36. So Moses led the people out of Egypt. He worked wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and then in the desert for 40 years.
37. “This is the same Moses who said these words to the people of Israel: ‘God will give you a prophet. That prophet will come from among your own people. He will be like me.’
38. This same Moses was with the gathering of God’s people in the desert. He was with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and he was with our ancestors. He received life-giving words from God to give to us.
39. “But our ancestors did not want to obey Moses. They rejected him. They wanted to go back to Egypt again.
40. They said to Aaron, ‘Moses led us out of the country of Egypt. But we don’t know what has happened to him. So make some gods to go before us and lead us.’
41. So the people made an idol that looked like a calf. Then they brought sacrifices to it. They were very happy with what they had made with their own hands.
42. But God turned against them and let them continue worshiping the army of false gods in the sky. This is what God says in the book that contains what the prophets wrote: ‘People of Israel, you did not bring me blood offerings and sacrifices in the desert for 40 years;
43. You carried with you the tent for worshiping Moloch and the image of the star of your god Rephan. These were the idols you made to worship. So I will send you away beyond Babylon.’ Amos 5:25-27
44. “The Holy Tent was with our ancestors in the desert. God told Moses how to make this tent. He made it like the plan that God showed him.
45. Later, Joshua led our ancestors to capture the lands of the other nations. Our people went in and God made the other people go out. When our people went into this new land, they took with them this same tent. Our people received this tent from their fathers, and our people kept it until the time of David.
46. God was very pleased with David. He asked God to let him build a Temple for the people of Jacob.
47. But Solomon was the one who built the Temple.
48. “But the Most High God does not live in houses built by human hands. This is what the prophet writes: