Speaking of Life 5047 | Acknowledging God’s Faithfulness
This week we’re sharing a Speaking of Life message from our archive as a supplemental resource. We encourage you to use this for reflection and preparation, or small group discussion. For your worship gathering, consider how a call to worship from a local voice or contextualized introduction to the theme might serve your congregation well.
Watch video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szInJ4OHMog
Program Transcript
Speaking of Life 5047 | Acknowledging God’s Faithfulness
Cara Garrity
Last year I adopted two golden retriever puppies, Bumi and Zuko. One of the most endearing things they do is greet me with all their excitement when I return home. They’ll run up to me wagging their tails, then run around looking for toys to bring me. Sometimes I’ll even let them be a little naughty and jump on me in their excitement.
On the flip side of their warm welcomes home, they struggled for many months whenever I left. Sometimes they would bark for up to ten minutes after I left the house before they settled down. Bumi would even start whining and barking if I walked into the other room. They became anxious when they couldn’t see me. It took them some time for them to learn that I would always return – I will never abandon them.
There is a story in the book of Exodus where Moses goes up to Mt. Horeb to meet with God. It seems to the Israelites that Moses is taking his sweet time and so they start to grow restless. Perhaps, something has happened to him, they wonder.
In the 106th Psalm, the psalmist writes a song about this, highlighting the failure of the Israelites to trust God, despite all that he had previously done for them.
At Horeb they made a calf and worshipped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. Psalms 106:19-22
Rather than waiting for Moses to return, the Israelites decided to take matters into their own hands. They created a false image of God and his character rather than trusting in God’s unchanging continual care for them.
In times of uncertainty, we can become anxious. We may be tempted to trust in things that we find around us to give us comfort. We look to created things rather than to our Creator for hope and meaning but our true comfort comes from Christ and his continual commitment to us.
Have you possibly fashioned idols in your life while growing impatient in seeing God work in and through you?
Remember when God has shown himself faithful to you. Where you have seen his provision, his grace, and his deliverance from difficult circumstances.
Return to these altars as memorials that the Father sees you, he sees Christ in you, and you in Christ. You never have to fear his return as he has promised to never leave you in the first place, but promises to live with you, and in you, by his Spirit.
Go ahead, feel elated, and jump up on the Master of your soul. Let him know how glad you are to know that you can trust in his continual faithfulness.
I’m Cara Garrity, Speaking of Life.
Program Transcript
Speaking of Life 5047 | Acknowledging God’s Faithfulness
Cara Garrity
Last year I adopted two golden retriever puppies, Bumi and Zuko. One of the most endearing things they do is greet me with all their excitement when I return home. They’ll run up to me wagging their tails, then run around looking for toys to bring me. Sometimes I’ll even let them be a little naughty and jump on me in their excitement.
On the flip side of their warm welcomes home, they struggled for many months whenever I left. Sometimes they would bark for up to ten minutes after I left the house before they settled down. Bumi would even start whining and barking if I walked into the other room. They became anxious when they couldn’t see me. It took them some time for them to learn that I would always return – I will never abandon them.
There is a story in the book of Exodus where Moses goes up to Mt. Horeb to meet with God. It seems to the Israelites that Moses is taking his sweet time and so they start to grow restless. Perhaps, something has happened to him, they wonder.
In the 106th Psalm, the psalmist writes a song about this, highlighting the failure of the Israelites to trust God, despite all that he had previously done for them.
At Horeb they made a calf and worshipped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. Psalms 106:19-22
Rather than waiting for Moses to return, the Israelites decided to take matters into their own hands. They created a false image of God and his character rather than trusting in God’s unchanging continual care for them.
In times of uncertainty, we can become anxious. We may be tempted to trust in things that we find around us to give us comfort. We look to created things rather than to our Creator for hope and meaning but our true comfort comes from Christ and his continual commitment to us.
Have you possibly fashioned idols in your life while growing impatient in seeing God work in and through you?
