1 ¶ And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
People, even today, are always looking for a leader other than God, particularly one that reflects their own desires and lusts. They want a God they can see.
2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
Chapter 21 would imply that Aaron was having them, in type, admit that they were servants rebelling against their master. But, no one can be sure if this was the intention.
4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Perhaps this was Apis, the bull god, a derivation of Satan, the calf that has the face of a cherub in Ezekiel and in Revelation. Satan is a cherub, and a cherub has the face of a calf. These “gods”, plural, are the calf and the gold on the calf.
5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
Aaron is trying to sanctify this pagan symbol by declaring that they were going to worship God in a feast that he made up. Much of our worship methods are purely pagan in origin. We make it up as we go along. Most of the things we use and do in modern, even fundamentalist churches, were not ordained by God nor did He ask for them.
6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
1Corinthians 10:7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
7 ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
Notice the peculiar idea that these people can’t blame Satan or anyone else for they “have corrupted themselves”. See how the Lord disowns His people and throws the blame on Moses.
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
It doesn’t take us long to start worshipping something other than God even in His place. We “turn quickly”. We are thankful to all the wrong things; ourselves, money, material possessions, sex, celebrities, politicians, educators, great artists, and by our not acknowledging God as God, and being thankful, and by serving other false gods, we are opened to the kind of sin that will burn us up. Look at this progression in Romans;
Romans 1:19 ¶ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
The above sins result from God removing His hand from you and giving you over to the sin that does so easily beset us.
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Sin is not merely the cause of God’s judgment upon a people but can be the consequence of God’s judgment. He will give you over to sin and once you have chosen to serve other gods, yourself, and Satan you have no control over how far it will go. Your resultant sin will consume you. Immorality in America, 9/11, our hollow economy, and the total destruction of our culture since the 1950’s, as well as abortion, people shacking up, rampant illegitimacy, and homosexual behavior is the judgment that God visited upon us after we Christians, as a people, turned our backs on His Bible and His admonition.
How long were we given to abandon slavery before God judged us with a Civil War and the consequent dictatorship of the Federal Government with the control by monopoly capitalists; industrialists and financiers? The dream of our founders being successful was predicated on righteousness and obedience but almost as soon as the 1800’s began Baptists began looking to retranslate the Bible that God had given us. Everything after 1865 flowed from our apostasy.
Look at how we substituted a knowledge of the Bible and daily Bible reading with Lorenzo Dow’s and Charles Finney’s altar call and the 1-2-3 repeat after me Dwight L. Moody, Billy Graham, and Jack Hyles kind of salvation. Getting numbers, people saved, became the primary job of the church rather than making disciples and teaching and helping people let God sanctify them through His word and helping each other in tough times.
The modern fundamentalist preacher has adopted the Puritan’s view that the sermon was the primary means by which God speaks to His people and John Wesley’s Sunday night service and Charles Finney’s “special service” every night of the week. It is the Bible, the Bible, the Bible that sanctifies. Here we are, dancing around our pagan idols. Fundamentalists are Pharisees, trying to be justified by their own righteousness and I don’t see a dime’s worth of difference between a separated, never divorced Baptist and a Roman Catholic. It’s still all about me and not Christ. Our sin is burning us up.
9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
Prayer can change God’s mind, even though the assumption is that God knew this would happen and, seen before hand, He waits for us to pray sincerely, in obedience. There are other episodes in the Bible where God can change His mind, as long as it is not written down as a fixed decree. You can’t pray to be saved but without Christ. It ain’t gonna happen.
Isaiah 38:1 ¶ In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, 3 And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4 Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, 5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
15 ¶ And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
The stone tables (our word, tablet, comes from this) were written on front and back. As an example of God’s writing, see;
Revelation 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
God writes things.
Daniel 5:5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
Exodus 32:32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin––; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
Revelation 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Your name was written in God’s book. If you reject His salvation, He removes your name and it will not be found written in His book.
17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
Joshua is a born soldier.
18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
“Mastery” is a military term for dominance or conquest as well as a sports term for victory over another.
1Corinthians 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
There are things that God doesn’t want in worship that are purely manmade. Today, foolish Christians use music based on African rhythms denoted by purely sexual terms and include them in their worship. There is little difference between the fleshy, carnal music used in today’s worship and purely secular music in a nightclub. Just adding the words, ‘God’ and ‘Jesus’, in a song doesn’t make it Godly.
Dancing for the Lord, as in David’s case, was not a coed activity. He danced unto the Lord.
2Samuel 6:16 And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.
And women would dance.
1Samuel 18:6 And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick.
But coed dancing is wicked and carnal and fleshy and no Christian should entertain themself with it. Frank Sinatra referred to dancing as making love to music in one of his popular songs. When the waltz came out and was so popular that it has been said that on any given night one out of four Viennese (Vienna, Austria) were out waltzing, people opposed it on moral grounds. Just ask yourself, if you saw a man and a woman doing most popular dances today in a room without music you would have to be pretty jaded not to think that they were insanely captivated by pure lust. If you go to a modern nightclub you will see a mass of people simulating sex with each other.
The first time the Ten Commandments are broken, they are broken at a dance.
20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.
21 ¶ And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?
22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.
Deuternomy 9:20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.
23 For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
24 And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.
This lying priest of God said that this idol came out of the fire when back in chapter 32 it was explained that it was made with engraving tools.
We do this so much with our sin, blaming something or someone else when it was our own choice.
25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)
One of the things that characterized the knowledge of good and evil that Adam and Eve suffered was a shame at being naked and a desire to cover themselves. One of the traits that characterizes demonic influence is a lack of that shame. People want to “get back to nature”, to get naked. It is a fundamental desire of some demon possessed sinners is to be naked in publicly as possible.
If you look at our churches today you often see people shamelessly sitting in the pews in various states of undress, with women even wearing shorts and short dresses, trying to show off their legs and other body parts. There is this hunger to expose themselves. Men do the same but have different priorities of flesh. Women today are held up mostly for their youthful attractiveness, hence older women talking about hairstyles or makeup that makes them look younger.
26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
Here, Moses is drawing the proverbial line in the sand. Moses comes from that tribe, Levi. His kin rallies to him.
27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.
28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
Three thousand men involved in the dance, regardless of their relationship to the Levite, were killed. This marks the beginning of the Law. The Law begins with three thousand getting killed as Pentecost, the beginning of the Church Age of God’s grace, begins with three thousand being added to the believers.
Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
People who get tangled up in doctrine out of their dispensation would do well to notice that if you claim to still be under the Hebrew theocracy you are called to kill unfaithful people. How inconsistent is this with the church age doctrine, under grace, after Christ’s resurrection. There are many Christian preachers who go beyond understanding the spiritual application of the Old Testament and act as if we are still under its rule, yet they pick and choose to justify their own convictions.
29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.
30 ¶ And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.
31 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin––; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
God has written a book with everyone’s name in it. If you reject the free offer of salvation through Jesus Christ your name will be removed out of it.
Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
Philippians 4:3 And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.
Revelation 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Revelation22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
34 Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.
35 And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.
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