NOT TOO FAR AWAY

Exodus 32:1-14

Intro

 This morning’s passage picks up just after God had dictated the Ten Commandments.  Now an interesting thing is that the 10 Commandments are spoken of initially in chapter 20.  So how can we be picking up right after chapter 20, considering we are going to hear from chapter 32?  The answer is this: the interceding 12 chapters articulate a great many of the societal and religious laws that the Israelites were governed by.  These chapters were almost certainly crafted in a time that was long after Moses was dead and gone.  However, when they are placed directly after the 10 Commandments, and represented to be from the voice of God, they are given a level of credibility that tradition alone is not able to grant them.  

 The interesting thing is, in terms of a narrative, the inclusion of these 12 chapters worth of laws grants a context that is quite believable for what we are about to hear.  The opening line of the passage declares that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain.  This delay causes the people to worry, doubt, and ultimately abandon the leader and the God who has led them out of Egypt.  

Now, even though these feelings are most certainly universal in terms of their reach, we tend to think of ourselves as so much more enlightened then the Israelites, saying to ourselves, where they fell short, we would stand tall.  However, the question still remains: are we all that different from the people whom we are so quick to pass judgment upon?  The scripture reads this way.  

Exodus 32:1-14 

32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall 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, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD.” 6 They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

7 The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 8 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, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” 9 The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10 Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.”

11 But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” 14 And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

“Not Too Far Away”

 One of the most commonly asked questions after hearing this passage is a very simple one: what were the Israelites thinking?  As we sit here so many centuries after the fact it seems so shortsighted and just out and out dumb that the Israelites would turn away from God and the Almighty’s representative, Moses.  After all, these people who had been enslaved for so many generations watched as the Egyptians were besieged with the ten plagues that ranged from the Nile being turned into blood, to frogs, to boils, to hail, to the death of the firstborn.  As if this wasn’t enough to let the Israelites know that someone rather powerful was watching over them, they then watched as the Red Sea opened before them so that they might be able to cross only to have those very same waters come crashing down upon their former captors.  

But this was not where the miraculous ceased.  When they complained of hunger, God delivered them meat and manna; when they griped of thirst, God showed them that water could be drawn from a stone; and when they faced enemies on the battlefield, God gave them the victory when Moses would raise his hand into the air.  So you have to wonder how, after all that (and only some two to three months removed from being called slaves), that they would find themselves asking for an idol to be made because Moses was taking too long to come down from a mountain.

 My feeling is the reason that they made this gigantic misstep was because they were looking for some sense of control.  Think about it, here are people who have been told what to do for generation after generation in a negative context.  Now they are being told what to do again, by God through Moses.  

Sure, what they are being told is for their benefit, but let’s be honest, if you have been in an abusive situation for a long time that you are finally able to get out of, are you able to open yourself up totally for that next relationship?  If you are used to being abused then you expect to be abused.  You can almost hear it when the people cry out in regards to being hungry and thirsty (“if this is the best that is out here in freedom land, then we don’t want to be free”), and now they say it again in regards to Moses being gone for too long a time.  

Look at what they say: “this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”  The “man”.  They don’t speak of him as a trusted leader or confidant, but as some strange guy, who showed up from out of nowhere.  And now, just as mysteriously as he appeared, he is gone again.  The Israelites feel abandoned.  Even with all of those miracles, they still don’t feel like they can trust anyone … except for themselves. 

So what do they do?  They lean on Aaron to make an idol for them (and believe me, if a few hundred, let alone several thousand people started leaning on you, you might be willing to do something that you thought was wrong as well; and that was the position Aaron was in).  This idol is the Israelites way of trying to take control.  This golden calf is formed for them as the tangible form of God that they can see, touch, control; something that they know will not leave them when times get rough, because they control the image of the god.  

How often have we, in times of distress, grief, or worry longed for some tangible form of God.  Something that we can hold on to in a way that we are able to have control of something, anything even as everything else spins into oblivion?  How many of us have felt abandoned and were desperate to regain some sense of control when we find out that our loved one has been diagnosed with some disease (cancer, Alzheimer’s)?  How often have we heard of someone who falls into the pit of despair, or the grip of anger when a long standing relationship with a friend or a spouse disintegrates?  How much control is able to be had in such a scenario?  How out of control have we felt when our job has become a place that we dread to go to, rather than an opportunity to do the things that we are good at and we like to do?  How many times, in moments when we needed assistance did we try and gain control by every means, other than turning to God? 

All of a sudden, the actions that we were so quick to be critical of in the Israelites become a commentary for where we are right now.  If we do this, if we accept this as a story that can speak to our current needs, then what does the rest of the story tell us?  

