Why is the lesson of Exodus 32 still applicable to us today?
The lesson remains applicable because God has not changed; He still hates what He hated then and admonishes us against the same evils for our good. Israel's experiences were written as examples for later generations, so the idolatry and lust at Exodus 32 still instruct us today.
Les teaches that Exodus 32 is just as applicable for us today as it was for Corinth in Paul's day and when it happened in Exodus. In I Corinthians 10, Paul points back to Israel's Passover and Red Sea experiences, then to their failure at Sinai; God was not well pleased, and they were overthrown in the wilderness. These things were written for our learning and are our examples, like object lessons, so we should not lust after evil things or be idolaters as some of them were. Les stresses that although we are not under law but under grace, the God of the Old Testament, the God of the Mosaic law, is the same God we deal with today, and He has not changed--the same yesterday and forever. What God hated in Genesis, He hates today; what He admonished Israel not to do for their own good, He admonishes us not to do for our own good, because He has not changed. The circumstances of the world have not changed, and the things that damaged health in Israel's early days are no different today.