Grace According to Moses – Exchanging Golden Calves with Grace Himself

What is Your Golden Calf? 

Exodus 16:1-3; 17:1-4

     The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. ² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³ The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."… The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ² So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink."…They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" ⁴ Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."  

Exodus 32:1-10, 15-20 (NIV)

     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.  

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, O 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."

Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. ¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.  

¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "There is the sound of war in the camp."  

¹⁸ Moses replied:  
       "It is not the sound of victory,  
       it is not the sound of defeat;  
       it is the sound of singing that I hear."  

¹⁹ When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.  

1. In the process of salvation, God allows us desert experiences – difficulties and challenges that reveal the golden calves hidden deep in our hearts  

The golden calves were already present in their hearts and only fully exposed and revealed under pressure in the desert of life 

Golden calves are areas in our lives that keep us as slaves and control us even though God has already unlocked our prison doors! 

The calf reveals what we are really in the center of our hearts 

      Deep fears as a result of our past experiences 

      That which we worship that is higher than God enslaves us 

      Unconscious habits that we inherited from our growing-up experiences 

Whatever we don’t confront with grace will control us, lead us to repeated failure, keep us as slaves and keep us frustratingly away from God’s blessings. 

2. Apply grace rather than law and religion to the golden calves that are revealed in our salvation process 

3. Adopt new habits of mind, will and emotions driven by God’s grace – until they become a natural part of us 

Matthew 5:17-20 (NIV)

     Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. 

If we receive the unconditional approval God offers us that leads to a change of heart, we will have the strength and desire to obey God’s best