Welcome

The Reverend Dr. Samuel T. Powers
Boston Avenue Methodist Church
Exodus 32: 1-14

“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the
mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him,
‘Come, make gods for us, 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.’ Aaron said to them, ‘Take off
the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and
your daughters and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off
the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took
these from them, formed them in a mold, and cast an image of a
calf, and they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought
you up out of the land of Egypt!’ When Aaron saw this, he built an
altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said,
‘Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.’ They rose early the next
day and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-
being, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel.
The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you
brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they
have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded
them; they have cast for themselves an image of a 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!”’ The Lord
said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.
Now let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot against them and
I may consume them, and of you I will make a great nation.’
But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, ‘O Lord, why does
your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of
the land of Egypt with great power and with 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 consume them from
the face of the earth”? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your
mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them
by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants
like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I
will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.”’
And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned
to bring on his people.”

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