In the pew racks in front of you, you’ll find copies of the holy Scriptures. Take a Bible if you would please and turn with me to the book of Exodus. If you’re using one of our church Bibles, you’ll find that on page – we’re going to turn to Exodus 32; you’ll find it on page 72. Exodus 32; page 72. We’ve been working our way through the book of Exodus in Sunday morning services. This is where we’ve come to. God has led Israel through the wilderness out of Egypt. They’ve been at Mount Sinai. Moses has been up on the mountain receiving the Law of God from the hand of God. Exodus 32 is sort of, “Meanwhile on the plains, here’s what’s really going on while Moses has been up on the mountain.” Here’s what the people are up to while Moses has been talking to God. Before we read the passage together, let’s bow our heads as we pray!
Lord, would You come to us now please and help us hear Your voice drowning out all the competing voices clamoring for our attention – misleading, distracting, demanding so much of our energy and focus. Help us in the midst of the den, at the cacophony of cultural voices pulling us every which way, help us to hear Your voice cutting through the storm and saying, “Peace, be still,” and calling us to Yourself. Would You speak like that through this part of Your Word today and glorify Your name among us? Would You show us Yourself, show us ourselves, and lead us to You? For we ask it in Your holy name. Amen.
Exodus 32 at verse 1. This is the Word of Almighty God:
“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.’ 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.’ So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 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!’ 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.’ 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.
And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 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!’’ And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 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.’
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? 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. 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.’’ And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, ‘There is a noise of war in the camp.’ But he said, ‘It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.’ And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
And Moses said to Aaron, ‘What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?’ And Aaron said, ‘Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘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.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.’
And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, ‘Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me.’ And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’’ And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, ‘Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.’
The next day Moses said to the people, ‘You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.’ So Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.’ But the Lord said to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.’
Then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.”
Amen, and we give thanks to God that He has spoken in His holy, inerrant Word.
Over and over again we’ve heard this particular warning every hurricane season; we heard it at the last hurricane that was threatening the east coast just recently from the governor of Florida, Rick Scott, you remember. “This storm will kill you,” he said. The message was clear. “Listen to the evacuation warning. Get yourself and your family to safety. This storm will kill you.” And yet this time, like every time before it and every other time, the Weather Channel will interview people who live in a trailer at the beach who say, “It will blow over. I’m not worried and I’m not moving.” And then the storm passes and the cameras come back and the devastation is immense; sometimes the loss of life immense. Nobody likes to hear the warnings about a coming storm, nobody wants to take action, but if we don’t pay attention the results can be catastrophic nevertheless.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 at verse 6, the apostle Paul is reflecting actually on Exodus 32, that we just read together and the experience of the Israelites at the foot of the mountain. And he says, “These things took place as examples for us that we might not do evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written,” and then he quotes from our passage at verse 6, “’The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ Now these things,” Paul says, “happened to them as an example written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.” In other words, Paul is telling us what we’re supposed to do with Exodus 32. He’s saying it is the governor’s warning. “Danger. This storm will kill you. Take action. Get to safety!” That’s what he’s saying. It’s a warning that we need to hear.
Now the particular issue in Exodus 32 is idolatry. The people made an idol, a golden calf, and they worship it. Most of us probably aren’t in the business of manufacturing icons and images with our hands and worshiping them. That might actually be part of your cultural background but for most of us in Jackson, Mississippi today we don’t make idols to worship. But don’t think that doesn’t mean you don’t have an idolatry problem. John Calvin famously said that “The human heart is a perpetual factory of idols.” That is to say, long before we ever make something with our hands to worship in a religious ceremony, our hearts are busy making idols and they hide most effectively among our daily pleasures. They fester long in the secret recesses of our hearts and lives.
Pulitzer Prize winning author, Ernest Becker, argues in his book, The Denial of Death, that our need for self-worth is the condition for our life. “Every person,” he says, “is seeking” what he calls “cosmic significance.” In his view, “Our drive to find self-worth is so strong that whatever we base our identity and value on, we essentially deify.” That is, we make it into a god. And the Bible completely agrees with that assessment. Ezekiel 14:3, God is dealing with the problem of, “taking idols into our hearts.” Idolatry in Scripture is a heart problem. And that means that actually, all kinds of things can become idols for us. Paul says, for example in Colossians 3:5, “Covetousness is idolatry.” Or in Philippians 3:19 he talks about people whose “god is their belly.” Sex, money, children, work, sport, school – each of these and a thousand others besides can transform themselves into heart idols that we pursue and long for and find our deepest significance and value in. “Without them,” we tell ourselves, “we’re nothing. Life means nothing. Got to have it.”
