FOR OUR EXAMPLE ~ EXPOSING HYPOCRISY ~ PART 16

It’s very important when any believer, treading on these turbulent waters that expose spiritual hypocrisy, doesn’t get caught up in a wave of moral indignation that sweeps us before God in prayer saying, “I thank You I’m not like ______,” because we are like _____. To think that I am not like anyone in Scripture whom God has chosen to use as an example to me, is to clearly not understand my own depravity.

 

Our flesh is tempted to look at Aaron in Exodus 32 in shocked disbelief at his actions in proxy for Moses while he was meeting with God. Why? We are tempted to think, after all the spiritual experiences he has witnessed, how could he cave to the dictates of the people so easily? How could he fall into bed with this spiritual idolatry so quickly after all the recent miraculous events he has witnessed?

 

The Apostles had Jesus, God in the flesh, who physically dwelt among them. Yet, there was Judas. And Peter denied Him three times. We are tempted to blurt out, “Well, I would never…”. It is this attitude in each of us that needs the reminders, the examples, and the warnings.

 

Why is it so very important to be reminded of spiritual hypocrisy, to expose false teaching, and to stand upon sound doctrine? It is so very important because we have no idea of the depths of our own depravity. This life is not about us and what makes us feel good. God’s glory is at stake in every act of idolatry, but He will not be mocked, and His glory can never be diminished.

 

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul reminds the Corinthian church of the dangers of idolatry. He points to the children of Israel as an example to them and to us. He says in verses 1-5 in summary: They knew all these privileges and blessings as God’s chosen nation—He delivered them from the bonds of slavery, He went with them leading them through the wilderness to the Promised Land—yet with MOST of them God was not well-pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. Did you catch that? MOST of them means exactly what it says. Of all those who left Egypt originally, it was only Joshua and Caleb who actually entered the Promised Land.

 

In verses 6-13, Paul reminds the Corinthians of some of Israel’s sins in the wilderness. He quotes Exodus 32:4 in verse 7. Why did the Corinthians need to be reminded? Why do WE need to be reminded several millennia later?

 

1 Corinthians 10:6—Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. The episode at Sinai involved idolatry, sexual immorality, testing God, and complaining, as John MacArthur says in his commentary on this verse.

Keeping the example of God’s dealings with the Israelites in view, Paul makes application to all future believers. 1 Corinthians 10:11-12—Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. How arrogant it is when we choose to believe we don’t need to be discerning in what we listen to and the teaching we expose ourselves to—when we think doctrine doesn’t matter. Pride always goes before a fall. Even as Christians, it is our proud flesh that is tempted to sin. It is our flesh that must be crucified continually while the Lord sanctifies us in obedience to the truth. But we can know that: no temptation has overtaken us but that which is common to man; that God is faithful, who will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able, and that with the temptation He will provide the way of escape also, so that we will be able to endure it.

In verse 14, Paul says: Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. If I think I could NEVER do what Aaron did, I am deceived. All Christians are vulnerable to Aaron’s sin and any other sin. And as we saw in the last blog post, the sin of syncretism is seen in professing ‘Christendom’ everywhere today.

 

The people said to Aaron, “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.” The faulty premise here is that it was not MOSES who had led them out of Egypt, but God, Himself. As we saw earlier, immediately following the peoples’ demand we see Aaron, in verse 2 of Exodus 32, saying, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” It looks to us that, almost without hesitation, without thinking or praying, Aaron complies with the sinful desires of the people.

 

Exodus 32:4-6—Then he took the gold from their hands and fashioned it with an engraving tool and made it into a cast metal calf; and they said, “This is your god, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” So the next day they got up early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to engage in lewd behavior.

 

We read this with as much incredulity as that which we look at the actions of the world gone mad around us today. This is how we read the golden calf account TODAY…looking back. But what were they thinking? Where did their false perceptions come from? Their minds, which had been shaped by a pagan culture for so long led them to rationalize the temptations in their flesh. They needed a godly leader who would expose and correct their false thinking.

 

Reality was: They were delivered miraculously. They readily agreed to obey God’s Law. Then, Moses is delayed from coming down the mountain. What will they do? This is a test of their professed faith in God as He had revealed Himself to them. Do they believe God, or do they default to their old way of thinking?

 

The rationalization might begin like this: Things aren’t going according to how we think they are supposed to go, so we must take matters into our own hands. We can still worship our God but in a way that we are more comfortable with, in a way we have become accustomed to. What can it hurt? In their minds, they weren’t rejecting God to follow after pagan idols. They were just tweaking the worship of the true God to fit more with their liking. What could it hurt if their ‘God’ looked more like the gods of other pagan nations? This is syncretism. It is spiritual compromise. The unseen God in Exodus 19 was too frightening. As one writer said, “They wanted a more user-friendly god like other nations had.” In our day, they might say that this new god is more politically correct, not so offensive to the nations they would encounter along their journey.

