EXODUS 32 WHAT GODS PEOPLE NEED2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Exodus 32 What Gods People Need

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. Well, as we look at Exodus chapter 32 this morning, I want to talk to you about what God's people need.

What is it that God's people need? And of course, there's many things that we could discuss in that regard. But looking at a few highlights from this passage, I think that we see here some key insights for us as God's people to understand what we need. And I would encourage you to consider these things from two perspectives.

As we talk about what God's people need, first of all, you can think about the things that I need because, well, I am one of God's people. And so as I look at these things in this chapter this morning, there are things here that I need to be reminded of, things that I need, things that I need to keep in mind and be aware of in regards to my life and my spiritual walk with God.

But the other perspective to consider is I also minister to God's people. And that's not just me, but that's you also, that you have opportunity as a believer in Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, you are charged with making disciples. And you are given a role within the body of Christ. You have people within your family, perhaps people within your workplace, people within the church, that you have engaged

influence over and authority upon their lives. And so there are people that you minister to that are God's people. And so these are some good reminders for you as you minister to them. These are some of the things that they need. But also as God's people ourselves, these are some of the things that I need. And so let's walk through these things, four different things that we need that we'll consider this morning. The first point to consider this morning is

found in verse 1, is that God's people need endurance. When you think about some of the things that we need as the people of God, you need to understand that God's people need endurance. Check out verse 1 again.

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us gods that shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Here we're picking up with the children of Israel in the midst of this wilderness experience where they are...

They've been delivered out of Egypt. They're camped out at Mount Sinai. They're hearing from the Lord, the law of the Lord, receiving the instructions for the tabernacle. And much of this is happening right now in chapter 32, while Moses is on the mountain with God and the people are camped down below. They've had some encounters with God and they've received the 10 commandments. They've committed to obey God and be his people.

But here in this occasion, as Moses is up on the mountain, he's up there for 40 days, and the people down below begin to get antsy. They begin to become impatient, and they decide there's some action that needs to be taken. Again, we learn from this the need that we have for endurance. You know, many times in our lives, we only prepare for the ideal situations, and

We only prepare for, hey, I don't need anything more than I have right now or things are going to continue on like this. And we prepare for kind of ideal situations or for things to kind of stay the same. But one thing that we should consider in our spiritual lives is that, well, there is guaranteed and promised to us as believers, difficulty, affliction, and tribulation.

That none of these things should ever be a surprise upon us. That we should never be, you know, shot and I can't believe I'm going through something challenging, right? God has told us from the beginning that it's those trials that increase our faith, that produce in us the character and nature of God. And so knowing that those are the truths, that that is the reality, I would suggest to you this morning, it's really important that we learn to prepare for that.

We need endurance. Notice that here the children of Israel, the main issue for them was the delay. Again, verse 1, when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain. The problem that they had was the delay. This was taking longer than they anticipated. This was taking longer than they thought. They had just said a few days earlier that

We want to serve the Lord. We want to hear from God. Moses, you go hear from God. Come down and tell us what he says and we will obey him and follow him. But now that hasn't happened as quickly as they thought. Moses hasn't come back down. And so in a sense, they've given up on Moses. They've ran out of patience. They are not understanding the timing of the Lord. They're shaky now in their faith because this delay happened.

has caused things to go not like they planned. I think this is important for us to consider because again, life is filled with unexpected trials. I mean, we know this is no surprise to any of us. God's ways are not our ways and God's timing is not our timing. We all know that. We've all experienced that. We all are very familiar with that. The delay here was not an issue, right? Moses was right where he was supposed to be.

He was on the mountain with God and it was taking the amount of time that it was taking that was all part of God's plan. This was not an issue with God or with Moses. This was an issue with the lack of endurance in their faith, in their patience, in their just ability to sit and wait for God to speak.

Life is filled with unexpected trials in regards to your faith, in regards to your spiritual walk. What if there's a worldwide pandemic hits and you can't come to church for months? I mean, that could never happen, right? Or could it? It could. And what's your spiritual life going to be like if something like that occurs?

You know, I think that this past year, of course, has been a big challenge in many ways. And there's lots of different things that we could talk about in regards to, you know, COVID and the impact upon us as a church. But I think that one of the things that's been really good about this season is the clarity that God has provided.

