Tag: Golden Calf

50.n. Wilderness – 14.t. “You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.”

 

 

Deu 9:9-16  When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. And the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And at the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’ “Furthermore, the LORD said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people. Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

That the Israelites might have no pretence to think that God brought them to Canaan for their righteousness, Moses shows what a miracle of mercy it was, that they had not been destroyed in the wilderness. It is good for us often to remember against ourselves, with sorrow and shame, our former sins; that we may see how much we are indebted to free grace, and may humbly own that we never merited any thing but wrath and the curse at God’s hand. For so strong is our propensity to pride, that it will creep in under one pretence or another. We are ready to fancy that our righteousness has got for us the special favour of the Lord, though in reality our wickedness is more plain than our weakness. But when the secret history of every man’s life shall be brought forth at the day of judgment, all the world will be proved guilty before God. At present, One pleads for us before the mercy-seat, who not only fasted, but died upon the cross for our sins; through whom we may approach, though self-condemned sinners, and beseech for undeserved mercy and for eternal life, as the gift of God in Him. Let us refer all the victory, all the glory, and all the praise, to Him who alone bringeth salvation. (Henry)

The Israelites had witnessed firsthand the miracles, wonders, and signs of God. They partook of food and water that He supplied. They were able to see His closeness on the mountain, and yet, within 40 days they had turned from God as if what He had said, what He had done, and what He expected were as if it were nothing at all. 

It is good to remind ourselves of the sinfulness of our sin and the undeserved grace and mercy given to us by God. This is not to be a trivial thought but an explosion and ever-life-changing continual meditation.

44.s. “Wilderness” – 8.y. “herefore they shall eat the fruit of their way”

 

Exo 32:20  He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

 Proverbs 1:31   therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.

 Proverbs 14:14   The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.

 Job 4:8    As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

 Isaiah 3:10-11    Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.  Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.

 Galatians 6:7-8   Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Jeremiah 6:19    Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

Ecclesiastes 11:9.   Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

 Proverbs 1:33  but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”

There is much in the attitude of professing Christians in this day which fills me with concern, and makes me full of fear for the future. There is an amazing ignorance of Scripture among many, and a consequent want of established, solid religion. In no other way can I account for the ease with which people are, like children, “ tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine.” (Ryles)

“One great concern I have is that many of today’s Christians are not taking the Word of God seriously. For whatever reason, the Scriptures do not have authority in the Christian’s life in the way that is necessary for him or her to live a life to the glory of God.” (Tozer)

The longer I am in ministry, the more convinced I am that the church is filled with atheists. Now, I am not talking about theological atheists; I am talking about practical atheists. Many of us live our lives, conduct our relationships, and formulate our plans without ever once even thinking, “What would God have me do in this situation?” We live our lives as if there were no God. (Jeffress)

There is not much talk about sin and the sinfulness of man in light of the holiness of God. It is in this absence that a shallow approach is revealed to things of God and the wholeness of His Word. Where is repentance discussed? Where is sin called out? Where is holiness a pursuit? Where is the desire to live Holy? Where is the desire to be Holy Spirit led? Where is there separation from worldly and heavenly pursuits? Where is the desire to grow in understanding of God’s Holiness and our sinfulness so that we might repent and honor and glorify Him? 

There is so much more to a Christian life than living “Justified by Christ” – Granted all must come to the place of redemption through Jesus Christ, but the Christian life that begins (born again) as a baby is expected to grow and mature – “Sanctification”.  We can rest our salvation in our justification in Jesus Christ, but there should never be a moment where we are not seeking and desiring to honor and glorify Him in all we think, say, and do.  Being complacent and neglectful in this desire will leave us void of the Word of God in our lives and of little value to bringing honor and glory to Jesus. How empty is the appreciation that says; “I repent and trust you Jesus” and then does not seek to live each moment desiring to honor and glorify Him? 

