40. Beginner Bible Course: The golden calf --shattering the family rules

E40  The simple Bible overview of…THE GOLDEN CALF – SHATTERING THE FAMILY RULES

We could name this episode...

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00:00:04

..."Moses, terrible, horrible. No good very bad day." But actually that day was worse for God. And for God's kids, the children of Israel, Moses and gods, and the children of Israel's terrible. Horrible. No good. Very bad day begins on the mountain. No sooner has God finished etching. His 10 laws into stone tablets at the base of Mount Sinai. This is what's going on. Moses has been up on the mountain for 40 days. The people down below think he's dead and let's cut them a little Slack. The mountain was smoking. It looked like fire all over the crest.

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00:00:46

And he's been there for 40 days. You think the children of Israel would get on their knees and pray for Moses or ask God for direction or patience. Instead they go to the spokesman. Aaron, Moses, big brother, their request make for us. God's I really have zero idea. What went through Aaron's mind. He should've probably torn his clothes and discussed or broke out his sermon. God didn't bring us this far to leave us. Instead. He took an offering of jewelry, melted it down and made it into a golden calf, but it gets worse. He says to the people, this is your God who brought you up out of Egypt.

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00:01:28

Remember the family rules. Number one, there are no other gods. Number two. Don't make any images of me, period. Aaron Moses big brother has just shattered the first two family rules, but he's not finished. He offers a sacrifice to this calf on the altar. And then the text tells us the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to play. They ate and drank way too much. And you can almost guess what the children of Israel did for play. They broke commandment. Number six, do not commit adultery. We go back to Moses and God on the mountain. God is very angry at the family rules.

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00:02:09

They're Shattering God then tells Moses this I'm going to destroy these people and start over with you. I'll make a nation out of you. Did God just rage. Quit on them. If you're a video gamer, you know what rage quit means. You're in the middle of an online game and you get very angry. You go four year old, immature and rage off and quit. Is that what God does here in uncontrolled fit the four year old temper. There's just no way. This has to be something else. We have a clue in the text. Moses I'll make a great nation out of you. If you've been following our podcasts from the beginning, you know, God made a promise to Eve that the Stomper would come out of her descendants in Genesis.

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00:02:56

God passed that promise through the lives of Isaac and Jacob. Jacob passed it to his son. Judah, the Stomper would come from the line of Judah. Moses is a Revit. This is not rage. Quit though. God was very angry at what his kids were doing. This was a test of Moses and Moses passes. He reminds God of his promise. Well done. Moses, Moses now, 80 plus years old hobbles down the mountain, somewhere down the line. He meets up with his assistant, a young man named Joshua. He'll come up in our story later when they get toward the bottom of the mountain, they hear quite a commotion. Joshua asks is that the sound of war in the camp?

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00:03:38

Moses said, Nope. I hear singing in partying, rounding a corner. They spot the calf and the people of Israel around it, singing and dancing, probably similar to what they did on the other side of the red sea. The morning they were delivered. But this time their praise is directed to the calf. Moses has been carrying his tablets from God. Seeing the children of Israel, shatter God's rules. He shatters the tablets and the chaotic moments following he grinds the calf to powder, mixes it into the water and makes the people drunk. The Kool-Aid. He then finds out who caused all this? His big brother, Aaron he's dumbfounded and asked Aaron, how could you do this?

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00:04:24

Aaron goes, epically, lame. First. He blames it on the people. And then he says this, we throw the gold into the fire. And how came this calf chapter 32 verse four gives what really happened. It says this Aaron took what they had handed him, the earrings and such and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf. Fashioning it with the tool Commandments to you shall make no graven image of me. Moses then notes. The partying continues throughout the camp. He asked for volunteers to go through the camp and stop the sinning, his own people.

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00:05:05

The Levi's step up. They spread out through the whole camp before they're finished 3000, have the children of Israel had been caught in the act and put to death, including some of their own relatives. It's hard to imagine. A more terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. For the children of Israel, the sin of the golden calf addressed Moses is summoned back up on the mountain here. God repeats how seriously offended he is. Moses gets that. He also identifies with this people, their children, God's children, God's sinful, but precious children. Now we've got a problem.

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00:05:45

God speaks with Moses about his predicament. What does a Holy God do around a group of people who are so sinful? God tells Moses I will continue to lead you and I will out the nation before you and give you the land as I promised, but I will not be with you. Move my tent from the center to the outside of Israel's camp. We eavesdrop on Moses conversations with God. He begs God to be with him in Israel. He goes further and begs to see the face of God. Moses. I'm the God of mercy and grace. I'm endlessly patient. I don't rage quit, but I'm also Holy.

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00:06:26

And there are consequences for breaking the rules. This time. God tells Moses to engrave the family rules on the stones. Soon he'll move the children of Israel from their boot camp at Mount Sinai North to conquer the promised land. So he gives Moses a few more instructions. Moses don't make any covenants with the EITs. We just saw Israel's problem with idols. So tear down every idol in the new land, make sure you keep my national holiday Passover so that these people never forget who really is the God that delivers them. The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for Moses, for Israel.

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00:07:08

And for God teaches us several things. God is Holy. The children of Israel are sinful. How can they possibly dwell together in the same camp? That's a God-sized problem. If there ever was one, and God will address that in Leviticus, which is the focus of our next wordpicture.