There are some people we know, there's lots of statistics, there's lots of examples of this, and there's probably people that we know personally, that as a result of this whole shake-up and all of these lockdowns and everything, that there are some people who were attending church, but are not even attempting to attend church at all any longer. By attend church, I'm referring to either online or in person, either way, that there are some people that are just...

They're not walking with God now as a result of this lockdown and the things that got shaken up. They are not even, you know, trying to pursue these things. They're, you know, maybe loosely connected. There are some people who are pretending to still be connected by, you know, being online when God wants them to be really connected with him in a different way. But the point is, I think it brings some clarity. Those who are no longer attending, those who are no longer, you know, faking it, know exactly where they are.

I think it speaks to us about what the Lord said in Revelation, that he'd rather us be hot or cold, right? It's easier, it's better for us if we're hot for the Lord or cold, that it's clear where we stand and that we don't be faking it. But what if something happens? What if, you know, another virus hits? What if something else happens? What if you have to move away from all of the people that you rely upon for spiritual insight and influence and things upon your life?

What if you end up in the hospital for the next nine months? What if, you know, we could think of a thousand scenarios, I'm sure. Now, the point isn't that we should, you know, always prepare for the worst, you know, and be, you know, living a doom and gloom story. But again, the reality is we've been promised...

difficulties and afflictions. And specifically, we know there's no question about it. Our faith is going to be challenged. Our spiritual life is going to be attacked. And the enemy is going to want to drive us away from the Lord. And so it makes a lot of sense, knowing all of those things, to prepare in advance, to build up some endurance so that we can last during those times of

For this group of people at this time, the nation of Israel, it's 40 days. Now, what's interesting about that is there's still a lot of things happening for them in connection to God over those 40 days, right? Manna was introduced back in Exodus chapter 16. And so while they're waiting for Moses...

and giving up on Moses and thinking, we don't know what happened to him. We got to come up with a new plan now. Every day, they have manna being provided for them. And they're going out every morning and collecting the manna and consuming that and being able to survive and have sustenance as God miraculously provides for them every day. At this time also, they can visibly see Exodus chapter 24 describes the glory of the Lord descending upon Mount Sinai.

And so there is this impressive cloud, this pillar of cloud that, you know, led the way. Now, descended on Mount Sinai, it's visible. It's right there in front of them. They can see the presence of God where Moses is. They, a few moments ago, a few days earlier, heard the voice of God, the rumblings of God, and committed to obey him. The children of Israel here were not without any connection to God at all.

God was working in their lives, but still things did not happen in the timeframe they thought. Things didn't happen the way they thought that they would. And so they began to come up with their own plan. They didn't have the endurance to wait out the 40 days for Moses to come back down and deliver the word of God to them. They needed endurance.

It's something to consider for us. There's going to be times like that in our lives where things don't play out the way that we thought, where the time frame doesn't happen the way that we thought, where we're going to be wondering, God, when is it? You know, when are you going to come through and bring us, you know, the deliverance or the words or the direction or the details or whatever it is that we're waiting upon the Lord for? When is this going to happen? And so we should prepare ourselves. We should build up some endurance.

A few weeks back when Kim and I went to go pick up our little puppy Maui, we had to go up to Salt Lake City.

And it was winter weather there. There was snow predicted. And as I was looking at that, I was, okay, I need to prepare myself. I know these things are going to happen. So let me refresh myself. What do you do in this kind of weather? And I looked up some tips for driving in winter weather. And there's a variety of them. You can look them up if you want to. But there was one that stood out to me.

The tip was this. When you're driving around in winter weather, make sure that you never have less than half of a tank. Make sure that you never have less than a half tank of gas. And I would have not thought about that. You know, around here, I can, you know, I ride my tank until it's empty and, you know, maybe and then some, right? Kind of push it to the edge. But in those kinds of conditions, the point was you never know what's going to happen.

And you might get stuck. And you might need to run your car for eight hours overnight to keep yourself warm, you know, until you can get rescued or, you know, something like that. Like, there's all these different situations and it's predictable, right? You know this weather's coming. So prepare yourself by never having less than half a tank of gas. I think that's maybe an interesting thing for us to consider. Prepare yourself...

