Money, Money, Money!
Back in the 1980’s the world famous rock group ABBA sung a song that hit the pop charts big time and the lyrics went like this; “Money, money, money Must be funny In the rich man’s world Money, money, money Always sunny In the rich man’s world Aha aha All the things I could do If I had a little money It’s a rich man’s world It’s a rich man’s world.” Today within wider Christendom there is an infestation and spiritually unhealthy preoccupation with wealth, health and prosperity big time that is spreading as a kind of spiritual gangrene through the Body of the Messiah.
The Money Changers
Just go onto the internet and you will see the money changers in God’s Temple peddling the Word of God for profit with these so called ‘prophets, prophetesses and teachers’ telling Christians to invest their hard earned cash into their ministries. These so called Televangelists are living in mansions, driving limousines, flying in their personal jets, staying in 5 star hotels and pleasure resorts and wearing very expensive jewellery and clothing and even some with bouffant hairstyles and all at the expense of the flock. Supposedly these so called ‘spiritual gurus’ of one sort or another think to themselves that they are ministers of the gospel in seeking to justify their opulent lifestyles before others but in reality are “spots and blemishes” and “shepherds feeding only themselves” and fleecing the sheep of their money, “an accursed breed” the Bible says. You could say these men and women are into “the gold and the glory” and the occult power that attends it. These ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ and ‘hirelings’ are accountable to no one.
Wealth and Health?
Much of what goes on in the wider professing Christian Church these days regarding this matter of wealth, health and prosperity is an unbalanced and unbiblical view of these things being propagated as God’s truth on gullible and naive Christians who have no discernment or a working knowledge of the Bible. In most Mega Churches today into the wealth and health and prosperity with its dubious manifestations, signs miracles and wonders and ‘feel good’ theology their congregations are ‘infected’ with this spiritual plague. Of course this is nothing new as we have seen in previous Church History. Just look at the wealth and opulence of the Roman Catholic Church today within the Vatican and down through Church history. When you look at wider Christendom historically there have been multitudes of so called ‘evangelists’ and prophets’ who in their so called ‘revivals’ have been preaching a form of godliness that in reality has been a means to financial gain. King Solomon wrote; “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
Repackaging
Satan repackages the same old programmes and heresies as he has always done throughout Church history but just changes the wrapping. So there is nothing new under the sun and most certainly what Satan has done in the past he is doing once again within Christendom and crossing denominational boundaries with it. We could call this growing infestation of perverted truth by the money preachers and those who follow them “The Golden Calf Syndrome,” namely, a perpetual spiritual sickness of the soul engrossed in the mesmerising power of the love of money, wealth, health and pleasure.
A High price!
In the time of Moses it was this kind of thing that infested the lives of the people of Israel and its leaders who all fell into Satan’s spiritual trap concerning the love for gold and the sensual and euphoric pleasures and pursuits that come with it. In the end they paid a very high price for their disobedience. In fact what they did led them into the occult. Now let’s look at Exodus Chapter 32 and see how this applies to God’s people by enlarge today. What was it about the Israelites in this matter of the Golden Calf Syndrome that evoked the judgement of God?
1. They had lost sight of Moses return.
(Vs.1) “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
Today with the resurgence of the New Apostolic Reformation we have kingdom now, kingdom dominion teaching invading and infesting many churches today especially the Mega-Churches that have all the money. This is a continuation of the manifest sons of God doctrine that teaches the Church is going to take over the nations and present them to the Lord Jesus at His Second Coming and be a wealthy Church at that, having taken ‘kingdom dominion’ over the nations of the world. It is also a doctrine of replacement theology. The Purpose Driven and seeker friendly churches for the most part are bedfellows with the NAR movement and some mega-churches bedfellows with the hyper faith and prosperity money preachers as well.
Now Moses had gone up into the Mountain to be with God and had left Aaron in charge of the people of God. His job was to keep them faithful to God and to encourage them to persevere in their trust in God and to wait patiently for Moses return. However, Moses was delayed in returning and so the people became restless and their desires for the wealth and pleasures and lifestyles of the Egypt of the world began to take hold of them.
Today it is the same in many churches. The Lord Jesus has not yet returned and even though His people have His Word by enlarge in most churches today especially the mega-churches they have given into their fleshly appetites and carnal desires and are craving after blessing, entertainment, manifestations, prosperity, personal prophecies, visions, dreams and even signs, miracles and wonders and tasting ‘feel good’ sermons that no longer convict the conscience or produce holiness and that only focus on having it good in this world. Added to this there is a fast growing emphasis in the professing Christian Church in the western democracies on health and wealth and on having it good in this world.
