Dont Worship the The Golden Calf

The Golden Calf

⁷ Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you. ⁹ When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

¹¹ At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

¹³ And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! ¹⁴ Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

Isaiah 44: God’s Judgement on Idol Worship

The first part of Isa 44 is about God’s grace and His love for His chosen people Israel (Isa 44:1-5). This week’s topic, however, is about God’s judgement on Idol worship so we are going to start at Isa 44:6.

The following section is a cap to the argument presented in the last four chapters (Isa 42:10-44:22) that God alone is sovereign, able to deliver His people, and chooses to show grace to His chosen people. The cap is a highly-detailed expose of the foolishness of idolatry and the whole worldview that idolatry comes from. Oswalt says the following about this section in the Isaiah 40-66 NICOT commentary:

“In its pungent detail it is the most extensive example of the characteristic of the book that I have called the graphic summary. Instead of a logically developed summation in which previous points are enumerated, the author paints a detailed picture whereby he appeals to the imagination to drive the final nail of persuasion. Here, when he has finished his sarcastic picture, it is simply unthinkable to compare these gods to God.[1]”

“The diatribe here reflects the trajectory that has developed in the earlier ones. Initially, the case against the idol gods was focused on their inability to explain the meaning of the past and tell the future (41:21–29). In the second presentation of the case (43:8–13), another element was added: their inability to save their people or prevent Yahweh from saving his people from them. Now in this third presentation, although their inability to predict the future takes first place (44:7–8), it is quickly succeeded by their inability to save, and that issue takes up the rest of the case. [2]”

God Will Judge The Wicked

You can’t fool the Lord. God will judge the wicked. He is Holy, righteous and just. The Lord is all powerful, all knowing and ever present. God cannot tolerate sin and He does punish sin. Even though you may think that you are “getting away” with your sins, you are not. God knows all, sees all and will punish all; all those who refuse to repent and trust Jesus. 

The wicked will be judged by God. Listen to Jeremiah 1:14-16: Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.