And now suddenly the idols of the ancient peoples about which we read in the Scriptures in passages like this one now before us, their idols don’t seem quite to naïve and foolish after all, do they? They had sex gods and money gods and work gods and war gods; gods of power and gods of harvest. Everything the heart longs for, they had an idol to worship; they made into an idol. And so do we. Isn’t that the truth? So do we. Everything the heart longs for, we easily make into an idol. Whether you consider yourself religious or not, the truth is, you have an idolatry problem. Our hearts are hard-wired to run after things that are not God. And so we need the warning of Exodus 32 because it shows us what idolatry is like, it shows us what idolatry results in, and then it tells us the only refuge and safe place, the only hope for idolaters. It tells us about the nature and character of idolatry, the consequences of idolatry, and the only hope for idolaters.
The Nature of the Character of Idolatry
Let’s think about the nature of the character of idolatry first of all. Look at verses 1 to 6, please. Right away, if you’ll look at verse 1, you’ll see on the surface of the passage the absurdity of idolatry. Look at what they say to Aaron. “Up, make us gods that shall go before us.” Isn’t that absurd? With straight faces apparently not hearing the words as they come out of their mouths, they ask Aaron to make gods for them. A god that you make for yourself isn’t much of a god. It’s ridiculous. Actually, the absurdity of idolatry is one of the great themes of the whole Bible. The Bible teaches us that it is absurd to worship the creature, not the Creator. It’s foolishness to believe the lie rather than the truth.
The words of the prophet Jeremiah, just to cite one example, drip with sarcasm as he speaks about the gods that we make for ourselves. Listen to this. Jeremiah 3 at verse 10. “A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an ax by the hands of a craftsman. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field and they cannot speak. They have to be carried for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good. But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King.” What a foolish, ridiculous thing making idols really is.
The Absurdity of Idolatry
Psalm 115:4-8 even goes a little further as it mocks the absurdity of idolatry it also turns on those who make them and put their trust in them to show us just what an idol will do to us. Listen to this. “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak; eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not hear; noses but do not smell. They have hands but do not feel; feet but do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throats. Those who make them become like them and so do all who put their trust in them.” Those who make idols become like idols and so do all who put their trust in them. Whether you’ve made an idol with your hands or whether you’ve forged it in your heart – sex or money or family or fame or whatever your secret idol might be – it can never give you what your heart is looking for. Instead, it will leave you as empty and lifeless and dead as they are. The absurdity of idolatry – what a foolish thing idolatry is.
The Contagion of Idolatry
Then notice also in our passage the contagion of idolatry. It’s a disease and it spreads like a virus. It’s infectious. The people want an idol or idols from Aaron so Aaron immediately accedes to their request and enables and facilitates their sin. He makes a golden calf from their jewelry. And they say, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt!” And Aaron immediately builds an altar and calls a festival so that they can worship it. And verse 6 tells us this vortex, this storm of sin, begins to sweep the entire camp of Israel up into it so that by verse 6 everybody is eating, drinking, and rising up to play. That is, they have collapsed into the kind of drunken orgies that characterized paganism in those days. Idolatry is infectious. Sin spreads. Especially the secret idols you think nobody knows about, festering away in your heart – highly infectious.
Parents think about your children in this connection. If you make an idol of a certain lifestyle, let’s say – an idol of respectability or affluence, an idol of social connectedness perhaps – do not think that simply because you have coated it with a veneer of Biblical Christianity that your heart idols have gone unnoticed by your children. Far from it. That which most captivates your heart is most likely to capture and captivate theirs. If your heart is in the grip of idols, counterfeit gods, gods of your own making, so that you find yourself saying, “Yes, yes, yes, Jesus, but what I really want is…” if that’s your heart, do not think that you are not disciplining your children to follow precisely in your idolatrous footsteps. Sin spreads. Idolatry is a viral infection and we need to beware.
