Exodus 32:19-20 – God deserves out absolute devotion

God will always confront our sin. We can never hide any sin from Him though we can hide it from man. Even that, we can only hide it for a season and soon it will all come out. No one has a fail-proof to protect their sin forever. A day without repentance is a day we will travel down the slippery sloop of deeper depravity. And a loving God will not allow that. He has paid too much for our redemption.  Somehow it will all surface. This should make us think twice and then two times again if we intend to commit a sin.  Like it or not, our sin will always find us out.

In Exodus 32:19-20, Moses came to the camp and saw the ravelling and carousing. The people were dancing around a calf and that made his blood boil. So, we are told that his anger burned. When he pleaded with God on their behalf, he probably couldn’t imagine the extensiveness of their sin, though he believed and concurred with God. That was why he immediately interceded for the people. He pleaded for mercy for them on the basis of the covenant that the Lord had made with the patriarchs. God on His part had already decided not to destroy the Israelites. But their sin still needed to be dealt with and Moses knew that too.

When a sin is committed and forgiveness may be sought, there is still a consequence to reckon with. Bear in mind that forgiveness removes the guilt of sin but not the consequences. While forgiveness is granted readily, there’s a process of discipline and correction that needs to be installed to ensure that the person will not commit it again. Disciplinary action must be carried out in a godly way to help the fallen person to progress in godliness. It takes godly leadership to discipline with sin effectively. And Moses demonstrated that godly leadership. He took immediate action as soon as he saw what the people were doing. In anger, he took the two tablets in his hand and threw them at the foot of the mountain, shattering them. He then took the golden calf, grounded it into powder, scattered it on the water and made the people drink it. He probably wanted them to taste the bitterness of what they had done.  

In breaking the two God-given stone tablets, Moses was demonstrating God’s grace. It was not a case of a person who was unable to control his anger. It shows a person who knew that the people had already broken the two most important of the commandments. In righteous anger, he did what he did. He was showing them that if they weren’t prepared to keep the laws, they did not deserve to keep the tablets. We know that God didn’t punish him for breaking the two stone tablets, for He could see that Moses was demonstrating the anger like Him. 

In destroying the golden calf as soon as he saw them dancing around it demonstrates to us how we must deal with idols in our life. All idols must be dealt with swiftly and instantly when realized. We must never tolerate and be gentle with any idol. For us, the definition of an idol is anything that replaces our first love for God in our heart. It must be got rid of instantly and swiftly. The longer we take to get rid of them, the deeper we will be ensnared, and it would be harder to destroy them. Let us never allow anything to come between us and God. He alone deserves our affection.