The way that you develop endurance is not by like, you know, progressively staying away from the Lord longer and longer and longer so that you learn to stay away from God. No, no. The way that you prepare yourself is to keep your tank full. Never have less than a half a tank of spiritual life. Never have less than a half a tank, right? Keep yourself connected to God in a way that you are filled so that if there's 40 days left,

of spiritual fasting, if there's 40 days of silence, if there's 40 days of trial and affliction and disconnection, if there's 40 days of something that you didn't expect, well, you're prepared in advance. You're filled at the beginning of that. So you're able to then endure to a greater degree, develop endurance. You know, there's a lot of decisions that we make every day, decisions about our spiritual life.

Decisions about to what degree we are connected to God, to what degree we know God, how much time we spend with him, how much time we spend in prayer and in the word, how much we know the scriptures, how much time we love one another, how much we're engaged with one another. We make a thousand decisions every day about our time. And spiritually speaking, sometimes we only prepare for the ideal conditions.

We only prepare for the situations where, you know, I'm going to hear from God this, what I want to, and this is going to go exactly how I planned, and this time is going to work out in this time frame, the way that I'm thinking, and we're not prepared for the delays. We're not prepared for the unexpected. And even though there are things that are unexpected, we can expect that there is going to be unexpected things because we're promised trials. We're promised afflictions.

We're promised that God's ways are not our ways and his timings are not our timings. And so we need to develop endurance. I would suggest that developing endurance means that we drink deeply every chance we get.

that we take seriously our spiritual life. And while we have opportunity right now, when there is the opportunity that we dive deep into the things of the Lord, that we fill our lives and consume our lives with the things of the Lord so that in those other days that may come, that will come, that are certain we're better prepared because we've been filled with the things of the Lord.

Drinking shallowly doesn't develop endurance. It just maintains weakness and limits our growth and leaves us in a condition where we are unprepared for the things to come. This is similar to what the psalmist is talking about in Psalm chapter 1, talking about the person who is blessed. The blessed person is

is not the one who walks with the sinners and the ungodly and is compromising in all these different ways, the blessed person. It is the one who is focused on and consumed with the things of the Lord. It says he meditates in the law of the Lord day and night and they'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season whose leaf also shall not wither. For the children of Israel here, 40 days camped out at Mount Sinai and their leaf begins to wither. Now they're shaken up.

Their faith is completely shaken. They've lost all hope that Moses is ever coming back. For us, we can protect ourselves against that by drinking deeply, meditating in the scriptures, seeking out God. As Jesus told us to build our house upon the rock, right? Then when the storm comes, you won't be shaken. The storm will come, but you'll stand. Build your house upon the rock.

Later on, God would tell Joshua in Joshua chapter 1 verse 7 and 8. He tells Joshua, There's great value for us in investing in our spiritual life, in knowing God deeply, knowing God well.

It gives us the resources we need to endure in those unexpected times that are ahead. God's people need endurance. Again, many times we only prepare for the ideal, but there are situations ahead that are not ideal. And you're gonna need all that you can get of relationship with God. You need to learn to hear his voice now while you can. Trying to learn to hear God's voice in the midst of the storm is the hardest time to learn.

Take advantage of times of rest. Take advantage of opportunities that you have to draw near to God, to know him, to hear his voice. God's people need endurance. And as I think about that, I am one of God's people. This isn't a message for me to only give to other people, right? This is a message for me. I need to maintain my spiritual health, to keep my tank full, to build my house upon the rock because unexpected days are ahead.

And I need to be ready for them. But also, I minister to God's people. And so I do encourage you in regards to your endurance, in regards to your preparation for that. And I would encourage you to consider the people that God has entrusted to you. Who do you minister to? Who do you have influence in their life? You have a responsibility. Then you know what they need. They need endurance. And that happens many times before the trial ever hits.

to be filled with the things of God. The author of Hebrews was writing to Hebrew people who were on the verge. They were shaky like the children of Israel in the wilderness here. They were on the verge of walking away from God. In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 35 and 36, he says, "'Do not cast away your confidence, "'which has great reward, "'for you have need of endurance, "'so that after you have done the will of God, "'you may receive the promise.'"

That might be a message that you need to deliver to some people around you. Hey guys, do not cast away your confidence. Now is not the time to give up. You have need of endurance. Hold fast so that you can receive the promise at the end of this season. You minister to God's people. You are God's people and you minister to God's people. So recognize God's people need endurance. Well, moving on.

