Bible Passage: Exodus 32:15-29
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: July 2, 2023

Bulletin July 2, 2023

Due to technical difficulties, we were unable to record the service. The printed sermon is below.

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

The Israelites had been waiting…and waiting…and waiting.  Moses has been up on Mt. Sinai now for forty days.  They have not seen him or heard from him this whole time.  They finally give up on him.

They find Moses’ brother, Aaron, and say to him, Get up, make a god for us. (Exodus 32:1)  Aaron obliges.  He tells the people to bring him their gold jewelry.  They do.  And Aaron sets to work and fashions the gold into a bull-calf.  Then Aaron built an altar and he told the people, Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD! (32:5)  Just a few short weeks before this Israel had heard the LORD proclaim in a loud voice, You shall have no other gods beside me.  You shall not make any carved image for yourself or a likeness of anything in heaven above, or on earth below, or in the waters under the earth. (Exodus 20:3-4)  What was Aaron thinking?

But this is what the people did.  They got up early the next day for their fun-fest!  They offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.  We are told, [T]he people sat down to eat and to drink (32:6).  And then, we are told, they got up – and here is literally what the Hebrew says – “to play.”  Suffice it to say, they were not playing sand volleyball and cornhole.

About this time, Moses and Joshua are coming down the mountain.  For the last forty days, Moses had been with the LORD.  Now he carries in his hands the Law of God on two stone tablets.  They are engraved front and back with the very words of God, chiseled by the very finger of God!  Can you imagine Moses’ feeling of joy and excitement to be carrying this to God’s people?  Any joy was short-lived.  As they near the camp, Joshua says, “Sounds like a war zone down there.”  Moses says, “That’s not the sound of victory or defeat!  It’s the sound of a party!”

When Moses got a look at the “play” the Israelites were engaged in, he takes the tablets he is carrying and smashes them to bits on the ground.  He rushes into the camp, grabs the bull idol and throws it into the fire.  Then he pulverizes it and mixes the idol-dust into the drinking water and makes the people “drink” their idol.  Moses then turns to Aaron for some answers.  Aaron sounds a little like Adam making excuses.  He says, “Well, you know these people; always up to no good.  They wanted a god so I threw the gold in the fire and this popped out!  Weird!”

Moses would clean up after the party.  Moses stands at the entrance to the camp.  Whoever is on the Lord’s side, come to me! (v. 26)  The men of the tribe of Levi come.  Moses instructs them, “Strap your swords on, boys.  Go through the camp.  You will kill your brothers, friends, and neighbors.”  And do you know what happened next?  The Levites did it!  I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be one of those Levites going through the camp with sword in hand and the next person you see in front of you is someone you know.  This sounds barbaric, doesn’t it?  But let’s remember, every single person in camp was invited to show and declare his or her allegiance to the Lord by stepping over to Moses.  By not coming over to Moses, a person had made a very clear confession, “I am not for the LORD.”

What can we learn from all this?  First of all, let’s spend a moment considering the conduct of the Israelites.  Theirs’ was an “unserious” commitment to the LORD.  It was shallow.  It was fickle.  It was half-hearted.  It was paper-thin.  Don’t know where Moses went?  Never mind.  We’ll make a new god!  Out of gold!  Oooooo! Shiny!  We’ll make him a fun god, too.  Not so many rules.  One that lets us “play” the way we want to “play”!  The enemies of God saw how God’s people “played” that day, and they laughed.

Following the LORD is serious.  And the LORD makes no apologies for wanting us to follow seriously.  This text allows us to examine our own commitment.   The LORD says, You shall have no other gods. (Exodus 20:3)  And he’s serious about that!  Nothing is to rival him.  Not golden bulls.  Not brothers.  Not friends.  Not neighbors.   The Levites in our text show themselves to be serious.  Sometimes people say “serious as a heart-attack.”  The Levites were serious as a “bloody sword.”  They were willing to be the sword in the LORD’s hand to execute justice, even against family and friends.

How does one attain such a level of serious commitment?  Must we be brain-washed or “programmed” into such extreme devotion?  No.  Serious devotion is born of serious devotion. We look at Jesus.  Over against our “unserious” devotion and our sinful “playfulness” we have a serious Savior.  There has never been anyone who answered the question, “Who is for the LORD?” with more serious devotion, more complete consecration than Jesus!  We have a Savior who was perfectly, seriously consecrated to the will of his Father, right on up to giving his life as the payment for our sin.  He was serious as “a bloody cross.”

Remembering Jesus, hear Moses’ words again:  Who is for the LORD?  For us the answer is not as dramatic as walking over to stand next to Moses.  For us it must be answered in much subtler ways, but it must be answered nonetheless.  Who is for the LORD?  We must answer as we decide what to watch on Netflix.  We must answer as we go out on that date.  We must answer as we budget and spend our money.  We are not asked to strap on a sword.  But we are called upon to take the “sword of the Spirit,” the Word of God, and use it to cut down every assertion and pretense that sets itself up against God.  Are we willing to use the sword of the Spirit, even if it will cut brother, friend, and neighbor?  A child or grandchildren?

I guess, in the end, what we aspire to, what we are asking God to work in us, is that we might be consecrated, like those faithful Levites in our text.  We are asking God to answer our serious prayer, “Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to thee.”

Amen.