By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
October 22, 2023
Click here to join our Meeting for Worship
Exodus 33:12–23 (ESV)
12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” 17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
Last week we sat with Israel as they made one of their gravest errors. Last week we observed the children of Israel look not to the Lord, but to the gods of the nations for comfort in their distress. They were scared and alone. They had spent a month without a leader, shortly after they had heard the very voice of God give them wisdom from on high, and they turned away.
We often look at the children of Israel in wonder. We look at them and we begin to judge them. We ask, “How could they?” Maybe you do not have those thoughts, but I do. How could they seemingly turn their back on the Most High God of the universe, when they had witnessed what they had? They watched the greatest empire of the world submit to the deity of the slaves. They watch this God perform miracles that even to this day science cannot explain so they say it must be a legend. Yet, Israel walked out of Egypt. Something happened. Sure, it could have been multiple factors coming together to create the perfect opportunity for the entire slave class within that ancient culture to walk away from their oppressors without challenge. We can say that because we can look back in the pages of history, we can see it within the dusty trenches of the archaeologist, and on the pages of scripture that in the bronze age something happened within the ancient world that caused a global collapse. And after that global collapse, Israel emerged.
We can look at the history books, but even the greatest historians cannot explain how or why that collapse occurred. They have theories, they have ideas that they cannot prove, they have issues with their ideas because like so many people, they cannot admit that maybe there was something more going on. That maybe God.
We judge Israel. We judge them because they saw something amazing happen, and they turned away.
I spoke last week about the golden image they created. I probably confused and scared some of you by saying that the image they made was the image of El, and then I equated El with Yahweh. I mentioned this to show each of us how interconnected and similar the stories of Israel and that of the world can be. El in the world was a far-off god that did not associate with humanity directly but worked through lessor gods that ruled over the nations. That was the world view of Ur, of Cannan, of Egypt, of the Norse, and pretty much every polytheistic religion that has ever existed. This was the faith, the worldview that even Abraham had prior to his journey. God was far off, the Most High God did not interact with humanity. We look at these religious traditions as being pagan and wrong, but I do want us to look beyond. God was far off. God did remove himself from most of humanity, he removed himself because we walked away from him. We walked away and we replaced his ways with something else. And the forces of evil that initiated the turning of our first parents set themselves up over various nations and people. These nations were guided by these evil influences and gladly warred with one another as they sought wealth, power, and a name.
We judge Israel, for their turning. But we are no different.
They turned back to the world they knew. They returned to a place of comfort. They faced in their future something they could not explain, something they could not control, and they were afraid. In their fear many returned to the old stories, the easy stories. The stories that allowed them to seek wealth, power, and a name through their own strength. Aaron saw this as he stood before the people making their demands. And Aaron proceeded to build what they demanded.
We judge Israel, and we judge Aaron. But I know and have experienced that pull. I have stood alone when everything around me seems to go off the deep end, people that I have respected seem to turn their back on the faith they once taught me. I have watched as those that once inspired were bent to conform and appease the fear ridden crowd. Some of you might even see that in me because we are human.
One among many. One voice in a crowd. One leaf blowing in the winds of time.
God saw Israel that day, and he told Moses that he was going to give up once again. Moses began to pray for his people. Moses reminded God of God’s own words. Remember Abraham, Moses said. Remember Isaac. Remember Jacob. You told Abraham that you would make him into a great nation, that they would be like the stars in the sky. Remember what you said you would do if he followed you. Moses knew the stories; he even knew the pagan stories. El was a far off god that did not associate with his creation, until El spoke to Abraham, until God chose that one seemingly worthless person that did not have a name or an heir to be his people. We often look at this story and we build theology around it. Some will say that God changed his mind, and others will say that God never changes His mind. I say it does not really matter if He does or does not because we cannot fully know the mind of God. What does matter is that God caused Moses, no God compelled Moses to remember.
Moses walked down the mountain, and he saw what had happened to the nation. He gazed upon the people that were called to be God’s people a holy nation gathered to be the light of the nations. He looked at them and what he saw was a nation of people fading into the masses. Returning to the world.
Moses was enraged. He threw down the stone tablets God had etched the ten words or lessons on, and he burned the golden calf and ground it to a powder. Then he gathered the tribe of Levi, the tribe that was dedicated to the service of God and he sent them to the camp gates, and throughout the camp and they waged war with themselves.
This scene breaks my heart. God’s people divided, God’s people slaughtering each other in the name of God. God’s people in chaos.