Verses 2 through 6 now, we see the second point to consider, and that is that God's people need restraint. God's people need restraint. There in verse 1 is the children of Israel are freaked out because Moses is gone. They can now come to Aaron. They approach Aaron and they say, hey, Aaron, we have an idea. Why don't you make us gods that shall go before us?

Verse 1 says, come, make us gods that shall go before us. And verse 2, Aaron said to them, no way, you're crazy, go back to your tents. Now that's not what the verse says. Instead, verse 2, Aaron said to them, break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. Here I'm reminded that as God's people, one of the things that is needed in our lives is restraint, a holding back. Listen,

All the things that we desire are not always good. All the things that we long for and crave and want are not always beneficial and helpful for us. God's people need restraint in their lives to hold back the things that are destructive, the desires that we have that are contrary to what God has revealed and to God's will in our life. And here we see a huge failure on Aaron's part.

Aaron failed to restrain the people. The people wanted this. And in one part, you could say that's not a great surprise because going back to the first point, right? They didn't have endurance. They were fickle and we'll see them continue to be fickle throughout their time in the wilderness, right? But we could expect Aaron, right?

who is now appointed to be overseeing these people while Moses is up on the mountain. We could expect Aaron to stand his ground and hold the people to the standards that God has set. But instead, we see Aaron kind of go with the flow. He goes with the popular request, what everybody wants. They want

some type of God to go before them, some type of physical, visible thing. And so he gives them instruction. Okay, let's gather together some gold. Bring all the earrings and the things that you have. And it tells us in verses three through five that he fashioned a golden calf. It's somewhat...

you know, discussed. We don't know for sure if it was a solid gold calf or it was a wood calf, you know, overlaid with gold. Whatever the case was, he put some work into it. Verse 4, it says he fashioned it with an engraving tool. And so he's carving out this calf. He's fashioning this calf. And then in verse 5, it says, when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.

They're barely on their wilderness experience. They're barely out of Egypt for a couple months. And they've turned to idolatry to worship this calf. It's what the people wanted. And let that remind us, what we want is not always good for us. What we desire is not always best. Now, they clothe the desires in spiritual terms, right?

We have a tendency to do that. We try our best to, you know, present our desires in a way that they sound better than they actually are, so that they sound spiritual. You might notice in verse 4, Aaron says, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. In one sense, you could say they weren't turning to a different God. They weren't trying to go and worship Baal, right? Or, you know, some other God.

They were trying to have a visual representation of the God that had been working in their lives. And you could think, well, that's maybe kind of admirable. That's kind of good. They wanted a further experience with God. But they endeavored to have this greater experience with God in a way that God had completely forbidden. Right?

And that is one of the things that so easily happens in our lives, that we can clothe things in spiritual terms and make it seem like, no, no, this is, you know, so that we can be better in our relationship with God, so that we can go forward, you know, in what God wants for us. But it's all just veils of deception because we find out the result of this in verse 6.

Notice it says they rose up early on the next day, offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Again, there's all this spiritual clothing around this stuff. They're offering burnt offerings.

They could easily say, they could make the argument. I could hear it now, right? Yes, we want to give ourselves over to the Lord. The reason why we're doing this is so we can know the Lord better. We can be more committed to the Lord. You know, we can have better experiences with God and they could explain and have all of these things that sound really good, except for God had forbidden this course. But then the truth really comes out there at the end of verse six. It says that they rose up to play. When it says that they rose up to play,

It is a very mild description to refer to sexual immorality. It's a way to tastefully talk about lewd acts and things that they were doing that really we don't need to be thinking about or talking about. They rose up to play. The real desire in their hearts was,

Although it was clothed in this, we want to know God, we want to hear from God, we want to draw near to God. It was clothed in those terms, but the real desires of their hearts was the lust of their flesh. And this spiritual journey that they're embarking on with this golden calf is a fulfillment of the lust of their flesh. And so Aaron, the leader at this time, he

He should have been completely opposed to this. But he goes along, he builds an altar, he builds the idol, he helps them offer sacrifices, he walks with them in this spiritual journey.

