Warning & Invitation
Exodus 32:1-14
There is a lot going on and a lot to be said about Exodus 32. Our narrative section ends in the middle of the chapter, and avoids some of the thorny details that come later in the text: Moses’ own anger, the Levites’ slaughter of their “brothers, friends and neighbors” (Exod. 32:27), their subsequent ordination, the plague, and more. As it is, however, concluding with verse 14 leaves us plenty to wrestle with tonight.
Exodus 32:1–14 has two different scenes playing out simultaneously. In one, Moses is at the top of Mount Sinai where he is just about to conclude a period of forty days and forty nights which he has spent receiving instructions from God. In the other, the Israelites are at the base of the mountain becoming restless, having begun to doubt that Moses will ever return.
It’s difficult to hear Exodus 32:1–14 this week after hearing Exodus 20 last week. If you remember that is where YHWH, the Great I AM, God of gods, makes a covenant with the people of Israel and gives them the 10 words, or the 10 best best ways to live, which serve as the heart of their covenant relationship. You might remember verses 2–6:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
It’s difficult to read in part because it’s so easy to see ourselves in these first six verses of tonight’s text. Now it’s true that we are not Jewish people camped at the base of Mount Sinai, nor are we Moses meeting with God at the top of the Mountain, encased in thunder, lighting, and fire. But we are God’s people, grafted into this story and invited to learn, live, and love out of the truth entrusted to us by the Holy Spirit.
So tonight I have the joy and privilege to declare this good news over us:
God is faithful even to an unfaithful people.
In our microwave world filled with same-day delivery, on-demand now, instant access, and Door Dash delivery, we are confronted with a warning and an invitation from tonight’s text. A warning while we wait and an invitation to intercede.
First, let me remind us where we are in the book of Exodus. Chapter 32 sits in the middle of the story:
Exodus 20–23: Ten Commandments + explanation and implication of the 10 words / Decalogue
Exodus 24: Blood of the Covenant — v3, 7: All the people answered with one voice, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” v. 8: Moses said, “ See the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Exodus 25–31: Tabernacle Instructions — God gives Moses guidelines for the production of the tabernacle, the tent in which God “may dwell among them” (25:8b), a powerful promise of presence and protection.
Exodus 35–40: Tabernacle Construction
Exodus 32–34: Idolatry and Covenant Renewal
In verses 1–6 of chapter 32 we see our warning.
It would be easy for us to laugh, point, snicker, and roll our eyes at how quickly the people turn from their, “Yes,” to God’s covenant, but let me remind us how easy it is to love God when our bank account is in the black, when our relationships are fulfilling, when our business is booming, when our nightmares are quiet, when our production feels successful, and when there seems to be no more shoes waiting to drop.
But when we are placed in a situation that requires us to…. WAIT… Our faith feels more fragile. Our hope feels more fleeting. And our love feels more distant.
Their “Yes, Lord; yes, Lord; yes, yes, Lord,” has been met with “בּוּשׁ bûwsh, (boosh).” Delay. Waiting.
Did you catch that in verse 1? When the people saw that Moses was boosh in coming down from the mountain the people “gathered against” Aaron. While the people of God are cleaning their teeth with quail bones and drinking from their water skins in the heat of the day they begin to worry in their waiting.
Moses was “delayed” and the people began to doubt and worry. Maybe Moses has abandoned us. Maybe Moses is dead. Maybe God has abandoned us.
Last week, our second child and I had the privilege to make a quick trip back to Denver, CO for a wedding. it was lovely to see family and celebrate with friends, but it also triggered some of my most intense childhood wounds, wounds of abandonment. In 2014 our family moved from Dayton, OH to NW Denver, CO to plant a church, and after four years of working, praying, serving, and out right ‘hustling for Jesus’ the church unanimously voted to close. Don’t get me wrong I love the life and ministry God is building here in our midst with y’all, but having that church close and never take root broke me and shook me to the core. And last weekend I was reminded again that my wounds are still tender and God did not do what I thought God was going to do there in NW Denver 8 yrs ago.
Beloved, waiting is hard and wreaks havoc on our mind, body, and soul. Waiting is one of the most intense and vulnerable times of our spiritual lives because there is no way out except for God to move.