We look at this and some may find it inspiring, but it is not. God told Moses that he was going to blot out the people for their sin, Moses begged God for mercy and God apparently changed his mind. But then Moses took up the sword in God’s name. God granted mercy, but humanity did not extend the mercy. I understand why Moses did what he did. I can even justify it in my own mind. God did not tell Moses to take up the sword, Moses in his own jealousy and rage did that himself. God had chosen mercy, Moses chose vengeance.
Was the battle necessary? We cannot fully say yes or no to that. We often look at the world around us and we use our own wisdom and cunning to make those judgements. What we do know is that Israel now had knowledge of sin, they knew what God required and they had become aware of the consequences of sin. Moses knew that they were all nearly annihilated, but the people at the base of the mountain did not know the extent of their transgression. The wage of sin is death, separation.
I am not condemning Moses. Moses is a man just like each of us. He was a man whose desire is to please the God he loves. He acted no differently than most of us would have acted, and in that time and place the sword was most likely the easiest tool to use to teach the lesson that needed to be learned. But that lesson weighed heavy on the people, even on Moses.
Moses returns to the mountain to ask for atonement, he confessed their sin, he begged for forgiveness, and he even offered himself in exchange for the people. God responds to Moses. God says that he will indeed blot out those that have sinned, and that Moses should go. But when he said to go, something changed. God seemed a bit more distant than before. God does not say I will go with you, he says my angel will go with you.
This might seem odd, but before in the Exodus accounts the writer uses the phrase Angel of the Lord, or Angel of God but there is a difference in how the words are used in this case. Moses noticed the difference. Before God was with them, now after this grave sin, it seems as if God is again distant. Moses accepts this judgement. He walks down to the camp; a plague hits the camp and many die. There is heaviness in the camp. They know something has changed, they know they had taken as step away from God, they know a mistake has been made. God commanded that they go, but Moses could not bring himself to move.
He enters the tent of meeting, and he prays. “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.”
“That I may know you…” This phrase became the focus of my contemplations this week. This simple phrase carries a lot of weight. It is the difference between those that are focused on the world and the righteous. The people focused on the world act as if they possess the knowledge, that they have the power and strength in themselves. While the righteous seek, search, and examine. The people of the world act seemingly without thought, whereas the righteous will often struggle to act.
That I may know you is a phrase that recognizes a position of submission. If we were to look to the nations of the ancient world, the leaders within were often regarded as the offspring of the gods. Pharaoh was a god king. The leaders of Babylon and Persia would often be called the king of kings and lord of lords, and the people would follow their name with the phrase, “Live forever.” We even see this within CS Lewis’s chronicles of Narnia, some might see this a bit racist, but I believe Lewis was making a greater statement about the kingdoms of the world and the kingdom of God. To say live forever, one must regard that person as greater than a mere human. They are divine in origin. Moses is the spokesman of God in this nation, Moses could so easily slip into the very same position among the people as Pharaoh was to Egypt. He is the voice of God, but Moses does not take that position lightly, he instead takes a submissive approach. That I may know you.
This is the difference between the ways of the world and the character of the righteous. The world seeks things for themselves, but true righteousness loves God with all that they are and loves their neighbor. True righteousness does not seek glory for themselves, but instead seeks the wellbeing of and justice for the people around them.
It is extremely difficult to live this lifestyle. It is difficult because we are afraid. We fear the things we do not know. We are afraid that the people around us will not live as we do, and if they do not live by the same standard, will I be taken advantage of? Will I be lumped in with the unrighteous that live within our community? Will I…notice the focus. Our fears are often based on I and not us.
God understands this fear we have. The people were afraid of being alone in the wilderness and they demanded that Aaron make gods to lead them because they did not know what had happened to Moses. Aaron was afraid of the people so he built the statue even though he knew what the people would do with it. Moses was afraid, even though God had announced his mercy toward the rebellious people, so he commanded that the lives of those that turned away from God be removed from their camp. And today we see more uncertainty.
As humans we fear a great deal. It is not a sin to fear, just as it is not a sin to be angry, or to have desires. Sin enters when we begin to let the emotions lead us to a place we should not venture. Moses is just as human as us, he is afraid and has uncertainty. At times he let the fear get ahold of him and he reacted in violence. When Moses lashed out in anger, when he led the people of Levi to become the judge of the people, he bore the name of God in vain and did not honor the lives of fellow image bearers. We justify this action because he did this in a quest of honoring God. We can in our righteous fervor, fall into sin just as easily as those that seek only selfish desires. We do this when we fail to love our neighbors. We see this every day on the news. We see it in the wars that are waged between nations. We see it when labor strikes happen because management and the workers cannot come to an agreement. We see it when the addict harms the ones closest to them and when we fail to help those that are held in bondage to an addiction.
