It was Tuesday evening. I was in my kitchen when I heard shouting in the car park. Angry screams.

When I looked out of the window, I saw a young couple arguing. He was sitting behind the wheel of the car, ready to drive off. She was holding the door open and shouting.

This went on for some time. Violent words were exchanged in public.

I don't know where the argument started, nor do I know how it ended, but I have to say I was worried that at some point I would hear the words, "if that's the way it is between us, that's the end of it!"

As we meditate on Exodus 32 this morning, this is our question.

Should we be worried that God might one day say to us: we're finished!

Could we push God so far that he decides it's all over?

***

Of course not, some would say. God always forgives. He is a God of grace.

No sin is too serious to be forgiven, as long as you confess it and move on.

God could never tell us it's over!

***

Wait," replies another, "are you sure?

Are you sure you can't push God too far?

Isn't it a bit presumptuous to think that he'll always forgive?

It was Catherine the Great, the Russian empress, who said: "The good Lord must forgive me ... it's ... his job!

Isn't that a bit big of an attitude?

If I analyse my conscience, I realise that I've done things that I can barely forgive myself for. And God is going to forgive me?

If I commit the same sin over and over again, over and over again, won't there come a time when God's patience reaches its limit?

Are you sure he could never tell us it's over?

***

Should we be worried that God might one day say to us: it's over?

Chapters 32 to 34 of Exodus are the climax of the book of Exodus. These chapters were written to show where to look when you fear that God will say: it's over.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites often returned to these chapters.

When they disobeyed God before entering the land of Canaan ...

When they disobeyed God in the land of Canaan ...

When they disobeyed and were exiled from the land of Canaan ...

When they returned to the land of Canaan when everything was a ruin ...

... it was to these chapters that they returned to find hope.

The structure of Exodus shows us why these chapters are important.

Over the last two weeks we have been meditating on the description of the Tabernacle, the tent where God was to dwell among his people.

From chapter 35 to the end of the book, we are told about the building of the Tabernacle. The people follow God's instructions to Moses.

Between these parts on the tabernacle, in the middle of the sandwich, there is the golden calf

By structuring the story in this way, the author shows what question he wants to address. How can a holy God dwell in the midst of a deeply rebellious people?

These chapters are essential to understand. They are full of good news. We'd do well to come back to them regularly.

But before you hear the good news, you have to hear the bad.

That's the aim this morning.

I warn you - Exodus 32 is bound to be disturbing.

May God grant us the humility to listen to what he wants to tell us, rather than what we want to hear.

Should we be worried that God might one day tell us it's all over?

This morning's message is simply this: God would have every reason to tell us, it's over.

Exodus 32 verse 1

"The people saw that Moses was slow to come down from the mountain. So they gathered round Aaron and said to him, 'Come on! Make us gods that go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him." Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that hang from the ears of your wives, sons and daughters and bring them to me." Everyone removed the gold rings that hung from their ears and they brought them to Aaron. He received them from their hands, threw the gold into a mould and made a calf of molten metal. Then they said, "Israel, these are your gods that brought you out of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it and cried out, "Tomorrow there will be a feast in honour of the Lord!" The next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and communion sacrifices. The people sat down to eat and drink; then they got up to enjoy themselves."

Firstly ...

1. The scandal of adultery towards God

Let's go back one verse.

Exodus 31:18 - If you were writing the rest, what would you want to write?

When the Lord had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of testimony, stone tablets written with the finger of God.

The answer from someone in my community group: then they lived happily and had many descendants ...

Now imagine the scene.

It's a wedding day.

The couple have just left the town hall. They've just said 'I do'! The ink on the register is barely dry.

It's time to get ready for the church ceremony.

It takes a bit longer than expected. The bride has to change her dress, change her hairstyle, do her make-up and so on. She's falling behind schedule.

It's time to start.

Monsieur is waiting. He is getting impatient. A quarter of an hour, half an hour, three quarters of an hour.

At last the bride arrives at the church, but as she enters the hall, instead of being filled with joy, she is filled with dread. She finds her husband ... in the arms of another woman.

As a guest, you'd be floored. Imagine we were the bride.

It's a bit like the scenario in Exodus 32.

Rejecting the true God and replacing him with another, even if it seems justifiable, is nothing less than atrocious adultery.

Since the beginning of Exodus, we have seen how God has presented himself to Israel as a faithful God who remembers his promises. We have seen how he fought for them against their adversaries.

