Some backstory on Exodus. I know you're familiar with it. But let me just let me bring you up to where we are in chapter 32. The book of Exodus is the account of the Exodus or the, the exit of the nation of Israel from captivity in Egypt, Moses is born. So if you go all the way back to the beginning of the Exodus, Moses is born, he is raised in the house of Pharaoh. Fast forward a little bit. Jesus kills a man and then he flees to Midian. He encounters God in a burning bush. God gives Moses what I would call his marching orders. So the, the bush that is on fire that's not consumed speaks to Moses, that is God speaking to Moses saying this is what I want you to do. And Moses in that moment. And then I'm sure in many moments after that does not feel equipped and he needs help. He says, I'm, I'm not a great speaker, but Aaron is, he wants Aaron to help and God tells him that that he will be with him and that should be enough. That seems to be a theme in Exodus, not only with Moses, but with God's people. I am with you and that should be all you need. But then God relents if we can say that and allows Aaron to be the mouthpiece of Moses. Israel is still in slavery in Egypt. And Moses is then trained in what he is to do. God gives him specific marching orders, do this and at this point, throw this down and this is, this is what's going to happen. So he he tells them what he needs him to do while his people are still in bondage. So Moses then approaches Pharaoh Pharaoh's heart is hardened. That's another thing that's fascinating to me is one of those things that jumped out of the of the page to meet God hardens Pharaoh's heart even through all the plagues. So Pharaoh's heart is hardened and plagues come Pharaoh finally relents and lets the Israelites go. The nation of Israel is now being led by Moses out of bondage and into the promised land. So everything must be perfect, right? So now the nation of Israel is, is out of slavery, out of bondage, leaving this this land that was a foreign land and going into the land that will flow with what milk and honey, right? The nation of Israel is being let out. Pharaoh chases you know the story, the red sea parts Israelites walk over on dry land, the sea closes up and there it goes, Pharaoh's army and then catch this in chapter 14 verse 31 when Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians. The people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and his servant Moses. When Israel saw the great power of the Lord against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord. They believed in the Lord and his servant Moses, their leader here on this earth. We read on and we see that water is miraculously provided for these people as they're wandering through the desert. We we see that man is provided for the Israelites. We see that meat is provided for the Israelites. So in other words, these men and women and Children don't need anything. God is providing their everything while wandering through the desert. Now watch this. So in chapter 14 verse 31 we read that the Egypt, the Israelites are, are enthralled with God, right? And they love his servant, their leader Moses. And then fast forward to chapter 16, just two chapters later in verse two, they grumble and complain. The whole congregation grumbled and complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Fast forward to chapter 17 verse three and they grumbled, they being the nation of Israel, they grumbled against Moses. Here's my point this morning. It doesn't take long for the Israelites to become a forgetful people. They move on and then the Israelites defeat the Amalekites and Moses. Then we get that famous passage uh gets help from Jethro and Aaron and her. And then we read about the 10 commandments and then there are laws in place. And then the ark of the covenant is made. God's presence will forever be with the nation of Israel. And then Moses and God are on Mount Sinai and we pick up with chapter 32. So now we read in chapter 32 verse one. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain. So all of this has happened. And so much more my old testament professor would give me a terrible grade for that for that synopsis of these 1st 32 chapters of exos, all of this has happened. And now God and Moses are on the top of Mount Sinai and the people saw that Moses had delayed to come down from the mountain. Just get this for a moment. Moses, their leader that they loved. We saw that in chapter 14. They also grumbled against him in chapter 16 and 17. But we know they loved him when their leader is up on the mountain, talking to God who is their God, that God that they loved in chapter 14, right? When they are up on the mountain, they then think that people think that they've been up there too long. What's going on up there? Where's Moses? What's Moses and God up to? So the first thing this morning I want us to recognize in verse one is the timetable, the timetable, Moses goes up to the mountain to meet with God when he goes up, Moses, nor the people know exactly how long he's going to be on the mountain. It's an undisclosed amount of time in that moment. But we know that he's up there for 40 days and for 40 nights, we see that in Exodus 2418. And so while Moses is away, the people grow impatient. They say to Aaron, they say to each other, we have no idea what happened to Him. We have no idea where's Boses, where's our leader? What's he doing? The people were reflecting not just a genuine confusion, but also one commentator says, a lack of faith at the same time, had they been willing to trust God fully? They would have been willing to wait as long as necessary for Moses to return. Had they been willing to trust God fully the same God who had brought them out of bondage and done all the things. Had they, if they chosen