“Set Apart – by God!” Exodus 32:15-29
Pastor Thomas Kock 6th Sunday after Pentecost July 24, 2011
At the time of our text, it’s one of the most amazing times in the history of the world. God has just gotten through with bringing the 10 plagues to bear against Egypt, culminating in the Passover. God has then led the Israelites through the Red Sea, began to feed them with manna from heaven, brought them water from a rock. It was one incredible event after another! Can you imagine what it must have been like to be alive at that time, to see all those events take place? To see God lead you by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night? Amazing!
Well, God led the Israelites up into the Sinai Peninsula, and led them eventually to Mt. Sinai itself. There God wanted to formally “ratify” a two-sided covenant between Himself and the Israelites. God said to them, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, {6} you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exo 19:5-6a NIV) What an amazing promise! That God would choose you, would set you aside from all the other nations on earth, and make you HIS nation! HIS people! How cool!
So, God appeared at Mt. Sinai in an incredible fashion. There were clouds and thick darkness! A trumpet blast sounded, growing louder and louder! Thunder crashed and lightning flashed! Then God Himself spoke to all the people, speaking the 10 commandments in their hearing. It was an amazing day! Incredible!
Well, at its conclusion, Moses goes up onto the mountain (and the top of it looked like it was a consuming fire!) and God spoke to him about the “covenant,” expanding on and applying the 10 Commandments to the lives of His people.
Well, Moses came back down the mountain, and he read to the people all the words of the covenant, asking the covenant if they wanted to be part of that covenant, if they would live in a way which was consistent with what God said. Their response was enthusiastic: (Exo 24:3 NIV) "Everything the LORD has said we will do."
And so Moses built an altar and set up 12 pillars, representing the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. “Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. {6} Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. {7} Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." {8} Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." {9} Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up {10} and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. {11} But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.” (Exo 24:5-11 NIV) This was flat-out amazing! Can you imagine how honored you and I would have felt to have been part of all this? And remember, after the 10 plagues, all this happens in the space of a few months! It was one of the most amazing times in the history of the world! Indeed, this covenant-ratifying ceremony is described by one commentator at the most important event in the history of the nation of Israel. What an incredible honor to have been part of it!
The reality is, you have a very similar status. You, too, have been set apart as one of God’s special people. Yes, it’s true that Jesus came for all, and died to pay for the sins of the world. But it’s just as true that when God calls you and me to trust that Jesus is our Savior, that He is setting us aside, causing us to stand before Him as special. The most clear proof it is your baptism. On your baptism day, God took you and placed His name upon you. God claimed you as HIS child, washed YOUR sins away, made YOU to be HIS child. He baptized YOU “into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” thereby washing your sins away, clothing you with Jesus’ own righteousness, making you to be an heir of life eternal. Similar to those Israelites, you and I have been set apart, by God Himself! We’ve been set apart as special! That’s amazing, that’s gracious, that’s true for you, that’s true for me, as it was true for the Israelites.
So, immediately after the covenant-ratifying ceremony, Moses goes back up onto the mountain, so that God could give him all the details of the Israelite worship life, etc. Indeed, God Himself even carved out two stone tablets and used His own “hands” to carve into them the 10 Commands! It took awhile. Moses was up there 40 days. And all that while the top of the mountain looked like a consuming fire! GOD was right there!
And so what did the people do? These people who have been oh-so-honored by God to be set apart as His people. These people who have the glory of God Himself in their eyesight. What did these people do?
“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, O 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.” (Exo 32:1-6 NIV) Wow! How could this be? These people had seen so much! They were so honored, set apart by God Himself to be His special people! And now? Why, they’re making an idol! And thinking that they can worship the true God in this sinful fashion! (Note – they probably were thinking that they were worshiping the true God, but God had made it clear that they were not to make any images, because the heathen religions often used images. Additionally, this type of “worship” generally included sexual promiscuity, and in commenting on this segment in 1Corinthians, God describes this event in that way.)
