🌟Join us for a powerful sermon journeying through Moses’ life. What idols do we worship? Let’s reflect together. Tune in at Harmony Christian Church. EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ). Get the fill in the blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.
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This morning, I want to take you into the story of someone who is larger than life – so large that nearly 3,500 years later we are still talking about his story…
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The Story of Moses
Moses’ life is so big, I can’t really do it justice… Instead, what I want to do is take you into three movements.
I want to take you through the story of Moses, a specific incident from his life, and a challenge for us all.
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MOVEMENT 1: The Man Moses
He was born into a time of incredible tumult. The Israelites had been in slavery to the Egyptians for hundreds of years. Moses is born to an incredibly brave woman who fights against all the odds to save her child. Through a miraculous set of events, Moses is adopted into the family of Pharaoh – King of Egypt. Moses is raised in a world of contradictions. A slave who is a prince. As he ages he will be moved for his people and in a moment of rage he kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew Slave. Moses will run away and for 40 years will be an exile. When he returns it is because of an encounter with God in a burning bush. God will call him to lead his people out of Egyptian slavery to come into the wilderness to worship God. It is an epic story, it’s so massive I can’t do it justice. But
During this time, God will send 10 plagues on the Egyptians trying to get them to release their iron grip on the Hebrew people.
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The last of the 10 plagues was the death of the firstborn son.
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The Lord sent an angel through Egypt and anyone whose house was not marked on the door frames with the blood of a lamb, their firstborn son died.
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This is called the Passover, because God passed over the Hebrews in this moment and finally released them from their slavery.
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For the next 40 years, Moses will wander in the desert with the Israelites, leading them and shepherding them.
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Through all of this, Moses faces the challenges of leadership and following God…
MOVEMENT 2: The Specific Incident
The Israelites have been in the desert for some time now. God has been leading them with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He is providing them with food, and water, He is giving them everything they need.
Immediately people begin to complain.
God begins to intervene and he gives what we know today as the 10 Commandments – it is a covenant of relationship.
It starts like this…
Exodus 20:1-6
And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
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The covenant is: abide by the law of God, He will bless them. Don’t, and He will curse and leave them to their own devices.
Moses goes up on the mountain to hear from God (because the people begged him to) – God will codify the covenant onto two stones. He will be up on the mountain for 40 days. But I want to read to you what happens during that time…
Exodus 32:1-20
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[a] 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.”
I’ve been in leadership long enough to see this. We all have short memories when it comes to leadership and tension. If it’s not dealt with quickly, people get antsy. Moses has been gone and people can’t handle it… Aaron, his brother should have calmed them, he should have managed it, but he doesn’t and it’s about to go off the rails…
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,[b] Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
Did you hear what happened?
What’s the first thing they did? They created an idol of gold – now I’m not sure that was Aaron’s intent, but it’s how the people viewed it. “These are the gods who brought you out of Egypt.”
I hope you come each week because this will come up again later in our study of the story of God
This story goes poorly from here on out…
- Aaron will build an altar for the people to worship in front of the calf.
- God will share with Moses what has happened and offer to wipe everyone out and start over with Moses.
- Moses pleads with God not to kill them
- As Moses comes down from the mountain he realizes what the people have done
- He breaks the stones God has written the covenant on
- He calls for anyone who is still true to Yahweh to join him
- The tribe of Levi joins him and they kill 3,000 people that day with their sword
- Moses grinds up the golden calf, puts it in water, and makes the people drink it
This last thing is interesting because it’s similar to the prescription of what a potentially adulterous wife is to do
MOVEMENT 3: A Challenge for Us
and Paul says this to us…
1 Corinthians 10:7-13
7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”
Paul is harkening back to this moment with Moses and the covenant of God…
“But Kent, I’m a modern person – Idolatry isn’t even on my radar…”
Your God is whatever you run to…
What is the thing you run to? Is it God?
Paul will continue by saying…
8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ,[b] as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
Paul is saying, stop thinking you are so superior… Stop thinking you’ve got it all together.
Listen to how he’s going to wrap this up…
13 No temptation[c] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted[d] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[e] he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
CLOSING:
Paul is saying “Your story is their story…”
Can I just confess to you guys? I get it. I struggle just as much as any of you with these same things. I run to other things than Jesus. As a matter of fact, I get overwhelmed, I make poor decisions, and I run after things I shouldn’t. The key to all of this is that our covenant is not
Our covenant is not “If you love me, I’ll love you.”
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Our covenant, the New Covenant, is “I love you. Love as I’ve loved.”
Years ago I visited an alcoholic’s annoynomous group as part of a class assignment. When I was there humbly listening to these people share their stories I realized they were the most honest of our society. They actually were facing the brutality of their story and recognizing their need for more. I’m calling you today back to our covenant. You don’t have a God who is waiting to smite you. You have a God who is waiting to receive you. Be brutally honest and accept his way out of your temptation. Come out of it and into the light!