We can justify our action. We can even quote scripture to support our behaviors. But are we honoring God?
Moses was told to lead the people away from the mountain of God in Sinani. And Moses was afraid. He knew that God had been angry, that a wedge was once again place between God and Israel. God had said that his angel would accompany them, but would God be with them? This time the Moses took the emotions of uncertainty to God. He seeks God, he even expresses his emotions in a manner we might see as disrespectful toward God. “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’” Moses lets God know his uncertainty and his concern.
“Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.” Moses knows that even he, the one to whom God called to be his spokesman to the nation, has failed to live up to the standard of God’s lessons that were given at Sinani. He knows that Israel failed as a nation mere days after they proclaimed their faith in God, and he knows that he is among those that failed. “Show me now your ways,” He pleas, “that I may know you.”
His greatest desire is to know God as God knows him. His greatest desire it to lead the people in a way that will honor them as image bearers of God, and so that when he is among them, he will encourage them to greater devotion to God. He then says something profound, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
What makes the people of God different from all nations on the earth? What gives them distinction? In the ancient world views of the region every nation had a servant of the Most High God that would lead the people. A mere angel guiding them would make them just another nation among many. The difference is if the Most High God goes with them. Moses does not only want to have knowledge of God, but he also wants to interact and build a relationship with God. He wants God to live with them, and he wants to know God.
God with us is the desire of Moses. Emmanuel. This is the desire of each of us here today. We want to know God and we want to be known by God. We want God with us. But these are words written thousands of years ago. They look forward to Jesus, and now we are thousands of years beyond the Ascension of Christ. Yet our desire to know God and to be known by God remains. We, like Moses, cry out to bear witness of God’s glory. But often we are gripped by fear. Often, we cannot see God through the various failures of our nation and the nations around us. We cry out that Christ will return and renew and restore Eden.
We have these desire but what is God calling us to do? What is God encouraging us to do? He is not calling us to war. He is not calling us to force righteousness onto the world. He is calling us to abide with him. He is calling us to love God with all that we have and all that we are, and to love our neighbors. He is calling us to live with him, to know him and his ways, and to bear or take that into the world today. What gives us distinction? What sets us apart from the kingdoms of this world? It is how we live with others. It is living out the commands, the lessons that God set before us. It is Loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit and living the love of Christ with others. It is knowing God and knowing that of God in even those who oppose us.
As we consider Moses’s prayer, I want us to make it our own. I want us to seek God’s ways and desire to know him as he knows us. I want us to seek to see his glory here in this community and ask for eyes to see and hears to hear. I want us to pray that we become a people focused on loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others.
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 05, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili John 20:1–18 (ESV) 1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 29, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 3: Do you attend regularly the services of your church and participate in them actively? Do you prayerfully endeavor to minister, under the guidance of the Holy…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 15, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Ephesians 5:8–14 (ESV) 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit…
To Donate to Willow Creek Friends Church Click here:
To donate directly to Pastor Warner click here:
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
October 15, 2023
Click here to join our Meeting for Worship
Exodus 32:1–14 (ESV)
1 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.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 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!” 5 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.” 6 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. 7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 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.” 11 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? 12 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. 13 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 that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Last week we spoke about the lessons from God. I focused this discussion on the relationship of God to the people and what that means to us. We are the image of God that he places in the center of his garden temple. When we see the person sitting next to us, our minds should be directed to the one who fashioned that unique being out of the dust of the earth. I have reflected on this all week. I have reflected on the image of God that each of us bear. I have considered how often I have bore that image in vain, as I have become angry at the behavior another image bearer has done. I became angry and I realized that I have failed to bear the image I poses with proper reverence.
Over the years my faith has evolved. When I was a young adult, I once thought that I had a handle on what the Christian life truly was. I remember we had a bible quiz representative from the Yearly Meeting come visit our Meeting and everyone competed against each other. For those of you that may not know when students enter middle school, they can compete with the other Meetings within our region in Bible Quiz tournaments. I am not sure as to how they are conducted because I grew up in a small meeting where we did not have enough students to form a team, and I have only served in meetings that are also smaller.
But this Quiz representative came to allow us to compete as a local meeting. Adults versus the students, parents against children, siblings against siblings. We had buzzer that lit up when pressed, and I thought we were on Jeopardy. Yes, that was the big game show back home because we only had three channels if we were lucky, and Jeopardy was the only quiz show I knew.