To begin with, we are able to see that God is disappointed, is angered in our desire to seek solutions that are not of the Almighty.  Basically, God is wondering, “how many times do I have to show that I will be there for you before you will believe Me?”  If this was where the story ended then we would be in a lot whole of trouble.  However, and thankfully so, it is not.

The second thing that we are able to pick up from the story is that those who have sinned are not without hope.  We can be advocated for.  In the case of the Israelites, the advocate was Moses.  In our case, the advocate is even greater for Jesus is the one who is able to stand up on behalf of the sinful and say that we (as it declares in the hymn) have been washed in the cleansing blood of the lamb. 

The final thing that we are able to pick up is that our search for control in the wake of our brokenness can only be found in one place.  As paradoxical as it may seem, the only way to find relief that we feel is found in control is by giving ourselves over to the Almighty.  All other searches for such relief only lead us away from God, which then leaves us in the position of needing that advocate.

So, I ask you the question, who do you want to be?  Do you want to be the person who, in the midst of their brokenness, grasps for control in all the wrong places, only leading to a separation with the Almighty?  Or do you want to be the person who is able to discover that the healing that they long for is granted when they give themselves, heart, soul, mind, and strength over to the Almighty?  Who do you want to be?  If you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and make the right choice, the healing that you long for is not too far away.

A long time ago I was friends with a guy named Ed.  Ed was one of those individuals who tries so hard to be accepted and ends up coming off as just a little to polished, almost artificial.  After you hear that description you might be wondering why I developed a friendship with him.  Well, when he let down his guard and didn’t push it so much, he was one of the funniest and most genuine people you could meet.  For whatever reason, he carried a burden with him that said that people would only accept him if he acted like someone else.  It was strange to watch him go through this personality switch, because he could do it like he was turning on a light.  However, as is the case with many people, you learn to accept and love them for who they are, including all of their shortcomings.

After about a year, maybe a year and a half, Ed was struck by extreme difficulty: his brother, whom he was especially close with, was diagnosed with a fast acting, terminal cancer.  Ed’s brother didn’t have much time.  During the weeks that followed this revelation, Ed kept to himself, but when he was approached you would assume that everything was alright, not a care in the world.   That front that he had crafted to make himself feel accepted was now acting as a cloak which masked all the pain he was facing.  

One evening, he came up to myself and another individual whom we were both friends with, named Warren, and said, “can I talk with you?”  Both of us said yes, we went and found a quiet and comfortable place to talk and we all sat down.  Once we were all there we he said, looking straight ahead and without expression, “my brother died today.”  After a few seconds the wall that he had built to hopefully protect himself and grant him some control began to visibly crumble as he went from staring straight ahead, with no expression, to head in his hands and his elbows touching his knees, crying.  In that moment Warren and I prayed with Ed, all of us prayed that God would hold him up so that he might be able to face what was now before him.  

Ed gave himself over to God in a way that I am not sure that he ever had.  He gave up whatever sense of control that he thought he had and gave it all over to God.

While the days and weeks that followed were most certainly not easy, there was a change in Ed.  No longer was there this cloak of “everything’s alright” or “please accept me” that was put on for the world.  Instead, it was the individual who was my friend.  In this transformation, he was declaring for all those who would listen that he had placed his trust, his very life in the hand of God.  No more pretenses.  No more shows.  In that turning over of his life, even under the shadow of so much sadness, Ed, I believe, received the healing that he was looking for all along.       

 In our scripture passage this morning the newly freed Israelites needed to learn that the one who they placed their trust in, the One who freed them, was not going to abuse them as they had encountered so many times before.  Instead, this God was actually going to lead them to the home of healing that they so longed for.  

Much like the Israelites we have also been newly freed: freed of our sin.  This freedom does not mean that we are now on easy street, or that troubles will not assail us just over the next horizon.  Because of this fact we end up looking for whatever foothold we can get.  We are trying to regain control.  What we need to realize is that the only way that we will be able to find the fulfillment that we are searching for by looking for control is by giving total control over to God.  If we do, we will be blessed in ways that are so much greater than mere control and we will ultimately be rewarded with our own promised land, the gift of healing the brokenness of this life. 

Place your trust in God and discover that the healing that you have so desperately needed is not too far away.

After Sermon Prayer

 O holy God, as we were able to see in this morning’s passage the brokenness of this life was not something that was foreign to Your chosen people, the Israelites.  They too, even as they had just borne witness to so many miracles, were still searching for a healing.  They thought that it would be found by taking control of their religious life.  Instead, they came to find that this healing relief was found by giving their lives over to You.  Lord, help us to also give ourselves over to You so that instead of grasping for control, we are receiving the healing balm that can only come from You.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.