Who Is Our God?

Wednesday Service

February 27, 2024

ROUGH DRAFT NOTES

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. 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. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 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. 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. 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. 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: 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. And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. 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? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. 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. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. 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. 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. 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. 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. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, 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. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD'S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made. (Exodus 32:1-35)

Who Is Our God We want to worship?

Notice “… they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt”.

They even self-identify that things they inquired are their God. It doesn’t seem very logical in today’s time that we would take jewelry, melt it into a God that we worshipped and say it bought us out of captivity. Hard to imagine even after they seen the Red Sea parted, and miracles God performed for them to be free. If we take a deeper look into this, we find that our culture today is doing the same thing. God bought this nation out of religious persecution, we were free to worship God. Now with all the blessings (i.e., gold earing’s) we in more of a spiritual way melt these luxuries we have and form them into our golden calf. Then we worship them in ways we are not aware of. Our jobs, our health, wealth, and things of this world we begin to contribute to our own God’s we have made. We even make being an American into our own God. It’s all the things we do that God us where we are to experience freedoms and wealth. In contrast it is God who has delivered us, delivered this nation. There must have been someone like Moses who interceded on our behalf, and God has blessed this nation.

Not just as nation, we also at a personal level make our own Gods for our salvation. We credit accomplishments to our Education, wealth, health, etc. We need to ask ourselves, do we turn to worldly things we have or maybe even want or pursue that will heal us, solve our crisis rather than turning to God and praising God, worshipping God? We praise doctors or medical in this country, which there are great things, but these all come from God. We praise money, our income, our jobs, our investments, things we have done without realizing God has blessed us, or could even be the world has blessed us. Riches don’t always come from God. We should praise God for these things. There are those that get rich of Satan’s plan as well.

Regardless, when we praise this world, praise ourselves then we have made all these things into our golden calf which we have shaped just like Israel in Exodus. Also noticed in these scriptures how easily they turned. Why do we turn so easily to our trust of our own abilities, then make them into our God?

It is interesting in verse 10 where we see God talking with Moses in conversations we have, “… let me alone…”. Do we have prayers where we are trying to intercede on someone’s behalf, on our behalf and God answers this way at times. I can’t say I have had any prayers where I felt this was the answer, but it is interesting to see how Moses and God interacted.

Vs 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

In verse 29 “…consecrate yourselves today … blessing”

Verse 32 we see God’s response to Moses to blot himself out of the book. God replies “… whosoever … sinned against me … him will I blot out of my book…”. God doesn’t allow Moses to be a sacrifice for their sins. That was for God in flesh to sacrifice for them in his time later.

Exodus 34:9 …pray for grace for nation. Here we see one man praying for grace for his nation. Good model for prayer for our country is to pray for grace.

Exodus 34:11 …I drive out before thee the Amorites, Canaanites,… When we pray, God can drive out the different God’s, different ways of those that are not healthy spiritually for our country.

Exodus 33:16 … thy people have found grace.

Exodus 33:14 ... my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. “I will give thee rest” is a very powerful scripture to those that are weary, soul has fainted, their strength is gone, physically, spiritually when they don’t feel that they can go on. That is when we hear God say “Get Up!”.

Psalm 90:16 … thy work appear unto thy ... Add Followup thoughts on this verse.

Thank you, God for sending your son to build a house in us for thy Holy Spirit. Help us to live an overcoming life. To follow thy will. In Jesus Name, Amen