They began reading off the questions and I got in a zone. Round after round we would be tested on our Biblical knowledge. And I excelled. The final round was me against the father of my closest friend from church. We had defeated the clerk of the meeting, we overpowered even the pastor, and now it was me and Jerry facing off. Two quiet and contemplative guys. And I won. I knew scripture. I have read scripture my entire life. As soon as I was able to read, I wanted to know what was in scripture and I completely read the bible before most kids would pick up chapter books.
I knew scripture, but I did not understand. I would go around thinking I knew something, but then I took a trip to Ukraine, and I met people that had a different understanding of scripture than I did. They used the same scriptures and came to completely different conclusions than I did. And suddenly I was faced with a dilemma, who is right? Which of us is wrong? Could it be possible that we are both correct and the only difference is the cultural context?
This is when my faith evolution began. Today we might call this process deconstruction. If I am honest it started before, I went to Ukraine, but that was pulling me away from God, my experience in Ukraine urged me return to God. How can we look at the same scripture and come to different conclusions? I was taught that scripture was the book of answers, and these devout Ukrainian Orthodox Christians were completely fine with not understanding. I thought our faith had to be rational, and they embraced the mystery of God.
I began to see things a bit different and as I explored this aspect of faith, I began to see that scripture often asks more questions than it gives answers. And sometime the answers it seems to give only begin the process of greater discovery.
This is what is going on in Sinai. Israel has spent four hundred years in slavery. They had stories of their fathers, but in their minds, in their spirits, and in their bodies, they were slaves. They longed for freedom, but this was only a dream. In their mind liberty was like heaven to us. It was something we only received in the afterlife. It was out there beyond the veil of life, not a present reality. Then suddenly they were free. A miracle occurred and they walked out of the land of bondage into the wilderness. The problem now is they did not know how to live.
They existed in a place between. They were no longer slaves, but they were also not able to live free. We know places like this. Adolescence is this. College is this. Courtship with our romantic interests is a place between. We are moving toward the goal, but we are not quite there. This is Israel in the wilderness. They thought they were a nation, just like teenage boys think they are men, but they do not know the full reality of what that means. There are lessons that need to be learned.
They gathered at the base of the mountain, and the clouds rolled in. They could hear the rumbles of thunder; they could see flashes of light. There was an eerie yet inviting presence. They were comfortable and panicked at the same moment. And then out of the cloud they hear a voice. This voice gives them ten words, or ten lessons. They are astonished. They accept the invitation to become the people that would follow this voice, but they are also afraid. They send Moses their leader to be their representative because they believe they needed an intermediary lest they die before this powerful being.
Moses tells them that he is going up the mountain, he advises them to not even touch the stones as he makes this journey. He goes away, leaving them alone in the wilderness for forty days. God has just spoke to them from the clouds and the one person they trusted has left them on their own.
I often marvel at the lack of faith Israel exhibits at this point. They observed ten plagues, they walked across a sea on dry ground, they watched as the greatest army in the world was annihilated in an instant. They saw bread come from heaven, and they heard the voice of God. This all occurs in the span of a couple of months, but then their leader walks away for a few days, well a month, and suddenly they are filled with fear and uncertainty.
“Up, make us gods who shall go before us,” they say to Aaron the priest. “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.”
How quickly they turn. They have seen and experienced the most magnificent events a human being could imagine, and now they are ready to turn away. “Make us gods.” They cry out to the man who has dedicated his life and connected his life to the unseen realm.
Through the years, I have listened to several messages using this passage. In nearly all those sermons, they focused on Aaron and his supposed failures. This has always struck me as odd. If Aaron had committed some infraction at this point, there should have been consequences. If we are to read deeper into the history of Israel, Aaron’s sons were killed by God because they introduced strange fire into the tabernacle. If strange fire could bring death, one would think the construction of a golden calf or bull would have been worse. I sat with this for a while, years to be honest. We like to blame Aaron, we like to point to Aaron as being weak, we like to think if Moses would have left them with a stronger leader none of this would have happened.
Moses is up on the mountain while Aaron is down among the multitude. A multitude of thousands of angry and scared people. Have you ever been in a place like that? Have you ever been one among many? It is difficult to stand alone when everyone around you seems to oppose everything you think is important. We can say Aaron is weak all we want, but we need to remember Aaron was human.
Aaron looks at this multitude of people. They are in a panic, afraid that they have been left in this wilderness alone. Aaron tells them to take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and daughters, and bring them to him. Just a quick side note, the Israelite sons are on the list of having earrings, just in case one of your children wants one and you find it to be taboo. They gather the gold and bring it to Aaron. Aaron takes this gold and fashions it with a graving tool and makes a gold calf.
