We continue our series today called “Life Lessons”. We will be looking at snapshots of biblical character’s lives (not complete biographies). We will pick up some useful stuff.
Exodus 32
Do we want to see a revival in our church and land?
Exodus 32 is not just history—it’s a mirror on our current behaviour.
Moses is on the mountain. The Glory is falling. God is speaking. But in the valley the people are dancing around something God never told them to build.
The Bible says they made a golden calf— in Hebrew: “egel”. They had grown tired of waiting for Moses, waiting for God, so they cast a man-made substitute.
The enemy doesn’t always get you to reject God—he just gets you to replace Him.
- Replace prayer with activity
- Replace presence with performance
- Replace holiness with compromise
Here are some life lessons from Exodus 32.
1: Stay Close Even When You Don’t Understand
Exodus 32:17: “When Joshua heard the noise…”
That word “noise” is “qol”= voice, sound.
Joshua heard something but got it wrong. He thought it was war but it was worship gone wrong.
You see, your persecutive will be conditioned by your disposition, Joshua is a warrior. When he hears a noise his default setting is to draw his sword and fight.
And here’s the word of the Lord: You can hear a sound and still not have discernment.
But Joshua didn’t leave! There’s a key. He was in presence of God so open to corrections. His opinion was less important than the presence of God. He was correctable.
He stayed near the mountain. He stayed near the presence (see Exodus 33:11 - he does not leave the tent of meeting).
Some people say: “I don’t understand what God is doing, so I’m stepping back.”
But Joshua said: “I don't not understand, but I’m not moving!”
Proverbs 3:5-6 says: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Faith is not built on explanation, it’s built on trust.
Some of you are in a season where nothing makes sense. Prayers feel delayed. Answers feel distant. But God says: “Don’t move!” “Don’t disconnect! “Don’t drift!”
Stay close until the confusion breaks! Stay close until the voice becomes clear!
Illustration: When I was a kid I tinkered with radios. Now, these are not your lovely DAB models of today. These were old even back then and used glass valves. I bought four or five of these things from a jumble sale with my pocket money and started swapping out the valves and components until I got one that worked. A lot of the time I just got static - white noise - but then I was able to tune it and hear a voice! It could have blown up!
If you walk away from God, you miss the signal. But if you stay tuned, clarity will come!
Who is staying in the presence today?
2: Carry a Holy Anger for God for What Dishonours God
Exodus 32:19: 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.
This is not flesh, this is fire for God’s holiness. Many things make me angry but few things make me burn with a holy indignation!
Moses saw compromise and something inside him ignited!
All Nations, where is that fire today? We’re a generation that tolerates everything but stands for nothing!
But when Jesus Christ walked into the temple, He flipped tables of injustice and exploitation! (Mark 11:15).
We don’t need passive Christianity, we need powerful conviction!
Moses didn’t negotiate with sin, he broke it! He didn’t pacify them, he purified them!
Some things in your life don’t need managing, they need destroying! Hebrews 12:1; Matthew 3:10 - the ax needs to be laid to the root.
- Destroy the idol!
- Destroy the compromise!
- Destroy what’s replacing God!
Hebrews 12:1: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Illustration: my son is a fireman. When they get a call out they don’t go quietly. Lights are on. Sirens blazing.
Moses saw a spiritually destructive fire and responded with urgency!
3: Become an Intercessor That Pays the Price
Now watch this shift. After Moses confronts sin, he goes back to God!
30-32: 30 The next day Moses said to the people, ‘You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.’ 31 So Moses went back to the Lord and said, ‘Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, please forgive their sin – but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.’
Moses engaged in deep, desperate pleading throughout the chapter! (See v11, 30-32)
It was Moses’ disposition to intercede for them.
32: But now, please forgive their sin – but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.’
Moses says: “Blot me out!” Hebrew: “mecheni”—erase me!
Moses says: “God—if they can’t be saved… take me instead!”
That is intercession! That’s not casual prayer, that’s burdened prayer!
We need a church that doesn’t just shout hallelujah but travails in prayer!
God said: "I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one." (Ezekiel 22:30)
Will you be that one? This is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who didn’t just offer Himself, He gave Himself! What are you giving yourself to? Work? Money” Approval? Likes and follows?
Give yourself to the burden on God’s heart and you’ll become a person of prayer and action.
Church, stop talking about people. I’ve noticed a growing sense of gossiping in our church. Unbelievable.
- A gossiper is a perverse person!
Proverbs 16:28: A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.
- A gossiper is an insatiable person!
Proverbs 18:8: The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts. (See also Proverbs 26:22).
- A gossiper is an untrustworthy person!
Proverbs 20:19: A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid anyone who talks too much.
- A gossiper is not displaying a spiritual gift!
2 Corinthians 12:20: For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.
Now, some of us will say, "Well if the pastor just clarified things about so and so we would know and that would end it."
No it would not. You need to know three things about me:
- I can keep a confidence.
- I do not engage in gossip
- You could be glad about the first two, because if I can betray a confidence and gossip, I can do it to you!
This means I sometimes bear criticism. But what is happening is when you direct your criticism towards me, I am actually protecting someone else. That’s being a shepherd. (John 10:11).
Stop talking about people and start praying for them! Start interceding! Start bearing the burden of prayer!
Somebody shout: “Lord, make me an intercessor!”
Hear me prophetically:
In a generation building idols, God is raising intercessors!
In a generation chasing noise, God is raising people who hear His voice!
In a compromising generation, God is raising people of character! God is raising Moses'! God is raising a Joshua's!
Will you be one of them?
Wrapping this up:
You don’t have to blend in to belong!
Moses and Joshua stood when nobody else stood!
And God is asking:
Who will stand in this generation?
Who will live holy when it’s unpopular?
Who will say, “As for me and my household, we wills serve the Lord!’ (Joshua 24:15b)?
Who will intercede when people deserve judgement?
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