The Disobedience of Idolatry
And then thirdly – so the absurdity, the contagion, and then we just need to face the straight-up, downright, disobedience of their idolatry, don’t we? You remember the first four of the Ten Commandments. We’re to make no other gods, have no other gods before the Lord; we’re not to make any graven images or bow down and worship them. We’re not to take God’s name in vain; misuse His name. And we’re to keep the Lord’s Day, the Sabbath Day holy. And back in chapter 24 of the book of Exodus, after Moses had delivered the commandments to the people they all took vows and promises. “All that the Lord has commanded,” they said, “we will do. We’re on board. We’re all in, Moses! We will keep the commandments.” And then a few short chapters later, here we are watching them systematically break each one of them. The people want other gods breaking the first commandment. They make a graven image. Probably modeled on the Apis bull used in Egyptian worship, they break the second commandment. They use, the people use the plural term, “Elohim,” gods, but Aaron seems to understand the golden bull to represent Yahweh, the Lord. He calls a feast day to the Lord and they worship this golden calf. They take the Lord’s name in vain breaking the third commandment. They even have a special holy day that God has not commanded, breaking the fourth commandment. And to crown it all, they offer burnt offerings and peace offerings – those are the sacrifices God had mandated in His Law for regular worship – and they blur and blend it and mix it with the drunken orgies of paganism in verse 6. There’s nothing subtle or covert about it. This is direct, blatant, plain, old disobedience.
And we need to reach that point as we begin to face our own hearts and our own idols honestly. We can analyze, we can understand, we can see and assess and causes and the reasons that have led us to long for and to pursue money or affluence or fame or reputation or a particular job or a particular kind of home or a particular kind of family. We can talk about how we’re hard-wired and all the baggage we’ve received from our parents and the pressure of society and the burden of peer pressure. But after all the analysis is said and done and all the excuses are offered, the bottom line is, God says, “Here’s how I want you to worship. I want you to worship only Me. I want you to worship according to My Word and on My terms.” And we say, “You know, I think I have a better idea. I much prefer to do things my way.” It’s downright, straightforward, old-fashioned disobedience.
God Assessment of Idolatry
And in verses 7 to 10, if you’ll look there in the passage, you’ll see how God thinks about it. Here’s His assessment. The Lord says to Moses, “You’d better get yourself back down to the camp. You’ll see what the people are up to once you get there. They’ve turned aside and followed idols.” By the way, do just notice there the people seem to think that what they are doing is going altogether unnoticed by God. Isn’t that just like us? That the Lord doesn’t know. We tell ourselves all sorts of lies as we run after disobedience, rebellion, and sin, as we indulge our sinful appetites. “No one will ever know.” But our secret sins and our heart idols are known by God and so He sends Moses back down the mountain.
And in verse 7 and 8 and verse 9, He tells us, He uses three terms to characterize the sin of the people. First of all, verse 7 He says, “They have corrupted themselves.” That is to say, their idolatry, which they’ve told themselves presumably will be full of pleasure and joy and give them relief from their burdens, their idolatry actually is polluting and corrupting, distorting and perverting. Secondly, verse 8 – so it corrupts – secondly, God says, “They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I have commanded them.” The Law of God, the life to which He calls us, is a clear, straight highway. And sin is a detour and a dead-end street. And we turn from it awfully quickly, don’t we? We make a little progress down the highway of obedience to the Lord in our lives and then at the first flashing neon sign with an arrow pointing off to the side saying, “If you go this way, there’s a short-cut. If you go this way, there’s joy. This way to peace. This way to pleasure. This way to satisfaction.” And over and over again, those dazzling lights seem to distract and we turn off. And instead of finding what our heart longs for, which can only be found on the straight path of obedience to the Lord, we find a bankrupt, broken-down, dead-end street.
So sin, idolatry corrupts, sin turns us from the path of obedience, and finally the Lord says in verse 9 that it all comes from a hard heart. The expression He uses is a “stiff neck.” Verse 9, “I have seen this people. Behold, it is a stiff-necked people.” The idea comes from an ox or a mule that will not receive the yoke of the farmer. It’s just self-willed and stubborn and rebellious. So we hear Jesus call to us to take His yoke upon us and to learn from Him because His yoke is easy and His burden is light and we are stiff-necked and we will not bow to Him. We forget that the Lord opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. Idolatry festers, you see, in hard hearts.