Remember when God has shown himself faithful to you. Where you have seen his provision, his grace, and his deliverance from difficult circumstances.
Return to these altars as memorials that the Father sees you, he sees Christ in you, and you in Christ. You never have to fear his return as he has promised to never leave you in the first place, but promises to live with you, and in you, by his Spirit.
Go ahead, feel elated, and jump up on the Master of your soul. Let him know how glad you are to know that you can trust in his continual faithfulness.
I’m Cara Garrity, Speaking of Life.
Psalm 106:1–6, 19–23 • Exodus 32:1–14 • Isaiah 25:1–9 • Matthew 22:1–14
This week’s theme is God is bigger than our human limitations. In Psalm 106, the Psalmist praises God and acknowledges the people’s present and past sins against God. In Exodus 32:1–14, the Israelites become restless and make a golden calf to worship as god, exposing their failure to live within their covenant agreement with God. In Isaiah 25, the prophet praised God for his greatness and faithfulness. He speaks of the ways God has been a refuge and the day that he will be victorious in his purposes. And the people will praise him saying this is the God that we have waited for. Matthew 22 includes a parable of a king who invites guests to a wedding banquet, only to have many reject the invitation or try to enter on their own terms. God’s kingdom and invitation cannot be controlled, minimized, or reshaped by human assumptions. God is bigger than our limitations, and we are called to receive him as he reveals himself.
Reminder: This introductory paragraph is intended to show how the four RCL selections for this week are connected and to assist the preacher prepare the sermon. It is not intended to be included in the sermon.
How to use this sermon resource.
God is Bigger than Our Human Limitations
Exodus 32:1–14 NIV
Last week we explored God establishing a covenant with the people of Israel. After God gives the Ten Commandments, Moses is called up the mountain to receive instruction from God about building the tabernacle and instructions for worship. The tabernacle would be the place where the presence of God would dwell with Israel. God provided very specific instructions for how the tabernacle was to be built and how worship at the tabernacle was to be conducted. Moses spent 40 days and nights receiving instruction from God and the people became restless. That is where we find ourselves in today’s passage:
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, 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.”
2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 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’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 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.’” 14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. Exodus 32:1–14 NIV
The people became restless. They did not know why Moses had been away for so long. And so, they asked Aaron to make them gods to go before them. Aaron was Moses’ brother and partner in leadership. He had been left to care for the people while Moses was up the mountain receiving instruction from God. The Israelites had just received the Ten Commandments from God not even two months earlier. Yet here they are, asking Aaron to make them images of gods, a clear violation of the second command.
From our perspective, it may seem easy to criticize the people of Israel or Aaron. How could they so quickly disobey God’s command? Hadn’t God proven himself to them enough times to be trusted? Why did Aaron comply with their demands? He was left to lead and care for the people after all. And here he is allowing the people to lead themselves into self-destruction.
Honestly, we can probably understand the people and Aaron to some degree. We would have likely become restless as well. Imagine yourself in their position. There you are, on this difficult journey, led by this God that you are just getting to know and his chosen leader Moses — a man you have no relational history with. Miraculous things have happened to make this journey possible so far, and yet, so much is still unknown. And now, your leader, Moses, has been gone for a long time, and you have no idea what this means. You have never been in a situation like this before.
In that situation, most would look for reassurance and comfort. And we can wonder if that’s what the Israelites attempted to do here. Were they trying to find a way to make sense of their circumstances? They were accustomed to images, to idols, that could be seen, touched, and physically worshipped. They returned to what was familiar to make sense of their situation. The problem was that what was familiar is not what was meant for them any longer.
At first glance, it appears to a modern-day reader that the Israelites were attempting to worship a different deity all together. It looks like they are abandoning this God who had delivered them from Egypt and giving credit to some other false God. However, if we look a little closer, it is likely that they intended for this image to be a physical representation of God, not a creation of a new god.