So then the people of Israel pressured their leader Aaron to give them what they craved. They had been redeemed out of Egypt but had now forgotten their redemption and slavery and started to give into their fleshly sinful natures. In their false religious euphoria and delight in pleasing their fleshly and carnal appetites they forgot all about the fact that Moses was coming back again. For many churches today the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus and Bible prophecy concerning the last days is not even on their radar. Instead it is all spiritual ‘hype’ and ‘feel-good theology’ with no emphasis on repentance or on that holiness without which no-one shall see the LORD. Kingdom Dominion teaching is rife in these churches. It is a very striking fact that around 25-30 years ago in evangelical churches there was much more interest in the Second Coming of the Messiah and the last days and in God’s prophetic purposes for Israel than there is today and His Second Coming is much closer now than it was back then.
2. They wanted a leader who would give them what they craved.
(Vs.2-4) “And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a moulded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
The Bible clearly teaches us in Deuteronomy and 1 Corinthians that the worship of idols in all false religions is the worship of demons and when the leaders of any church start to introduce idolatry in any form into their congregations they also invite the power of the occult with it even though they may not be aware of this happening because they have come under the power of spiritual deception. The Lord Jesus said; “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” (Matthew 16:4) The sign of Jonah the Lord Jesus was referring to was His atoning death and resurrection and all that this implies and that this was to be the main emphasis and the centrality of all preaching and teaching. As the apostle Paul wrote; “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)
When the Lord Jesus fed the 5,000 everyone wanted ‘a piece of the action,’ but when He pointed out the reality of having a relationship with Him they all went away except the twelve. His sayings were too hard for them as all they really wanted was the gratification of their fleshly desires and appetites. As long as He produced the miracles and fed their flesh they would follow Him. Today the craving in Christendom is for wealth, health, prosperity, miracles, signs and wonders and manifestations and for having it good in this world and having their ears tickled with what they want to hear and not with what they need to here. Many hunger and thirst after signs, miracles, wonders, health and wealth but very few hunger and thirst after righteousness.
As Paul writes to Pastor Timothy; “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:1-5) Can this be said of many pastors and their churches today?
Many pastors and teachers are in the ministry today for money and are hirelings if the truth be known. They do not protect the sheep from the wolves in sheep’s clothing and in some cases even welcome them into their pulpits, Some ‘pastors’ can’t even hold down a regular job so they go into the ministry for a career or so that they can be somebody if the truth be known. Much of the Christian rock industry is the same. Many cannot make it in the music world so they use the Church to bring themselves notoriety. Not all of course, but many do. Just look at the wealth and opulence of the money preachers in the hyper faith prosperity gospel camp today and the mega-churches with their ‘super apostles’ and prophets spewing out an endless stream of dreams, visions and ‘personal prophecies’ of one sort or another designed to rake in the crowds and the money. Today’s so called ‘apostles’ drive around in limousines, stay in 5 star hotels, wear expensive clothing and Jewellery, fly their personal Jets and live in Mansions worth Millions of dollars and all at the expense of ‘fleecing the sheep’ of their money.
Well Aaron gave into the Golden Calf Syndrome himself and decided to give the people of God what they wanted and so he started to ask for gold to make a calf which they could worship. In reality it was worship centred around money, wealth and prosperity and in reality it was encouraging covetousness. The glamour and glitz they had seen in Egypt had rubbed off onto them and now wanted it for themselves. As for the Promised Land it was out of sight and out of mind. It all started with Aaron their leader not teaching them the truth and giving in to their demands. He was the one who shaped and moulded the image and raked in the gold from the people to make their idol of gold central to their worship. Sadly today in many churches the worship is around the Golden Calf of money and wealth.
Today in these mega-churches the Golden Calf Syndrome starts when the ministers no longer preach the whole counsel of God but start to emphasize money and feel-good theology and avoid teaching about Biblical righteousness, holiness, judgement, sin and the doctrine of the end-times. Just watch the TV money preachers as they are always talking about money. Just watch most of the Christian television networks and see the string of false prophets and spiritual gurus displaying their wares and see the constant appeals just to get money out of their viewers to bolster and support this money making mega empires. Scripture is clear that those who do this kind of thing will eventually make shipwreck of their faith and pierce themselves through with many sorrows.
As Paul writes to his young protégé Pastor Timothy; “Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.as the Israelites in the end found out to their own detriment.” (1Timothy 6:9-11)
3. They had neglected the truth and rose up to play (laugh.)
(Vs.5-6) “So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
The Hebrew language says that “they rose up to laugh” to have a good time and to dance and jump around and make a lot of noise and to give into their emotions and to gratify their desires for sensuality which their conduct produced. They were deceived into thinking that their praise and worship of God could be enhanced by bringing into the camp all sorts of wild and mystical experiences that gave them a sense of spiritual euphoria and well-being. While they went through the motions of worship their hearts and desires were going in the opposite direction.
