Israel Descends into Idolatry: A Lesson in Faithfulness
The story of Israel's descent into idolatry serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of forsaking God for false idols. Through the painful consequences of their actions, we learn the importance of remaining faithful and not letting worldly distractions take precedence over our relationship with God.
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ISRAEL DESCENDS INTO IDOLATRY TEXT: Exodus 32:1-35, 33:1-23
MEMORY VERSE And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have themselves.Exodus 32:7 corrupted
INTRODUCTION IDOLATRY is loving any other person or thing above or beside God. It also means showing adoration, praise or worship of any other person or thing other than GodAlmighty. In the olden days, out of foolishness or spiritual blindness, people gathered sticks, designed them in human form and bowed down to worship them. Can sticks or stones hear,speak or move? The answer is NO!! The Bible expressed in Psalm 115:4-8 the foolishness of worshipping idols. Idols are the works of man s hands as we can see in our Bible passage.
INTRODUCTION CONTD Aaron asked the people to bring their earrings, collected them and cast them into fire to form an image. The image they formed with their own hands is what they referred to as their god. What foolishness! The children of Israel were people of God from Abraham s family, but they corrupted themselves by worshipping idols. God was unhappy with them. Boys and girls should learn this and not allow anything (fashion, games, friends, academics, ambition, etc.) to take the place of God in their heart.
Our study is in three parts: 1. PAINFUL DESCENT INTO THE SIN OF IDOLATRY 2. PUNISHMENT IDOLATRY FOR THE SIN OF 3. PLEA PARDON FROMA LOVING GOD OF A TRUE LEADER AND
1. PAINFUL DESCENT INTO THE SIN OF IDOLATRY: Exodus 32:1-6,15-25;Psalm 115:4-8 DESCENT means the act of going down from top to bottom. In this study, descent is used to describe the shameful action of the children of Israel whereby they quickly forgot their privilege position as God s people. They forsook God s way and made idols to be their god. Moses, the leader of the Israelites had gone to the mountain to meet with God. The people expected his return and felt that he had delayed. As a result, they forgot about God and Moses who brought them out of Egypt and asked Aaron to make them gods (Exodus 32:1).
1. PAINFUL DESCENT INTO THE SIN OF IDOLATRY CONT D The people of God fell from grace to grass. Imagine somebody on a high mountain falling down from the top to the ground. What a disaster! This was the situation of the children of Israel; they brought themselves so low by worshipping a lifeless idol, the work of their own hands. What a shame! (Exodus 32:25). This was very painful to God and to Moses, their leader. Boys and girls who are friends of Jesus should not do anything that will bring shame to the name of God or to their leaders and their parents.
1. PAINFUL DESCENT INTO THE SIN OF IDOLATRY CONT D Today, we must avoid anything that can bring pain to the heart of God and our leaders. The action of the children of Israel was an outright disobedience to the first of the Ten Commandments that God gave them (Exodus 20:3-5). Children should not in any way disobey the word of God so as not to come under God s divine judgment.
2. PUNISHMENT FOR THE SIN OF IDOLATRY: Exodus 32:7-10, 19-28, 33-35; 33:1-5 God was not happy with the children of Israel because they made an idol to worship. Because of this He pronounced judgment on them: i. God planned to destroy them completely. ii. Moses was unhappy with them; he burnt the molten calf, ground it to powder, mixed it with water and forced them to drink it. iii.Moses instructed the Levites who volunteered to be on the side of the Lord to go through the camp with their swords, killing about three thousand men.
2. PUNISHMENT FOR THE SIN OF IDOLATRY CONT D. The sin of idolatry brought God s displeasure, plagues and death upon the people of God. Boys and girls should understand that sin brings destruction to sinners. Even though God is merciful, He is a consuming fire and He is angry with the sinner (Heb. 12:29). Therefore, you must not yield to any temptation to sin against God.
3. PLEA OF A TRUE LEADER AND PARDON FROM A LOVING GOD: Exodus 32:11-14, 31-32; 33:13-17 Moses demonstrated that he is a true leader as he pleaded with God to forgive the children of Israel their sins. God promised to forgive for the sake of Moses; therefore, they were not completely destroyed. However, children should understand that God demands personal repentance from the sinner for individual salvation. Even if your parent or leader prays for you, you need to go to God personally, have sorrow for your sins, sincerely confess them to God, repent from all sins and forsake them in order to receive forgiveness and mercy from the Lord. Also, born-again children should pray for sinful children so that they can repent and receive forgiveness and salvation.
QUESTIONS: 1) __________ was the leader of the children of Israel. 2) What did the children of Israel do when Moses went up to the mountain to meet with God? 3) Anything that we love above God is an idol. Yes/No? 4) God is unhappy with every sinner. True or False? 5) Who pleaded with God to forgive the children of Israel? 6) God demands personal repentance from the sinner. True or False?
LESSON: Idolatry is a sin that leads to eternal death. THOUGHT: I will never serve idols. ACTIVITY: Prayer session children should be led in prayers of repentance and consecration.
CONGREGATIONAL SONG: GHS 40 WASH ME, O LAMB OF GOD CHORUSES: i. From east to west, no other God. ii. I will not serve man-made gods. iii. I will never, never go back to the world.
REFERENCES: 1. https://clipground.com/images/people-singing-clipart-4.jpg 2. https://cdn.quotesgram.com/small/18/0/232463710-question_and_answer.png 3. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Worshiping_the_golden_calf.jpg 4. https://cdn.door43.org/obs/jpg/360px/obs-en-20-05.jpg 5. https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/78/590x/secondary/Moses-was-enraged-when- he-found-the-Israelites-worshipping-an-idol-2207501.jpg?r=1575944551315 6. https://www.gospelimages.com/images/content/paintings/84/image_the_golden_calf_- _gospel_images_normal.jpg 7. https://i.pinimg.com/474x/c4/31/5c/c4315c4f72ad538b01fd2003ca437848--kinh-th%C3%A1nh- moses-crafts.jpg 8. https://thinkaboutsuchthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/003-moody-moses-red-sea.jpg