The commentator Kevin Zuber says, here was worship designed to meet the personal wishes of the worshipers. It was selfish. It took parts of the culture, the surrounding cultures, religious practices, and tried to make them fit with the worship of the Lord. And it was sensual, but it was blasphemous toward God and corrupting for the people. What the people needed at this time was not Aaron to be their buddy and to come alongside them and say, okay, I'll help you do this.

What the people needed at this point was not for Aaron to, you know, kind of buy into their spiritual veil of, you know, hey, we want to worship God. We want to know God more. What they needed most was restraint at this time. And Aaron failed to restrain the people. Jumping down to verse 25, Moses, when he comes down the mountain, it says, Moses saw that the people were unrestrained for Aaron had not restrained them. You could see clearly that was his responsibility.

He was to restrain them to hold back the wrong that they desired to do. Listen, as God's people, we need to understand our flesh is still our enemy and everything that we want and everything that we desire and the things that are, you know, welling up within us and directions that we want to go, we need to understand they're not all good for us. God's people,

I mean, you could wish, you could hope that, hey, we're God's people. I love the Lord. I walk with the Lord. I go to church. I read my Bible. I pray. So I'm not going to have to struggle with those kinds of things. But the reality is that's not the case. Even as believers in Jesus, even if you've been a believer in Jesus for 80 years, like Harvey DeVille in the car back there,

you're still going to have desires of the flesh. You're still going to have battles with the flesh. You're still going to have your sinful nature desire to take charge and to lead you in a direction opposite of God. And so we need restraint in our lives. We need restraint so that we don't just go along with the popular opinion.

So we don't just get, are moved by, you know, well, everybody else is doing this. This is what the whole crowd wants. Six million people, let's say, you know, in the wilderness. That's an exaggeration. But, you know, here they are. They all want this. It must be the right thing, right? And we're just moved with it. Was Aaron just moved with it because it's what the people wanted? Was Aaron wanting to engage in these things also? Did he just not want to fall out of favor? Did he just not have the courage to say no? We don't know exactly what was going on in Aaron's heart.

But we do know he failed to restrain the people. You know, more and more in our society, there's a lack of restraint. More and more, our society is showing the loosing of restraints. And things are being let go of that should not be loosed. Lines are being crossed that should not be crossed, that should be held. We need to be careful as believers that we do not lack restraint.

That we don't lack standards, that we don't lack the righteous word of God holding the line in our lives. Pastor David Guzik says, I could see that. We do. Culturally speaking, socially speaking, we do consider things

The absence of restraint as, oh, there's so much freedom and we can just do whatever we want. And there is, you know, huge agendas being pushed in that direction. But as God's people, we need to understand. We need restraint. Now Moses comes down the mountain. God tells him as he's up there, hey, there's some trouble going down below. You better get down there quick.

And Moses comes down the mountain and he immediately shows restraint. Check out verse 19 and 20.

It says,

You must not continue this. As he came near the camp, he was filled in righteous indignation and he throws down the tablets that God had carved the words of God into. As a clear declaration, guys, you have broken the commandments of God. Little quick side note joke here. Moses is the only one in all history to break all 10 commandments at the same time. He just threw them there. The tablets are broken.

Clearly telling the people, the word of God has been broken. You have broken the covenant that you made with God a few days before. He is clearly showing them restraint. Guys, you've crossed the line and this is wrong. And then he takes the calf and he burns it down to ashes. Grinds it down into powder.

puts it in the water, and then goes around, drink the water, drink the water, drink the water, drink the water. Like, this is abolished. This calf will never be worshiped again. Guys, you should never, ever participate in something like this. It's very clear Moses sets the standard. He provides restraint that the people needed because God's people need restraint. Our desires are not good. And listen, guys, there's going to be times in our lives where we need this kind of restraint.

And we can think about where that restraint should come from. In many ways, we need to think about and seek to develop some self-restraint. As mature believers, this should be one of the characteristics where we are able, as we are walking with the Lord and diligent in our pursuit of the Lord, to recognize where our desires are out of sync with God's desires and apply correction to ourselves. I remember Pastor Damian Kyle saying,

at a pastor's conference many years ago. He really encouraged the guys. He says, guys, you need to practice telling yourself no. And so he recommended, here's what you should do. Get up in the morning, look yourself in the mirror and say no. He said, but don't just leave it like that. You got to kind of like build yourself up a little bit and really tell yourself so that you understand no. He said, work yourself up so at the end you're just kind of shouting at yourself no. No.

