Exodus 31:18; 32:1-6, 19-29; 33:5-1018And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. (Exodus 31:18)
1And 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. 2And 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. 3And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4And 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. 5And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord. 6And 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. (Exodus 32:1‑6)
19And 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. 20And 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. 21And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? 22And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. 23For 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. 24And 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. 25And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) 26Then 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. 27And 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 neighbor. 28And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. 29For 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. (Exodus 32:19‑29)
5For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. 6And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb. 7And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. 8And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. 9And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. 10And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. (Exodus 33:5‑10)
God had told the Children of Israel, He was going to speak from the mountain, and they had agreed that all He said they would do. Moses had departed to go into the mountain to get the law, and had left the people in charge of Aaron.
Moses tarried on the mount longer than the patience of the people could endure. They wanted something more visible, so they said, “We don’t know what has become of Moses; perhaps he will never appear again. We know he went up into the mount; that he said he was coming back, but we can’t tell what happened to him. Now, in view of that, let us get busy, and accommodate ourselves to the situation, and make us gods that we can have right here with us.” I suppose they might have found many excuses for that, one of which may have been, to maintain the unity of this people lest they be scattered or divided in their religion during the absence of Moses. They lost faith in Moses, their spiritual leader and their link between themselves and God, who was making preparations for them, and was coming back to them.
I believe in type that is what is taking place in the church of God today. The Lord Jesus went up into glory. He said He was going to prepare a place and come back again. He told us to occupy until He came back. The church became weary of an absent, unseen Lord. The result of that lack of affection, was the substituting something to keep up interest in religious things. Just in proportion as the absent, ascended Lord has been lost sight of, ritualism, form and ceremony, which appeal to the eye, and in which man has his part, have been substituted. This has been the history of Christendom.
According to the measure of departure from the truth as to an ascended glorified Christ, there has come in that which takes its place—that which is a substitute for it. So what we find around about in Christendom in which Christendom boasts, is, in itself, a silent proof of the fact that the church of God practically does not believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has gone away for a little time, and is coming back again; that His people are to be serving, watching and waiting for Him to come out of glory to receive them unto himself, that where He is there they may be also. Wherever you see in this world the building up of a great, elaborate, religious structure—I don’t confine that word to buildings, but I mean any religious something in which man takes pride—there is the confession that man has lost confidence in the Word of the Lord Jesus as to His coming back again.
If you go back to the early days of the church’s history, before it lost its first love, you find nothing of that at all. You find them occupied with that blessed, absent One. They were thinking about Him, and their lives were affected by that fact. Their Lord was absent but not forever. It was only a temporary matter. They “turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.” So long as that hope burned, you don’t find them building up anything. You find them standing aloof from everything here—not establishing organizations at all—but just meeting around the Lord Jesus. He was their Center. The best meeting place the church of God ever had, was the catacombs of Rome—underground chambers dug out of the heart of the earth—where God’s people met in those early days in freshness, zeal and energy. It was only when that champion, Constantine, called them out of that place, and enthroned them in an established temple, dedicated to the worship of Christ, that the church met her ruin. Then she began to be something. When they were despised, and had to find their secret entrance into those underground chambers where they sang their hymns, worshiped, and remembered the Lord’s death, those were the precious times of spiritual reality. When they were called out to take charge of those temples and become something, then human ambition began to work; religious leadership came in, and that great colossus of religious system has been growing ever since. In proportion as the church has become lofty in the world, it has lost sight of the fact that there is an absent Lord who has gone into heaven, and in a little while is coming back.
That is what happened here. As to Moses, they say, “We know not what has become of him,” and they make provision for the lack. If people are not satisfied with Christ, they are going to have something to take His place. Young people, if you are not satisfied with the Lord Jesus, as an object for your heart, you are going to have an object to take His place—a substitute to take the place of God’s Christ.
That is what the children of Israel did. They thought they had lost their spiritual link with Jehovah, and they go to Aaron about it, and he falls in with their plan. “All right,” he says, “we will attend to that. Bring me your earrings, and we will see what we can do.” He is giving them something to do. Everybody gets busy, and I suppose they had a fine time. They had no lack. When it is a question of religious activity, you can find plenty. All came with their dedicated ornaments, and out of those earrings, Aaron proceeded to make a calf. Later we find his explanation of how it happened. The fact in the case was, he took those earrings, and made an object of worship from them, and proclaimed a national, religious celebration, “Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah.”
There are two or three points I want to notice in connection with this, which I believe are instructive. Where did they get the material for this false god? Out of their ears. In my mind, that links itself with what we get in 2nd Timothy, 4th chapter: “But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” What we get there, is the people’s having trouble with their ears; their hearts have gone wrong. They are going to have a god that suits their itching ears. They turn away their ears from the truth, and are turned unto fables, and the god we find them worshipping in that chapter, is a god who is the direct result of those itching cars. The god the children of Israel worshipped in the 33rd of Exodus, is a god they got out of their own ears.
When the new god comes on the scene, it won’t do to shock the people too much by bringing in new names, so, to make the thing acceptable, the old name is preserved. Aaron didn’t say, “Tomorrow is going to be a feast to the golden calf;” or “Tomorrow is going to be a feast unto Ashtaroth,” or some other heathen god; no; “Tomorrow is going to be a feast to Jehovah.” They are perfectly orthodox if you listen to their talk. You might have gone around to that camp the next day, and seen a big feast going on. You might have asked, “What is going on in the camp today?” And you would have gotten the answer, “We are having a feast to Jehovah.” That sounds fine, doesn’t it! “We are, offering burnt offerings and peace offerings.” That sounds fine too! There is nothing wrong in that! “A feast to Jehovah-offering burnt offerings and peace offerings.” Everything is orthodox. The phraseology is perfectly correct. They had just traded gods. They had given up Jehovah the true God, and slipped in a substitute, but preserved the old name—the old wording—the old phraseology. That is going on in Christendom today. Satan is slipping in a new god, or perhaps a new Christ, I would say, in place of the Christ of God, and in order not to shock people too much, and to give confidence in this new Christ, the old phraseology is being preserved. These clever teachers, leaders and theological professors speak in such terms, that simple souls are deceived; the unwary are led astray. They will tell you, “Our minister believes in redemption; in new-birth; in Christ.” How much one hears that kind of thing. The phraseology is there, it is true; the phrases are orthodox enough, but what is the spiritual contact? What are they speaking of when they use these phrases? Those who were dancing around the golden calf, were saying, “This is a feast to Jehovah,” and, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” That sounds well enough, but back of it was a hollow lie. How important that principle is!
Dear young reader, you can’t be too much on your guard in these days. Don’t be deceived by words. Is the christ that people offer you, the Christ of God? or is it another christ? Is it a false christ? is it only Christ in name?
I was in Bro. W.’s Bible shop the other day, and he showed me the prospectus of a book, which had been sent him from a university press, entitled “The Life of Jesus.” You would expect to find something helpful in a book of that kind. He called my attention to some things stated in the foreword of this book. We agreed it was the most blasphemous thing we ever read! There it is, coming from a university, written by a religious leader, written about the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet, the Christ that book presents, is not God’s Christ. It is entirely another individual. It is a Christ of man’s imagination; it is a false Christ of Satan’s graving.
In the first Epistle of John, 2nd chapter, 18th verse, we read, “Even now are there many antichrists.” How the blessed God would preserve to us the truth of the Christ of God.
(To be continued)