We might wonder why Aaron decided to make a calf or a bull, and rightfully so. Images are important. The tribes of Israel were not a people that formed in isolation. They lived among other cultures, and other religions. All these various ideas have been part of their life to this point. The cultures in the ancient lands were connected through trade and when people engage in trade, they often share stories. We also know that Abraham came from one of the first great civilizations, Ur.
Much of what we read in the Old Testament is not unique to Israel. Many of the ideas and concepts are present in most of the ancient texts within the region. One of those stories from the land of Ur, is about a God named El. El was the father of the gods. El created the world but after he created the world he divided the nations among his seventy children, and then El went off and was basically never heard from again. And among the people of Ur and most of the land of Canaan they devoted their worship to the son of El name Baal. Each son of El was given a nation and as these nations warred against each other their national deity gained prominence.
I mention this because El simply means God. Words like Elohim are connected to this word. Beth-el where Jacob saw the stairway to heaven means house of God. El in Ur was the most high god that did not interact with humanity, but in the Hebrew scripture we are given a slightly different story. We are told in the Hebrew scripture that God created the heavens and the earth. That God placed humanity in a garden temple, and that humanity desired knowledge so they ate of the tree God told them to avoid. Because of this they were banished from the Garden. After the failure in the Garden, we are told that the daughters of men found favor with the sons of god and they had children with one another, and because of this God became angry. This prompted God to find the only righteous man on the face of the earth and he encouraged this man to build a boat, because God was about to flood the entire earth. After the flood the children of humanity again grew and expanded, and they desired to make a name for themselves so they built a tower that would reach the heavens. This tower we know as Babel. And after Babel God divided the nations and confused their languages. And Moses tells us in Deuteronomy that God divided the nations among the sons of god, interestingly there were seventy nations.
It is odd that the religion of Ur and that of the Hebrews seems to resemble each other to this point. The difference is that people of the nations like those of Canaan only had access to Baal a son of El, where Israel worshiped the God of creation, the God that divided the nations and kept them as an inheritance.
El the distant unknown God among the nations, is the God of Israel, and his name is I Am, or Yahweh. Aaron knows this story. It was something that had been passed on to him from the teachings of his father. But Aaron also knows that his countrymen are also aware of the countless other stories that they have encountered over the generations. El is and is not their God, because El is also part of other religious traditions. And in the most common tradition they came across in Canaan, El was represented by a bull. The bull is common in ancient religions. A bull represents strength and fertility, it thunders with anger and can also be gentle enough to pet.
But there is more to this image. When Jacob was near his end, he called his sons to him to give them his blessing. In these various blessings you will find descriptive words used. Reuben was turbulent as water. Judah was a lion, Issachar was a rawboned donkey, Dan was a viper, Naphtali was a deer, and Benjamin was a wolf. We often describe ourselves and our loved ones in terms like this, I do not know if I would want to have my father call me a rawboned donkey, but we use these descriptions as terms of endearment. When it came to the blessing of Joseph many things were said. He was wheat and grapes on a vine. But Joseph received the double inheritance of the first born, so when it came to blessings Jacob blessed both of Joseph’s sons along with Joseph. We later learn that one of these sons was referend to as a bull and the other a unicorn.
We look at the activity going on here, and we often see this as Aaron succumbing to peer pressure. And in a way he is, but the fact that God does not curse Aaron should cause us to pause. God watched as these things were happening and he says to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.”
Aaron listened to the crowd, and he made an image. And the people took that image and said, “These are your gods, O Israel.” But what does Aaron do? He built an altar before it and made a proclamation, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”
There is a great deal going on in this one passage. So much that we must slow down and take a deeper look. Aaron made a calf, and he made an altar. It appears that Aaron is leading the people toward unrighteousness, but Aaron is also doing something else. While “They” proclaim that the image is their gods, Aaron does not. This week I watched a video about this scene that contained commentary by a rabbi. This Rabbi spent time focused on the word they. And he connected this word with the words that God spoke to Moses, the people you brought out of Egypt. Notice God said the people Moses brought not the people God brought out of Egypt. There is a division here. This Rabi explained the scene as if there are two groups within the camp, those that follow God and those that do not, he said that along with Israel there were magicians from Egypt that tagged along. This division is highlighted by the words that Aaron speaks right after they proclaimed the bull to be their gods. Aaron does not say that the bull is their god, but he says, “Tomorrow we will have a feast to the Lord.” The word for Lord here is Yahweh, not El.