And we have seen that he did this in order to take them as his own, binding himself to them, as in a marriage, by the covenant at Mount Sinai.

We heard the description of the 'palace' in which God wanted to dwell among his people - the Tabernacle. A paradisiacal palace, with its nods to the Garden of Eden.

All this to say that if God presented himself as the husband of his people, he cannot be reproached for being an indifferent or incompetent husband! He is the best of husbands!

But while God was speaking to Moses at the top of the mountain, people down below were getting impatient.

There are three stages.

Rejection, replacement, revolution.

Verse 1

The people saw that Moses was delaying his descent from the mountain. So they gathered round Aaron and said to him: "Come on! Make us gods that go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him."

What is striking about this verse is that the Lord is not mentioned. It's not, the Lord, who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.

It's this: we don't know what happened to Moses.

The Eternal is forgotten.

But it's not an innocent oversight. It's a guilty and senseless oversight.

The impatience and nervousness of a bridegroom who waits three quarters of an hour on his wedding day - we understand a little.

But that wouldn't stop us from being scandalised if, because of that wait, he rejected the person who had kept him waiting and threw himself into the arms of someone else.

Are you so foolish? Don't you realise how much this person has done to get to this day? All the ways she's already shown her affection for you? She's just signed on the dotted line to say she wants to be with you!

'And you're going to reject it because of a few minutes' wait?'

That would be insane.

But in human beings, impatience and disbelief often get the better of rationality and trust ... and we reject what the Eternal One had so clearly shown us.

God doesn't answer my prayers when I want, how I want - pfff, is he really there?

He doesn't give me the person, the job or the pleasure I want, when I want it - pfff. I knew I couldn't count on him.

The rejection of God and his revelation is the starting point of all sin.

Israel's, and if you dig a little deeper, ours too.

Replacement

Verse 2

Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that hang from the ears of your wives, sons, and daughters and bring them to me." Everyone took off the gold rings that hung from their ears, and they brought them to Aaron. He received them from their hands, threw the gold into a mould and made a calf of molten metal. Then they said, "Israel, these are your gods who brought you out of Egypt."

They say that nature abhors a vacuum.

The human heart too.

When you reject the living God, you don't become independent.

This is one of our modern lies - to reject God, not to believe in him, is to become independent.

We don't know how to be independent. We were created to love and trust others.

When you turn your back on the Eternal One, you always end up in the arms of another, even if that other only imperfectly imitates the true spouse.

Maybe you think: worshiping a metal calf ... why? I would never do that, it's absurd.

But beware. The Israelites had spent 400 years in Egypt, surrounded by statues. All other peoples worshipped statues. The calf was a very common symbol in the ancient Middle East of strength and fertility.

Making a calf out of metal, that you could see and touch, must have seemed natural to a people in search of security.

They were simply following the prevailing ideas of their time.

Just as in our time, it may seem natural to seek security in tangible things like money, career, comfort and relationships.

But just because it's commonplace doesn't mean it's not culpable.

We reject the one who already offered us love and security - God, the creator of heaven and earth, who has given us incontrovertible proof that he is faithful - to run into the arms of those who will only offer a cheap version of what we were looking for, because they are only creations.

It's foolish. It's ungrateful. It is unbelief. It is adultery.

That's what we all do.

Rejection, replacement ...

Revolution

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it and cried out, "Tomorrow there will be a feast in honour of the Lord!" The next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and communion sacrifices. The people sat down to eat and drink; then they got up to enjoy themselves."

Rejecting and replacing the true God produces a domino effect.

You don't settle down with an inferior spouse without it changing you for the worse in just about every way.

Israel's marriage vows to the Lord were the 10 Commandments.

How many of the 10 Commandments are they breaking?

Clearly the first - you will have no other gods before me.

The second - You shall not make a sacred sculpture for yourself

Aaron tries to make up for it by saying that worshipping the statue is in fact worshipping the Lord, except that in doing so he is taking the Lord's name in vain.

Their party looks an awful lot like a parody of the Sabbath.

They dishonour God their father.

They are already committing adultery against God and probably against each other - "getting up to have fun" is probably a euphemism for a sexual orgy.

They stole the gold intended for the Tabernacle to make the statue.

They bear false witness to God.

And they covet a different god as well as the wives and husbands of their neighbours.

9 out of 10 commandments is not bad.

You can't reject God without it changing you for the worse in every way.

...

But what's frightening is that, despite this, we're still tempted to think it's harmless.

All the other peoples did it.