Waiting often brings with it doubt, confusion, shame, and disorientation. For me, it triggers one of my most significant childhood wounds: abandonment. Maybe this is the time when God has had his fill of my unfaithfulness.
But God is faithful even to an unfaithful people.
Our warning is birthed out of the fear, doubt, and worry that accompany our waiting. When we doubt the power, purpose, and plan of God we turn to other gods to fulfill our needs. We turn to other gods, seeking acceptance, independence, and even guidance. When we don’t know what God is up to, we often try to make it happen our own way.
In seasons of waiting we must heed the warning of Exodus 32:1-6: We cannot force, manipulate, or coerce God to move. It’s true that those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, but those same people also lose their patience and do stupid things like build golden calfs and say they are YHWH. (Did you notice how the golden calf that did not exist yesterday, is now given credit as the one “who brought you up out of the land of Egypt”?)
The truth is: Egypt is still in us. Bondage is still in us. Returning to toxicity is still in us. You can take the people out of Egypt, but it’s harder to take Egypt out of the People.
They are tired of the delay and decide, with Aaron’s help (who doesn’t seem to get judged at this time), to recycle their oppression, turning the gold of Egypt into an idol from Egypt.
While this revelry of idolatry is happening, though, we transition to our simultaneous second scene found in verses 7–14.
The people fear that Moses (and God) have abandoned them, and God indicates that the people have abandoned him:
The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it…
There is so much in these eight verses of 7–14, but let me draw your attention to two words. One in verse 11, and one in verse 13: “But Moses implored the Lord his God . . . to remember.” And here I think we have our invitation during seasons of waiting.
Beloved, in season of waiting are invited to be faithful in imploring, begging, pleading, crying out to God to remember God’s grace, glory, and goodness.
First, God says to Moses: get down there at once because YOUR people, whom YOU brought out of Egypt are acting perversely.
This has the ring of one parent saying to the other… Did you see what YOUR child has done?
“Moses YOUR people have already abandoned me.”
But Moses implores God to remember:
Remember these are YOUR people.
— YHWH these are not my people… They are YOUR people, and you have been very clear about that. It was your power; your mighty hand… From Egypt to Sinai! Remember your people.Remember YOUR name or reputation.
— YHWH your name is really important. Do you want the nations to think ill of you?Remember YOUR promises (Heb. 6:13–14)
— When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply you.”
And the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have asked, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name” (Exod. 33:17).
God is faithful even to an unfaithful people.
For God to remember is for God to act. For God, “remember” is a verb.
For those of you who are staying for part two of our Liturgy Tour tonight, you will hear about anamnesis, the portion of our Eucharist liturgy where we are called to remember; “Do this in remembrance (anamnesis) of me.” Remembrance is not passive, but active. And when God remembers, God acts.
Beloved, here I quote my favorite theologian, the Rev. Dr. Emily McGowin: “God has willed to govern the universe through our prayers. God has invited us to be his covenant friends. Moses is learning that God can be prevailed upon.”
In response to Moses’ plea, God decides not to do what God originally said. In fact, God opened the door for Moses to participate with God. Notice when God said, “Now let me alone” that Moses did not do so. Like Abraham pleading with God for Sodom and Gomorrah, the Old Testament gives us examples of humans who understand prayer to be a conversation, and God to be a relational God who can be prevailed upon.
Beloved, the people sitting next to you, the people that make up our city, state, and world need your intercession. The children, women, and men in Gaza and Israel need your prayer.
We need advocates. We need intercessors. We need people who will stand in the waiting and plead for God to remember his people, remember his name, remember his promises.
Some of you heard this story and feel worried, “This is the time that God will want to abandon me.” But I can tell you with confidence that as good as Moses is, we have an advocate even better than Moses. Hear what the epistle to the Hebrews has to say: “Holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also ‘was faithful in all God’s house.’ Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses” (Heb. 3:1–3)
Not one of our prayers has been ignored. Not one of our prayers is lost or forgotten. Not one has been ineffectual or pointless. Some of them have been “no” or “wait,” but they have all been gathering at the altar before the throne of God.
As the book of Revelation says, “another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God” (Rev. 8:3-4).