El is and is not the God of Israel. Those that follow the religions of the world, see El as this far off God that has nothing to do with them, but Israel see their God as being with them. Ur regards this creature as simply god, El, but Israel knows El’s name Yahweh, I Am.
The people come to Aaron, in fear and concern. They are left alone in the wilderness, and they need something to give them hope. Aaron knows what is going on. He tells them to give him the jewelry, and he patiently carves and fashions a bull. While he is doing this work, I imagine he recounts the stories they all knew. He makes clay and tells them of how God created, he explains how God fashioned us in His image as he molds the clay. He speaks about the trials they faced as they lived in Egypt as he hammers out the sheets of gold. And when it is finished, he hangs his head as they take his words out of context.
Aaron made the image. But he was not condemned. He was not condemned because he did not make the image for them to worship. They did that themselves. “I have seen this people,” God says to Moses. A people that says one thing but lives another. A people that listens but hears only what they want to hear. And this struggle follows Israel the rest of their lives, it follows through the generations. And even to us today.
I know what Aaron felt, because I too am in a position where I am one person surrounded by a multitude, as we all are. So often we look at the world and we are afraid. Aaron made a bull, but he did not make an idol. He fashioned a choice. Will you follow the gods of the world, or will you feast with the Lord? So many of our religious traditions are empty images. Things that could be used to bring us closer to God, yet so often we do not want to go there. We so often do not want a loving God; we instead want a God that will judge those we see as enemies. We do not want a God of grace but a god of vengeance. We want, we see, we find people that will speak the words we desire, and we will twist our faith to include them and their teaching as holy. But God has seen this people. We are not listening. We are unwilling to change. We demand that they perform for us and then we judge them for being human. I stood in the place Aaron stood. And I like Aaron often feel inadequate, because I know that I cannot command any of you to believe the words I say. But there is one thing I can do; “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” I can live my life devoted to God. I can live and so can you.
As we go into this period of contemplation, I want us to consider how we have judged Aaron in this passage. And I also want us to consider the people Aaron faced. I also want us to consider our own lives. Have we listened? Have we followed? Or have we taken the name of God in vain? Do our words and our actions resemble one another, or are they disconnected?
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 22, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 5:12–19 (ESV) 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 15, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 2 Peter 1:16–21 (ESV) 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 8, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship 1 Corinthians 2 (ESV) 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you…
To Donate to Willow Creek Friends Church Click here:
To donate directly to Pastor Warner click here:
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
October 8, 2023
Click here to join our Meeting for Worship
Exodus 20:1–20 (ESV)
1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 13 “You shall not murder. 14 “You shall not commit adultery. 15 “You shall not steal. 16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” 18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”
The Ten Commandments, what goes through your mind when you hear those words? What do we think of when we hear things like, “You shall have no, or you shall not have?” For most of us we would say these are negative statements. They are restrictive, they are demands, or maybe they are rules. We tend to view rules in a negative sense, but the writers of the Old Testament praise these commandments as being life giving not restricting. I think this is largely because of language.
What we see as commandments, they saw as words or teachings. We see rules, they see guidance. We see law, they see conversation.
I want us to reflect on this for a moment. Are these words law dictated from the very mouth of God, or is it God teaching us what it means to be fully human? How we view this determines how we approach God, and our understanding of the Christian lifestyle.
In Carmen Joy Imes’ book “Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters“, she states, “The English word ‘law’ is both too narrow and too misleading to accurately translate the Hebrew word torah. It is better translated as ‘instruction.’”[1] She goes on to say, “Scholars studying ancient cultures are beginning to recognize that ancient laws were often hypothetical, rather than legislative.”[2] Imes is telling us that these lists of ancient laws were often seen by the ancient cultures, as statements of wisdom, they were given as guidance to the interactions between various parties Torah, or the books of the Law, are written to direct our thinking in a situation, instead of legislative law as we see in western cultures.
When we look at these commands, these instructions, or teachings, the first thing I want us to reflect on is not the law itself, but the first couple of verses. “And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.’”
God is reminding them of who they are, who he is, and their life together. And he reminds them all with his own voice. The wording here is such that as the people camped along the base of the mountain, dark clouds gathered around the peak, and these words were spoken not just to Moses, but all of Israel. God spoke these words directly to them all. We sometimes overlook this because we are used to God speaking through people like the prophets. When this is the case, the writing usually says something to the effect, “Thus saith the Lord.” This is not the case here, it simply says, “And God spoke all these words.” He said them not through Moses, or even Aaron but through his own voice. “I am the Lord your God, who brough you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
God begins by reminding the tribes of Israel of who he is. “I am.” He reminds them of who they were, slaves in Egypt. And who they are now because of him, freed slaves. They are free people because of God, and because God brought them out of the house of slavery he gives you guidance, ten words of wisdom that will provide instruction as you move into this new life of liberty.
