Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is a noise of war in the camp."But he said, "It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear." And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it. - Exodus 32: 15-20 (ESV)
When we left the story, God was very angry with the people for quickly deserting Him and turning from what He had commanded. Moses would intercede on behalf of the people and God relented from the disaster He was going to visit upon them. We pick the story up now in the key verses as Moses goes back to the camp in verse 15. The first important point for us today is what Moses was carrying. The Bible here goes out of the way to make sure we understand that this was no mere trifle Moses was carrying back to the people. Remember, what he was carrying back was what they had turned their back on. This was not the first time Moses went away to be with God and came back with His Word. The people knew full well. Yet they turned quickly from what God said to forge their own golden calf to dance around and worship. They offered sacrifices to their golden calf. They declared feasts in honor of the their golden calf. As we saw in part one, we do the same today with the golden calves we craft for ourselves to call our god. Moses however, he was carrying the genuine article. He was carrying the real deal. He was carrying the word of God.
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
These tablets contained the Word of Almighty God. Back and front and through and through. The writing on the tablets was the writing of God. Why is this significant? Because we have these tablets today as well. It is called the Bible. We believe that the Bible is divinely inspired. That God Himself wrote the pages as much as He inscribed these tablets. That when Paul, Peter, Luke, Nehemiah, Solomon or any other Biblical author was taking ink to paper - it was actually God doing the writing. It is so frustrating to watch Christians try and parse out portions of the Bible by discussing the authors and what biases they may have had or what culture they were raised in. As if any of that matters! It doesn't because the author is the same! God wrote all of it! Genesis, Jeremiah, Revelation and everything in between.
Why is this so important for us today? Because that is what we are turning our back on when we marginalize Scripture. That is who we are turning our back on when we follow false teaching. When we choose to treat doctrine as a dirty word we forget who the author of that doctrine is. It is God. That is the entire point. I heard Joel Osteen once in an interview say that he was not gifted in doctrine. Guess what Joel? That means you are not that gifted in God. He is doctrine. He is His Word as Jesus said. You cannot separate them out. You can try but all you accomplish is to end up dancing around a golden calf of your own crafting. It must be so heartbreaking for God to see how quickly His own people today turn from what He has already taught us. Turn from what He has already commanded us. Turn from what He has already written. We chase false signs and lying wonders like the Pharisees asking for a miraculous sign when Jesus walked among them. Jesus walks among us beloved - through His Word! We chase the idols of this world, be it money, fame, or sin. We dress it up like it is from God but it is just a golden calf. Think long and hard the next time you want to casually treat the Word. He wrote it. All of it. Including this next portion of our story:
When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is a noise of war in the camp."But he said, "It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear."
Joshua was the aide for Moses. He set out with him and more than likely had stayed at the bottom of the mountain while Moses was with God. He had no idea what had transpired in the camp so to him it sounded like war. Moses however knew better because God had already told him what the people were up to. It is interesting that without the knowledge Moses had, the celebration sounded like war to Joshua. The complete opposite of what was really going on. I wonder what our golden calf celebrations sound like to the untrained ear today? I wonder what the unsaved think when they see pastor after pastor fall from grace. What they think when they see church after church pursuing them with the trinkets of this world. What they feel when they see the utter carnality the modern church possesses. Perhaps the same confusion that Joshua was dealing with here. Just a side thought. The real lesson is what follows:
And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
Moses anger burned hot. This seemingly unassuming man was furious. Seeing the blatant idolatry by the people he had just defended to God. There are two important considerations here. First of all, in his anger he destroys the tablets that contained the Word of God. Quite symbolic for us today. The people there had destroyed the Word of God in their idolatry already. They thought nothing of what God had commanded them already. Let us never lose sight of what God had already done for these people. He had delivered the ten plagues unto Egypt. He had heard their cries and delivered them from 400 years of bondage and slavery. He had parted the Red Sea and crushed their pursuing enemies with the waters. He had provided them with water from a rock, manna from heaven and quail when that wasn't enough. Yet despite this they abandoned Him so quickly. They treated what He had commanded them with utter contempt. Oh beloved, I hope you are starting to draw the obvious comparisons.
How has God shown Himself mighty in our lives already? We were all slaves in sin. In bondage to this world and to Satan. It was God who delivered us from this slavery. It was God who broke the bonds and loosed the chains. Do you remember where God found you? Do you remember the pit He saved you from? Once saved, do you remember the Red Seas He parted in your life? Do you remember the spectacular victories He gave you? Over your former life? Over addictions? Over whatever enemies you had? Do you remember the supernatural provision from God? What was the manna and quail God provided for you? Yet despite all of this - where does His Word rank in our lives today? How quickly do we turn from what He has commanded like the Israelites in this story? How quickly do we turn from His Word so we can dance around our golden calves? When we insist on following the golden calf of hyper-grace we might as well be throwing down the Bible as Moses threw down the tablets that day. When we chase after false teachers selling prosperity, we may as well be throwing down the Bible as Moses threw down the tablets that day. That is how meaningless we are treating the Bible when we refuse to follow it. Jesus Himself once lamented why we bother calling Him Lord if we are not going to do as He says.
The second consideration for us today is what Moses then does with the idol. How meaningless are the gods we chase after? How easily are they destroyed? How worthless are they? They can be easily burned up. Ground into powder before our eyes. Here are the notes from the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary:
"grounded to powder"; the powder of malleable metals can be ground so fine as to resemble dust from the wings of a moth or butterfly; and these dust particles will float in water for hours, and in a running stream for days. These operations of grinding were intended to show contempt for such worthless gods, and the Israelites would be made to remember the humiliating lesson by the state of the water they had drunk for a time [Napier]. Others think that as the idolatrous festivals were usually ended with great use of sweet wine, the nauseous draught of the gold dust would be a severe punishment
Beloved these are the larger points for us to consider today. The gods we craft ourselves are utter rubbish. We can dance around them every Sunday and think we are serving the one true God but He knows better and so should we. We need to be far more careful in how we approach what we claim to worship. What we bow down, we will drink long and hard from. It will become internalized within us. Yet at the end of the day it is nothing but a nauseous draught in our stomach. Any golden calf we choose over God and what He has commanded will end up as just a nauseous draught in our stomach.
Rev. Anthony
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