to, to trust Him fully, they could have proven that they would be willing to wait as long as necessary for Moses to return. As I thought about that this week, I thought how, how often, how often are we guilty of putting God on our timetable rather than trusting Him to work out his plan? Uh I am guilty of that God if you could just do this and oh, by the way, I need it done tomorrow. That would be fantastic. Oh God, if you could just move in this situation and oh, by the way, I needed that done three months ago, that would be fantastic. Anybody ever been in a season where God, I just really need this to be resolved and in that season been perfectly content and trusting God to move on his timetable in his time frame. Or are you like me And like I need this done now and then, and then we, we um wholly rationalize it and say, but if you would do that, then all of these things would happen. We put God on our time frame on our timetable without trusting His. It's really, really difficult to do. I'm not by nature, a very patient person. So I can identify, I think here um with the Israelites and here's why I need to feel God's presence. I need to feel God. I need to be close to God's people. I'm afraid that if I were here in Exodus chapter 32 that I would have been with the people who were panicked because my leader was gone and because he was gone, I would feel like he is too far removed and I would equate his, his lack of proximity with me to just silence, utter silence from God. So if God seems silent or if God seems distant, here's a question for us collectively here uh in our, in the sanctuary what do we do? Do we panic? Do we grow impatient? Do we replace him with something or someone else? The Israelites proved that they needed a real tangible God. So they took measures into their own hands. Read on in verse one, we see the replacement. So they approach Aaron and they asked him to make them a God. The people say, we don't know where Moses is. We feel like he's been gone way too long. Aaron, will you make us a God? Look at what he says. Now, when the people saw Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, come make us a God who will go before us. Is this a joke like Aaron make us something that will do what God had. What the God that we're that we love, uh who we love has already done make us something that will go before us. As for this Moses, can you hear the disdain in their voice? As for this Moses, right? As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of Him. They approach Aaron make us a God and Aaron doesn't. Aaron tells uh them that he tells the the men to go get the gold from their, their wives and their sons and their daughters to take all their jewelry so that they can make a golden calf and then we read in verse four. Aaron says this, then he says, this is your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. This is one of those passages when, when, when you read it, like, what, what are you hearing? No, it's no, it's not, that's, that's not the, that's not the same God that did all the things, right? That's a golden calf. That's not God. Certainly. We sit here and we read this. We think Aaron, you can't, you can't be serious, but Aaron is showing us here more than I think meets the, the eye commentators point out that the Israeli Israelites were only a few months removed from their cultural experiences in Egypt. They were not yet used to the restraints of Yahweh on their worship because of their time in Egypt and because of what they had become familiar with, culturally, idolatry had become fairly normal to them. And so if God feels distant, I'm going to create something that is close so that I can worship him and call him God idolatry. So where did the idea of the golden calf come from? The calf? Wasn't just some random idea that Israelites came up with a vigorous young bull would have been an appropriate way to represent, get this a powerful God. And so because our leader and our God are up on a mountain somewhere and we don't know when they're coming back, we need to replace them with an idol and let's make it a powerful idol. So let's create a young bull, a young calf. It's not an excuse for the Israelites. But I do think it, it raises a very, very interesting question. How long does one have to walk with God or see him work before one replaces God with an idol? Or how much do we have to see God do before we play? We would replace him with an idol. It, it didn't, it didn't take long for the Israelites to say we, we need, we need a tangible God. We need someone that we can see someone that we can touch someone that we can create so that we can worship and, and then we're going to give all the attributes of the God that has brought us out of slavery and, and, and, and bondage and, and put it on. It didn't take long, how long does it take for us to replace the God who has brought us out of, fill in the blank with an idol? Because we feel like he's just, how much do we have to see him do before we replace him with? And I know it would seem that time and maturity play a, a great part in our replacement. And so by their actions, here's what's happening here with the Israelites by their actions, they prove that they are still Egyptian Israelites rather than Yahweh's Israelites. So in this time of panic and loneliness and fear rather than sitting and waiting and trusting. They prove they are more like the culture that they were fleeing from which they were fleeing. Then they are about the God who brought them out of the culture. Does that make sense? So they prove we we and they say this right? We see this through, we would rather get us back. Let us go back over here, let me go back and make bricks because at least when we were making bricks, we were eating right. We had, we had shelter. I wanna go back and