And when you put all of that together, it’s a pretty ugly picture, isn’t it? This is what idolatry looks like. It’s pretty shocking! It’s not a flattering portrait at all, but I do wonder if it isn’t nevertheless perhaps still a portrait of your heart and your life. Is this describing where you really live right now – running after everything that seems to offer so much, finding nothing when your heart really needs the Lord Jesus Christ?
The Consequences of Idolatry
Well then I want you to see – it gets worse – I want you to see the consequences of idolatry; not just the nature and character of it. What happens if you pursue idols with your whole heart? Look at verses 15 to 20 first. Moses makes it back to camp carrying the two stone tablets on which are transcribed the commandments that he has received from the Lord. And when he sees what’s going on, he takes two symbolic actions. Do you see them in verses 19 and 20? Verse 19, he smashes those two stone tablets at the foot of the mountain. In verse 20 he takes the golden calf, grinds it to dust, throws it in a fire, grinds it to dust, pours it on the water and makes everybody drink it. Understand, this isn’t a fit, this isn’t a temper tantrum. Moses doesn’t have a bruised ego. This isn’t revenge. Actually, Moses is teaching. He’s trying to get through to the stiff-necked, idolatrous, rebellious people. And the first thing he does is try to teach them what sin has done to their relationship with God. It has shattered fellowship with Him. The two stone tablets have the words of God’s commandments on them. They represent their covenant with God. And here in their rebellion, they have broken fellowship with the Lord and so the stone tablets are smashed. And secondly, they might have thought, “This is just a visual aide, this golden calf. We’re still worshiping the Lord. It just makes it a little easier for us. It’s external; it’s superficial. It’s a minor issue. No big deal.” No, no. Moses wants them to understand that sin goes all the way to the heart like poison, and so he grinds up the ashes of their idol and makes them drink it. You see, sin penetrates and pollutes. It is bitter and it goes all the way in, not to be toyed with or played with. It shatters fellowship with God and poisons us.
The Confrontation Between Moses and Aaron
And then look at 21 to 24 for a moment. Then, there’s a confrontation, isn’t there, between Moses and Aaron, where Aaron tries to make some excuses? These are the lamest excuses ever! First of all, he tries to pass the buck, doesn’t he? Verse 22, “You know the people; they are set on evil! I’m innocent here! What could I do? You know Israel, Moses. I mean, really.” He tries to pass the buck. We’ve been doing it since Eden. You remember when God caught Adam red-handed in rebellion against Him eating the forbidden fruit what Adam said? “The woman whom You gave me, she made me eat! It’s Your fault. It’s her fault. I’m the victim. I’m innocent.” Aaron is trying to pass the buck of course. It didn’t work in Eden. It doesn’t work here at Sinai. It doesn’t work today in our own hearts either. There’s no way to get off the hook from our own rebellion and disobedience.
The second thing he does, he seems to suggest – I don’t want to push it too far – but he seems to suggest that he was actually acting to punish and rebuke the Israelites rather than to enable and facilitate their sin. “You want idols? Well, take off all your gold! And I threw it in the fire just to teach them a lesson.” And then the third thing he says is, “You know what, Moses? Maybe you’re overreacting, actually, because I just threw this in the fire and out popped the golden calf. It’s a miracle! Maybe this was God’s plan after all?” Now you can’t have it both ways of course. Is it the expression of the wicked, evil hearts of the people or is this actually the providence of God? It can’t be both. Aaron’s lies are absurd and futile and contradictory. Sin is always like that, you know. It’s ultimately self-defeating. It seems like the absurdity of the idolatry that Aaron has enabled has made Aaron just as absurd as the idols. “Those who make them become like them and so do all who trust in them.” The stupidity of idolatry makes stupid idolaters.
