89. Sin in the Desert: How Quickly Can We Forget?

G', day, Dave here.

Welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to do the wrong thing?

To be selfish?

To forget about God?

You could be playing happily, everything seems fine, and then someone interrupts you and you become really rude and grumpy.

Maybe you're meant to be praying at the dinner table, thanking God for your food and all the good things he's given you.

But you just want to kick your brother or sister under the table.

Or you're playing a game and a grown up asks if you've brushed your teeth and you don't want to move from the game, so you just say yes, even though you know it's a lie.

It can be really easy to do the wrong thing.

That's what the Israelites discover in today's episode.

They've seen God come down in power on Mount Sinai.

They've heard the word of God.

They've promised to obey God.

And yet, in the blink of an eye, they decide to do something really, really evil.

I wonder what'll happen.

It's time to find out.

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for K. At the end of our last episode.

The Israelites had promised to obey God.

God had promised to look after them and bless them.

They had an agreement that was really exciting.

After they'd made the agreement, Moses went back up Mount Sinai to get more laws from God.

God also gave him two flat pieces of stone that he wrote the ten Commandments on.

Moses was up on the mountain for a long time.

40 days and 40 nights.

Down at the bottom of the mountain.

The people are getting worried.

They don't know if Moses is okay and he's their connection with God.

If they don't have him, maybe they don't have God.

It's quite silly really.

As if God wouldn't keep Moses safe up on the mountain.

But the people don't think about that.

Instead, they gather around Aaron.

Moses Brother Aaron had been left in charge when Moses went up the mountain.

And the people ask Aaron to do something really weird.

In chapter 32, verse 2, they say, Moses led us out of Egypt, but we don't know what's happened to him.

So.

So make us gods.

Who will lead us?

Umm.

Say what now?

Make gods to lead you?

What kind of gods are you going to have if you make them?

How much power are they going to have?

Wait, wait, wait.

Didn't they just agree to obey God?

The God who said, you shall have no other gods except me and the God.

Who said, don't make idols?

Okay, okay.

Don't panic, everyone.

Aaron's in charge.

He'll tell them how silly they're being.

He'll remind them of their promises, won't he?

Unfortunately, that isn't what happens.

In verse two, Aaron tells them, take off the gold earrings that your wives, sons and daughters are wearing.

Bring them to me.

Okay, that's weird.

Remember, they have lots of gold because the Egyptians gave them heaps of gold when they left the country.

God, the God of Israel, had made the Egyptians do it, just like he saved his people out of Egypt.

So what does Aaron want to do with this gold that God had won for them?

He melts it down and he shapes it into a statue, a statue of a calf.

And then he says something really, really horrible.

He says in verse 5, Israel, these are your gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Aaron, no.

What are you doing?

Look at how quickly they've turned their back on the one true God.

Aaron builds an altar just like the one Moses had made for God.

Except Aaron builds his altar in front of the golden calf.

Then he makes an announcement in verse 5.

He says, Tomorrow there will be a special feast to honour the Lord in some way.

Aaron still thinks he's serving the Lord here.

Maybe he thinks the calf is the Lord or the Lord is sitting on top of the calf.

Whatever it is, there's no way he's actually honouring the Lord God.

He's disobeying God.

The next day, the people get up early in the morning and they make exactly the same offerings to the calf that they'd made to God just a short time ago.

Then they sit down to eat and drink.

And then they get up and have wild parties, the sorts of parties people have when they're doing really silly, sinful things.

Back up on the mountain, God knows exactly what's happening.

He says to Moses in verse seven, go down from this mountain.

Your people, the people you brought out of the land of Egypt, have done a terrible sin.

They have quickly turned away from the things I commanded them to do.

They have made for themselves a calf of melted gold.

They have worshipped that calf and offered sacrifices to it.

The people have said, israel, these are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.

This is such a terrible event.

How can God have these evil people as his people?

How can he let them just get away with it?

Well, it turns out they're not going to get away with it.

In verse nine, God says to Moses, I have seen these people.

I know that they are very stubborn people.

So now, do not stop me.

I am so angry with them that I am going to destroy them.

Then I will make you and your descendants a great nation.

That kinda sounds great for Moses.

His family will get to become a great nation.

But Moses doesn't want that.

He doesn't want the Israelites to be destroyed.

Not because the Israelites don't deserve it.

They do deserve it.

But actually, Moses is really worried for God.

He's worried that the Egyptians won't understand what God's done.

He's worried that God won't look faithful.

And so he begs God in verse 11.

Lord, don't let yout anger destroy youy people.

You brought these people out of Egypt with youh great power and strength.

Don't let the people of Egypt say, the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt, but He planned to kill them in the mountains and destroy them from the earth.

So stop being angry.

Don't destroy your people.

Remember the men who served you.

Abraham, Isaac and Israel.

You promised with an oath to them.

You said, I will make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky.

I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised to give them.

It will be theirs forever.

And so the Lord decides not to destroy the people.

Phew.

