April 6, 2026 - Exodus 32 & Psalm 77

We read Exodus 32 and Psalm 77, then observe the danger of fear-driven idolatry and the hope that comes from remembering God’s steadfast love. We also see Moses’ heart for Israel and let it push us toward prayer, repentance, and renewed trust in Jesus Christ. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path. 

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Date

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word lighting the way. I'm Tyler Sanborn, Student Ministry Director at Compass Bible Church South Valley. Today is Monday, April 6th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Exodus thirty two. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So Aaron said to them, Take off the rings of gold that are in your ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron, and he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron saw this he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, Go down for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff necked people. Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you. But Moses implored the Lord, his God, and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides, on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. But he said, It is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear. And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water, and made the people of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So I said to them, Let any who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf. And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose to the derision of their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered around him, and he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day. The next day Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold, but now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made. Psalm seventy seven. I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord. In the night my hand is stretched out without wearying, my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God I I moan. When I meditate my spirit faints. You hold my eyelids open, I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, Let me remember my song in the night, let me meditate in my heart. Then my spirit made a diligent search. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion? Then I said, I will appeal to this, to the ears of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What God is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders. You have made known your might among the peoples. You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid. Indeed, the deep trembled, the clouds poured out water, the skies gave forth thunder, your arrows flashed on every side. The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind. Your lightnings lighted up the world. The earth trembled and shook. Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. In our texts today, we see a familiar account of the most infamous idol worship in the Old Testament. If you grew up in a church, you most assuredly have heard this account in Exodus 32 from a young age. And it draws our attention to what can happen when we choose to be afraid and run to things that would bring us comfort outside of God. In our chapter today, we see Israel's fear and the people void of Moses. He's been gone. What has become of him? Is he dead? Did he abandon us? Is he lost? What happened to him? Right? People, the grumblings of the people, the the anxiety of the people is being stirred up as Moses is meeting with the Lord on Mount Sinai. There is this fear that come overcomes them and it turns into false worship. And it manifests itself in worship to a false God. And there's this blending of worshiping Yahweh. Uh in verse 5, we see that their intent is from Aaron: we're gonna feast to the Lord tomorrow via this golden calf. And they're giving credit to this calf. Aaron, Aaron has this opportunity to correct and to direct God's people. Say, no, we're waiting for God, we're waiting for his command, we're waiting for Moses. We're gonna hold, we're gonna hold put, we're gonna stay right here and and wait for God to uh to give us our next steps and next directions and uh this failed leadership, as we see in verse 2. Aaron is at the head of this, and he is the one who is putting um this call out for the gold to create this golden calf, though Aaron drinking up this ash and gold dust is not explicitly seen for us in Exodus 32. We see God's heart ultimately against idolatry. As we look down to verses 26 through 29, we see what happens in this instance where God is hot with anger, and there's Moses as well. Moses is breaking the tablets, and it comes down to uh who's gonna worship the one true God? Who is uh who is for me, as Moses says. Who is for Yahweh? Let him step forward. Uh, who is on the Lord's side? The tribe of Levi steps forward, the sons gather around Moses, and they receive some brutal instructions from Moses. Uh, I can imagine the people that the sons of Levi slayed that day. Uh I'm imagining them walking through the Red Sea, sitting next to these brothers as they uh ate manna and quail from the Lord, uh, as they drank the water that God provided. Uh, I just think there there was a great heaviness here, um, but ultimately God does not share his glory and God does not does not accept blended worship. And this is a great reminder for us to be careful about the idols that we might construct and and erect in our hearts. God is is strongly against this idol worship, and uh, there's a great encouragement as we look to uh what what comes after, we see the heart of Moses in verse 32. Um, Moses is much like Paul in Romans 9, he is saying, Let me take their place so that these people can have life. They have grieved, they have grieved the Lord, they have sinned uh greatly against him, and Moses's heart for his people, his love for the people of Israel is displayed here. He's saying, If you're gonna forgive them, God, if there's any way that you would you would uh forgive, blot me out of of your book that you have written. In a similar way, Paul is speaking in Romans verses one through three in chapter nine. Paul says, I'm speaking the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Why? For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Paul and Moses are both pleading with the Lord and even interceding for them, saying, like, if it means the end of my life, God, save others, give them life, let them be in your book and take me out. And that's a heavy thing for us to even get our minds around. But these are the words of two men that are known for drawing near to God, have a great love for God. And I think we should take a page out of their book. And as we think about the people that are unsaved in in our families, in our communities, in our in our church, we need to be praying for for people that who don't have a genuine, uh, authentic faith that they would come to the Lord in humility, they would turn from their sin, and they would put their hope and their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. As we look in the rear view at Easter Sunday and Resurrection Sunday, uh, we think about the great work that Christ did and and where he is seated, his glorious ascension and the the work that was accomplished on the cross. There's nothing left to be done. There's nothing we can do to be made acceptable in God's eyes, other than being washed by the blood of Christ and receive the forgiveness that he offers. Walking with the Lord is not always easy, it doesn't come without stress or strain or suffering. Asaph in Psalm 77 is crying out to the Lord, is calling to him in the day of his trouble, and he is acknowledging the restlessness and how his soul is refusing to be comforted. There's this internal turmoil. He's groaning out to the Lord, and as he's even considering, as he's meditating, his spirit is is fainting. Verse 3 My spirit faints. He's acknowledging how he's even being sustained. You are holding my eyelids open, and uh the there's a great trouble. There's not an explicit uh uh note here that get would give us insights as to what's happening in these particular circumstances. We don't have a context here, but we do see how ASAP responds, and it's primarily through reflection. And in verses seven through nine, there are these questions that have an obvious answer. Of course, God's steadfast love has not ceased, it's not run out. There is favor for those who are are found in Christ. Of course, God is continually and eternally gracious, and he is full of compassion, and his promises are steadfast and true. There is this hope that we have as we think about the works of the Lord and his promises. There's this confidence that we have in the strength that will increase as we reflect and meditate on the deeds of the Lord. Verse 11. I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. And there's some song lyrics that come to mind as I read this psalm are the everlasting love of God, and I'll read those to you now. How strong the Father's beating heart for us, what mercy runs to meet the sinner, as rivers yearn to reach the lowest place, his grace shall flow to me forever. How vast the everlasting love of God, how sure and faithful as the morning, this love so great for us could never fail nor end, for it had no beginning. And my encouragement for us today, as we think about how wonderful and amazing, and powerful, and majestic and glorious a God that we serve, I'd like to encourage us to think about the eternal God who never is depleted of his love, never is depleted of his grace or his mercy for his people. And we have this trust and confidence that God's promises are true. They are for us and they are kept in the one who has no beginning and has no end. Well, I hope that's an encouragement for you today. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.