Nobody seems to have been hurt.

Everyone seems to have had a good time.

There's nothing to say that they didn't all consent.

It even looked quite religious! They're singing hymns to the Lord!

What's the problem?

Just because it seems harmless to us doesn't mean that in God's eyes it isn't adultery and a violation of our relationship with him.

...

This is the crux of the problem.

The Israelites may have come out of Egypt, but Egypt had not yet come out of them.

They had been freed from the outer Pharaoh, sitting on his throne. But the inner Pharaoh, hardened, idolatrous, adulterous, ... was still sitting in their hearts.

[Slowly] You know the inner pharaoh?

It's in all of us. Glued to the skin of every human being.

As jealous as ever that the Eternal One wants to take us as his own.

As eager as ever to prostitute ourselves to counterfeit gods.

It's easier to spot it in the idolatry of others than at home.

In modern society, with its idols of money, sex and comfort.

In some churches, God is reshaped by erasing disturbing aspects - certain moral requirements, for example, or his wrath against sin.

And by pointing the finger at others, if you're like me, we can convince ourselves that we're fine.

But this passage is addressed to people whom God had 'saved' - people like us, in whom the inner, adulterous Pharaoh is still rampant.

Over the last few weeks, our trainees have been reading two excellent books on the theme of our relationship with God.

Knowing God' by J I Packer. At the risk of being happy' by John Piper.

Great books that invite us to find our supreme joy in God.

But I'm speaking for myself; if these books have revealed anything, it's that more often than not I don't seek my supreme joy in God.

So easily, I convince myself that it's things I can see, touch or make that will give me joy and security.

Author Tim Keller says that "if you start looking for your joy, your identity or the meaning of your life in something other than God, then that thing is an idol".

I may take the name of the Lord upon my lips. I may look religious.

But just as my wife wouldn't be fooled if I took her name on my lips and visited her sometimes while giving my affection to another, God isn't fooled either.

He sees the scandal of adultery, and no one can plead innocent.

...

What are the consequences?

After rejection, replacement and revolution, there's another word beginning with 'R' that this passage anticipates.

2. the relationship on the verge of breaking up

If you walk into a church only to find your husband or wife in someone else's arms, what are you going to do?

Cancel the ceremony and leave without the ring on your finger.

In this passage, we see God very close to putting an end to the relationship.

We see this first in two chilling words in verse 7.

"The Lord said to Moses: "Go, come down. For ... your people, ... those whom you brought out of Egypt, have become corrupt."

What do you mean 'your people'?

Until now, God has always referred to Israel as "my people".

"I have seen the suffering of my people in Egypt".

"Let my people go."

"I will take you to be my people".

Why does he say to Moses "your people have become corrupt"?

It's because God distances himself.

You want to be someone else's people? I consider that you are no longer my people.

Verse 9 contains his threat

"I can see that this people is a resistant people. Now, leave it to me! My anger will flare up against them and I will make them disappear".

The idea of a husband wanting to kill the person who has been unfaithful to him can be disturbing.

We must remember that this union between God and Israel is not just any union.

The background to Exodus is Genesis. In the Garden of Eden, God had announced that if we rejected communion with him, the source of life, all that remained was death.

When God intervened to save Israel from Egypt, the land of death, to bring them to him, it was to offer them, by pure grace, life through a relationship with him.

By rejecting it, what else could they expect but to disappear?

Finally, there are the tables of stone broken by Moses.

Tempting to think he's losing his grip. That he's acting on a whim.

In fact, the text suggests that he is simply expressing God's attitude.

His anger flares up, just as God's anger has just flared up.

He broke the tablets containing the Ten Commandments to symbolise the fact that the Israelites had already broken these commandments.

It's as if he noticed their infidelity, took the wedding ring and threw it out of the window.

The break-up.

You want to love someone else? OK. We're facing a break-up.

...

[Slowly] What's really terrible is that in this passage, and I mean in this passage, there's not much hope.

I have not dwelt on Moses' plea to God.

There will be much more to say about Moses' intercession next week.

But even if we note that thanks to Moses, God renounces the idea of annihilating Israel, we can do better in terms of reconciliation.

There's a big difference between not wiping them off the face of the earth and marrying them.

Even if he doesn't destroy them, God will still say in the next chapter: go and settle in Canaan, but know that it will be without me.

The future remains bleak.

Their covenant with God offers no hope.

God had promised that they would be his precious people ... if ... they were faithful to him.

If you've been unfaithful, there's not much point in protesting that you made vows to each other.

