Scripture to Read: Exodus 32:1–6
God begins Exodus 32, “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain.” Moses had been up on Mount Sinai with the Lord for forty days (Exodus 24:18), receiving all of the details on how to build the Tabernacle, its articles, the outer court, and the Holy of Holies. Forty days may have seemed like a long time to the Israelites, but let’s remember that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai back in Exodus 24 and shared with the people the Ten Commandments, God’s Word says (in Exodus 24:3) “Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!’” So, the people responded just forty days earlier that they would do everything God had told them to do. That commitment lasted only forty days, and then the people got together and said to Aaron, Moses’s brother, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Exodus 32:1). As we know, this was breaking God’s command in Exodus 20:3–4. So, what happened? Why did the people rebel so quickly? They heard God’s Word but chose not to be a doer of God’s Word (James 1:22–25). The same thing can happen to us if we don’t apply God’s Truth to our lives every day.
Challenge & Application
· What caused the Israelites to lose sight of God being their One True God?
· How do we protect ourselves from turning away from God and His Word but instead stay in right fellowship with Him?
Don’t forget to pray using the A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) method!