make bricks, forget about the land of, of milk and honey. Yeah, I, I think it's fascinating that we had, we woke up this morning, there was bread on the ground, right? I think it's crazy that we woke up this morning and there was water out of a rock. I think it's unbelievable that we woke up this morning and there were, there was meat for us to eat. But you know what? This is getting a little old and we're a little scared and so let me go back and make bricks. But before we do that, let me, let me like, can we let, let's let the calf take us back there. It's insane. But before we throw rocks at the Israelites, I, I think there's, there's very clear application here for us this morning where we have to understand that there is a call for us and we'll get to this in just a minute. But let's pause here just for a moment and say, are we more identified with the culture of which we are a part or are we marked and distinguished by the God that is calling us out of the culture, called out of the culture while calling to engage the culture. It's a, it's a, it's a fascinating thing they were called to do. But what, what would people say of us? What are our actions proving to the people who are watching Douglas Stewart says this, the people were, in other words, so wedded to their old culture that they could manage to justify in their minds its false religion. Even to the point of the type of animals used to represent a God, even though that religion had been proved false over and over again by Yahweh's mighty acts on their behalf right up to the present time. It's our old ways of thinking. Our old habits always have a way of sneaking in in times of stress. We tend to defer to our old training or to our old habits. What happens when we feel stressed? What happens when we feel lonely? What happens when we get tired or we get a bad prognosis or when a relationship ends or we don't get the job or we don't, whatever it might be or we think that God is not moving fast enough. We feel like we've not felt God in a while. We've not heard from God recently. What happens? Are we content enough in our relationship with God that we can thrive in the meantime, without creating a replacement uh idol and expecting it to do, what only God can do? Can we thrive? In the meantime, the Israelites could not thrive in the meantime, 40 days was going to be way too long. And so in the meantime, we're going to go create an idol. God expects us to thrive. In the meantime, they had become an impatient and forgetful people. Next, we see God's vision in verses seven through nine. Of course, God sees what's happening while Moses on the mountain and, and he looks down and he says this in verse seven, then uh the Lord spoke to Moses, go down at once for your people whom you have brought from the land of Egypt have behaved corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them, they have made for themselves a, a cast metal calf and they've worshiped it and they've sacrificed to it. And they said this is your God Israel who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and behold, they are an obstinate people. God gives Moses a play by play of what's happening down below. He's terribly disappointed to say the least by the sin of the Israelites. Listen to what Doug Stewart says about this. God then defined this sin clearly, leaving no doubt that the second commandment had been violated utterly. They made for themselves a metal plated idol rather than merely being camped near one near where one existed already. Or rather having uh a few people try to make a crude uh clay idol in the shape of a bull bowed down to it, worshiped it clearly indicating their belief that it was God, they sacrificed to it. Scripture says, further, proving their belief that it had power to bless and save them openly stated that it represented the gods. They now had chosen to believe and thus also potentially violating the first commandment against which while worshiping any other God. But Yahweh and attributed to the idol, their rescue from Egypt, thus associating Yahweh with the young bull as if now finally Yahweh could be properly worshiped and his presence properly represented among them. In contrast, the inferior ways that had previously been manifest. It's amazing. It's amazing what we do when we feel like God is far away. And yet we know he sees everything God is watching. God is reporting to Moses. What's happening to his people. The same people had been led out of bondage, headed for the promised land who had seen God move on their behalf. The the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the manner from heaven, the pillar of fire, the cloud of smoke. They created a baby cow to worship and God saw it all Moses hears God and he pleads with God not to be angry with the people. It's a fascinating count as this chapter comes to a close. It's a great leadership lesson here. Moses pleading with God on behalf of the people who had turned on him many, many, many times God. Remember who you are. Remember what you said? Remember these are your people and Moses goes down another fascinating here contrast. Moses is pleading with God. Please don't do this. He goes down and he sees what they're doing. He's all right. God, you are kinda right, right. He breaks the stone tablets. He's furious. And then we see God's punishment chapter 32 verses 25 through 35. We won't read it all. But it's a very clear reminder here that God takes sin very seriously. So I think there's two ways that we can look at how God punishes the people. Number one, we see 3000 men were killed. You tell me God takes sin seriously or doesn't take sin, 3000 men or killed serious consequences for serious actions. Stewart again, writes God revealed to him that a fight was underway over saving truth. If the idolatry were allowed