It's precisely these wishes that we're accused of.

The priest offers no hope.

Last week, Jason talked about the importance of this intermediary between the people and God to make the relationship possible.

But here it's the priest, Aaron, who makes the idol ... before further undermining his credibility with his tragicomic apology:

"They gave me the gold. I threw it into the fire and out came this calf.""

And finally, the Levites offer no hope.

The role of the Levites was to assist the priests in their ministry.

But have you seen why they are ordained for this ministry?

Verse 27

"Moses announced to them: "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let each of you put his sword to his side. Cross over and go through the camp from one entrance to the other, and let every man kill his brother, his neighbour, his neighbour." The Levites did as Moses commanded and about 3000 of the people died that day. Moses said, "Today you have been established in your duties in the service of the Lord, and at the cost even of your son and your brother, so that today he grants you a blessing.""

A few months ago, Connexion Church ordained a new elder.

Eduardo underwent an evaluation process which culminated in a vote at the General Meeting to appoint him as manager.

Imagine if this was the ordination process!

Going door to door, sword in hand, to all those who refused to renounce idolatry, to execute their brother, their neighbour.

The idea is enough to turn our stomachs.

That's what's happening here.

And as terrible as it may sound, it's God who mandates it.

...

Ah, someone will say, but that's the God of the Old Testament.

Severe, violent. I believe in the God of the New Testament - gentle, patient, non-violent.

[slowly] But when you read the New Testament, you discover that episodes like this are just vignettes anticipating God's eternal judgement against an adulterous world ... in hell.

...

Moses is described as the gentlest man in the Old Testament. But that didn't stop him from calling for the judgment of sinners.

Jesus was the gentlest man who ever lived. But that didn't stop him from talking more than any other person with tears in his eyes about the reality and necessity of eternal judgment.

...

And my friends, all this should convince us that God is not indifferent to infidelity and spiritual adultery.

He values his relationship with his people.

It's so important to him that if we violate that relationship, he won't pretend it never happened.

This passage may seem a little violent.

But we also know that if you were the victim of adultery, of course the future of your relationship with that person would be in doubt.

Of course the question of the break-up would be raised, even if it wasn't inevitable.

And if we find this conclusion a little exaggerated when it comes to God, we're only confirming the problem.

We have imagined a counterfeit God, indifferent to his relations with human beings, indifferent to the wrongs they commit, a God who is not the living and true God.

For the Lord, the reality is that faced with the scandal of adultery, the relationship is on the verge of breaking down.

***

Why show us these things?

I said at the beginning that the aim of Exodus 32-34 was to give hope. Now that sounds a lot like despair, you might say.

[slowly] To understand where to look when you fear that God will say, it's over ...

To avoid putting our trust in solutions that are not solutions ... a few good deeds, a bit of religion, a façade of piety ...

To find real insurance ... you first have to understand the seriousness of your situation.

The idea that God can tell people it's over is not a fantasy.

That's no exaggeration.

It's not an irrational phobia.

It is the justified response of a faithful God to unfaithful people.

***

Where is the grace in all this, someone might ask? Where is the forgiveness?

We're getting there.

We'll get there in the next few weeks.

But to understand how glorious grace is, we have to understand how awful our default situation is.

We have known since the Garden of Eden that the consequences of sin are serious.

What Exodus shows us is the extent to which this sin, this inner Pharaoh, sticks to us, pursues us, even those who have seen God act to save them.

The liberation we need is not just an external liberation. It's an inner liberation.

If you're like me, you might tend to think of God as an indulgent grandpa - the most indulgent of grandpas.

Did you set the house on fire? Don't do it again and I won't tell Mum.

We also tend to put our faults into perspective.

I go to church on Sundays. I try to be nice. I haven't killed anyone this week. What can God blame me for?

And we convince ourselves that between a forgiving God and minor sins, we'll be able to work something out.

The good Lord must forgive me ... it's ... his job!

But it's all lies.

God is not a spoilt grandpa, our sins are not small and God is under no obligation to forgive anyone.

They're lies, and they offer no comfort when we do something that even we realise is serious.

Exodus 32 makes an honest diagnosis.

Yes, it's serious. No, God is not indifferent. No, we can't do it alone.

The Bible tells us this not to destroy us, but to make us bend the knee to look to God with dependence and healthy fear, knowing that help will come from no one else, to listen, grasp and rejoice in the greatness of the true solution.

What is it?

We'll know more next week.