Don’t go back to the cow! (repost)

I posted this blog a few months back, but considering that I taught on the passage last night at Awaken, I thought it would be a good re-post. If you’d like to hear last night’s message, you can download it in our teaching archive HERE or get it on iTunes HERE.

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If you think the Bible is a strict, serious book with no humor, Exodus 32 must have fallen out of your Bible. Get some tape or some glue and fix that, if that’s the case.

I have to laugh every time I read about Aaron, God’s chosen spokesman to the king of Egypt, and his leadership (or lack thereof) while Moses is gone. The people tell Aaron to make them a golden calf since they don’t know what happened to Moses. Aaron obliges, but then gets caught when Moses comes back down the mountain. His reply to Moses’ righteous indignation:

I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out. (Exodus 32:24)

I don’t know if my 3-year old daughter would attempt to pull one like that over on me! Of course Moses isn’t fooled. Bad things happen when Moses AND God are angry! Read the rest of Exodus 32 to find out how they were punished.

Here’s the lesson, though. As crazy as it sounds for God’s people to worship a golden calf after God led them through the Red Sea and killed the Egyptian army behind them, you need to put yourself in their shoes sandals for a moment. Worshiping things they made was what they knew – it was comfortable. Their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers had grown up in Egypt where idol worship was everywhere. The Egyptians had gods for everything: the sun, the moon, the river, etc. Now think of where the Israelites found themselves: in the wilderness, hundreds of miles from where they had all been living their lives since they were born. And now, to top it all off, their leader, Moses, had just walked up onto a mountain that was full of fire and lightning.

Cut them some slack. They didn’t give up immediately. They waited a week…two weeks….a month…and finally at the 40 day mark, they’d had enough. Moses was obviously dead. He couldn’t survive that long on a fiery mountain with no food! So, what did they know? What was comfortable? What made them feel like they had a little bit of control? Making a god to worship.

Now, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you’ve never sculpted a cow out of a pair of earrings and began bowing down to it. I haven’t either. We’re not off the hook though, because our idolatry and doubt come in different forms. Let me explain.

Maybe you’ve been a Christian for a while but you’re suffering. You’ve prayed and prayed for God to help but it seems that He doesn’t hear. So, you go back to what you know: drugs, sex, living for the world, or (fill in the blank) _______________. Those things have become your golden calf. It doesn’t make sense, in light of all that God has done, for you to turn back to those things, but they’re what you know, they’re comfortable, they’re manageable.

Maybe you’re a new Christian and you were hoping that this “God thing” would take all your problems away. It hasn’t. In fact, it seems that life is harder now than it was before. So, what do you do? Go back to what you were doing before you realized Jesus was everything you needed. Whatever that was – whatever you’re relying on now instead of Jesus – is your golden calf. God is all you need, but you can’t see Him, so you live for what you can see.

I’ve struggled with this recently. Not that I’ve wanted to go back to drugs or anything like that, but the struggles and criticism I’ve faced with planting a church has made me question at times whether or not I’m in the right place. It’s easy to remember how great I had it back in Albuquerque and be drawn away from where I know God has called me. For me, the easy life back there is my golden calf. Although it’s not sinful in itself, if it were to draw me away from where God has called me to be, it would be sin. I would be worshiping the easy life over the obedient life.

You could be in any number of situations, but here’s the lesson: just because you can’t see the way out doesn’t mean you should revert back to what you know. Let the times of questioning and suffering be times of drawing nearer and nearer to God. Seek Him out. He’s there. He always has been. You’ve allowed yourself to lose sight of Him though.

Don’t go back to your calf. It’s not real. It won’t satisfy. It’s not what you’re looking for. It will disappoint.

Oh yeah, and it’s a COW!

Bible In 90 Days 2: EXODUS

Today is Day 8 in our journey through the Bible in 90 days.

In just 1 week, we’ve already covered 90 chapters of Scripture – Genesis 1-50 and Exodus 1-40! Great job! Keep it up! Today, we begin the bloody book of Leviticus.

One thing you may have noticed that’s different about Exodus than Genesis is that the tone really changed. We certainly saw a lot of the devastation of sin in Genesis, but we really get up close and personal with it in Exodus. The new Pharaoh that took the throne in the beginning of Exodus didn’t know Joseph and didn’t respect God’s people, so harsh slavery ensued. However, as God is always faithful to do, He raised up a deliver. And who did God choose? An 80-year old cowardly shepherd with a stuttering problem named Moses! God has a sense of humor, doesn’t He?

Moses squared off with Pharaoh, and after a series of 10 devastating plagues that left Egypt almost completely destroyed, God’s people finally left the slavery of Egypt.

Exodus 12:35-36 – Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

Not only did God get what He wanted (the exodus of His people from Egypt), but they also plundered the most powerful nation in the world on their way out!

The adventure didn’t end there, though – it was just beginning. They soon saw more miraculous deliverance as God parted the Red Sea, allowed them to walk across on dry land, then drowned the Egyptian army with it! Amazing!

The second half of Exodus may have been a bit of a challenge to read as they went over many chapters of detailed laws (Exodus 20 lists the 10 Commandments) and instructions for building the Temple. God was so detailed, He even outlined what kind of underwear the priests should wear!

Be encouraged by this, though: God sees you, He knows you, and He’s intimately acquainted with your pain. He will deliver, but deliverance may not be when you planned or look how you would think…and that’s the hard part. In addition to pulling you out of slavery, He also wants to use you to build His temple and serve His people! He doesn’t just want to save you, but He wants to use you to save others as well!

Next up: Leviticus. Buckle up.

when NO ONE repents

We’ve all had challenging assignments before – homework, a business assignment, delivering some hard news, etc. If you’ve been following Christ for any length of time, you’ve also encountered some challenging assignments (you know, stuff like, “pick up your cross and follow Me”).

As I’ve been reading through the Bible in 90 days (yesterday was the half-way point!), I’ve seen God assign plenty of challenging tasks along the way (Moses vs. Pharaoh, Israel vs. The Red Sea, Joshua vs. Jericho, David vs. Goliath). One that keeps coming to mind, even though I read it on January 1, was God’s assignment to Noah…

For about 100 years, Noah built a boat and told his friends, neighbors, and mockers that rain was coming and they had better repent. When it was time to get on the boat, do you know how many had repented?

0.

Zero.

None.

Does that make Noah a failure? It sure doesn’t. Had his task been to make everyone repent, then yes, he would have been a failure. God has never assigned that task to anyone, though. Noah’s task was simply to warn people. Therefore, he did his job. He succeeded.

On the far end of the spectrum, we have Jonah, the disobedient prophet who tried to run from God. He learned quickly that you can’t run from God when God sent a storm, some sailors that threw him overboard, then the stomach acid inside the belly of a fish. The fish vomited Jonah up, and “the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time…” This time, begrudgingly, he chose to obey. He preached a hardcore, turn or burn message that resulted in the largest revival in human history!

So what can we gather from these 2 completely opposite stories?

When God says to share a message, share the message, or else.

It’s not about their response, it’s about your obedience.

Sometimes people repent of their sins, and sometimes they don’t. Regardless of their response, if you obeyed, you succeeded.

God gives second chances (Jonah), but take Him up on His first offer (like Noah).

Some people won’t believe even when they see miraculous, undocumented events (the people in Noah’s day). Others will believe even if you’re not eloquent and a little scared at how they’ll respond (the people of Nineveh).

So what are you waiting for? If you know Jesus Christ, you have the best news in all of human existence. Don’t be selfish with the Gospel. Get the Word out!