Most will remember the laughing revival under the hand of Rodney Howard Browne, the Holy Ghost Bartender as he called himself induce many, including pastors, to roll around on the floor like drunkards and to wriggle and gyrate around in their seats and to laugh uncontrollably and have the audacity to call it the work of the Holy Spirit. Well the people of Israel were doing exactly that and at the same time saying believing they were really worshipping God. Eating and drinking and laughing and having a good-time were the order of the day for the people of God. In the light of what is happening across Christendom in this matter Solomon was right when he wrote that “there is nothing new under the sun.”
4. They were in line to receive God’s judgment, not His blessing.
(Vs.-10) “And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a moulded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”
God’s Word says that “the pleasure of sin lasts for a season” but does not last and brings with it eternal consequences. It is also written; “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. “ (Proverbs 14:12) Instead of warning the people Aaron went along with the whole thing even though he knew better. Is this not the kind of conduct many mega-church leaders are into today with their emphasis on money and lavish building projects to bolster their own personal monuments to themselves?
Now God saw what was happening and was about to wipe them all out and start again with Moses because you see God cannot look upon sin or tolerate it in His presence. As the prophet Habakkuk writes concerning the LORD; “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You cannot look on wickedness with favour.” (Habakkuk 1:13) The Lord Jesus paid a terrible price to set us free from the grip of sin, from this present evil age and from an eternal damnation in the lake of fire. “Rebellion “is as the sin of witchcraft” the Bible says. It is occult in nature.
If the churches in the western democracies do not repent of their backslidden state and throw out the money preachers, the hirelings , the false prophets and teachers, the heretical and unbiblical doctrines and start to hunger and thirst after righteousness instead of blessing, prosperity, false visions and dreams and craving signs, miracles and wonders, judgement will inevitably come. It can be averted as God always sends warnings before He sends judgements. In the last days God is going to raise up His prophets again to warn His people especially in the western democracies to turn from their backslidings of heart and life and come back to Him but will they listen?
5. They did not realise that Moses was pleading for them.
(Vs.11-14) “Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.
Moses stood in the gap and God heard his plea. Even now the Lord Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for His saints and even for those who have gone after the myriad of false prophets and teachers infesting the Church. As God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah; “Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” God was going to give His people one last chance to turn back to Him and a division was coming between those who would repent and between those who would not repent. God was going to ‘clean house.’ Indeed did not the apostle Peter write; “For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”(1 Peter 4:17-18)
Because Moses stood in the gap God forestalled judgement. The Lord Jesus in His love and grace is giving the Church primarily in the west one last chance to repent. The axe is already laid to the root but has not yet cut down the tree of the institutionalized system of Christianity. Moses pleaded the Covenant God had made with Abraham, Isaac and Israel (Jacob) and God relented and gave them a temporary reprieve to test their hearts to see if any would repent and become faithful once again.
6. They were taken completely by surprise and unexpectantly.
(Vs.15-19) “And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” But he said: “It is not the noise of the shout of victory, Nor the noise of the cry of defeat, But the sound of singing I hear.” So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.”
God’s laws and commandments are not to be trifled with or taken lightly. He has not given us His laws and commandments to stop us enjoying life but to protect and to guide us and to keep us from wandering into the devil’s lair and becoming entangled with sin. Imagine if there were no commandments not to steal, kill or commit adultery? What kind of society would this produce? Who would be safe from evil if there was no law in place? Someone could steal your wife and there would be no penalty for it. Chaos would reign. Moses came down, He came back and God’s law was about to be dispensed among the people. Once more their conduct would be brought into the searchlight of God’s Word and Moses would be the one to inforce it. Joshua, Moses faithful servant, had thought that the noise in the camp was a battle but Moses saw it for what it was. There are many churches today ‘taking kingdom dominion’ that have mesmerising and hyped up worship and think they are engaging is spiritual warfare but they tolerate idolatry in their churches. They are not ready for the return of the Lord Jesus and He knows it well. Many need to take to heart John’s letters to the seven Churches.
Now Moses return from the mountain took the people completely by surprise. He came back when He was least expected. God’s people were not ready for Moses return and neither are many churches today ready for the return of our Lord Jesus the Anointed Messiah. As Paul also writes; “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labour pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; 6so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6)
Will it be spiritual sobriety or spiritual drunkenness? It will be one or the other in the last days within the professing Christian Church and there will be no end to the dreams, visions, prophecies, signs miracles and wonders and mesmerising displays of so called ‘spiritual power!’ The end-time false mega-church system will be a supernatural Church of sorts and like Jannes and Jambres the magicians of Egypt, the leaders will produce counterfeit false signs miracles and wonders and that by occult power. However, in the end when the judgement comes they will be exposed for the enchanters and deceivers they are, “deceiving and being deceived!”
