Exodus 32  Moses is on the mountain with God and the people become restless.  They want a "god".  An idol that they can worship, that they can see and touch and offer sacrifices to.  So Aaron makes a golden calf.  "... and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play."  To play - verse 18 tells us that they heard singing;  verse 19 tells us that there was dancing; and verse 25 tells us that they were "out of control" or let loose....   They stood at the bottom of the mountain, where fire and smoke, thunder and lightning had shown them the manifest presence of God, where they had heard His voice and sworn a covenant with Him... and partied.  Uncontrolled revelry.  Unashamed sinfulness.  Complete rebellion and idolatry.

God tells Moses that he wants to destroy all the people and build a nation just from him.   But Moses intercedes for the nation. He reminds God of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  And "the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people."

Still when Moses goes down and sees what the people are doing, he becomes angry.  He throws down the tablets of stone that God had written on.  He confronts Aaron, who lies to cover up his part in this.
He calls for "Whoever is for the Lord.." to come and the Levites join him.  He sends them out through the people to kill those who are still rebelling.  And 3000 men die at the hand of the Levites.

Moses asks for the Lord to forgive the people, or to blot his own name out of His book.  " And the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book."  Moses is to lead, but he cannot dictate to God what He will do.

What can we learn from this?  What does the Shepherd say to us?

Israel was in the Presence of God and did not grasp Who He is.  As Tozer writes, 

" Left to ourselves we tend  immediately to reduce God to manageable terms.  We want to get Him where we can use Him, or at least know where He is when we need Him. We want a God we can in some measure control. We need the feeling of security that comes from knowing what God is like, and what He is like is of course a composite of all the religious pictures we have seen, all the best people we have known or heard about, and all the sublime ideas we have entertained."  

 They reduced God to a calf of metal.  But, are we any different?  

Again Tozer says, " If all this sounds strange to modern ears, it is only because we have for a full half century ( and more)  taken God for granted. The glory of God had not been revealed to this generation of men."   The incomprehensible and unapproachable God - has been reduced to a likeness of mythology.   When the reality is far above anything our minds can grasp!
Tozer quotes Richard Rolle, saying " Verily God is of infinite greatness, more than we can think;... unknowable by created things; and can never be comprehended by us as He is in Himself. "
Only in Jesus Christ, through faith, can we know the unknowable.... He has revealed Himself to those who believe.  He gives us His own Holy Spirit so that we can enter into His Presence.  We have come closer to Him than the Israelites at the foot of the mountain, for He dwells in us through Christ .
So, do we also lose control, sing and dance, party...and reduce Him to our own terms?  Are we more like the Israelites than we realize?   Heaven forbid!  Let us be still and know Him... in all His revealed glory - the self-existent, self sufficient, eternal God; infinite, immutable, omniscient, omnipotent, wise, transcendent, faithful, good, just, merciful, gracious, holy, sovereign God. 

The second thing that we can learn from this situation is - intercession is vital and real and necessary!
Moses pleaded with God and God changed His mind.  That is amazing!  Did God want to change His mind anyway?  He knew He would... but He waited on Moses to intercede.   He desires us to be intercessors for those who are living in sin and rebellion.  He will hear our pleas and He will answer those prayers.  Sin always results in the wrath of God, for God hates sin.  But, He will save the sinner, He will forgive those who repent, who turn back to Him.  Our prayers of intercession are vital in that process.   May our hearts be as tender as Moses' for the sake of God's people.

The third thing I hear from this passage is that every man must make a choice.  The Levites chose to be on the Lord's side.  They became a select group that would be ordained to serve in the tabernacle, set apart for the Lord.  Those who chose to keep rebelling were destroyed.   The psalmist wrote, " The Lord keeps all who love Him; but all the wicked He will destroy." ( Psalm 145:20)  God is perfectly just.  He gives us every opportunity to repent and obey.  He gives us all we need to stand in Him.  But if we refuse, we will be destroyed. An everlasting state of destruction.  We must take that seriously.

The final thing that I see in this passage is that, like Moses, we cannot substitute ourselves for others.  Only Jesus could do that.  We cannot manipulated God into saving our loved ones.. even though our hearts break for them, even though we wish we could make the choices for them.  Each person  must stand before God and give account for his or her own decisions.  Each must choose to be either in the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of Light.

Father in heaven,  You are holy and far above our understanding in every way.  We bless and praise You for Who You are.  Of infinite power and of infinite mercy, You bring us into Your Kingdom by the work of the cross of Jesus Christ.  Oh how we thank You.  Bring us fully into Your Kingdom, Lord.  May we be filled with the knowledge of Your will, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that we can be worthy of Your calling, so that we can please You and bear fruit and increase in our knowledge of You.  We ask that You strengthen us with Your power, according to Your glorious might, to the attaining of steadfastness and patience.  And we give You thanks for it is You, Father Who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
Father, we ask that You would forgive the sins of our loved ones, that You would open their eyes and hearts to receive the redemption purchased by the blood of our dear Savior.  Turn their thoughts and hearts back to You.  We ask this in the Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen.