THIS little picture is a drawing of a bronze figure of "Apis," one of the Egyptian calf-idols; you will see it is graved over its back, shoulders, and neck, and also that it has a disc between its horns, which is the Egyptian emblem of the sun. The sun signifies universal power, which is here by this sign attributed to the false god.
The ancient Egyptians had more than one calf-idol. It is not necessary to explain to you the difference between them: suffice it to say, that fasting, and also dancing and singing, were held in their honor, and on sacred occasions of their idolatrous worship their grandees carried a gilded ox in a shrine held up on poles. On some of these occasions the children were found in large attendance, for it was considered highly fortunate to be amongst these worshippers.
When we consider these facts, the awful sin of the golden calf comes before us with an intense reality. It was a willful departure from the true worship of Jehovah of the most determined kind. Moses was out of sight, and the people wanted a visible sign of power amongst them, and they turned to the familiar idol of the land of their slavery!
Having their god, the golden calf, they added sin to sin again, and said, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." We cannot doubt that many a true heart in the camp sighed and groaned over this departure from God, and many prayed to Jehovah for deliverance from evil. But as a nation—as a whole—Israel on that sad day "changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass." (Psa. 106:2020Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. (Psalm 106:20).) They forsook Jehovah, and returned to the form of Egyptian idolatry. Now all this happened a few short months after their seeing the wonders of Jehovah in Egypt and His deliverance at the Red Sea only a few weeks after their trembling at His voice and lightnings and fire on Sinai, and when they were camped at the foot of the mountain. Indeed, on the very morning of their sin against Jehovah they had gathered the manna He sent them from heaven, and drank of the waters from His smitten rock, and even while they hailed their golden idol they were under the shadow of His cloud of glory, which forsook them not day or night!
Let this solemn instruction teach us all to pray that we may be kept from departing from the living God. In Christian lands the idolatrous course of Israel has been largely followed; men forsake the unseen God by making forms before which they worship; images and paintings of the holy Jesus are bowed to, to the great dishonor of His glory and to the denial of the presence of the Holy Spirit on the earth. What tears, what sighs, and passionate looks have we witnessed, while the strains of tender music have kindled the feelings, as a poor sinner has fallen before an image of Jesus, or of the blessed Virgin Mary with the Son of God and man in her arms! It is not for us to fall before blocks of carved wood or stone; our living, loving Saviour is near us, and His Spirit is in us. Let us believe in and reverence Him. While we mourn over the terribleness of Israel's sin, let us, we say again, pray that we may be preserved from the system of idolatry.
People may smile at such a warning in what is called our "enlightened age," but how many really earnest, professing Christians are grieving God by seeking to draw in spirit near to Him by the help of pictures or images, painted glass or sweet music! We do not say such procedure is the same departure from God that Israel's calf-worship was; but when it is said, "We really worship God, and only use these things to make us think of Him more easily," the principle of idolatry is owned. God is not seen; "we walk by faith, not by sight"; His Spirit alone is the power to worship Him; "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:2424God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)); and the system of religion which sets up objects to help the soul Godward is a denial both of faith in the risen Christ and of His Spirit who is given us.
You who love God have Him near you all day long; He never leaves nor forsakes you; and you can always speak to Him, and find the freshness of His presence. At home, in school, at work, or in play, you may always know the Lord is near you, and find His strength your portion. Like Moses, when in the mount talking with God, the man Christ Jesus is now on high for us—we cannot see Him, but let us seek for grace to walk by faith in His divine presence.
Dear young friends, greater wonders than Jehovah wrought in Egypt and at the Red Sea are recorded in His word for us. Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us; the power of Satan has been overwhelmed; through death, Christ has destroyed him who had power over death, that is the devil. It is not Sinai's thunders, truly, that we have heard, but words more wonderful, for the very words of God the Father have been spoken to us through the lips of His incarnate Son; and having the gospels, we live, as it were, in the very sound of their heavenly music. And cannot we who believe say, that day by day we feed on the manna that came down from heaven, and drink of the living waters of Christ our Rock? and, more still, that even as we read these lines the cloud of God's unfailing protection is over us? We can. All this grace is ours; yet despite all this grace, unless God keep us, we, too, may forsake Him by going into the religion of sight and sense, and by having our forms of God and sacred things to help us, as it is said, to worship Him; but really to hinder us from worshipping Him, and to lead us into the rejection of His truth.
In the camp of Israel many a true heart sighed over the sin of the people; the idolators had their enemies. But with Aaron, their leader, and the great men of Israel making and surrounding their idol, it was not light work for any true heart on that day. In our own land, in years gone by, men protested against idolatry, and sealed their words by their blood in the face of kings and mighty men. Christian boys and girls, seek for grace to be true and firm-hearted for God. God is greater than the greatest men, and happy are they who are true for Him.
We feel we must thus exhort our dear young friends—we want you to cleave to the word of God. If you are spared to grow up, and to enter the world, perhaps you will remember these our words, and you will not then think our appeal to you to hold fast to the word of God unnecessary.
It is very sad to think of Aaron building an altar before the golden calf, and saying, “To-morrow is a feast to Jehovah." It shows us how blind to evil we may become, so blind that we even may seek to bring in God's name to hallow acts of gross disobedience to His word.
All this while Jehovah was looking upon His sinning people, just as He looks upon us in all our ways; but when, at length, He saw them engage in their idolatrous eating, drinking, and dancing, He bade Moses leave Him and go down to them.
The way in which Moses heard from Jehovah the awful fact of Israel's sin, and, more, Jehovah's wrath against them, is so wonderful that we beg each of our dear young readers, who loves the Lord to read and consider the words of Scripture for himself.
Moses had just received the complete instructions from God respecting the tabernacle and its service, in and by which He would dwell among the people, and also the two tables of stone written with the finger of God, when he heard from the very mouth of God of His anger against sinning Israel. Yet he was in spirit so near God, he was practically so holy, that he could at once plead with God, for His own glory's sake, to spare the people.
And God did spare them; He did not cut them all off, as they deserved. Shall not this great intercession of Moses encourage us to plead with God for the salvation of those whom we love? He will hear our prayers.
So Moses descended from the presence of Jehovah, and went down the mount, having the precious tables of stone in his hands. Joshua was with him, and as he heard the shouts of the people about the golden calf, he thought it was the noise of war in the camp; but, said Moses, no, "the noise of them that sing do I hear.”
Presently he came near the camp, and saw the idol, and the people dancing, then in his righteous anger he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them, for he would not take into the camp the commandments of Jehovah, the first of which is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”
Moses took the calf, and cast it again into the fire, and ground it to powder, and, strewing the gold dust upon water, made the people drink up their god! He bade them consume their idol to their shame and its contempt —as it were, to drink up their sin, and to have it within them as the water of the curse.
Then Moses went to the gate of the camp, and called for those who were on the Lord's side, upon which the Levites gathered themselves to him. Moses bade them gird on their swords, and go through the camp, and slay every man of the dancers whom they found, whether sons or brothers, neighbors or friends—no mercy was to be shown to any; and the Levites went from gate to gate through the camp, and cut down no less than three thousand people that day. Thus Israel had to purge itself from its sin—had with its own hands to inflict chastisement upon itself for its iniquity.
Also the Lord plagued Israel because they made the calf which Aaron made. He afflicted them for their sin, though in His mercy He did not destroy them. What they sowed they reaped. And so it is to this day, while the Lord loves His people, and will bring every true believer safe to His promised land, yet He punishes their disobedience. It is as with a father and his children. The father loves the child, but if the child be disobedient the father punishes him for his ways. By grace the people of God are saved, but if they transgress God's commands He visits their sin upon them.
God in His government deals with His people's evil ways, even though in grace He has pardoned them. The true believer has his sins forgiven for all eternity, and is a child of God, but whom the Lord loves He chastens, He deals with His own as a father with his children whose ways are evil.
H. F. W.