 

A wrong view of God is an idolatrous view of God. A right view of God is developed through a right theology. Therefore, theology is essential to worship that is acceptable to God. Getting ‘who God is’ wrong is worthy of judgment. The ‘good’ intentions of any worshiper are irrelevant when they are not in response to clear instruction of God’s Word. The road to hell is, indeed, paved with good intentions. There are no new and novel ways of approaching holy God. We come through Christ. There is no other way.

 

There was a delay in Moses coming down from the mountain (often God does not work in our time frame according to our plans or the way we think He should work), and the impatient people responded to their perceived delusions of reality in panic. With urgency, they confront Aaron who quickly responds to them by giving the people what they want. God quickly responds with urgency as well. But God is God; He knows all and sees all in the pure light of holiness.

 

Exodus 32:7-10—Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a cast metal calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” Then the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. So now leave Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

 

God tells Moses to go down at once for “his (Moses’) people, whom he (Moses) brought up from the land of Egypt,” have behaved corruptly. The people had wrongly attributed their deliverance to Moses. Called by God as their leader, Moses was accountable to God for his leadership. God had previously claimed the Israelites as His own people, so now calling them people belonging to Moses was shocking. Only those in covenant with God can be rightly called His people. It is interesting that while the people acted according to what they perceived was a delay by Moses, God stressed that they had quickly turned aside from the way which He had commanded.

 

The next verse shows the difference between good leadership and bad leadership. Aaron gave the people what they wanted even though it was not good for them. Because of their actions, they deserved God’s judgment. Moses pleading for the Lord’s mercy in dealing with the people is for God’s glory. Moses insists that the Israelites are God’s people that He had brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand.

 

Exodus 32:11-14—Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘With evil motives He brought them out, to kill them on the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and relent of doing harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” So the LORD relented of the harm which He said He would do to His people.

 

Even though the children of Israel had failed to keep their part of the covenant they had made just days earlier, Moses pleads for the Lord to remember His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses intercedes for the children of Israel who had misrepresented God in their worship which was a grievous sin. Justice called for their destruction. Moses doesn’t argue any differently. In fact, he never even mentions the sin of the people. He focuses on God’s glory. Moses stood in the gap as mediator between man’s sin and God’s holiness.

 

Interceding unselfishly on behalf of the people in regard for God’s glory, Moses was concerned with what God’s enemies would think if God delivered His people only to destroy them. Right now, the eyes of the Egyptians were upon God and His people. Would they be validated in their accusations that God led His people into the wilderness to sacrifice them? With a smug sense of triumph, the destruction of the Israelites would be more ammunition for the pagan Egyptians to use in dishonoring God’s name. Moses was concerned that to destroy Israel would cause God’s name to be reproached by the ungodly. God heard his prayer. So…the Lord relented.

The faithfulness of Moses was tested in this instance. How much did he love the people he was called to lead? They were an ungrateful people who were quick to disobey God. Godly love wants what is best for its object. Moses wanted them to be all that God had chosen them to be for their good and God’s glory. (We eagerly camp on that verse in Romans 8 when we are in the midst of trials, believing that God is causing all things to work together for our good and His glory. But when we want our good at the expense of God’s glory, it is sin.) In this instance, Moses was able to keep that line taut, not turning a blind eye to the sin of the people at the expense of God’s glory. In disregarding his own honor and the status of becoming the father of a mighty nation, God blessed Moses and honored him by granting his unselfish prayers.

 

Today’s progressive spin on Christianity stops the narrative right there, if they tell the story from a literal perspective to this point at all. More likely, they would side with the poor children who had been oppressed by the pagans in Egypt and demand that they be compensated for the hardships they were ‘forced’ to endure there. They would give excuses for this ‘sin’ in the wilderness claiming that they were just victims of their environment. Unlike Moses, this progressive leadership would call for justice for the oppressed indirectly accusing God of being an entitled, arrogant white male who put this other entitled white male in leadership over them. Moses’ reactions to their sin, which we shall look at in the next blog, would surely push them over the edge!  

 

Today, those who understand the need for accountability for sin within the church are made out to be those who are unloving—the oppressors of the world. Leaders who lead well are made out to be oppressive tyrants who sin while those under their leadership are the oppressed and therefore more righteous than those who have been put in authority over them. Moses will hold all those under his leadership accountable for their sinful actions against God. There is much more to the real story, and we shall look at it tomorrow.