood is sprinkled on the altar. The sacrifice of animals was a common part of covenant ratification. In fact the terminology for forming a covenant spoke of “cutting a covenant.” The killing of the animals indicated the seriousness of the agreement and that failure to keep the covenant could result in the death of the one who breached the covenant’s conditions. Then Moses solemnly read the conditions of the covenant which he had written down. Once again the people respond: We will do everything Yahweh has said; we will obey.

Read Exodus 24:8. It was a solemn moment, symbolizing the high degree of commitment they were making in entering into this covenant.

What follows is a fascinating glimpse into how far God went in conforming to human custom in forming the covenant. It was the custom for the parties to the covenant to sit down to a fellowship feast as the final event in the covenant procedure. Read Exodus 24:9-11.

This passage presents us with a few problems. What does it mean, “they saw the God of Israel”, when just a few chapters later in Exodus 33:20, God says to Moses, “No one may see me and live”? I am not sure exactly what Moses and the nation’s leaders saw; possibly it was some visible representation of God’s glory. The only descriptive detail we are given is of the pavement like sapphire beneath his feet. Maybe this indicates that that was all they saw, because they were on their faces in worship before him. What I find fascinating, though, is the last phrase: they saw God and they ate and drank. It was the fellowship meal that culminated the formation of the covenant.

God then summons Moses alone to the top of the mountain. (Read Exodus 24:12) This, too, followed the ancient customs. The conditions of the covenant would be written on official documents. In this case, God says that he himself is going to write them on two tablets of stone. Stone signifies their permanence. Why two tablets? Some suggest that it took two to contain the whole of the Ten Commandments. Another suggestion is that the custom of the day was to write two copies of the covenant document; one for each party to the covenant. Because it was God’s intention to remain with the Israelites at all times, both tablets were given to Moses to keep in the Ark of the Covenant which would accompany the people. Whatever the case, Moses went up alone to the top of the mountain. Listen to the description: (Read Exodus 24:15-18)

It is a glorious chapter, isn’t it? The God of the universe, coming down to enter into a covenant with the nation of Israel, condescending to adapt himself to the human customs of covenant making so that they could clearly comprehend what was taking place. It is a wonderful account, played out in scenes of high drama and solemn significance. It is fascinating to let our eyes skim down through Exodus 25-31, and see the content of what God was revealing to Moses there on the mountain during those 40 days and nights. What we find is page after detailed page of instructions for the construction of the tabernacle, the portable temple which would be God’s dwelling place in the midst of the nation. God is preparing to set up his tent in the midst of his people, to visibly dwell with them.

All of this makes the content of Exodus 32 even more jarring. For while Moses was on the top of the mountain meeting with God, what was going on at the foot of the mountain? We read the account in our Scripture reading this morning. (Exodus 32:1-6) It would be impossible to imagine a starker contrast, a harsher discord. This is surely one of the saddest chapters in Israel’s history. It is hard to even take it in.

This is the God of Sinai; The God who is majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, and tender in love. This is God Almighty who has clearly declared his intention to his people. Way back in Egypt, Moses declared God’s desire over and over when he went before Pharaoh: This is what Yahweh says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. Did you get that last part? So that they may worship me!

Then he declared his purpose in delivering them from Egypt again in Exodus 19:4: You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.  Then in his very own voice, speaking out of the fire on the mountain in Exodus 20:2: “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

And the initial response of the people was spot on! Listen to their words in Exodus 24:3: Everything Yahweh has said we will do.  They repeat their commitment in verse 7: We will do everything Yahweh was said; we will obey.

And now what? After all they have seen and experienced, only 40 days later, listen to their words to Aaron in 32:1: Come, make us gods who will go before us. Then when Aaron complied and shaped a gold calf before them, they bowed down before it and cried, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. It is almost more than the mind can take in. Scholars debate whether the Israelites were breaking the first or the second commandment. After further study, it is my conclusion that they were breaking both. This is syncretism at its worst. Some were worshiping multiple gods, others were declaring the calf-idol to be Yahweh. This is spiritual adultery of the worst kind, accompanied by wild partying. This whole chapter is the spiritual equivalent of a bride running off with one of the waiters while the marriage festivities are still going on!

The rest of the chapter records the sad story. God is furious. He says to Moses: “Get out of my way. I am going to wipe them off the face of the earth, and then I will start over with you and make you into a great nation.”

Moses pleads with God to suspend his judgment and God relents. Then Moses goes down to the people, and there he reacts in righteous anger. He takes the two stone tablets and flings them to the ground, shattering them at the base of the mountain. This is not just an arbitrary act of temper. The destruction of the covenant documents symbolized the nullifying of the covenant! The deal is off! The special relationship has been suspended. He then burns the gold calf, grinds it up and sprinkles it in water which he forces the people to drink. He confronts Aaron with his complicity in the people’s sin. Then he issues a call for commitment: Whoever is for Yahweh, come to me. When the tribe of Levi rallies to him, he commissions them to take swords and execute those who were still running wild in the camp. Moses then goes back up the mountain where he spends the next 40 days and nights face down before the Lord, pleading and interceding on behalf of the people. We will pick up the story there next time in Exodus 33-34.

