January 14, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year:    Genesis 27:1-30:24; Matthew 9:18-10:15

Weekly Memory Verse: 1 Peter 3:18

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

I apologize for missing yesterday's study, trying to catch up today. 

Exodus 32 (NASB95)
¹ Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” ² Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³ Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” ⁵ Now 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.” ⁶ So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. ⁷ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. ⁸ “They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ” ⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. ¹⁰ “Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.” ¹¹ Then Moses entreated the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. ¹³ “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” ¹⁴ So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people. ¹⁵ Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they were written on one side and the other. ¹⁶ The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets. ¹⁷ Now when Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.” ¹⁸ But he said, “It is not the sound of the cry of triumph, Nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat; But the sound of singing I hear.” ¹⁹ It came about, as soon as Moses came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ He took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it. ²¹ Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?” ²² Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. ²³ “For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ²⁴ “I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” ²⁵ Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control—for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies— 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. ²⁷ 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.’ ” ²⁸ So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. ²⁹ 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.” ³⁰ On the next day Moses said to the people, “You yourselves have committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” ³¹ Then Moses returned to the Lord, and said, “Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. ³² “But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” ³³ The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. ³⁴ “But go now, lead the people where I told you. Behold, My angel shall go before you; nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.” ³⁵ Then the Lord smote the people, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.^[1]

It is interesting to consider that Aaron was the priest before God, the one who was commissioned to lead worship in the tabernacle.  He took up the role of leadership in the area of building an idol for Israel to worship.  Too many people forget that Aaron already knew the command not to have false gods before the Lord.  The Bible indicates that he already had the ten commandments, Moses had hand written them before he went up on the mountain. 

Here is an example from the Old Testament where a minister of God walked down the wrong path.  Aaron chose to lead the people in a way that he knew was contrary to the plan of God.  We don't know if he was one of the leaders in building the calf or simply decided to retain his leadership position.  I believe the text indicates that Aaron was of the same mind as the rest of Israel in this text, he chose to turn his back on God along with the rest of Israel.  Aaron did not just build a god for them, he gave personality to the god by attributing the great works that God had already performed to it. 

It is thought that Aaron duplicated the Egyptian bull god Apis.  He symbolized fertility and sexual strength in the land of Egypt (The Bible Knowledge Commentary).  This seems to be consistent with the behavior of Israel because sexual play is indicated by the reference in verse 6.

God was ready to destroy Israel and to start over with Moses.  Verse 7 is interesting, God disowns the people by using words which indicate that Moses led the people out of Egypt himself.  I wonder if this indicated the actual heart of the people, they were following a man, they were following Moses.  Perhaps the great works of God that they had seen on display were rationalized away, and all they could see was Moses' leadership.  This would almost have the be the case for them to abandon the Lord for a golden calf. 

How often is this the case today?  Are people following God in our churches, and our mega-churches, or are people following the pastor, and the great show that he puts on?  There is a danger that people will follow the man, and ignore the God that empowers him.  It is much easier for people to follow a man than to be responsible to a all seeing, all powerful, all knowing God.  The preacher requires a couple of hours each week, then the religious guilt is satisfied for another week.  God requires your very life, and a relationship with Him, the first will dump you in hell, the second will usher you into eternal life.  Which is better?  Israel had the same choice, they chose to follow the man. 

Moses stood before the Lord and interceded for the people.  He knew that the people had gone astray, and pleaded their case before the Lord.  Look at the discussion between himself and Joshua.  It is also interesting that Joshua entered the Promised Land, he was not corrupted.  As Moses and Joshua drew near the camp, they recognized the sound of the partying that was going on.  It made lot of noise, sounding like a war. Yet when he saw the actual acts that they were involved in, Moses became violently angry.  He destroyed the tablets that God had given him, (one's written by the very hand of God).  Then he turned against the people, administering the judgment that he had talked God out of! 

