Unholy Cow

Today's sermon on the Golden Calf is going to be largely negative in tone and content. My goal is to preach Christ — but today, I do so by preaching anti-Christ! By that I mean, of course, that I will describe Christ through looking at the opposite, the idol that the people and Aaron made while Moses talked with God atop Mt. Sinai. This idol, in all its gross ugliness, points to the beauty and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. God is not with us in a calf, golden or otherwise. He is with us in a man, His Son.

Nonetheless, there is often much to learn from the negative, and even anti-Christ, or anti-Ark and anti-Tabernacle, can show us something of what our Heavenly Father and His Eternal Son are like. We begin by looking at the first four verses, which describe the process of making the calf. Then we see the theology of the calf outlined in three basic claims (which are all false, by the way). Finally, we see the practical outworking in the method of worshiping the calf. Making, interpreting or theologizing, and worshiping — all show us the false, and thereby highlight the true God who goes before us and is with us.