Ex 32:26 …then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. 
In our reading this morning, we come to the place wherein the Children of Israel, the chosen nation of God, turned their backs so quickly and forcefully away from God and created their own god, a molten calf to worship. Not only did they worship this image made from gold, but they gave it the credit for their release from Egypt. This was that same people who had come through the plagues in Egypt and had been saved at the parting of the Red Sea. They had received the manna from heaven and the water from the rock to sustain them. God, Himself, led them through the wilderness with a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. They had witnessed and experienced all this first hand, and still they turned away and chose to worship and honor a man-made object rather than the One True Living God of their salvation.
The Lord had just met with them and they had asked Moses to go before them rather than to commune with God corporately. This was indicative of what was infesting their vile and stubborn hearts as a nation. In verse 9 of this morning’s reading, God, in His announcement to Moses of the people’s corruption, exposed the detailed heart of this generation. Ex 32:9, And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. 
They were inflexible, pig-headed and stubborn, as was evident throughout the course of their time of deliverance. They complained to Moses before they were released, and had not ceased complaining since then. Always, they were looking for something other than what they had and never stopped grumbling their dissatisfaction at every point of their journey to the Promised Land.
This was the case because they never really wanted to be reliant upon God to supply their every need. They did not want to know Him as their Lord and God. They wanted what all the other nations had, the ability to do as their urges and lusts determined without any regard for the holiness and the righteousness and the splendor and the revealed majesty of the Lord God Almighty. Their choice was the road that led far away from the responsibility to honor and reverence God. This was because it meant that they were not free to defile themselves without the consequences of their sin being brought down upon their heads. 
This is what the world promotes with its sinister and beguiling lies of self-determination and self-exaltation. It is the lie that was spoken from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden recorded in Gen 3:2-5. It is the whisper of the serpent into the ear of humanity, over and over and over again. Gen 3:2-5, And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.'" And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die! "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 
This is what the people wanted, to be able to sin and not to pay the consequences of that sin, because they thought they would be as God. They believed the lie of their self-hood over the Omnipotent and Omniscient Sovereignty of His Godhood. They thought they knew better than the Lord God Creator of Heaven and Earth how to find fulfillment and joy and satisfaction and honor in this realm. 
They were continually faced with the same choice. They could chose to obey God and His commandments and be blessed and live, or they could choose to disobey and dishonor God and His Word and be cursed and die. At seemingly every junction of this choice, as a nation, they chose death over life. They even created their own dead and defiled god to replace the Only Holy and Living One Who had given them freedom and salvation. In that choice, they chained themselves back into the slavery of sin and death.
The nation made a dreadful decision, the same choice that we make each time we turn our backs on the holiness and sovereignty of God and choose to sin. Yes, we can make every lame excuse, just as Aaron did when Moses confronted him with the dreadful consequences of his sinful actions. We can and do blame others. We tell ourselves we really did not have a choice, that is just the way we are. We even blame God and state that we are only doing the things we do because He created us that way, it is just the natural course of our humanity. But the fact is that we choose to act in disobedience just as we can choose to obey. 
When Moses saw the actions and the sinfulness and the vile behavior of the people, he was repulsed and called out for any who would be on the side of the Lord in opposition to the atrocities of the uncontrolled masses. Again reading this morning’s passage,  then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. The sons of Levi stood with Moses, choosing to honor God rather than the abomination of Aaron. They made their choice to be separated from the worship of anything and anyone other than the Lord God Almighty. 
In verses 27-29, we have the record of what that required of them. To shun the works of man and the actions of those reveling in the mass hysteria of that idol worship required a complete severing of even blood relations. This is a choice that will often find us making the most strict and rigorous and unpopular decisions. They declare that choosing to serve the Lord God is worth more than everything else that this world has to offer, including even the respect and honor of those closest to us. 
Ex 32:27-29, And he said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.'" So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. Then Moses said, "Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord — for every man has been against his son and against his brother — in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today." 