Moses called Aaron on the carpet for his part in the idol worship.  Look at his response, he never admits to fault.  Rather, he makes excuses for the people claiming that they couldn't help themselves after all they are prone to sin.  Modern day psychologists use the same excuse, it hasn't changed.  People can't help themselves, after all they were born with sin.  What God called sin, psychologists call a disorder which people cannot help.  There are several supposed diseases and disorders that fall under this blanket statement, such as alcoholism, homosexualism, drug addiction, sexual addiction, etc.  God calls it sin, we find a way to justify it.  Aaron claimed that  the people could not help themselves and threw the responsibility off of himself onto the people. 

The next statement that he makes is amazing, he gathered the gold, threw it into the fire and a golden bull magically popped out of the fire, on it's own!  Aaron had nothing to do with it. 

Deuteronomy 9:20 (NASB95)
²⁰ “The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.

Genesis 34:25-30 (NASB95)
²⁵ Now it came about on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and came upon the city unawares, and killed every male. ²⁶ They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went forth. ²⁷ Jacob’s sons came upon the slain and looted the city, because they had defiled their sister. ²⁸ They took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys, and that which was in the city and that which was in the field; ²⁹ and they captured and looted all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, even all that was in the houses. ³⁰ Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and my men being few in number, they will gather together against me and attack me and I will be destroyed, I and my household.” ^[2]

Moses interceded for Aaron, that God would not kill him.  Then he called out the sons of Levi and had them destroy the people who were involved in the idol worship.  Remember, Levi was a warrior from the start, they defended the honor of Dinah in Genesis.  In this chapter, they are defending the honor of God.  Moses had already judged the people by burning the idol, then making the people drink it dissolved into water.  That had to take some time to accomplish, burning and grinding up an idol had to be a time-consuming task.  The Levites were not given land, they were given the responsibility of defending the tabernacle of God from that day forward.  God used their militant attitude toward righteousness in a good way by moving them to be the ones who were the priests of Israel.

Deuteronomy 1:35-36 (NASB95)
³⁵ ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, ³⁶ except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the Lord fully.’

Deuteronomy 2:14 (NASB95)
¹⁴ “Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. ^[3]

Moses interceded for the rest of Israel before the Lord.  God held the people responsible for breaking His covenant with them and promised to punish them for the sin.  God did not allow any of the fighting men to enter into the Promised land except for Joshua and Caleb.  They paid dearly for their sin, imagine wandering for thirty-eight years while God weeded out everyone that was alive at the time of the golden calf.  Although the people may not all have been involved in the sin of the golden calf, they were responsible by default since they tolerated the sin in their community.

We don't view sin the way that God does.  God hates sin, we look for ways to justify it, and are always looking for ways to make it tolerable in our communities.  Men haven't changed over the years, we still love our sin.  What has changed is the way that God relates to man.  He provided a way for us to be forgiven of our sin through Jesus on the cross.  Yet one thing still remains in relation to sin, we still suffer from the results of sin.  Paul discussed the way that people suffered from sickness and disease because they had taken part in the Lord's supper without having pure hearts.  When we as Christians find ways to justify sin, it takes a toll on our lives as well as on our fellowships.  Are we going to set new standards for our fellowships by living our lives to a higher standard, or are we going to join the crowd in finding ways to justify sin?  You are right, we are forgiven, but that doesn't justify continual involvement in sin, even by default.  The Old Testament was given to us as a way to teach us valuable lessons, this is one that we should take to heart.  What is our decision on sin, do we tolerate it, or take a stand for righteousness?   We all claim that we want the power of God in our lives, it is time that we take personal responsibility for that claim.  First, let's make it a point to clean up our own lives, then by default, others will be motivate to follow our example.  Power will enter our lives as we make an effort to turn from sin and move toward righteousness.  A direct result of that is that our churches will also have more spiritual power.  The light in our lives will reveal the darkness and expose it, then then sin will be dealt with.  Praise God that we don't have to do this in our own power, if we commit to Him, He will supply the strength to overcome. 

I got a little preachy today, I apologize for that.  If you have comments that you would like to add to the study, please feel free to write in.

Father as we consider the golden calf, enable us to see how that we have tolerated golden calves in our lives, and give us the boldness to stand for righteousness.

In Him,

Joe Turner.