Bahan Alkitab: Exodus 32 – 34
Tanggal: 15/11/2020
Ringkasan:
Bible Truth: Although God’s people broke their promise to obey Him, God didn’t break His promise to be their God.
Lesson focus: God loves us and forgives our sins.
Moses went up to Mount Sinai to meet God. He was gone for a long time and there was no sign of Moses. The Israelites began to wonder what was taking him so long. Some of them grumbled and complained then said to Aaron: “Moses led us out of Egypt but we don’t know what has happened to him. Make us gods we can see and who will lead us.”
Aaron didn’t do what was right, he asked the Israel people to give him all their gold jewelry, he melted it in the fire and made a golden calf. Then the people said: ‘These are your gods who brought you up out of Egypt’. Then Aaron built an altar in front of the calf then told them that tomorrow will be a special feast to honor God.
God saw that Israelites had broken the covenant, they disobeyed His commandments (you shall have no other God before Me; you shall not make yourself an idol, you shall not bow down or serve them!). He wanted to destroy the Israelites. But Moses prayed and begged God not to destroy them and asked God to remember the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and God pulled back his strong anger.
Moses went down and carrying the tablets of stone – on them God had written down the Ten Commandments. When Moses saw the people worshipping the golden calf, he was so angry and threw the tablets and they broke into pieces.
Moses destroyed the calf and asked Aaron why he led the people into such great sin? Moses asked them, those who want to follow the Lord, come and stand by me. All the family of Levi gathered around Moses then he asked Levi to go through the camp and kill those who had trusted in the golden calf instead of in the God of Israel. The Levites obeyed Moses and killed 3,000 Israelites that day.
The next day, Moses said to them that they have sinned a great sin and Moses will go up to ask for the atonement of the Israelites’ sin. He prayed and asked God to forgive their sin – Moses even pleaded if God would not forgive them then just punish Moses instead. Moses foreshadowed Christ who turned away God’s wrath and judgment by turning it on Himself on the cross. God kindly forgave the people but He punished them by sending a plaque which made the people very sick. Once again, God wrote His commandments on two new tablets of stone and gave them to Moses to take them down for the people.
Even though the Israelites had broken their promise to serve and worship God alone, God did not forget His promise to be their God. He saved them and kept His promise to love, lead, and care for them though He also punished them for their sin.
Lessons learned:
• God’s commandment: You shall have no other god besides Me! Do not make or worship idols!
• God is the Creator. He is the One and Only God whom we should worship! But because of sin, humans could worship other gods or idols.
• God wants us to worship HIM alone according to His Word or way; to put Him first and love Him best!
• The Israelites broke God’s law, disobeyed Him, and when they were sorry, GOD FORGAVE them but GOD still PUNISHED them.
• God kept His promise – sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.
Ayat Hafalan:
Exodus 20:2a
And God spoke…..”I AM the LORD, your GOD.”