No, we need to be told no. I need to tell myself, no, I can't do everything that I want to do. I cannot do everything that comes across my mind, that my heart desires, that my flesh craves. I can't. I need to be able to tell myself, no, I am God's people and I need restraint. But you know, as a people of God, as a child of God, that also means I need other people in my life that I listen to. I need to be teachable.

I need good leaders around me who can tell me no. And I would ask you to consider that. Who is it in your life that can tell you no? For the thing that you want the most and crave the most and desire the most, and you will listen and say, they told me no, that means no. We need to have that kind of submission to godly people around us because we need restraint in our lives.

We need to be told, no, that's not good for you. Everybody else might be doing that. The whole world might be pursuing that. That might be the social norm. That might be what you were raised to think. But no, that's not good for you. God's people need restraint. But again, the other perspective for me to consider, for you to consider, is that you minister to God's people. And so in that regard, you can picture it this way. You are Aaron to some people in your life. And what kind of Aaron are you? Are you following this pattern?

Well, that's what they want. That's what the kids demanded. That's what they're craving. That's what they're desiring. That's what my family wants. That's the direction that they want to go. This is what everybody else is doing. And so you just cave and go along with it. No, no, listen, God's people need restraint. And so you, as one who is called to minister, as one who has been entrusted with discipleship, you need to learn to say no, not just to yourself, but to say no, to make a clear stand.

Now, there's a lot of people that you don't have authority over and influence in their lives. And it's not necessarily your job to then, you know, go give yourself that authority and start, you know, telling everybody what to do, right? But there is a rightful place of authority that you have in people's lives that has been given to you by God. And you are accountable for that. Later on, Aaron is going to just like give all kinds of terrible excuses for why he did what he did. And we also are going to stand before God and excuses like that aren't going to work.

God's people need restraint and you need to develop the ability to restrain them, to say no. Remember the word of the Lord to Eli the priest? His sons were behaving horribly and God said, you've honored your sons more than me because you wouldn't correct this situation. 1 Samuel chapter 2, you can check it out.

Why have you honored your sons more than me? When you let the people dictate, when you let the people, you know, do what they want, you just kind of go along with it because that's what everybody wants. God says, you're honoring them more than you honor me. Let's honor the Lord and show restraint in our own lives, but also bring restraint to the lives that God has entrusted to us. Well, let's continue on. Verses 7 through 14 now. Another thing that God's people need is intercession.

God's people need intercession because we often don't have restraint. And so now we need to be interceded for. Let's read verses 7 through 14. It says, And the Lord said to Moses, Go, get down, for your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.

They have made themselves a molded calf and worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, This is your God, O Israel, that you brought out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn against them, and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation.

Verse 13.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever. So the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people. Here we see Moses intercede for the people.

As God tells Moses what's happening, he says, they've turned away from me quickly. They've quickly given up on me. They've quickly abandoned me. They're stiff-necked, God says in verse 9. Stiff-necked speaks of an animal who will not respond as the master is, you know, pulling on the reins and the animal is resisting and saying, no, I'm not going to go that way. I'm not going to go that way. God says, that's how this people is. They resist the things that God has said. And so God says, let's ditch them, Moses.

I'll make a whole new nation out of you. You'll be the new Abraham. Let's ditch these guys. Let's be done with them. But Moses intercedes.

His intercession, as you look at verses 11 through 13, it's interesting because, of course, Moses loved the people. He had compassion for the people. But his intercession wasn't, God, these guys, yeah, they make mistakes, but they don't deserve to be abandoned. They deserve for you to work in their lives. It wasn't based on the merits or anything really about the people. Moses' intercession was related to the honor of God.

He says, God, you just did this miracle bringing the people out and now they are killed in the wilderness. And what are the people of Egypt going to say about you, God? They're going to think that, you know, you are an evil God or they're going to think that you weren't able to sustain them in the wilderness, even though you could bring them out of Egypt. He reminds them the Lord of the promise that he gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Again, it's focused on the Lord, this intercession. God, you brought them out.

