Trusting God is not always the easiest. Have you ever struggled to maintain your faithfulness to Him? Have you ever found yourself putting confidence in other things?
The Israelites are waiting for Moses to come back off the mountain. But, what if he never returns. He has been their leader, but what if he fell in a pit, was killed by an animal, or just abandoned them? What should they do?
What they should do is faithfully wait on God. What they do is build a calf out of gold and worship a false idol. Doesn’t that sound familiar? When God doesn’t move as quickly as is comfortable for us, we turn to putting confidence in all sort of other relationships, financial sources, and earthly things. Sometimes, we even turn to sinful methods, when if we had just waited, God was working.
What are you believing for today? Do you have the faith to keep your confidence in God even when it is not happening on your schedule?
-Pastor Conley
Exodus 32–34 (MEV)
1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us gods which will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
2 Aaron said to them, “Break off the gold earrings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”
3 So all the people broke off the gold earrings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.
4 He received them from their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow will be a feast to the Lord.”
6 So they rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
7 The Lord spoke to Moses, “Go, and get down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
8 They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molded calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, which has brought you up from the land of Egypt.’ ”
9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and certainly, it is a stiff-necked people.
10 Now therefore let Me alone, so that My wrath may burn against them and I may destroy them. And I will make of you a great nation.”
11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, why does Your wrath burn against Your people, whom You have brought forth from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12 Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath and relent of this harm against Your people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your descendants, and they will inherit it forever.’ ”
14 Then the Lord relented of the harm which He said He would do to His people.
15 Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of testimony in his hand. The tablets were written on both their sides. They were written on one side and on the other.
16 The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, engraved on the tablets.
17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.”
18 But he said: “It is not the sound of those who shout for victory, nor is it the sound of those who cry because of being overcome, but I hear the sound of singing.”
19 As soon as he came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses’ anger burned, so he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the bottom of the mountain.
20 Then he took the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.
21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”
22 Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn. You know that the people are set on evil.
23 For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us which will go before us, for this Moses, the man that brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
24 I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and then I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.’ ”
25 Now when Moses saw the people were in a frenzy, for Aaron had let them get completely out of control, causing derision from their enemies,
26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side, come to me.” And all the Levites gathered themselves together around him.
27 He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’ ”
28 The Levites did according to the word of Moses, and about three thousand men of the people died that day.
29 For Moses had said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that He may bestow a blessing on you this day, for every man opposes his son and his brother.”
30 On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin, and now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
31 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, this people has committed a great sin and have made a god of gold for themselves.
32 Yet now, if You will, forgive their sin, but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”
33 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.
34 So go now, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Indeed, My angel will go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will indeed punish them for their sin.”
35 And the Lord plagued the people because they had made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’
2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. However, I will not go up in your midst, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.”
4 When the people heard this disturbing word, they mourned. And no one put on his ornaments.
5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up among you for one moment, I might destroy you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, so that I may know what I will do to you.’ ”
6 The children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.
7 Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and called it the tent of meeting. And anyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.
8 So whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up and stand, every man at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent.
9 And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord spoke with Moses.
10 When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people rose up and worshipped, every man at the entrance of his tent.
11 The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When he returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tent.
12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’
13 Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You, and that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too that this nation is Your people.”
14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
16 For how will it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we will be distinguished, I and Your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?”
17 The Lord said to Moses, “I will do this thing of which you have spoken, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “I pray, show me Your glory.”
19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
20 He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live.”
21 Then the Lord said, “Indeed, there is a place by Me. You must stand on the rock.
22 While My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
23 Then I will take away My hand, and you will see My back, but My face may not be seen.”
1 Now the Lord said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
2 Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain.
3 No one is to come up with you. Do not let anyone be seen anywhere on the mountain, and the flocks or herds may not graze in front of the mountain.”
4 So he cut out two tablets of stone like the first, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tablets of stone.
5 Then the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
6 The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in goodness and truth,
7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
8 Moses made haste and bowed to the ground and worshipped.
9 He said, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, for we are a stiff-necked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
10 Then He said: Indeed, I am going to make a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done in all the earth nor in any nation. And all the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I will do with you.
11 Obey what I command you this day. Indeed, I am going to drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
12 Watch yourself so that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst.
13 But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles
14 (for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they prostitute themselves with their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you to eat of his sacrifice.
16 And then you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters prostitute themselves after their gods. They will make your sons prostitute themselves after their gods.
17 You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.
18 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the month of Aviv, for in the month of Aviv you came out of Egypt.
19 Every firstborn of the womb belongs to Me, and every firstborn male among your livestock, whether ox or sheep.
20 But you must redeem with a lamb the firstborn of a donkey, and if you fail to redeem him, then you must break his neck. You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one may appear before Me empty-handed.
21 You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you must rest. Even at the time of plowing and harvest you must rest.
22 You must observe the Feast of Weeks, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year.
23 Three times in the year all your males must appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
24 For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders. No man will covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25 You must not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to be left until the following morning.
26 The first of the first fruits of your land you must bring to the house of the Lord your God. You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
27 Then the Lord said to Moses: Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.
28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did not eat bread or drink water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of testimony in the hands of Moses, when he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.
30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, amazingly, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke to them.
32 Afterward all the children of Israel drew near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.
33 When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he took the veil off until he came out. Then he came out and spoke to the children of Israel what he had been commanded.
35 The children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, and then Moses put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with Him.