to continue, many people in Israel would turn from saving truth to condemning falsehood from the promise of eternal life with God to destruction in hell. And since Israel was the repository of God's saving truth at this time, allowing the idolatry to continue might have affected the potential of uh for eternal life of countless future generations of Israelites and gentiles alike. So God took their actions seriously because of that 3000 men were killed. Some commentators say at the, at the end of this chapter that God, uh you read God smoked the Israelites. Some believe that there was another plague that came, that didn't kill the Israelites didn't kill any more than the 3000. But rather it brought great sickness to the Israelites. Some believe this was just the coming judgment on the nation of Israel. But either way we see that God takes sin seriously. So people were killed and then um God's presence was removed. We see in verse 34 that an angel was going to be with the people, not God himself, instead of a God who directly communed with Moses whose presence could have been seen on the mountain. They would have to live with a much more elusive representation of God's presence and angel. And therefore they realized that they had been demoted from people who dealt with Yahweh directly through Moses to people who could now have who would now have an angel added to the chain of command. So God takes their sin very seriously. 3000 men are killed, but then his presence is removed. He sends a representative. But then quickly, we see in chapter 33 verse 14, we see this throughout this, the, the, these, the, the account in Exodus, where, where God's, especially these, these few chapters, God's provision, God's protection. Israel's um um uh turning their back on God, God's provision, God's protection. Israel turned their back on God. God's provision, God's protection. So we see in verse 14, God's provision. So the angel is going to go before them. The journey to the promised land continues, the people are moved by the lack of God's presence. Moses intercedes again for the people and again, God's heart is moved towards His people by the prayers of Moses. And I think this is a perfect picture how God is moved by the prayers of his people. God didn't change his mind. Moses didn't change God's mind, but rather in his prayer, we see Moses reminding God of his character of his faithfulness of his promises of his goodness and God's heart is moved towards his people. And in verse 14, we read this and he said, my presence shall go with you and I will give you rest a few verses earlier verse uh chapter 3233 verse two. God told Moses that an angel would lead them and now God says that he will lead them. He will be there. It was a full restoration of the original idea of God's promise to bring the Israelites out of Egypt and into the promised land personally, as he stated again, his character, what he said as he stated in verse uh chapter three verse eight and 17 and, and 12 and shows that moses' prayerful appeal had been entirely successful, not because Moses could get anything he wanted from God, but because of God's character of goodness and mercy and compassion and his nature is the God who is compassionate, gracious and slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love, forgiving, wickedness, rebellion, and sin. This promise provided something that Israelites desperately wanted and needed. They needed some sort of assurance of God's presence. The Hebrew word here used for presents, literally means face to God's face would be with them. Verse 14, I will personally go. It literally means my face will go. The Hebrew has no word, expressing the abstract idea of presence. So when it wishes to speak of someone being immediately present in a situation, it says that their face is there. So God says, my face will be with you. And then finally, we see moses' response and chapter 33 verses 15 through 16, then he said to Him, God, if your presence does not go with us, don't lead us up from here. For how can it be known that I have found favor in your sight and your people? Is it not by your going with us? So that we, I and your people may be distinguished from all other people who are upon the face of the earth. In other words, Moses is saying, I don't want to nor can I think of doing this alone, God, we can't do this alone. God. We need you to go with us. We need you to go before us. We read in Deuteronomy 31 6. Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or terrified because of them. You know what I'm talking about here. We're going into the promised land for the Lord. Your God goes with you. His face is with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Moses says, God don't take us anywhere unless you're going to go with us. The only way forward is with you. And as we walk forward, we have to be marked by your presence. And so let me close this morning and say this, I fear that sometimes Christians may be guilty of remembering the things of God, the blessings of God and not simply being satisfied with the presence or the face of God. We pray and we long for the blessing of God and we forget to concentrate on the person of God. We enjoy seasons of blessing. Those times, we feel like God is closer than he's ever been before. And we, we trudge through difficult seasons asking God how long and wishing for the old days of captivity when things seem just a little bit more comfortable or perhaps just a little easier. So rather than being a, a forgetful people. May it be said of us this morning? That, that we resolve to be a people that echo the words of Moses and say God, if your presence does not go with us, do not lead us from here. God make us to be a people who are distinguished from all other people on this earth by how we are led by you.