The recently freed Israelites and their Gentile converts have arrived at Mt. Sinai where they have heard the voice of God (the “Word”–Jn. 1:1-4,14–Adonai, Who would later come to earth as Jesus of Nazareth).  After hearing His audible voice (which they rejected), they settle in to wait while Moses ascends up the mountain and disappears into the fire, lightning, smoke and thunder that envelops the place where God awaits him.

Let us review.  God has sent Moses into Egypt to free them.  God has performed a number of miracles to convince Pharaoh to let them leave.  He has sent fear into the Egyptians, prompting them to give the Israelites their jewels, precious metals, etc., thereby making them wealthy.  He has opened the Red Sea for them to walk across on dry land.  He has drowned the Egyptian army in that same sea.  He has miraculously produced food and water for them on their journey.  He has spoken to them in an audible voice from a mountain top engulfed in fire, lightning, billowing smoke and thunder.  After witnessing all these things done on their behalf, THEY DO NOT WANT TO HEAR HIS VOICE?

It is clear that they had already begun to think about returning to Egypt.  Just as Adam and Eve had thought about eating the forbidden fruit before going to where it was located, viewing its beauty and its tasteful looking fruit and noticing its power to make one wise.  Question: how did they know that sin would make them wise?  My answer: Anything that is forbidden by God is sin.  To the one who desires to sin, it is “good to make one wise(r)” than the One Who declared it off limits.  Man wants self-rule.  He wants to determine what he should and should not do.  By overruling God, the sinner declares himself wiser than God by correcting His error.  By the time Adam and Eve had taken their first step toward the forbidden tree they had already sinned in their hearts.  They had already desired to rebel against Him.  Otherwise, they would not have approached the tree.  The act of eating was simply the after effects of the sin.  They had taken from God the power to determine right and wrong.

Only God can determine right and wrong.  By claiming for themselves that power, Adam and Eve became the first human idolaters.  On the human level they became their own gods.  On the spiritual level, they had taken Satan as their god.  Sin is spiritual; it takes place in the mind.  The physical aspect is simply the end result of a sin that has already taken place in the heart (mind).  Read Matthew 2:28 and James 1:14,15.  Note in James 1:15 that lust (in the mind) produces (“brings forth (is) sin”) in the mind, which brings forth death.  Note also that James is writing to the church about the church.  He is warning Sinners Saved By Grace that their sins will bring forth their deaths, that their desire to sin has already condemned them.

When Moses failed to return from Mt. Sinai immediately the Israelites, having already returned to Egypt in their hearts, set about planning for the trip.  Having lived in a homosexual-centered society for several generations, and having embraced the gods and life-styles of the Egyptians, they conducted a homosexual orgy in preparation for returning to the land of bull calf gods.  We know this because of what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1.  He stated that the first thing Israel did upon rejecting the Lord was to revert to homosexuality (vss 24-27).  Recall that the Lord “gave them up to” homosexuality, meaning that sexual perversion was already in their hearts.  He simply turned them loose to follow lust they harbored in their hearts (minds).  But we must remember that not all of Israel was of such a mind-set–only the older generation.

Along with their “playing” (having a sex orgy–Exo. 32:6), they had presented “burnt offerings and peace offerings” ________–to whom or what?  God had not told them to offer to Him burnt sacrifices and peace offerings.  They offered them to the gods they had been worshiping for many generations–bull calves–the gods of the Egyptians.  We know that their offerings/sacrifices were not made to the true God because He told Moses that, by offering them, the Israelites had “corrupted themselves.  They have turned from the way that I commanded them, have made themselves a molten (bull) calf, WORSHIPED IT, SACRIFICED TO IT and DECLARED IT TO BE THEIR GOD” (vss 7,8).  Evidently all bull calves were gods.  As bad as worshiping an animal statue was, it was not all they had done against the Lord Who had freed them from slavery to sin and the Egyptians.

Turning to Exodus 32:1-6 we find that the people had concluded that Moses was not going to return to them.  Rather than depend on the God Who had done so much for them, they told Aaron to make gods for them that would “go before us.”  Where were they planning to go?  The only place and the only life they knew.  They wanted to go back to Egypt, back to slavery, BACK TO SINNING AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT. 

Following Aaron’s instructions, the people brought their golden trinkets to him from which he fashioned a bull calf.  Presenting the (representative) calf to them, he proclaimed: “These are your gods, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Israel.”  Note that Aaron–God’s first priest–after having seen all that the true God had done to bring them out of Egypt, pointed to the bovine statue that represented all of the bull calf gods of Egypt and proclaimed that THESE WERE THE GODS THAT HAD BROUGHT THEM OUT OF EGYPT.  Adding insult to injury, Aaron then built an alter (place of worship) in front of the idol and proclaimed that the following day they would “… CELEBRATE A FEAST TO THE LORD (JEHOVAH).”  The next morning they brought forth their burnt sacrifices and peace offerings, presented them to the idol and, following a “FEAST UNTO THE LORD” Who had freed them, engaged in a homosexual orgy in honor of THE CALF GODS OF EGYPT WHO WOULD NOW “… GO BEFORE US” (32:1) AND LEAD THEM BACK TO EGYPT.  Picture this: the calf gods who had led them out of Egypt were now going to lead them back to Egypt.  The people were going to follow them away from the God Who had freed them from the gods they were now going to follow back to the slavery from which He had freed them.  Sin does strange things to the mind.

Little has changed over the centuries.  Though the acts and places have changed, the mind-set remains the same.  People continue to honor the Biblical God on Sunday morning (a spiritual feast), then spend the next 6 1/2 days sinning (obeying their true gods).  But all is well because come next Sunday they will bring their preaching, teaching, singing, praying, tithing offerings to THE LORD.  Having made their “sacrifices” (money, time, etc.) to Him, and having received from Him forgiveness for their sins of the past 6 1/2 days, they will once again be free to serve their true gods for the next 6 1/2 days.

In this way professing Christendom, not willing to hear God’s Words from either the Holy Scriptures or the men He has sent to testify of them, return to Egypt each Sunday where they worship their Golden Calves–the churches.  For proof that church people worship the church and not God, ask 10 people if they are Christians, and if so, how they know they are Christians.  THEY WILL TELL YOU WHAT CHURCH THEY “BELONG TO”.  They will NOT tell you that they are Christians because they believe and obey the Biblical God–THE ONE AND ONLY PROOF THAT ONE IS A TRUE CHRISTIAN.  The church that led people out of sin has evolved into the institution that now leads people back to sin.  The lure of the Golden Calf is as powerful as it was at the foot of Mt. Sinai many centuries ago.  L.J.