Actually, though, God had told Moses what he was planning to do, so that Moses could ask God to change his mind.

God let Moses beg on behalf of his people.

And then he listened to Moses.

God is being very kind.

Moses goes back down the mountain carrying the two flat pieces of stone with the Ten Commandments written on them.

God Himself had written on them.

Moses also has his servant Joshua with him as they get near the camp.

But before they can see it, Joshua has a bit of a panic.

He says in verse 17, it sounds like war.

Down in the camp.

Moses knows better, though he replies it is not an army's shout of victory.

It's not an army's cry of defeat.

It's the sound of singing that I hear.

The people are still partying in honour of this ridiculous statue they've made.

Moses is super angry.

He throws down the stones with the Ten Commandments and they break.

It's a sign that the people have already broken the agreement they made just a short time ago.

He storms into the camp, grabs the golden calf and melts it down in the fire.

Then, when the gold is hard again, he grinds it all up into dust, scatters it on the water, and forces the Israelites to drink the water.

By the end, there's Nothing left whatsoever of the golden calf.

Then Moses turns to Aaron, who's been in charge.

He asks in verse 21, what did these people do to you?

Why did you cause them to do such a terrible sin?

It seems unbelievable to Moses that Aaron could be so silly.

And so he's like, did they hit you?

Did they stamp on your fingers until you agreed to help them?

What could possibly have made you act like that?

Of course the people hadn't done anything nasty to him.

But Aaron doesn't want to take the blame, and so he blames all the people.

And then he blames God.

First, he blames the people.

In verse 22, he says, don't be angry, Master.

You know that these people are always ready to do wrong.

The people said to me, moses led us out of Egypt, but we don't know what's happened to him.

So make us gods who will lead us?

That is a silly excuse.

Of course, Moses knows that the people are always ready to do wrong.

That's exactly why he left Aaron in charge, to remind them to do what's right.

But if that excuse is bad, it's nothing compared to the lie he tells next.

A lie that suggests that God actually made this happen miraculously.

And so God must be fine with it.

Aaron continues in verse 24, so I told the people, take off your gold jewelry.

So they gave me the gold, I threw it in the fire, and out came this calf.

What?

Aaron, that's ridiculous.

That's just a plain lie.

What's so sad is that Aaron is going to be the high priest, the man in charge of leading the people to trust and serve God.

This is a shocking start for him.

Moses looks around.

He sees that the people have become completely out of control.

He's worried that their enemies will see them and think they're a complete joke.

He stands at the entrance to the camp and he calls out in verse 26, let anyone who wants to follow the Lord come to me.

Thankfully, there are still people who want to do what God wants.

All the people from the tribe of Levi.

And Moses asks them to do a very sad but important job.

He sends them through the camp to kill people for disobeying God.

Not all the people remember.

Moses had begged God not to wipe out all the people.

It's about 3,000 people who die in the end.

But it's enough to put a stop to the wickedness that's happening all throughout the camp.

Just like for the Israelites, it's so easy for us to start sinning, to start doing Bad things, to be selfish and care more about ourselves than about God and other people.

The Israelites made a fake God just because Moses was gone for a few weeks.

And at any time in the day, we can suddenly find it very easy to do the wrong thing.

We need help.

God knew how sinful the Israelites were.

He knows how sinful everyone is.

He knows that just telling us what's good and right, like he did for the Israelites with the ten Commandments, won't stop people from sinning.

And so he sent Jesus.

When Jesus died on the cross, it was like he was putting our sin to death.

When he rose back alive again, he was also making us into new living people.

When he sent His Holy Spirit, he came to live in his people, to teach us how to live as God's people.

If you're finding it really easy to do the wrong thing, remember you need help.

Pray and ask God to change you to make you more like Jesus, to use His Holy Spirit to make you love doing what's right.

Speaking of Jesus, Moses is about to go back up the mountain and speak to God a little bit like Jesus speaks to God.

But that's a story for next time.

Hi everyone.

I want to let you know about something new that I'm doing.

Every time we have an episode, there's a little picture that goes with it.

Well, now I'm going to start turning those pictures into colouring sheets.

You might want to use the colouring sheets to color in while you're listening to the episode or you might want to do them another time.

I'm going to put the colouring sheets on the website faithforgod.net you just have to go into the Stories of a Faithful God for Kids section and you'll find the colouring sheets.

If you do the colouring sheets and you take a photo or a picture of them, you can have a grown up.

Email them to me and I'll put them up on the website.

I'll also have a colouring sheet there for the logo.

If you do the logo, you can send it in and I'll have a special page where I'll put those up as well on the website.

If you do send me a colouring sheet, I'd like to give something to you as well.

Christmas is coming up and so I'll send you back a link with four videos that I made last year about who Jesus is.

There are puppets and silliness, but also lots of fun and really true things.

So I'd love for you to get colouring Send them in.

I'd love to put your artwork up on the website.

And.

And I'd love to be able to send you those videos.

Keep trusting, Jesus.

Bye for now.