God begins with grace; he always begins with grace. He reminds them that they were once slaves but because of his intervention they are now free people. The problem is they had been slaves for four hundred years, they do not know how to live as free people.
We saw this a couple of weeks ago, when Israel complained that they were hungry. They longed to go back to Egypt because in Egypt they had food, they ate bread to their full and sat by meat pots. But here in the desert they are starving. They did not see what freedom was. They only knew bondage. Everything in their life was determined by an outside force. What and when they ate was determined by their taskmasters. Now they are free, and they did not know what to do. Before they are given food, they do not know where to look and they do not have the knowledge as to where to find the food in this wilderness. They complain, they demand, and God responds. He provides manna from heaven. But there is something about this that we do not always remember. They were given bread, but the bread was cooperative. They had to go out to gather, they could only gather enough for a day, and they could not store up for later.
God was teaching them what life with him was like. God does provide but often what he provides requires our participation. God does not just drop a loaf of bread in front of each tent, instead the people of Israel must go out and gather. They had to collect enough manna to feed their family for a day. But there is a second part, they could only gather enough for the day. The hording of food is common among impoverished people. They will hide food in places to keep for later, because they do not know when they will have it again. God knew that this would likely be the case, so he needed to train them to live in the present. Live on what you have now, and do not worry about the future. It is a tough lesson to learn. It is a lesson we all should still be open to learning.
God was providing for them, but God was also encouraging them to work for their own good and for the good of their community. This is important for us to remember, and it is important to be reminded of this relationship as we begin to look at the ten lessons.
God begins his lessons by reminding them of how they got to this place. I am the one that brought you out of Egypt. I am. So often in our culture, we forget that we are part of a community. We often think, “I have been able to bring myself to this place.” You are important yes, but you are rarely alone. We all live within communities. Some of our communities are large, while others are small. The nuclear family of parents and children is a community, our extended family is a community. The church is a community, and our nation is a community. If a parent lives only for themselves, the family community suffers. If we raise our children to think they have no responsibility within the community, the community suffers. Each of us must do our part within the community for the community to function properly.
This extends outside the family as well. You might say I built a business. You might have, but there is still community, a business serves their customers and their employees. When we neglect to recognize the community within our businesses, we might make money, but the community will suffer. Employees will stop working if they do not feel valued. Customers will seek services elsewhere if they do not sense value. The opposite is also true. If you as an employee do not value the business, your employers will devalue you. And if customers begin to think they are always right, they will often be met with resistance. I know this to be true because I have seen it in action. A few months ago, I was getting my vehicle serviced. It took a long time, and as I waited several customers demanded discounts for their wait. They did get discounts, but the cost of those discounts created a rift between the employees and the customers. I calmly sat in the waiting room, making conversation with the other customers and with the employees as they walked through the room. When it came time for the bill, they willingly gave discounts that were triple the amount that the irate customers demanded, and they did this without even asking.
We live in community, and the ten lessons that God is teaching the people of Israel focus on this. We live in community with Him, and with those around us. The ten words, or commandments are often seen as Laws dealing with God and Laws dealing with humans. This is not wrong, but we often place a hard line between the two. This causes us to compartmentalize or our lives into sacred and secular. This is what drove the early Friends to speak out. The reality is that there are aspects of life that should be devoted to God, but that devotions should lead to a holistic lifestyle. The first commandment is to recognize and honor God’s position within our lives, “I am the Lord your God, brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”
This first lesson reminds us of the grace of God. He is the one that has brought us to be where we are. We should remember this first. Israel did not leave Egypt on their own. They were brought where they are because of God. It can be easy to forget where we came from and how we got to where we are. And because of this we can forget where we stand within the community. This first lesson is to remind us not only to remember God but remember where we are within our community. There are always going to be people over us, people we serve and report to. This first commandment reminds the highest and lowest within a society of this fact.
We live within a community. We have responsibilities within that community. We are not the one that others serve, but we are to be serve others because God is God, not us. That is the first lesson. The second and what is commonly regarded as the third, play into this as well.
