The good, the bad
& the ungodly
-1-
choosing the lord’s side in the current christian civil war
When I first came to Christ, I was told to bring my bible & my Brain to church services. I did this as dutifully & as faithfully as possible. I still do. There is nothing that compares to the anticipation of biblical worship. There is nothing to parallel the expectation of biblical teaching. Nothing. However for many, that sentence is significantly shorter, namely; there is nothing. It is to the nothingers that I want to speak in this series of articles. I hear you. I see you. I understand you. I do. Listen. I too am a nothinger. Bear with me. After years or even decades of believing false teaching, you have found yourself delivered, but also destitute & damaged. This is very hard spiritually, emotionally & psychologically. The issues of faith in God & the trust of man loom large because leaving a false system involves abandoning beliefs, friendships, family & connections. This unfortunate situation is ground zero & before there can be any rebuilding, there has to be a systematic clearing away of a lot of rubble. Make yourself a pot of tea brethren & let’s talk honestly. This is quite a thing.
1 And 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. 2 And 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. 3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4 And 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. 5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD. 6 And 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).
When Israel left Egypt, passed through the Red Sea & came to Sinai, they were to receive The Law. But they were not yet out of the woods. It is interesting to see the behaviour of a people without the parameters of God’s Law. Running wild. Acting foolishly. Removing their clothing. Becoming a spectacle. Does any of this sound familiar? Has anything like this happened in modern times, I wonder? I’m surprised none of the Israelites were rolling on the ground, laughing hysterically & making animal noises. They were literally, lawless. This is called antinomianism, but we will circle back to that point at a later date. ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.’ (Proverbs 28:19). The word perish indicates the throwing off of restraints.
Just imagine you’re part of the scene. Tap-tap-tap on the shoulder. Someone needs to raise an offering.
“Can we borrow your earrings please, mate?”.
“What for?”.
“Aaron said he needs them.”.
“Oh Aaron, Moses’ brother. We like him. We trust him.”.
Snap. Snap. Jingle. Jingle. You faithfully & obediently handed your money, jewellery or property over to fund the work. Things rapidly go off the rails & your contributions are used for immoral purposes. Everyone seems equally enamoured with the golden calf being erected, except you. Perhaps this was residual of Egypt’s Apis cult, which involved a bull. You scratch your head. You raise an eyebrow. You rub your chin. You sigh deeply.
Maybe you’re wrong. Afterall, there was an altar being built & a proclamation made by Aaron, Moses’ brother. We like him. We trust him. Anything goes as long as folk kid themselves that it’s for The Lord & they can tag Jesus’ name onto the end of it. ‘Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD. And 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.’. There are few things worse than deified devilism & so it remains.
In creeps an unhealthy feeling of silent disgust, self-doubt, isolation & the burning question; where in the world is the man, Moses!?!
Not a lot has changed in modern times. Fake prophets & false teachers will still coax the ‘wealth transfer’ you left Egypt with, out of your hands. Is there a knot forming in the pit of your stomach & a sharp pinch bruising your conscience? Is there? Israel loved their deliverance & their deliverer once they’d escaped Egypt. ‘And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.’ (Exodus 14:31). But their double minds soon changed. Don’t worry, the fickleness of folk is nothing new. Such is the case with the carnal.
It is also true of the world. ‘Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.’ (2nd Peter 3:3-4). You’ve seen it. You’ve heard it. You’ve been right there. But you have no real way of escape & nowhere to go even if you could.
You see where your earrings went! You see where your money went! You see where your property went! Spent on idolatry! A-class jets; huge homes; luxury cars; expensive hotels; designer clothing.
You cannot simply cut your losses & walk off into the wilderness. What about your friends? What about your family? What about your marriage? What about your job? What about your salvation? You wrestle with staying or leaving, while the silent build-up of anger brings sweat to your brow, tears to your eyes & the stinging question:
WHERE IS MOSES!?!
18 And 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).
Of course, Moses was with The Lord, Who told him what was happening in the camp. He lost it spectacularly & shattered the tablets in anger, when he saw Israel’s idolatry. Oops! No jelly & ice cream for Moshe Rabbeinu. But catch this; Moses pleaded with YHWH not to wipe Israel out & The Lord heard his intercession. This doesn’t mean that there wasn’t judgement. There was. But there was no annihilation.
I’m not half the man that Moses was, because had it been me, I would have pulled up a reclining chair, made myself comfortable with a pot of tea & watched the heavenly fireworks.