    	The sons of Levi made their stand in the face of the vile disregard for the Lord and the setting aside of His faithful service in the people whom He had rescued. They chose to stand for the Lord no matter what the outcome. In this case, it meant that they had to go through the camp, cutting out the cancerous spreading of the idol worship and utter defilement into the wickedness of the nation to deny God seeking to be the same as the nations surrounding them. These men put to death even brothers and sons and neighbors in their stand for the sake of the honor and the testimony and the obedience to the Lord and His Law. 
	Joshua would face this same choice as he led the succeeding generation into the Promised Land. They, too, were enamored of the ways of the nations whom they were supposed to obliterate rather than assimilate. Joshua gathered together the nation and told them exactly what the Lord had to say to them and what would befall them. He laid out, in detail, the two choices that they had before them. One led to life and prosperity, the other to death and destruction. 
In Josh 24:14+15, we have the culmination of his earnest plead for them to choose the Lord. Josh 24:14+15, "Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 
	This is the choice that we each have before God. We are daily faced with the manner in which we will choose to live our lives. The moment to moment course of the direction we walk is in constant need of renewal. We make the specific and eternal choice of our relationship with Jesus Christ at the point when we declare that He is the risen Son of God sent to die in our stead and that He is Our Savior. That is an eternal declaration and decision. That is much like the nation of Israel as they received the salvation of God at the first Passover, as the Angel of Death went throughout Egypt, slaying the first born of those not covered by the blood of the Passover lamb. 
	They were saved from their bondage to Egypt. They were released and free to be led by God to the Promised Land. The issue that they faced over and over is the same one we face each day. It was and is the Lordship of God. Would they continually choose to honor Him as their King to whom they would give unfailing and unflinching loyalty and obedience? This is where they often found themselves in trouble. They were the Nation of God but they did not act like His nation. Their hearts continually lusted after the idea that they could be the singular people of God, distinct from and elevated over all the other nations, while at the same time they wanted everything the other nations had. 
	We see that this ugliness reared its head over and over again as one generation would choose to honor God and then within a generation or two would choose to seek after the ways of the world. This was a despicable and vile course of action that played over and over again. 
The Prophet Elijah brought this very choice to the nation as he was set against the priests of Baal. In 1 Kings 18:21, he pleaded with the people and made earnest supplication that they would turn again to God. 1 Kings 18:21, And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people did not answer him a word. 
This is the same pleading of Moses and of Joshua and of all those prophets who gave voice to the fact that the nation needed to give God the honor and the glory and the reverence and the obedience that is forever His due. And what was the response of the nation? …But the people did not answer him a word.
    	We have the awful result detailed for us in 2 Kings 17:9-17, if you would please turn to it. Keep in mind; this was again after Elijah had proven the prophets of Baal to be utterly false. This was after so many saving works of God to make Himself known to His people with provision and protection and His divine manifestation that He wanted only the very best for them. 
2 Kings 17:9-17, And the sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right, against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. And they set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the Lord had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the Lord. And they served idols, concerning which the Lord had said to them, "You shall not do this thing." Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah, through all His prophets and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets." However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them. And they forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him. 
	These were the Chosen people whom God, Himself, had saved. Yet this was their heart that chose sin and death over victory and life. We have that same choice in our hearts and minds. We are His redeemed people. We have been saved by His work and His grace and His sacrifice through the perfect Passover Lamb of God.
Despite the fact of our honoring Him as Our Savior, there is still the matter of honoring His Lordship in our lives, each moment of each day. We can call Him Lord, just as the Children of Israel regarded Him as Yahweh in their attitudes of superiority over the other peoples of the world. But they did not honor Him as their Lord and God. And, when we look deeply into our hearts and minds and cravings and attitudes, we may find that we are no different. We have a choice. It is the same choice as the sons of Levi had when Moses called out for those who were for the Lord. It is the same choice as given by Joshua when he proclaimed …as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 
	Lord willing, we will spend some more time with this in our next session. In the meantime, let the call from the voices of Moses and Joshua and Elijah ring and permeate our thoughts and hearts this week as we face the very same choice each and every day. So be it!
…then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Rev 5:11-13. And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." Amen.