The second command we often regard is a prohibition of making images to worship. We connect this with not bowing down to other gods, but there is more to it than this. In ancient cultures they would build a temple to worship their deity, and in the center of attention within this temple there would often be a statue that would represent some aspect of that deity. There is a common misconception that people believed that these statues were their gods, this is not the case. They built statues that represented the characteristics of that deity, and if the characteristics pleased the deity, then the spirit of that god would enter the statue and reside there. Even ancient culture knew what the statue was.
This second lesson goes deeper. When we build an image, we are saying that we understand and know a deity to its fullest. When we build an image, we begin to think that we can contain and manipulate the power of God. To build an image for a god to reside, is to control that god. God is telling Israel through this lesson that he is greater than they can imagine, his essence cannot be contained within our human understanding. But even that only scratches the surface.
The second lesson alludes to something even greater. We are told that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And in this place, He created, He made a garden. Eden is God’s temple. God created his own temple. And he took Adam and Eve, our first parents, and placed them in the garden, he placed them into his temple. This is important because who are Adam and Eve? Prior to the making of the garden, God announced to this council, “Let us make man in our image.” And out of the clay God created humanity. God made the image he wanted to place in the temple dedicated to himself. The image of God that God wants us to look at is each of us. I am not saying that we should bow down and worship humanity. I am saying that to know God is to know the person next to you because they were created in God’s image.
We are the image that dwells in the temple of God. We are the representation of God’s character and power. When people cast their gaze upon us, God is what they should see. Scary. What do we see when we look at the news? What do we see when we look at our spouse, our children, the person that has just backed into our vehicle, or the person that started a war? What do we see?
We were created to be the image of God. To construct a different image is to deny what God has already done. But that brings us to what we often regard as the third teaching. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”
I want us to consider this third lesson in connection with the first and second. Most of us, including me, were taught that this third commandment was to not speak flippantly about God, or to use his name as a curse word. This is not completely wrong, but it is also not complete. To take or to bear we do not often use with a noun like a name. This has caused difficulty through the years about what bearing the name of God really means. How do we use a name? We speak a name, we write names. We do not usually carry a name unless our mother has written our name on our clothing. This is why we have been taught for so many years that this commandment is associated with our speech. But that is not complete. If someone speaks our name, each person in this room will construct an image in their mind of our face. Because our name is not a word but a person. To take the name of God, is to embody what that name represents. This lesson is not a lesson on how we speak, but a lesson in how we act, how we live.
We were created in the image of God; we were placed in the Garden that was built by God to be his temple as the image bearers of God. We carry or bear God’s name because that is who we are. I ask again, what do we see when we look at the news? What do we see when we look at our spouse, our children, the person that has just backed into our vehicle, or the person that started a war? What do we see? Are we as image bearers of God, living our lives reflecting what we know God to be?
These first lessons of God remind us of who we are in community with him and with each other. The first is that no matter who we think we are, there is someone we must answer to, we are not God, God is God. The second is we should not even begin to think we understand the fullness of God and begin to worship what we think God is in our own mind. We should not do this because each person that lives on the face of this earth is created in the image of God. Each of us is unique. Each of us is important and can provide some different perspectives because we all have different experiences. One person cannot fully create an image of God, we need everyone else. And the third is we should not bear the image of God in vain.
We are communal beings. We live within relationships. Without these relationships we do not exist. Our community is our family, our place of employment, our neighborhoods, our church, our state and nation, our world. This includes the very dirt we stand on as well as every animal and person within. Every aspect of creation lives and breathes with and for each other. Know who we are within that relationship and know God. This is the beginning of wisdom; scripture teaches us, this is the lesson we must learn.
Jesus taught us that the greatest commandment is to love God with everything we have and all that we are, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. He said that all the law and the prophets hinge on this. All the lessons of life revolve around this. All our relationships, and our community. When we turn on the news this evening and watch reports of war in Ukraine, and in Israel are we able to see these lessons? When we watch the coverage of the trial of a former president are we able to see these lessons? When we interact with those within our community are these lessons in mind? We each have opinions and we all have ideologies. We all have in our mind how things should be, but I ask where is God in that and where are our neighbors who are image bearers of God? Have we learned God’s lessons?
[1] Imes, Carmen Joy. Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2019, p. 37.
[2] Imes, Carmen Joy. Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2019, p. 37.
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 01, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship 1 Corinthians 1:18–31 (ESV) 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church January 18, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Corinthians 1:1–9 (ESV) 1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church January 11, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Acts 10:34–43 (ESV) 34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him…
To Donate to Willow Creek Friends Church Click here:
To donate directly to Pastor Warner click here:
