Grace and peace to you through the true God of heaven and earth, who rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and rescued us from slavery to sin. Amen.

Lord God, the only true God, we pray for those struggling with sin, that they may repent and be released from its bondage; we pray for all who have strayed from Christ's Church, that they may return to the faith; we pray for those who have lost their faith, that they may receive the light of the Gospel; and we pray for all who share Christ’s love with the lost and erring, that there may be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Lord you are gracious and righteous. You are full of compassion. Amen.

They had to be fed, and feeding 2 to 3 million people requires a lot of food. It is reported that Moses would have to have had 1500 tons of food each day. They would have to have water. If they only had enough to drink and wash a few dishes, it would take 11,000,000 gallons. They had to get across the Red Sea at night. Now, if they went on a narrow path, double file, it would require approximately 35 days and nights to get through. So there had to be a space in the Red Sea, probably 3 miles wide so that they could walk over in one night. Each time they camped at the end of the day, a campground two-thirds the size of the state of Rhode Island was required. … And still they rejected God.

God had taken care of them. He fed them with manna from heaven, quail that fell to the ground, water that came from rock. He struck down the firstborn of the Egyptians so they could flee Egypt, he drowned the Egyptian army so they would be safe, and he defeated the Amalekites with Aaron and Hur holding up Moses’ hands. … And still they abandoned God.

God had carefully guided and nourished them with daily miracles, … and still they molded a metal monument and proclaimed, "This cow is our god. This is the god who brought us up out of Egypt." No wonder God was mad! He was ready to destroy the Israelites. And they deserved it. You see, God isn’t kidding. God isn’t kidding when he condemns.

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain – he had been on Mount Sinai for 40 days with God – 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." So Aaron took their gold earrings they had received from the Egyptians as spoils of victory and made a golden calf, reminiscent of the Egyptian bull god, Apis – a god of power and sex. No doubt the Israelites had witnessed the Egyptians wild celebrations of their so-called "worship" of this god. And that’s what they wanted. So the next day the people sacrificed burnt offerings to it and then engaged in their depravity.

What incredible blindness and stupidity! On the mount, all heaven was in motion making wonderful plans for their future. A law was being given to set them apart from all others on earth. A tabernacle – a tent of worship – was being unveiled to Moses whereby God himself could come down and dwell in their midst. God was about to give them a glorious inheritance and bring them into a place of peace, rest and fullness. Their enemies were going to be routed and destroyed. Giants would be slain. Walls would crumble. The Almighty God was focused on their present needs and their future blessings.

Yet, look at those silly, stiff-necked chosen people running about helter-skelter. They deliberately ignored all the miraculous things God had done for them in the past. It no longer mattered to them that God had manifested His glory before all Egypt by supernatural plagues. They soon forgot the Red Sea miracles. They forgot the sweetened waters of Marah and the heavenly bread they gathered each morning. Not even the thundering voice of God at Sinai mattered. They were now under the spell of unbelief! They cried out for a god they see and touch. And so they turned elsewhere.

We find it nearly impossible to believe that a people, who had so recently heard God's thundering voice and who ate supernatural food from heaven, could sacrifice to an inanimate golden calf. Were they that stupid to cry out, "This is the god that brought us out, of Egypt"?

It seems impossible that these blessed children of God could so quickly turn on their heavenly Father. And yet, … and yet, we do the same thing, don’t we? Just like the children of Israel, we forget all the past blessings and mercies God has poured upon us. We forget the many times he delivered us from the snare of the enemy. We forget the many timeshHe spoke to us in his Word, listened to our cries of prayer and promised to guide us even through death.

There was a study done where there was a monkey with his fist trapped inside a container. The monkey had reached in the container and grabbed a handful of peanuts. With his fistful of peanuts, he trapped himself because he could not pull his hand out. All he had to do was let the peanuts go and he was free. But wouldn’t.

The monkey wants freedom and peanuts, but he cannot have both. He must leave the peanuts if he wants to get away. As a matter of fact, he will lose both peanuts and freedom if he hangs on too long.

We are caught in a similar bind. We long to be free of earthly entanglements to serve God. Yet we cling to something more elusive than peanuts. We want our own golden calf. That golden calf is materialism and self. The Israelites left the true God, a God of power and blessing, in order to worship a false and useless god. We have our secret – or perhaps not so secret – idolatries of self, people, possessions, position, pleasure, prestige, whatever takes priority once, often, or always over God, his Word, and his worship. We too are surrounded by daily reminders of the Lord’s goodness to us – most of all by his daily forgiveness – and still we are attracted and distracted by idols of our own. Ultimately any sin puts some kind of false god before our true God. Our jealous God is just as angered by the golden calves we set up.