What do we do with an account like this? What lessons should we take away from it? When we began this series of messages, I stated that we would be focusing on the three main characters: the people of Israel, Moses and God himself. In applying this passage, I want to focus particularly on the people of Israel. As I do so, I confess to feeling rather sick to my stomach; sick with disappointment, sick with anger, sick with disgust. How could they fall so far in such a short time? The psalmist summarizes their tragic choice that day in Psalm 106:19-21: At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them…Isn’t that a tragic verse? They exchanged their Glory. What glory? The glory of the God of Sinai; the glory of the God who led them out of Egypt; the glory of the God who revealed himself to them – majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, tender in love; the glory of the God who had chosen them to be his special nation. They exchanged him. For what? An image of a bull. Not even a real bull. An image of a bull that eats grass. Deaf, dumb and utterly powerless. Why did they do that? Because they forgot the God who saved them. In less than 40 days, they forgot the God who brought them out of Egypt. As God says in Exodus 32:8: They have been quick to turn away.

God says something else about the Israelites in Exodus 32:9: He calls them a stiff-necked people. What does that figure of speech communicate? Most scholars believe it came from the farming world, and the act of placing a yoke on the neck of an ox. As the yoke was lowered on the neck some stubborn oxen would throw back their heads and stiffen their necks, making it impossible to fit the yoke onto their neck and shoulders. The image of being “stiff-necked”, then, symbolizes a refusal to submit and accept the authority of the master.

It’s a tragic list of descriptive phrases, isn’t it? Stiff-necked, quick to turn away, forgetting the God who saved them, leading to making the tragic exchange: the glory of the living God for a useless, powerless idol. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident in the history of the nation of Israel. Jeremiah uses the same image of a tragic exchange in Jeremiah 2:11-12 as he summarizes the long history of Israel. “Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares Yahweh.

As we look at this example in the history of Israel, what should our response be, beyond shuddering in horror at the darkness of their sin? There is another response we are called to make. Be warned. This is the application that the apostle Paul makes in I Corinthians 10. In this chapter, he summarizes the history of the Israelites, including a specific mention of our passage in verse 7: Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.”

But notice the application he makes in verses 11-12: These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

I think one of the reasons the account in Exodus 32 makes me feel sick to my stomach is the recognition of how susceptible I am to the same kind of tragic fall. How stiff-necked I am by nature, how quick to turn away, how quick to forget the God who saved me. And Paul reminds me that the minute I do not feel susceptible, that is precisely when the danger is the greatest. Be careful that you don’t fall!

I am aware that as I say those words, there may be some in the audience this morning that would say to me: “Pastor Cam, your message has come too late. I have already fallen to depths I never imagined possible. I have already sinned. I have done something I never thought I would do. I exchanged my fellowship with the eternal God for a moment of temporary pleasure or fame or peer acceptance or material gain.

If that is your situation this morning, let me introduce you to Moses, cast in this story in the role of a mediator and intercessor. Let’s turn back to the divine commentary in Psalm 106:23. After referring to the Israelites’ tragic sin in verses 19-21, we read, So God said he would destroy them – had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.

What does it mean, “Moses stood in the breach”? What did Moses do for the people? It is a remarkable story. He literally pleaded with God to turn away from judgment.

Moses, in his retelling of this account in Deuteronomy 9 he states:I fell prostrate before Yahweh for forty days and forty nights…because of all the sin you had committed. In that time, he made no effort to make excuses for the people. He admitted freely, Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! But then he made the ultimate plea and offer of the mediator and intercessor in Exodus 32:32: But now, please forgive their sin – but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.

Now, I confess that I do not fully understand this passage. I am not sure what book Moses is talking about, or what blotting him out would signify. But one thing is clear. Moses is offering himself for the sins of his people. He is “standing in the breach.” That is what Moses did in Exodus 32. Psalm 106 makes it very clear. Moses was the only thing standing between the Israelites and utter destruction.

Now let me point out to you a prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15, where Moses speaks to the people and says: Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him. The New Testament tells us that this “prophet like Moses” is named Jesus.

As a “prophet like Moses” Jesus serves as both our mediator and our intercessor. He served as our mediator when he offered his own life as the sacrifice for our sins. He said to his heavenly Father, “Take my life, that these might be forgiven.” His blood, the blood of the New Covenant, was shed for our sins.

But what happens if we sin after we accept the sacrifice of his blood? What if we, like the Israelites, sin, terribly and grievously, after the covenant has been established, even after we have sat down with him at the covenant supper? What then? Hebrews 7:25 gives us the good news. Therefore he (Jesus) is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Just like Moses “stood in the breach” and interceded with God for the Israelites after their awful sin, so Jesus “always lives to intercede” for us when we sin. This should not lead us to become callous about sin. As John tells us in I John 2:1: I write this to you so that you will not sin. But it is written to give us hope. As John continues: But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins…

So if you have fallen, stiffened your neck, quickly turned away and forgotten the God who saved you – you have a Mediator, and Intercessor, and Advocate before the Father – one like Moses. He is interceding for you. You have only to seek his face and confess your sins and he will restore you: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)