“You Are God’s Ambassador” Exodus 32:7-14

“Second Alters”

A Sermon Series on Idolatry

“You Are God’s Ambassador”

Exodus 32:7-14

 Introduction

Genesis 18 – this is the passage of where Abraham pleads on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. God has told that He is going to destroy the cities, and Abraham says, “Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?” and God responds by saying, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Abraham responds by saying, forty-five? Thirty? Twenty? Ten?

What if the city had no one righteous – no not one? (Romans 3:10)? What if you are called to represent a people who you know are guilty and whatever punishment God is handing out – they are justified to receive it? Today Moses is commanded to return to camp from the mountain in order deal with the golden calf and their rebellion against god. How would you lead them? They are stiff-necked and wicked?

God’s Reveals His Heart (vv. 7-9)
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden 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 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

 “stiff-necked people,” – To be a stiff-necked person is to ignore all that God has done in your life, to reject God’s desire to be in your life, to resist submitting to His ways and teachings, and to even substitute known truth and to say you believe crafted lies.

They have been a people who cried out against God when the Egyptians increased their work load, they doubted God at the Red Sea, they complained in the wilderness for lack of food and water, they cry out against God in fear at Mt. Siani, and here so quickly turn from God’s Law after such a short time.

This sudden turning away[1], makes the sin all the more glaring – had they really ever even truly submitted to the Lord? There is no thankfulness or gratitude to Him for their freedom, His provision, or His wanting to have a relationship with them. God got His people out of Egypt, but getting Egypt out if His people was proving difficult.

These “stiff-necked people” would not bow down to God’s authority and direction for their lives, but immediately bowed to a golden calf.  Why?  The golden calf had no requirements, no commandments, no law to follow.  Each person could whatever he desired with no fear of consequences.  The fact that they so quickly turned to corruption shows that they never have truly followed.  They seem to be a people who follow as long as they get what they want out of God.

God deliberately changed the possessive pronoun, thereby indicating that he was disowning Israel (in 3:10 “my people”). In Exodus 3:7 God says, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people,” and again, “”bring my people. The children of Israel, out of Egypt,” and in 3:10 before the pharaoh, “let my people go.” But here the pronoun has changed to, “your people,” as in Moses’ people.  Moses responds back in (verse 11), “Oh no, these are your people, that you brought out of Egypt.” If the situation were not so serious, it would be funny.  “Your people, oh no, your people.”

(v. 10) “I may consume them,” the word here is to completely destroy. Absolute destruction. God has shown the people nothing but love, provision, and His presence. It is completely justified and what they deserved was to be wiped off the face of the earth because of their being stiff-necked. This is true for all people, Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death,” and everyone who rebels against God is deserving of death. Romans 2:5 tells us, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

 (v. 10) “in order that I may make a great nation of you.”  God says that He will wipe out the Israelite people because of their sin, but keep His promise to the patriarchs by making Moses in a great nation. This was a great test for Moses, “whether he would be willing to give up his own people, laden as they were with guilt, as the price of his own exaltation. . . The preservation of Israel was dearer to him than the honor of becoming the head and founder of a new kingdom of God.”[2]

 Forget the plagues of Egypt, the manna from heaven, the water from the rock, the gathering at Mt. Sinai – we will just start over. From now own you will have some kids and over hundreds of hears they will become the Mosesites. “To save Israel, Moses had to turn down the opportunity to make a name for himself.”[3]

Would he pray and stand in the gap and identify himself with the people or would he pursue making his name great? Moses puts God’s glory first, God’s name first, and responds by repeating the promises God had made, and how this would potentially affect God’s name.

God’s mediators always put God’s glory first, over their own.

 Moses was called to be the mediator between God and Israel, not to build an empire in his name. He stays true to his calling – be mediates between God and the people. This is what God called him to do at the burning bush (Ex. 3). For Moses, what was more important; for his name to become great, or for the Hebrew people to remain God’s people?

Knowing Your Calling Keeps You From Giving Over To Temptation.

God does not call those who are fit and worthy in themselves, for the accomplishment of His purposes of salvation, but chooses rather the unworthy, and makes them fit for His purposes,[4] 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, . . .” One person said it like this, “God does not called the equipped, He equips the called.”

