Verses 1-4, "Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, 'Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' And Aaron said to them, 'Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.' So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!' ” This is a great example of a leader giving the people what they want, to their own demise. God had clearly told them NOT to make gods of gold. Exodus 20:22-24, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: "You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves. An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you." ' "
Not only did Aaron make the golden calf, but he also built an alter to worship it. Verses 5-6, "So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.' Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." The people might have been pleased with Aaron, but God certainly was not. Even if he wasn't in agreement with them, he participated in giving the people what they wanted, pleasing them over God. James 4:4, "Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." Good pastors and leaders need to be completely sold out to God. If the people don't like him, chances are he's not pleasing them by giving them what they want. The truth divides and causes offenses. Be concerned when everyone loves a pastor and will defend the man more then they would ever defend God.
II Timothy 4:2-5, "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." We are seeing that time now. People cannot handle the truth of the word, and would rather have teachers that tell them what they want to hear. When the truth is shared, be ready for persecution, and from those who call themselves believers.
Aaron proclaimed a feast unto the Lord, trying to drag God into their idol worship, thinking they could worship God somehow through the golden calf. God has made it clear that He does not want to be worshiped the way people worship their false gods. Deuteronomy 12:1-4, “These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things." We do not need to drag God into modern day practices either. It doesn't matter whether it's making practices like yoga Christian or trying to add Jesus to pagan holidays. Jeremiah 10:2-3, "Thus says the Lord: 'Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile...' "
What's worse is that they involved drunkenness and sexual immorality in their celebration "unto the Lord." Light and darkness have nothing in common and cannot coexist in unity. 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.' ” If you are truly born again, Jesus lives in you. Therefore, do not drag Him into your immorality and think He's okay with it. If you don't repent, you will be judged for your sin.
God was not okay with Israel's sin, and proceeds to judge them. Verses 7-10, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, "This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” ' And the Lord said to Moses, 'I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.' ” Moses pleaded for the people and the Lord relented from what He was going to do, which probably included wiping them all out and rebuilding a nation through Moses. Even though Moses requests to take the punishment upon himself, God kept the right to punish the individual sinners and plagues them.
Verses 25-29, "Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, 'Whoever is on the Lord ’s side— come to me!' And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. And he said to them, 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel: "Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.” ' So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. Then Moses said, 'Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother.' ” A difficult choice had to be made, but God needed to come before family, even a brother or son. Matthew 10:37-38, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me."
Notice how the evil needed to be taken out of the camp entirely. The idol, the alter, and people were destroyed. God already told the people through Moses, the penalty for idol worship. Exodus 22:20, “He who sacrifices to any god, except to the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed." Coexisting with those living in sin dies not work, as the evil will corrupt the good. Our country has cast of all restraint, everyone is doing what's right in their own eyes, but only God is right. The people had to choose who's side they were on, and so do we.
And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my Lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.” Exodus 32:21-24
ReplyDeleteWhen Moses confronted Aaron about golden calf, Aaron tried to blame the sin on the Jews. Instead of taking responsibility for he had done he tried to put it on someone else. As humans we try to excuses for our sin. We try to ease our consience by making excuses for our actions. Adam and Eve both blamed their sin on another. Instead of blaming our sin on someone other than ourself we need to take responsibility for our actions and repent from our sin.
"Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” When the children of Israel didn't see Moses come back, they formed their back on God. We should never doubt God, his ability, or His will. We should never turn our backs on God. People fall into this trap when they think they know better than God, and their pride gets in the way. They doubt God and think they know better.
ReplyDelete"And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord .” Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Aaron was supposed to be their leader, and he did as they wanted and made a golden calf. He did not restrain them from their evil desires, and Moses eventually calls him on it. Many pastors today don't lead the sheep. They allow sin and evil into the flock, and do nothing about it. These Red not true spiritual leaders. Godly spiritual leaders will truly care about the sheep's spiritual well being and they will confront them and keep them on track.
"And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.” So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain." God was angry with what the Israelites had done, and told Moses to go back down and correct them. Their hearts were stubborn, and they didn't want to listen to the Lord.
Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my Lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.” Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord ’s side— come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ ” So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. Then Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord , that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother.” Moses came back and confronted Aaron for allowing the Israelites to turn to other gods. He took the Idol and burnt it, and rebuked the Israelites as well. This is the sign of a true leader. Moses had those who truly believed in the Lord to come to him. And they killed all those who were evil. Many people were evil, and fell that day. There are so many people today who claim to be christians, but at reread just evil. There are so many out there. The true saved believers are few and far between. False religion is creeping in and becoming popular. We need to be on guard and make sure we don't fall into the trap of joining these people.
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