Your witness, your testimony is what the nations will be talking about. And you promised to Abraham to do this work. And so Moses brings this intercession. And in verse 14 is very interesting. It says, so the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people. And this causes a lot of people to wrestle. Did God change? Does he kind of go back and forth? Did he kind of just fly off the handle? All right, Moses, let's get rid of these guys. And I'm going to...

Oh, okay. Yeah, you're right, Moses. Okay. I didn't think about that. Maybe I should have thought about that. Okay. Okay. You talked me into it. I won't do that. Let's go your way. You know, is that the picture that we're seeing here? And that's what many people struggle with. Older translations often put it this way, that the Lord repented. And again, it causes people to wrestle a bit. Does that mean that there's, you know, repentance that's needed, that God was doing something wrong? No.

But what this really boils down to is the difficulty that we have in describing an infinite God with finite language. And this idea of God repenting is not repenting like you and I need to repent, but it is describing here a change. Now, I would encourage you to think about it this way. I've shared this probably a hundred times, maybe more. Whenever God announces judgment, it is always, in every case without exception, an opportunity to repent.

The classic example is Jonah, right? Go announce judgment to Nineveh. And although there wasn't an invitation in the announcement, the announcement itself was an invitation for Nineveh to repent. And God received their repentance and relented from, he didn't bring upon the judgment that he said he would bring. That is the way that God works all throughout the scriptures. You can see it.

Well, I think we can add on to that based out of Exodus chapter 32 here. Whenever God announces judgment, not only is it an opportunity to repent, it's an opportunity to intercede. Whenever God announces judgment, it's an opportunity to intercede. Prayer doesn't change the nature of God, the character of God, but prayer can change the direction of God towards people.

It's part of the way that he works. It's part of the way that he allows us to be part of his work by praying for people. And intercession is something that is needed for God's people because we do fail. We do fall short and we do deserve the judgment of God. And when God warns us about that, it's an opportunity for us to repent. But when we see that warning also happen in the lives of others around us, it's an opportunity for us to intercede.

You can think about the nation later on when Israel and Judah are split into two nations and God pronounces judgment upon them as they have rebelled against him. You can see the opportunities to repent that God is continuing to give them, but you can also see that it's an opportunity for people to intercede on behalf of the nation. God tells us this in Ezekiel chapter 22, verse 30. There the prophet Ezekiel, again, prophesying to the nation that is rebellious, calling them to repentance.

God says, I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it, but I found no one. God says, I announced judgment and I was looking for someone to stand up and to intercede on behalf of the people, but nobody was interceding. Giving for us the opportunity, the potential, there was the potential that the people could repent and well, things would have played out differently.

There is the potential that people could have interceded and things could have played out differently. But there was no intercessor. There was no repentance. And so the judgment was fulfilled. Later on in Deuteronomy chapter 9, Moses is recounting this whole scene in verses 19 and 20.

He said, the anger of the Lord was, I'm sorry, I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me at that time also. And the Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him. So I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. You see there, he's painting the picture. The Lord announced judgment, but I prayed, I interceded and the Lord listened to me.

There is the opportunity for us to intercede on people's behalf, to play a part in God's work in their life. And he gives the example of Aaron. God was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him. But Moses said, I prayed for him. I interceded for him. Again, the implication is if Moses had not interceded, they would have experienced the judgment that they deserved. But God allows us to participate in his work. He gives us opportunity to

One of those ways that we get to contribute to his work is in prayer. And we can't force God. What we need to be careful about is that prayer is not getting God to do our will, right? But it would have been right and fair for God to just bring judgment upon the nation. There was nothing inconsistent with God's will with that. But it's also in God's nature to show mercy, to bring forth grace. And so he gives Moses this opportunity to intercede, to play a part. God's people need intercession.

I am God's people. I need intercession. And I would encourage you, I would ask you, please pray for me. In a similar way, I am a minister of God's people. And so I pray for you. And we are to be like this with one another. Now, in order for me to receive intercession, something interesting to consider is there needs to be some element of transparency in my life.

James chapter 5 verse 16 talks about confessing your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. It doesn't say pray for yourself. It says, hey, have some discussions with people around you. Have some talks about what you're going through and allow people around you to pray for you that there might be a healing and restoration as a result of that situation. God's people need intercession. We need other people. We need to allow other people in intercession.

to our lives that they might pray for us. But then of course, we need to stand in the gap for others around us. Think about Job. In Job chapter one, verse five, it tells us how he would pray for his children, right? They would have these feasts all the time and Job would be like, oh man, there's drunkenness, there's things, I know there's probably not good things happening in the midst of that. And check out Job chapter one, verse five, it goes on and he says, he intercedes for them. He offers sacrifices on their behalf.