First, the word translated as “gods” in verse 1 is ‘Elohim’ which in the original language can either mean “gods” plural and general, or God singular, as in this God. Then they ask the question, “who shall go before us” which is used to describe the activity of the messenger of God who has been leading the Israelites in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of cloud by night. It seems like they are asking Aaron to give them something concrete that can be the vessel or representation of God in their midst.
Aaron then declares that a feast to the Lord would be held the following day. It appears that the Israelites are not intending to depart from God. They are not seeking to worship someone else. They are seeking to find a way to engage with God that they can understand. That they can grasp. That feels comfortable in this uncomfortable time.
So, while it is possible that the calf was made as an image of a different deity, it is likely that it was created as a physical representation of God — this God that had brought them out of Egypt. This God that they were slowly learning about. This God that they had just encountered. And this God who they were waiting on — and waiting longer than they anticipated.
We might be inclined to think that this is a less serious offense. The people were at least intending to worship God and not abandon him for another false god. However, what we see is that God has taken deep offense by this action. Remember, we discussed the Ten Commandments as a formational guide on what it means to be God’s people — not a constrictive set of rules. We can then assume that it is not simply the breaking of the command in and of itself. But it is what the breaking of the command means that is significant. The worship of the golden calf as God reveals a significant misunderstanding of God and a disconnect in relationship.
An image, or an idol, cannot be made and worshipped as God because it denies something essential about God’s very being. An idol is lifeless, static, made by human hands. God is living, dynamic, and undefined by humanity. To worship a statue of a golden calf as God is laughable! And to believe that they could is a distorted image of God.
In God’s very own being, he is relationship. He is Trinity — Father, Son, and Spirit in perfect relationship with one another. To diminish God to a simple, lifeless statue and worship that as a legitimate form or representation of God reveals a deep unknowing. In worshiping the golden calf, the people are trying to fit God within their limited range of knowledge, experience, or even comfort. Thank God that he is bigger than human limitations.
While God is busy giving Moses instructions for how to build the tabernacle to house the presence of God and how to conduct worship in the presence of God — the people have taken matters into their own hands. They have created the “presence” of God on their own, using the very materials that God had intended for construction of the tabernacle. They build an altar, have a festival, and present offerings. They decide to relate to and worship God on their own terms. The people have taken what is meant to be received from God and attempted to fashion it themselves.
This reflects a disconnect in the relationship between Israel and God. Israel has not yet been formed to trust God, and they decide to move forward on their own, by their own understanding and strength. God is a living and relational being, so God also experiences the effects of this relational distortion. God describes the people of Israel as “your people” to Moses, reflecting a sentiment of disconnection. Remember, the Ten Commandments center around relationship. The violation of this second commandment is a violation of relationship. It is a distortion of the relationship God intended to have with his people. It imposed human logic and design onto God and their relationship with him.
And even so, God is still determined to see his good purposes through for his people. God is bigger than human limitations. He may just have to start over with people who aren’t so stubborn. But we see that Moses intervenes on behalf of the Israelites and emphasizes to God that they are indeed his people. He appeals to God’s character, promise, and purpose to ask him to continue working with these stubborn people. Moses does not try to make his case by defending what the Israelites are capable of. Moses argues that God should continue working patiently with them because God is faithful. And God agrees.
In God’s apparent willingness to change his mind in this exchange with Moses, he reveals what is unchangeable about him. His plan for restoration and repair, to fulfill the good purposes for his people, is unchangeable. His goodness of character and fidelity to promise is unchangeable. His pathway towards this goal may have been changeable, but we see that the character and purposes of God remain strong.
Maybe you can relate to the Israelites. Do you ever feel like you are waiting on God for a long time, with no answers? Sometimes we don’t understand what is going on, what God wants from us, or how to show up in a particular moment. Sometimes we don’t know the best way to honor and worship him in a situation.