Moses’ call for Repentance
And then finally and even more seriously than all of these consequences, look at 25 to 29. Moses calls for any who are on the Lord’s side to come to him. That is, he’s summoning people to change their minds and repent, to step away from partnering and participating in the wickedness of the people. Ironically, it’s Aaron’s own tribe, the tribe of Levi, that join Moses. Moses gives them God’s command, they strap on their swords and go to and fro in the camp executing divine judgment. Three thousand people fall by the sword that day. Then if you look down at 33 through 35 you’ll see God is going to visit those who will not repent and turn to Him, He’s going to visit them with judgment. “In the day that I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf, the calf that Aaron made.”
The Only Hope for Idolaters
Understand that the real problem of idolatry isn’t simply that it makes matters worse for you as you go along day by day. The real problem of sin and idolatry in your heart is that you must answer to an infinitely holy God who will judge and condemn you justly in His righteous wrath. Do not play with idols. You are playing with fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This storm will kill you. You need to get to safety before it’s too late. Are you listening to the warning? This storm will kill you! Get to safety before it’s too late! How do you do that? What is the only hope for idolaters like me? We need someone who will step between the judgment of God and us, don’t we, who will plead our case and bear our condemnation.
Moses’ Intercession for Israel
Isn’t that what Moses does in this passage? In verse 10 God sets him up for this role. In Verse 10 as He’s announcing the judgment He intends, did you hear the little hints, the almost invitation to Moses to become an intercessor, a mediator? Look at verse 10. “Now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” Almost seeming to say to Moses, “If you’ll give me no rest, if you’ll chase me and pursue me and plead their case with me, I will not destroy them.” And so that’s what Moses does in verses 11 through 13. He actually pleads three things if you look at his prayer. First, he says, “These are your people. You chose them.” In verse 11, over and over again, he keeps insisting, “These are your people. You chose them.” And he says, “Not only are they chosen people, they’re also redeemed, people. You brought them out of Egypt! And not only are they chosen and redeemed, they are Your covenant people. You made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel Your servants. Keep Your own promise. Your reputation is at stake.” He pleads their case.
And even more than that, later on in verses 32 and 33, he offers himself. It’s astonishing! Paul seems to reflect some of the wonder of this in Romans chapter 5 when he says, “Hardly for a good man will someone even dare to die. Maybe for a righteous person would someone dare to die.” Here’s Moses daring to offer himself. He says, “I’ll go back up on the mountain. I’ll make intercession. Maybe I could make atonement for you, wicked, rebellious Israel. If you will forgive them, Lord!” And then he sort of breaks off; words fail him. But then he says, “But if not, then blot out my name from the book which you have written. Let the judgment fall on me and not on them. If justice must be satisfied, then let me bear the brunt of Your condemnation, only let Your people live.”
Now Moses was merely a man and God would not allow Moses to be a substitute for Israel, but we have a better intercessor and a better mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God; who offers Himself. Who says to you, over you, for you, “Lord, blot Me out. Let her live. Let him live.” And the Lord poured out His wrath on His Son that He might pour out His mercy and grace on You. The Lord, because of Jesus, relented from the disaster He had spoken of bringing upon His people. And when you see that, what Jesus has done for sinners, for people like me, idolatrous rebels like me, when you see that you discover the One my heart was made to know and love. All the idols that I pursue seem to promise what only Jesus really delivers. How do you shatter the idols of your heart? You go and get ahold of Jesus Christ. So you hear Moses saying, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me!” Imagine that was the call of Jesus Christ, our better than Moses, saying to us, idolaters as we all are, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to Me! Come to Me and you will live. Come to Me and you will find an identity, value, meaning, purpose, worth, hope for time and eternity in Me.” And so as you answer His call, you will be able to say, “The dearest idol I have known, what’er that idol be, Lord help me to tear it from Thy throne and worship only Thee.” Jesus only. Jesus always. Jesus is enough. Give me Jesus. Will you make that your prayer today?
Let’s pray together!
Lord Jesus, how we need You. We love idols. We run after them all the time and they always fail us because we were made for You. Would You help us to smash our idols today as You say to us, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to Me.” Help us to come to You to find the One our hearts have been designed to know and to love. Have mercy on us because of Your death and Your intercession on our behalf. O Lord, grant that the disaster that the Lord has spoken over us may be turned away and that we might find favor in Your sight. For we ask this in Your name, amen.