How can your body be the temple of the Holy Spirit, when you use your temple to have inappropriate sex? How can you say you are controlled by the Spirit when in reality you are unwilling to curb your temper and anger? How can you say you are a God-fearing Christian when you ignore your spouse and verbally abuse your children?

We want our faith to grow. We want this church to grow. Yet we don’t make God important enough to study, to learn about, to set aside an hour or two for Bible study or worship. Is God really your God? Or is he your God when he is convenient for you?

Don’t you see it? We are hanging onto sin and, like that monkey, we are trapped.

God threatened to destroy those Israelites. "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them." God wasn’t kidding. He was going to condemn his own people. The righteous God was going to allow his anger to burn by destroying a people who refused to be faithful.

Don’t think for a moment we are any better than the Israelites. We aren’t. God isn’t kidding. We deserve condemnation as well.

God wasn’t kidding about his condemnation. And thankfully, he also doesn’t kid when he forgives. God told Moses to leave him so that his anger could burn against the Israelites. Surprisingly, there is grace even in these words. God is talking with Israel’s mediator, the one who spoke for God to Israel and for Israel to God. God didn’t need Moses to get out of the way in order to carry out his will, nor did he need to consult Moses. But he tells Moses to leave in order to test him. God is graciously permitting the mediator to mediate. He is inviting the intercessor to intercede.

Moses told God, "Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'?" He was saying that Israel didn’t deserve to be spared, but certainly God’s good name deserved to be preserved. Moses added, "Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’" God had made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their nation would be great and the Savior would come from their line. God’s Word cannot be broken, not even by himself in just anger over sin.

"Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened." God does not waver. He is not indecisive. He laid down the law with the Israelites and told them the penalties for breaking that law. But by his gospel grace he chose not to impose those penalties. He remained faithful to his promises even though Israel had been unfaithful. He forgave them their sin.

Psalm 106:23 sums up this incident: "So [God] said he would destroy them – had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them." Moses’ ministry was a foreshadowing of the greater Prophet and Intercessor that God would raise up from these people. The mediation of Moses is a vivid picture of "Jesus the mediator of a new covenant" (Hebrews 12:24), the "one mediator between God and men" (1 Timothy 2:5).

Moses pleaded Israel’s case on the basis of God’s promises. In the same way Jesus as our Great High Priest now pleads our case before God on the basis of the promises he himself fulfilled. Jesus stands in the breach. He bridges the chasm that sin gouged between God and people. Our Mediator says: "Father, do not count their sins against them. Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Their sins are covered by my blood. You, Father, have promised them forgiveness for my sake. Graciously keep your promise and forgive your people." Through Jesus, our Great Mediator, we too are forgiven.

Jesus, our Mediator, is a far better one than even Moses. Jesus was himself the payment for our sins, and he guarantees our forgiveness and salvation. The beautiful part is that Jesus is faithful, even though we have often been unfaithful.

Mr. Kawasaki and his four passengers were driving happily along the road. Suddenly he noticed a car going very slow, but swerving in and out of the lane in front of him. On pulling up alongside the car, he saw that the driver was blue in the face and slouched over in his seat. Mr. Kawasaki blew the car’s horn! He and his passengers hit with their hands on the windows of the straying car! All to no avail. The man was drifting in and out of consciousness.

A traffic light at a busy road was fast approaching. There was no more time to delay drastic action. Mr. Kawasaki raced past the car, and as the traffic light turned red, he swerved into the lane in front of the erring car and slammed on his brakes. The car, uncontrolled by its driver, slammed into Mr. Kawasaki’s brand new car. An ambulance came quickly to the scene and the life of the ailing driver was saved. All four of Mr. Kawasaki’s passengers had to be treated for whiplash, but they were all glad that they had part in saving a human life. The Japan Police Force awarded Mr. Kawasaki an official commendation for his actions. They concluded that his actions most likely prevented a much more serious accident.

The unconscious driver, driving along without any consciousness of danger, reminded me of us. We are hopeless and helpless in our sin. We are silly and stiff-necked people. But thankfully, just like Mr. Kawasaki did for the other driver, Jesus came alongside us and saved us from certain destruction. He stepped in front of certain destruction and became our Mediator and Savior. The Bible says: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Friends, I hope you learned from this Bible story that God isn’t kidding. He takes his laws very severely. And when we break them, when we worship false gods, when we don’t make the true God a priority, then we deserve God’s condemnation. Thankfully, because of his awesome grace, God forgives us in Jesus. Jesus is our Moses. He is our Mediator. He is the one who saves us from certain condemnation. Thank God that he doesn’t kid about his forgiveness. Amen.