We can rest in being justified but should never rest in our growth and desire to grow so that we can speak the word of truth and live so that honor and glory are given in all we think, say, and do, to Jesus Christ. Though we might start our Christian walk as a babe, let us not be content but rather seek to grow and mature in God’s Word. 

44.o. “Wilderness” – 8.u. “Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts.”

 

Exodus 32:8-10  They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

 Exodus 20:23    You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.

 Deuteronomy 9:16  And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

 Judges 2:17   Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so.

 Proverbs 29:1    He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.

 Zechariah 7:11-12     But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.  They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts.

 Psalms 78:8    and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Quickly after the law was given to them, and they had promised to obey it; quickly after God had done such great things for them, and declared his kind intentions to do greater. Untractable, willful, and stubborn; unapt to come under the yoke of the divine law, averse from all good, prone to all evil, incorrigible by judgments, and obstinate to all the methods of cure. (Benson)

How easy is it to fall away from intentional obedience to God and things of God? How easy is it to keep that unholy thought just a few more seconds in your mind? How easy is it to be tempted by things and thoughts of this world and what it establishes as important? How easy is it to not eat or drink from His Word? How easy is it to be influenced by things in this world? 

Take time and think about your past week and how much time was spent between worldly and Godly pursuits. There is no time like right now to affirm a new intentional choice to spend more time studying and meditating (thinking) about things of God, holiness, and the sinfulness of sin.

44.n. “Wilderness” – 8.t. “They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them”

 

 

Exodus 32:7  And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”

 Deuteronomy 9:12   Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’

 Deuteronomy 4:16    beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

 Deuteronomy 32:5    They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation.

 Judges 2:19    But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

God says to Moses, that the Israelites had corrupted themselves. Sin is the corruption of the sinner, and it is a self-corruption; every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust. They had turned aside out of the way. Sin is a departing from the way of duty into a by-path. They soon forgot God’s works. He sees what they cannot discover, nor is any wickedness of the world hid from him. We could not bear to see the thousandth part of that evil which God sees every day. (Henry)

As soon as our eyes fall away from God, our purposes change and our commitment wanes. Why does God’s Word say for us to keep our eyes on Jesus, meditate on the Word of God, and write His Word on our hearts and minds, because of how easy it is for us to fall away into wrong thinking and living and speaking. It does us well to have close friends of faith who speak of God and things of God each day. This world and what it has to offer will blind us to the things of God if we neglect His Word and become complacent in our walk with Him.

44.m. “Wilderness” – 8.s. “Make us gods who shall go before us”

 

Exodus 32:1  When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. 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.”  So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.  And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”  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.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

While Moses was in the mount, receiving the law from God, the people made a tumultuous address to Aaron. This giddy multitude were weary of waiting for the return of Moses. Weariness in waiting betrays to many temptations. The Lord must be waited for till he comes, and waited for though he tarry. Let their readiness to part with their ear-rings to make an idol, shame our stubbornness in the service of the true God. They did not draw back on account of the cost of their idolatry; and shall we grudge the expenses of religion? Aaron produced the shape of an ox or calf, giving it some finish with a graving tool. They offered sacrifice to this idol. Having set up an image before them, and so changed the truth of God into a lie, their sacrifices were abomination. Had they not, only a few days before, in this very place, heard the voice of the Lord God speaking to them out of the midst of the fire, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image? Had they not themselves solemnly entered into covenant with God, that they would do all he had said to them, and would be obedient? ch. 24:7. Yet before they stirred from the place where this covenant had been solemnly made, they brake an express command, in defiance of an express threatening. It plainly shows, that the law was no more able to make holy, than it was to justify; by it is the knowledge of sin, but not the cure of sin. (Henry)

The delay of Moses’ return was a test for Israel, in which it was to prove its faith and confidence in Jehovah and His servant Moses, but in which it gave way to the temptation of flesh and blood. (Keil)

40 days from the time they heard God speak His commandments and their covenant with Him in obedience is all it took to shatter their faith in God and their commitment to His commands. The shallowness or depth of our belief and commitment will always become evident when there is pressure put against it. 