It is here that the nothingers begin to pay careful attention to things that are occurring. In the midst of the chaos & craziness, a real man of God with The Word of God, will say & do what needs to be said & done. Sometimes with raised voices, Bible thumping & tablet smashing. Nevertheless, such men are not afraid. Where were Aaron’s guts? What a complete melt & milquetoast. Not Moshe though.
How many times have you seen weak leadership pushed around by bolshy & controlling people that they haven’t the chutzpah to stand up to …& they’re so rude! ‘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.’. Up! Get up! Come on, you! Do it & do it now! Right now! What a rebellious & unfaithful mob! They simply could not wait.
On the one hand they affirmed being delivered through Moses & then on the other they were willing to give their allegiance to an idol. Some things do not change; ‘..and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it.’. Things have not changed. It must have been like holding their feet to a fire, for the sons of Levi. In the midst of the debacle & debauchery, they waited patiently for Moses, just as the faithful remnant within The Church waits for the coming of The Lord.
Something is better than nothing, right? All nothingers will disagree. They know that the worship is fake. They know that the word is false. They know that the leaders are weak. They know that the followers are fickle.
I’m convinced that this contingent wasn’t necessarily large, but they were certainly influential enough to sway the weak willed & easily led. Hebrews says, ‘For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry (Hebrews 10:36-37). Jesus says, ‘In your patience possess ye your souls.’ (Luke 21:19). Moses knew what to do.
20 And 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. 21 And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? 22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. 23 For 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. 24 And 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 (Exodus 32:20-24).
Aaron blamed the people. He went full on Han Solo; it’s not my fault! It’s not my fault! It isn’t clear whether Aaron had to endure drinking the rough shake that Moses made the Israelites consume, but for his poor excuses he ought to have been beaten with his own belt! After the miraculous way in which YHWH had delivered Israel from Egypt, this is how they repaid Him. This would be the first of many such instances in their history. But great is His faithfulness. The Church at large is no better. The same elements present then, are sadly pervasive nowadays. The worship is still fake. The word is still false. The leaders are still weak. The followers are still fickle.
Cast you minds back to Eden. God plants a garden & places man in there. He goes away, presumably to do God things & in His absence the enemy appears in order to tempt mankind into sinning. Adam’s weakness won. We all know how that story ended, don’t we? Here, we have Moses leading Israel out of Egypt & when they come to Sinai, he has to ascend the mountain to speak with The Lord. Off he goes with Joshua, leaving Aaron & Hur in charge. Due to Aaron’s indolence, in Moses’ absence the Israelites descend into idolatry. After The Lord’s earthly ministry, His death, burial & resurrection, He ascends. But not before warning about false Christs & false prophets that will come in His absence, in order to deceive. Paul & Peter confirm this trend in their epistles.
29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them (Acts 20:29-30).
1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of (2nd Peter 2:1-2).
There may have been a time when you may have ignorantly gone along with whatever shenanigans were happening. The laughing. The falling. The rolling. The first offerings. The false prophecies. The lies. The false teachings. The fake healings. The second offerings. The failures. The disappointments. But one day, something was different wasn’t it? It was almost as if a light bulb lit up in your heart. Your eyes & your ears were opened. You realised that what you were seeing & hearing wasn’t ordained of God at all.
At that moment, you became a nothinger. There was nothing in the worship. There was nothing in the proclamations. There was nothing. The movements, the ministries & the messages were all built on the backs of those who willingly gave their substance to those who took it oh so enthusiastically. You found yourself staring at a golden calf.
Paul says, ‘Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’ (1st Corinthians 10:7-8). Some of them, not all of them. At Moses’ word, the sons of Levi stepped up, but there was an awesome task ahead of them. In some respects, the objectivity that comes with being a nothinger is helpful. You’re not living with your emotions hanging from your sleeve & your loyalties are to Christ & Christ alone.
Not only do you have little or nothing in common with the old community you’ve left, but you also have little or nothing in common with the new community you join. You don’t quite fit. You may not see it at the time, but it can be a good thing.
25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) 26 Then 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 (Exodus 32:25-26).
Not everyone had descended into this excessive madness & notice, Moses did not enter the camp initially; he stood in the gate. Neither did he ask who was on his side. He asked who was on The Lord’s side.
27 And 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 neighbour. 28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men (Exodus 32:27-29).
To raise the sword against the enemy at the command of God is one thing. To raise it against your brother, companion & neighbour is quite another. I am not advocating physical violence. But we live in a day when to take a stand may involve raising The Sword of The Spirit, which is The Word of God (Ephesians 6:17), against friends & family who prefer to continue in sin or in error. This is choosing The Lord’s side, in the current christian civil war. You may not see any signs of it, but it has already started. This is quite a thing.
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