Bible Passage: Exodus 32 15:29
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: June 28, 2026

Bulletin – June 28, 2026

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Have you ever heard the phrase “putting lipstick on a pig”?  It sounds silly and it certainly makes for a funny picture in one’s imagination.  But it also makes a serious and important point.  A pig with lipstick is still…a pig.  If I put a fresh coat of paint on a broken down old jalopy it is still a broken down old jalopy.  If I put a spritz of cologne on a manure wagon it still smells like manure.

In this fallen world, people sometimes do that with sin.  They try to make it look better; they try to make it smell better.  They try to make it look “pretty.”  They “dress it up.”  They try to rationalize it and justify it.  They will point to “good motives” for doing it.  “But this is love.”  They will point to “good ends” achieved by it.  “It makes me happy.”  They try to put lipstick on a pig.  If I cover my rebellion in pure gold, it is still rebellion.  Our text today is just such a case.  It is the story of the Golden Calf.  It is the story of a golden idol.  It is the story of Gilded Rebellion.

The children of Israel are at Mt. Sinai.  They arrived there a month after they had walked out of Egypt a free and rescued people, thanks to the LORD God!          It was at Mt. Sinai that the LORD had a talk with his people.  From the top of Mt. Sinai he had proclaimed his holy will for them.  They had heard the voice proclaim loud and clear:  You shall have no other gods before me…You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God…Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy…Honor your father and mother…You shall not murder…You shall not commit adultery…You shall not steal…You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor…You shall not covet. (Exodus 20)  The people trembled with fear.  The gravity of the moment was not lost on them.  Moses then went up on the mountain to receive stone tablets that had these laws written onto them by the finger of God!

And here is where the story takes a dark turn.  While Moses is on the mountain with the LORD, the people grow restless.  They go to his brother, Aaron, and say, 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. (Exodus 32:1)  So Aaron does!  The people bring him their gold earrings and Aaron makes a golden calf.  Then he built an altar in front of the calf and declared, Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD!” (Exodus 32:5)  So the people got up early the next day.  They offered sacrifices to the golden calf.  Then we are told, …they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. (Exodus 32:6)

This is the sight Moses saw when our text begins!  Moses is coming down the mountain.  He has the tablets in his hands.  What a glorious day!  Wait!  Joshua speaks, “Sounds like war in the camp!”  Moses says, “This is not the sound of victory or defeat.  This is a party!”  It’s difficult to say for certain what Moses saw exactly.  Obviously he saw an idol of gold.  In verse 25 we are told Moses saw that the people were running wild.  The word for “running wild” means “to be uncovered.”  Several translations translate verse 25, Moses saw that the people were naked.  Oh my.  Running around naked? Their after-dinner “revelry” may have been a pagan orgy? That’s horrible!  The people were shattering the 1st commandment, and covering it with gold.  They were shattering the 6th commandment and covering it with the gilding of “worship.”  It was gilded rebellion!  Moses throws the tablets to the ground in righteous anger and disgust.

This story is a dark window into the fallen nature of humanity.  A nature you and I have as well.  We often try to gild our sin.  We try to put gold leaf over rebellion.  We are greedy and covetous and we gild it by calling it “wise financial planning.”  We step outside God’s will for purity and morality and we gild it by calling it “love” or “tolerance.”  We shatter the sanctity of human life and we gild it by calling it “reproductive freedom” or “choice.”   We despise preaching and his Word and gild it by saying we need that time to rest and relax.  We excuse and gild our lovelessness with the very thin leaf of “that’s just how I am.”  We have all sounded like Aaron in our text, who sounded a LOT like Adam in the garden.  Did you catch Aaron’s excuse?  It is one of the great excuses of all time!  You know how prone these people are to evil.  “Well, Moses, you know these Israelites!  Am I right?”  They gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf. (v. 22, 24)  “Oh, okay, Aaron…”  No!  Excuses are simply more gilded rebellion!  There is no lipstick for this pig!

Friends, don’t try to gild your rebellion.  You cannot hide it.  The words that were on Moses’ tablet leave all of us naked and exposed before God.  There is no gold-leaf to make our rebellion shiny and pretty.  There is only one covering for our rebellion.  Christ!  Christ Jesus knows all about your rebellion.  He knows all about how you have tried to cover it and gild it and paper over it and spray it with cologne.  He knows all the tricks we sinners play. And he went to the cross for you anyway!  The blood of Jesus covers your rebellion so completely that God no longer sees it.  Psalm 32:1 sums up perfectly the blessing we have in Jesus:  How blessed is the person whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

There is a bright spot in our story today.  Those Levites at the end.  Those Levites who rally to Moses.  Those Levites who strapped on their swords and went through the camp to bring the LORD’s judgment on those who proudly flaunted their rebellion.  Those Levites who loved the LORD even more than their brothers!  Where does that kind of zeal come from?  Where does that kind of love for the LORD come from?  From the love God has FOR US!  Yes, we have each been the wild idolater in our story.  Yes, we have each in our own way been the disgusting reveler in our story.  We have each been the excuse-maker Aaron in our text.  And the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  No lipstick for this pig; only Jesus!  And that blood-covering has the power to make new, zealous Levites of us all!

Amen.