While Moses was on the Mt. with God, the teachings he was learning about was what a High Priest would wear, and what he would do. Aaron was going to be the High Priest, Moses was getting the instructions – The High Priest would stand before God and on behalf of the people present the people’s offerings.

Aaron failed the test of leadership, but God is a God of grace. Aaron wanted to be a leader, in front of God’s people – but he went about the wrong way; he made some really bad decisions. God was preparing for him to lead, but Aaron didn’t trust God, or His timing.

Moses Reveals His Heart (vv. 11-14)

11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.”

Moses is pleading with God on behalf of his people. Deuteronomy 9:25 says, “So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you.” Praying for 45 days to hold off God’s judgement. “And the LORD relented” The Lord relented from judgement because of Moses’ intercession for his people. Some will use this passage to argue that God changes His mind. So, can a man change the mind of God?

Verses like Psalm 139 tell us that God knows everything, including the future. But He makes decisions on what a person does in the present (not what something you will one day do). So, when He says that he is going to wipe out the people, He is responding to their present condition.

But even in this pronouncement, there are hints of grace. There is a plan in place for their salvation. It was never God’s purpose to destroy the Israelites, but only to save them.[5] How do we know this? 1) Why send Moses back down the mountain? – he could have just wiped them out without getting Moses (and Joshua) involved. They knew what they were doing was wrong, they had just received (and agreed to follow) the commands to have no other gods, and not to make a graven image.

God’s plan was to save them through an intercessor. Someone who would stand in between the wrath of God, His judgement, and the people who are deserving of destruction. Psalm 106:23 “Therefore he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.” Moses was not changing God’s mind; He was carrying out God’s plan.

2) There is a pronoun shift, Moses these are your people – God is helping the mediator to understand and to be reminded of his role as the go-between. But don’t miss that the people had been dismissive of Moses “As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, . . .” The one they showed disdain for is the only man who could save them. But the intercessor has to identify himself with those he is called to represent.

3) (v. 10) “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them,” – God has called Moses to be the intercessor for his people. So, he says to Moses “step aside,” and let me destroy them.” God can do whatever He wants, whenever and to whomever He chooses to do it – He doesn’t need Moses to step aside. But this really is a question – will you stop praying for your people. Will you give up on your community? This is to push his mediator to keep going – but the mediator must own it.

God’s mediators love their people.

 Moses says, “Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.” . . . (He owns his role as intercessor, “these are the people you have called me to, and I don’t want them to be destroyed.”) “And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.” (enacting His plan for salvation, because He wishes to give grace).

2 Corinthians 5:20 “All this (meaning salvation) is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” If you have received the message of God’s salvation, then you are also given the ministry of reconciliation, and you are Christ’s ambassador.

But in this role, God wants you to love the people you have been called to share Christ with. When God says, “let me alone,” It is a call to prayer, if my people will continue to pray, then God will hold back His destruction. The only reason you will pray for someone who has the wrath of God over their head is if you love them.

Conclusion

The prophet Jonah was given a message of reconciliation, but he hated the Ninevites – so he went in the opposite direction. He was swallowed by a large fish where he repented of his rebellion, and says, “Those who pay regard to vain idols

forsake their hope of steadfast love.” He was thrown up on the shore of where he needed to go. Then he went into the city, and spoke the absolute minimum required words given to him from God, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (A Hebrew 5 word sermon).

Then the entire city repents of their sin and turns to God, “And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.” The king demands that everyone put on sackcloth and ashes, and shows his faith in God by saying, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish. . . When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relentedof the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” God in his mercy and grace, opens a way for an entire city to be saved – Jonah and his message.

So what is Jonah’s response as God’s ambassador to what may be history’s greatest revival? Jonah 4:1-2 “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

You have been called to salvation and given the message of reconciliation – is your heart loving toward those whom you have been called to share that message with?

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[1] C.F. Keil and F. Delitzch, Commentary on the Old Testament In Ten Volumes, Volume I (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985) 223.

[2] C.F. Keil and F. Delitzch, 224.

[3] Ryken, 935.

[4] Keil & Delitzch, 224.

[5] Philp Graham Ryken, Exodus, Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2015) 934.