THE STUBBORNNESS OF SINFULNESS

"The Lord also said to Moses: 'I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.' " (Exodus 32:9 HCSB)

It is hard to argue with the diagnosis. The test was complete; the symptoms were obvious. The Physician of impeccable credentials has told Moses that Israel has a disease that is a terminal one--sin.

We read the incident of the golden calf and wonder, "How could they do such a thing?"

God had delivered them with a mighty hand. Just days before, they had been hopeless slaves in Egypt. Then, they saw how God brought judgment after judgment on their oppressors. They had witnessed the Red Sea open before them--a highway for their escape--and seen it close on Pharaoh's charioteers--a graveyard for their enemy. Each night, as they camped, a pillar of fire gave them light and warmth. Each day, as they travelled, a pillar of cloud led them and gave them shade. When they were hungry, God rained down bread from heaven. When they were thirsty, God gave them water from the rock. When they were attacked by the Amalekites, God gave them victory.

How quickly they forgot! How rapidly they fell! How completely they turned!

Moses is on the mountain. He has been there forty days, so they come to Aaron and say, "Make us a god we can worship--a golden calf. Moses is gone. We haven't seen this God he talks to. We need a god. We want a god. How about one like the sacred cows of Egypt?" They willingly donated their jewelry for the raw material.

Moses is meeting with the God who made man, and his people are making a god with their hands. While God is engraving a command on a stone tablet, demanding exclusive worship and forbidding idolatry, the Israelites are dancing in a perverse ritual around an idol!

"He took [the gold] from their hands, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf. Then they said, "Israel, this is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!' " (Exodus 32:4 HCSB)

Such is the stubbornness of sinfulness. They were out of Egypt, but not much of Egypt was out of them.

We are shocked! How could they do such a thing?

Think about this, how can one sing, "Oh, How I Love Jesus," on Sunday, and show love for the world on Monday? How can one bless God in worship at eleven o' clock and curse a waitress at noon? How can I bow my head in prayer in the church house and then fail to speak with God the rest of the week? How can I profess faith in Christ to fellow saints, who know Him, on the Lord's Day and never speak of Him to sinners, who need to know Him, that I see daily?

Supremely, how can I open my Bible and read of Christ's sacrifice for me, my eyes become misty as I contemplate the price He paid for my salvation, pledge my faithfulness to Him--then walk out the door, and into the arms of the world's whoredom--seduced by sin?

We have. We do. We are sinful still. It is a stubborn thing.

God would not be unjust to destroy us all. If we were to be cast into hell, how could we protest what we so demonstrably deserve?

But for one thing.

There was the covenant promise.

God had given His word. Moses, as the mediator lifts up the promise--willing to be blotted out of God's Book, if only Israel would not be--the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their seed would be God's sons. It was a covenant of grace.

That grace cannot be used as a license to sin with impunity--no, no! That doesn't mean there may not be grave consequences. There was severe suffering in the camp as a sentence on stubborn sinfulness. But, it wasn't for the destruction of the nation to cast them into hell. It was for the discipline of the nation to cleanse them for heaven.

God does that still. He disciplines His disobedient children--but, He never disowns them!

We have a better Mediator than Moses. There is a Lamb superior to the lambs offered as a sin offering in Israel. Whereas, Moses couldn't suffer judgment in their stead, there is One who came and received God's wrath as our Substitute--not only willing as Moses was, but qualified--as Moses was not. It is an unbreakable, unalterable covenant ratified forever in the blood of Jesus Christ!

Sin is a stubborn thing.

God's grace is--may we say--even more stubborn!

"The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more." (Romans 5:20 HCSB). Mount Calvary supersedes Mount Sinai!

The tests reveal our sin sickness is terminal--if left untreated. There is only one cure. Jesus Christ, the Great Physician has prescribed it in His cross!

It is echoed in a stanza of the precious hymn, "My Faith Has Found a Resting Place":

"My great Physician heals the sick,

The lost He came to save;

For me His precious blood He shed,

For me His life He gave.

I need no other argument,

I need no other plea;

It is enough that Jesus died,

And that He died for me." (Lidie H. Edmunds)