Exo 32:1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, "Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."
Moses had been up on God’s holy mountain called Horeb for 40 days receiving the law of the Lord after Israel’s exodus from Egypt. On the mountain Moses basked in God’s presence. He discovered the character, communion, power, and sweetness of that presence to the extent that he would refuse to do anything or go anywhere without it. All true godly men will spend time in the presence of God. It is a biblical reality that proximity and communion with God go hand in hand.
Distant from the presence of God were the people of Israel. Aaron, Moses’ right hand man was in charge during his absence. The people feared something had happened to Moses and demanded that Aaron make a golden calf so they would have some kind of visible representation of God that would guide them in the days to come. Depraved man will always reduce God down to his own concepts. This frees man to be play at being religious instead of having true communion in spirit and in truth. That is exactly what Israel did; they rose up to play with lewd dancing, drunkenness, and fornication.
While on the mountain, God told Moses to go down to the people because they had corrupted themselves. Because of his close communion with God, Moses understood God’s holy character and was not about to be manipulated in any way by the demands of men. He rebuked the people and God’s judgment fell resulting in the death of 23,000. Moses burned the idol, ground it up to powder and made the people drink it. It was not something an Aaron would have done for he was a man who could be manipulated, but it was something a communing mountain man would do who was guided by the word of God.
Many congregations today want what is entertaining, what is polished, professional, emotional and aesthetical over the genuine and holy. They seek men who can be manipulated, and who will tickle their ears by reducing God to a more acceptable deity. “Make us a god fashioned from the gold of the world”, is their cry. The manipulated man will enjoy the temporary accolades of the crowds and will be rewarded well for attending to their cries but up in the mountain is a God who sees it all for what it is, “corruption”.
However, God is looking for mountain men who will commune with Him and receive His word so that it is burned into their hearts with holy fire. He desires his word to declared in season when people love it and out of season when the ecumenical masses despise it. Often God’s truth will not be well received by those who hate it. Mountain men always will expose the lie; they will demand decision; and they will call for a mug of ground up calf idol in repentance. The mountain man will never compromise God for the whims of people.
What kind of man more resembles you, Mountain or Manipulated?
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