Distorted Worship and the Golden Calf at Sinai

For us as the people of God, the danger is probably not as much the idea of, kind of cognitively turning away from God, but rather creating a distorted image of God in our own life. An image that's familiar, where we build ourselves our own familiar prisons and our worlds become quite small because of it. Because we build this image of our our God in our likeness, in our own lives and then we begin to serve it. So that the idea of true freedom, living out God's true purposes in our lives, the bigger plans that God has in store for us become unrecognizable to us because of the images that we have formed. [01:02:44] (53 seconds)  #DontMakeGodInYourImage

But the story of the old testament is often fraught with not just kind of turning away from God to other deities, but this idea of syncretism, where we will worship Yahweh, but we're also going to do it our way as well. We're gonna we're gonna bring in other deities that suit our purposes. What the Israelites were doing with the golden calf was they were saying, Yahweh, thank you for bringing us out of Egypt. Thank you for bringing us into covenant relationship with you, but we'll take it from here. They sought to bring God's presence in their midst, but they sought to do it on their own terms. [01:00:38] (51 seconds)  #WorshipOnOurTerms

That friends, you and I, we are here today because we have a great high priest who ascended into heaven and intercedes for us even now. When we read the story of the golden calf, it's easy for us to say, wow, those gold those Israelites disobedience again. But the reality of it is, is that when we read this text, we we should all recognize that we are all guilty. The charge against all of us when it's brought against any of us is that we are guilty before God. [01:11:37] (37 seconds)  #ChristIntercedesForAll

Before God gives a single law to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, he has already redeemed them from the hand of pharaoh. He's already brought them out of slavery. And so you might say that the Israelites, when they are at Mount Sinai, it's not the gift that God gives them, that's the problem. The problem is not the gift of the covenant that he makes with the people at Mount Sinai, the problem is with the people [00:40:29] (37 seconds)  #RedeemedBeforeTheLaw

What's the problem with that? The text makes clear that that that what they are seeking to do in building the golden calf is not actually to try to create some foreign deity, rather, they actually call the golden calf Yahweh. They set up a feast to Yahweh and they say, these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt. [00:53:12] (30 seconds)  #CalfCalledYahweh

but what the Israelites were seeking to do is bring God's presence near to them. They called the calf Yahweh. They set up a feast to Yahweh. And so what ends up happening in the worship of this golden calf at the base of the mountain is this sort of, it's not of the worship of foreign deities, it is a distortion of the worship of Yahweh. [00:54:11] (30 seconds)  #DistortedWorship

Rather, all you get in the inner sanctum of the sanctuary, in the holy of holies, is you come to this ark, this box and in it, you have the 10 commandments. The ark is regarded as God's footstool. It is the place where his feet touch down on the mountain of God. And so it in this beautiful, very symbolic way, it images the idea that this is the place where God's presence touches down on earth. [00:56:32] (32 seconds)  #DivinePresenceOnEarth

We like a God who is familiar. We like a God that can be controlled. We like a God who can be brought near to us on our own terms and in our own way. [01:03:36] (17 seconds)  #PreferFamiliarGod