46. Can a Christian life can be lived without any binding obligation?

Deuteronomy 9:13   “Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people. Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. Then I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.

Romans 2:5   But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

Joshua 11:20     For it was the LORD’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the LORD commanded Moses.

1 Samuel 6:6     Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?

2 Chronicles 30:8    Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.

Proverbs 29:1    He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.

Isaiah 48:4    Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass,

Ezekiel 3:7     But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.

Hebrews 3:13    But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Do you ever think about the wrath of God?  Do you think there is a time of unleashing His wrath?  Do you ever wonder on whom His wrath will fall?  God’s silence does not mean indifference, but the desire to give an opportunity to repent.  We hear of the grace, mercy, and love of God.  We speak of joy, peace, hope, comfort, strength, courage, and refuge but, are they taken the light that though our redemption is through Christ alone and without His sacrifice every last one of us would be separated from God and certainly in a direct path of His wrath.  We can do nothing to deserve this redemption from our sin and sacrifice for our sin.  This is a gift of God.  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

I think we make a hard stop on grace and mercy and give no thought to obedience.

Here are a couple of excerpts from Steve Lawson:  “Many who profess Christ today emphasize a wrong view of grace that makes it a free pass to do whatever they please. Tragically, they have convinced themselves that the Christian life can be lived without any binding obligation to the moral law of God. In this hyper-grace distortion, the need for obedience has been neutered. The commandments of God are no longer in the driver’s seat of Christian living but have been relegated to the backseat, if not the trunk—like a spare tire—to be used only in case of an emergency. With such a spirit of antinomianism, what needs to be reinforced again is the necessity of obedience.

For all true followers of Christ, obedience is never peripheral. At the heart of what it means to be a disciple of our Lord is living in loving devotion to God. But if such love is real, the acid test is obedience. Jesus maintained, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Genuine love for Christ will always manifest itself in obedience.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezek. 36:26–27)

In this heart transplant, God causes the believer to pursue Spirit-energized obedience.

When John says believers “keep” the commandments, this pictures a guard or watchman watching over a priceless treasure. In like manner, the one who knows God will keep a sharp watch over all that His Word requires. “And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3), but they are a blessing (Ps. 1:1). Every step of heart-prompted obedience leads to experiencing abundant life in Christ. Conversely, every step of disobedience takes us away from the joy of divine goodness. Far from being optional, grace-fueled obedience is absolutely necessary for Christlikeness.”

What is your snare

All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Judges 8:23
But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)
They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each of them threw a ring from his plunder onto it. The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels’ necks. Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

1 Samuel 12:12
And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the Lord your God was your king. And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.

Exodus 32:7
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt

I keep reading these accounts of God’s greatness and how He allowed people to see it.  I sit back and wonder how could these people so easily fall away from what God truly expected of them.  Look at Exodus where the people saw God perform great power and wonders in their exodus from Egypt.  When Moses went to the mountain to be with God and be instructed for 40 days the people immediately made an idol to worship.  Again in Samuel we see where the people had God present with them and they asked God for a king when He was clearly their King.  There are numerous examples throughout scripture of God’s people choosing something other than God to worship and give honor to.  Is this still true today?  Do we give honor, glory, worth to something other than God?  Do our lives reflect humble submission and service to Him?  Is there both and outward and inward difference to our lives compared to those who regard God as a fairy tale?  The only way to answer these questions is to reflect on what God’s word says and speaks into your heart.  If there is no regular time spent in His word how are we able to (as instructed) “write it on our heart”, “write it on our door posts”, “meditate on it day and night”, “take it with us on our coming and going”.   The biggest error in any life is to disregard His word and having a deep heart desire to humbly serve Him.