Oh how easy it is to fall away from the Word of God. How quickly we can wander from God, His will, His Word. How do you think it happened with these Israelites? Do you think that a bunch of people came up with this idea all at once? Maybe. Or maybe did a few of the people start grumbling and start to talk, and eventually it picked up steam? Maybe. And perhaps a whole lot of people weren’t really in favor of this, but when they saw so many others taking part, they were pulled along by the crowd.
Aren’t those the ways that sinful behavior happens with us, too? Sometimes it just leaps up and grabs us. Other times it’s a nagging little whisper: “Try it, just once. Oh come on, try it, just once!” Other times we simply see lots of others doing something sinful or talking in a sinful manner and we get pulled along by the crowd.
Regardless as to how it happens, isn’t it a horrendous thing THAT it happens? After all, you and I have been set apart! We are NOT the same as the rest of the world. We have been convinced that Jesus is OUR Savior, we’ve been baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Think about how on great days of the church year – like Easter or Christmas Eve or Good Friday – we often feel like spiritual champions!
And yet just a few days later, out of our mouths are coming curses and hurtful words, or sexual immorality has enticed us, or we’re bitter and angry, or God has simply slipped out of our conscious thinking. And maybe it isn’t even a few days later; maybe it’s a few hours. Or even a few minutes. How easy it is to slip away! And with eternity at stake, how incredibly important that we continue to arm ourselves for the spiritual battle by opening up the Word of God, by listening to what God has to say! The battle is for our eternity, for our souls! The battle was raging for the souls of those Israelites there at the foot of Mt. Sinai!
And apparently even the appearance of Moses himself didn’t stop some of the people. And so Moses challenges them, “Who is for the LORD?!? To me!” The tribe of Levi steps up. Moses sends them out to do something remarkably hard: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'" (Exo 32:27 NIV) Wow! Can you imagine how hard that would have been? What a horrible task!
But it was necessary! Why so? Because apparently these people had become so hardened in unbelief that they could laugh at God Himself (remember, the top of the mountain still looks like a consuming fire!) and ignore God’s messenger. If so, they could be powerful agents of THE enemy, of the devil, in leading other people astray. And so rather than allow others to be enticed into unbelief, God gives the order for the Levites to put them to death. “The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.” (Exo 32:28 NIV) To be set apart by God is not a small thing. It is not something to be taken lightly. If we take it lightly, we put our very soul in peril!
And yet the grace of God shines through! Yes, three thousand died; but the nation numbered in the millions by that time. This is a fairly small number. And the impression we get is that Aaron was repentant, that most of the people were repentant. They drank that water (Moses ground up the gold from the calf and sprinkled it into the water and made the people drink it), seeing that their sin had consequences. They begged God not to leave them, but to continue to lead them to their promised land.
And so God did. He didn’t abandon them. He didn’t leave them to what they deserved. Indeed, in amazing grace, He even appoints Aaron to be the high priest for the nation. Aaron? The one who had been so horrible in allowing – and even leading – the people into this sinful action?
Yep, that Aaron.
And perhaps that helped Aaron all the more. Why so? Because it would have served as a reminded that He’d been set apart by God not because he was so good or so deserving, but simply because God was amazingly gracious. And having experienced a horrible failure, perhaps he could appreciate the grace of God all the more!
And so with you and me. Yes, we’ve often fallen, sometimes horribly so. Yes, we’ve often blown it terribly.
And yet it remains true that God has set you apart as HIS child. It remains true that you are loved by God, forgiven because of the death of Jesus, on your way to heaven. All because God is gracious.
And so while the time of our text was one of the amazing times in the history of the world, God’s amazing grace continues to go on and on. The amazing stories of God’s love continue, as day-by-day God continues to call people to Himself, continues to set people apart as special. The fact that God did that for you and for me is a remarkable aspect of His grace, just as remarkable as the events at the time of Moses and Aaron. And having been set apart by our God, we now look to serve Him, thanking Him for His wonderful grace to us sinners. Amen.