We can't live out anybody's spiritual life, right? But we can intercede for them. We can stand in the gap and pray for them, for God's work to be done in their life. Well, finally, the fourth thing that God's people need from this passage today is God's people need another chance. Verses 30 through 35. We'll just read through it and touch on it briefly and finish up. Verse 30 says, now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, you have committed a great sin.

So now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, oh, these people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a God of gold. Yet now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray, blot me out of your book, which you have written. And the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. Now, therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you.

Here you get to see continued the intercession of Moses on behalf of the people.

You get to see the Lord announce, hey, this is really wicked and wrong, and there will be punishment and judgment for their sin. The individual will be responsible for the sin that they have committed. But at the same time, you see that God gives this great hope to the people of Israel. Another chance. He tells Moses in 34, go, lead the people. God's people here deserve to be judged.

But here God gives them another chance to listen to Moses. He gives them another chance to be led by Moses through the wilderness. Moses, go lead the people. He gives them another chance to inherit the promised land. He says, Moses, go lead them to the place which I have spoken to you. That promised land, it's still available for them. Lead them in that direction. Take them that way. They get another opportunity here to experience that promise of God.

They get another chance to have God with them. The presence of God. Verse 34, behold, my angel shall go before you. Again, the angel of the Lord, very likely, you know, that revelation of Jesus in the Old Testament. I'm with you. I go before you. I'm preparing the way. Even though they have abandoned the Lord quickly and done much to deserve the judgment of God, God gives them another chance. He forgives them.

He's still going to deal with the sin. Forgiveness and consequences of sin, they don't always cancel each other out. Many times, forgiveness is about the relationship. God gives them back the opportunity to connect with him, to know him, to hear from him, to walk with him. They're still going to experience some consequences from the decisions and the actions that they took. But they have another chance here. God hasn't given up on them. God's people need another chance. I'm God's people. I need another chance.

I need another opportunity and not limited to one, right? Proverbs chapter 24 talks about a righteous man falling seven times and rising again. We fall repeatedly. We need multiple chances. Aaron gets another chance to minister to the people, to be a leader, to serve the people. There's so many chances being given here. It's amazing. God is a God who loves to give multiple chances and I need that. But also I minister to God's people and so I need...

to help people understand. You need, there's people that God has entrusted to you and placed in your life. You need to know that God gives people another chance. And so don't write them off and don't give up on them. Give them another chance. They've hurt you perhaps. They've sinned against you and their sin against God. But God's gonna give them another chance. He calls you to do the same. He calls us to forgive those who repent, those who turn back and ask for forgiveness.

And so here we get to see some of the things that God's people need. Endurance, restraint, intercession, and another chance. And I need all of these things. You need all of these things. We are God's people and so we need these things. And I would encourage you to consider them. How you can develop and prepare for those days ahead by investing in your spiritual life and understanding what you need. But then also as you seek to minister to the people around you, understand what they need.

They need endurance. They need restraint. They need intercession. And they need another chance. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for your word, which speaks right to where we are at. And Lord, I know as we have been spending this time with you, that you have been speaking to our hearts about the things that we need. And Lord, maybe we are out of line in regards to some of those needs that are there. Help us, God, to allow your word to correct us.

to say no to us, to bring us back to the place of obedience to you, submission to your will, and desire to bring honor and glory to your name. And I pray, God, that you would empower us, fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we might be effective at ministering to the people that you've entrusted to us. Lord, that they might have what they need as we minister to them, that we might show them, Lord, your character, your nature.

and bring to them what is most needed, not necessarily what they want, not what they're wishing for, not what they're craving or desiring necessarily, but Lord, what is most necessary and beneficial. Give us strength, God, to be able to look in the mirror and say no, and then to look around at those that you've entrusted to us and say, no, that's not God's will. Help us, Lord. Strengthen us. We need you.

And all these things, Lord, that's what we need the most. We need you and more of you. So fill us and draw us near, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.