And in these moments, we can become like the people of Israel worshipping a golden calf. We take matters into our own hands. We decide for ourselves how he should show up in our lives. We make decisions about what we need his presence to look like. We worship him according to our own desires rather than his. We diminish him, deny something essential about him, so that he can fit into our little box. We find ourselves making an image of God that is comfortable, that we can wrap our minds around, that feels manageable. We take this big, amazing, living, dynamic God and reduce him to a small image that we can control. But the problem is — an image made by human hands can never reveal to us or even represent who God is.
So, what do we do when we feel lost, confused, waiting with no answers? When we feel like we need God to be present in a more tangible way? When we are desperate to relate to God in a way that is familiar and comfortable? When we want God to be confined within our human limitations?
We look to Jesus. Jesus is the image of God. In Colossians 1:15, an early church leader, the apostle, Paul, writes, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (NIV). [See also John 14:8–10.]
Unlike a golden calf, he is alive, he dwells in relationship with the Godhead, he is dynamic, he is uncontainable. God could not be imaged in something made by human hands. He came to us in the form of our living, breathing humanity. A humanity that he made.
And the difference? The image of God lived among us in relationship with us. Jesus lived the full human experience. He had a human birth, lived a human life, died a human death, was raised to life in a new and glorified human body, and was brought back to the right hand of the Father in his glorified human body to wait for the rest of us. What is more familiar to us than our own humanity? What is more understandable than the human experience? What is more comforting than a God who knows that it’s like to be human? A golden calf doesn’t know what it’s like to be human.
Not only is Jesus fully God and fully human, but he lived his life vicariously, which means on behalf of all humanity. He not only was the perfect image of God to us, but he was the perfect response of humanity back to God. He lives as a human faithful to God. And he does that on behalf of all humanity, fulfilling humanity’s side of the God-human covenant. A golden calf can’t do that.
Jesus as the image of God is the ultimate liberator. He brings all of humanity out of the metaphorical Egypt — out of enslavement to sin and brokenness. He liberates us into a redeemed humanity, restored kingdom community, and robust and dynamic relationship with God. Jesus in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension brings all of humanity out of Egypt. A golden calf can’t do that.
There are many ways God’s people have misunderstood him, tried to place him in a box, been unable to receive from him and be faithful to him. But God is bigger than human limitations. He remains true to who he is and his good purposes.
That is very good news! Because how tragic for this God to be reduced to a golden calf. Or to be reduced to our small images and interpretations of him. To be restricted by the choices we make. Thank God that he does not allow himself to be defined or contained by human limitations. He is who he is — beyond the fashioning of human hands or imagination.
The Israelites in making the golden calf, and us in a million other forms, were reaching for God. Trying to grasp understanding and create an image of him that made sense to them. In Jesus, God grasps humanity, making himself fully known in self-revelation. In Jesus God shows that he is bigger than human limitations, reaching beyond our limited understanding into our very own humanity. In Jesus, God is bigger than human limitations, making perfect the human response and worship to God that we could not do on our own. And even now, God is bigger than human limitations — having given us his Spirit. He pours out his Holy Spirit upon us who in turn leads us to all understanding of who God is and who we are.
In moments that don’t make sense, in moments that we fail, in moments that we misunderstand and misrepresent God, we can confidently look to Jesus. He is the perfect image of the living God. And we can trust that God is bigger than our human limitations.
Matthew Hester—Year A Proper 23
Listen to audio: https://cloud.gci.org/dl/GReverb/GR080-Hester-YearA-Proper23.mp3
Program Transcript
Transcript coming soon!
Program Transcript
Transcript coming soon!
Small Group Discussion Questions
- Where do you see yourself wanting God to be more understandable, manageable, or predictable?
- What “golden calves” do we create when we try to relate to God on our own terms?
- How does Jesus reveal God in a way our own ideas or images never could?
- What helps you trust God when his presence or timing does not look the way you expected?
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