In the 40 days that Moses is on the mountain receiving the law from God a lot changes.  The people go from being in complete awe and fear of God to forgetting about Him.  They decide they need a new god to lead them forward.  They also give up on Moses.  Let’s look at the account together today from Exodus 32.

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” 2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. 7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ 9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” 11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and 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 wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

God is so upset that He is ready to start over.  Moses speaks to God on behalf of the people and God relents and Moses goes down to confront the people. Moses sees the people and throws the tablets of the Ten Commandments down breaking them.  He burns up the golden calf throws the ashes in the water and forces the people to drink it.  He then offers the people a choice.  Who will follow the God of Israel?  There is a sense in which this is a turning point.  The reality is this is a question for us all each day.  Will we follow God or take our own path?  I pray that we would not be a stiff-necked people stubborn to go our own way.  My prayer is that we would be a people striving to follow the leading of our God wherever He may take us.  

In His Grip,

Pastor Dave