They are a stiff-necked people

Exodus 32:1-14

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

Only six weeks after making their solemn covenant-pledge with God the people are clamoring for a replica of the old gods of Egypt. They were slave people, still with the minds of slaves, even if God had set them free. And Aaron, God's high priest, not only makes the bull-calf but identifies it with God.

Why?

The people of Israelites were stiff-necked people, for so quickly they forgot the favor of the Lord brought them from Egypt, saved them from slaves to be free, they asked Aaron make a god for them, and Aaron followed their requests.

Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God, as our prayer to the Lord. The key point is Moses prayed in the promise of the Lord, and Moses knows that God is love. So the Lord relented and did not bring the disaster on his people.

All of us are the sinner, for we are easy to fall into the temptation of the sins. When trouble comes we are worrying about our life and rick, we try to do something to survive, but forget the Lord is our savior. 

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40晝夜百姓等不到神的回應又沒有看到摩西，於是自作主張。

1.百姓不安，造金牛另外找方法，另謀出路，在神以外還有備案。用別的取代耶和華。人喜歡找備案。但是在與神之間沒有備案，神的事沒有行不通的，可能不符合我們想要的，如果我們還有備案，神就不是我們的神。神是我們唯一的依靠。

2.人造金牛，不是人想要神，而是人想要自己做主取代神。變成耶和華是誰由我決定，誰是神由我決定的，這個金牛就是耶和華，長什麼樣我決定，頭朝那裏我決定。祭拜只是儀式，主要想要吃喝享樂而已。

3.神不願意承認這是神帶出來的百姓，說是摩西帶出來的。摩西想到神的名不能受虧損。指出這是神的百姓。摩西求神紀念神的應許！人在等不到神的時候，關心的是否只有自己，還是關心神的應許?我們今天在迫切禱告時，背後的動機是否為自己?

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How?

God is good, and God is full of love. Be aware to look on the Lord. Jesus is the only way in my life.