As Paul writes; “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times (times of distress) will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes and Jambres folly was also.” (2 Timothy 3:1-9) In the last days the spiritual warfare will not only be in the area of doctrine but more so in the area of spiritual power when the occult invades the Church.
Two occult practices that are being promoted these days at Bethel Church in Redding California under the New Apostolic Reformation banner is the practice of grave soaking or mantle grabbing which is the act of lying across the physical grave of a deceased preacher or evangelist for the purpose of “pulling out” the power of the Holy Spirit, a power that was purportedly “trapped” within the body upon the person’s death. And then there is Destiny Cards which involves the reading of Christian tarot cards, not to mention the gold dust, wind gusts, fire tunnels, glory clouds and other un-Biblical ‘manifestations’ at Bethel Church. New age doctrines and practices are now becoming common place within wider Christendom as we see in the Emergent Church. It is all the occult invasion of the Church in the last days. As Paul writes; “Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.” (2 Timothy 4:1-2)
When Moses saw the revelry, the carnality, the euphoric and unrestrained behaviour and uncontrolled laughter and sensuality He was filled with the righteous anger of God and threw down the tablets at the foot of the mountain and they were broken. God’s people had broken the Laws of God which He has written personally with His own finger on the tablets. It was a very serious matter indeed and the merrymaking was brought to a sudden stop! No one was laughing after this!
7. They finally saw the folly of their wickedness before God.
(Vs.20-24) “Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.”
Now notice what Moses did. He burned the calf in the fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the people drink it. When God reveals His holiness to His people it incinerates their worldly desires and carnal appetites for the things of the Egypt of this world and destroys the idols they have set up in their hearts. In the light of God’s revealed law the pleasures, the pursuits, the cravings, the ambitions, the desires and the love for the things of this world become terribly bitter in the lives of those who have been living in rebellion against God’s revealed Word in doing these things.
Then Moses held Aaron responsible for what had happened. He should have known better but went along with the crowd and gave them what they craved. When the Lord Jesus comes back He will firstly judge the leaders that have led God’s people into sin and rebellion and taught them false and deceptive doctrines of men and demons. The Lord Jesus spoke about this when He said; “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Those men and women in the Word of Faith Faith “Name it and Claim it” Prosperity Camp and others aligned with them such as the NAR Kingdom Dominion, seeker friendly Church movement who lead God’s people into spiritual deception, will all stand before the Lord Jesus to give an account for the way they have prostituted and misused the Word of God for financial gain and to feed their greedy appetites for money and power and for theor egocentric doctrines that have perpetuated spiritual deception to mislead and spiritually deceive God’s people.
These men and women are just like the prophets of Baal in the time of the prophet Elijah mesmerising God’s people. They made a very loud demonstration and a lot of noise and created a lot of mystical Euphoria among the people of God and undoubtedly that by occult power but the real fire from God never fell! These false prophets left God’s people hovering between two opinions and not knowing which side to go with because of the spell of witchcraft. Only after the real prophet of God stepped up to the plate did the real sanctifying, purifying fire fall from God out of heaven to consume the sacrifice on the altar Elijah had prepared and turn the hearts of the people back to God. After that the people saw through the spiritual deception of these false prophets. Elijah disposed of these wicked prophets quickly and without delay. The spirit of witchcraft that had been over God’s people had finally been broken!
Also notice that Aaron actually avoided taking responsibility for his actions. He said to Moses in effect “the people gave me their gold and I cast it into the fire and behold out came this calf of its own accord!” What he failed to mention was that he himself had cast the mould for the calf. On that day when these ‘super apostles’ and ‘temple money making merchants’ stand before the judge of the thoughts and intents of the heart they will have to give an account to Him for what they have said and done in His name and the spiritual deception and lies they have perpetrated upon His people. Indeed all those of us who teach will be judged with a greater strictness than the rest.
8. They were given one last chance to repent.
(Vs.25-29) “Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.’ ” So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. Then Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother.”
Whenever the people of God backslide the world laughs up its sleeve. When the unsaved see these conniving, money making ‘profits’ or ’profiteers, profiteering on the blood of the Lamb’ they know that it is a con job. The people who are taken in by these ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ are guidable naive Christians who do not know the Word of God. They are spiritually fleeced financially by these false apostles, prophets and teachers and practitioners of the occult who have the audacity to think they have been sent by God! Now God is a righteous God but also a God of mercy and He gave the people of Israel one last chance to repent because of His covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and because Moses had stood in the gap and pleaded for the people on the basis of that covenant God had made with His people. The Bible says that “God’s goodness leads to repentance.” He would rather have mercy on any sinner who repents rather than to judge them. True repentance produces a godly sorrow and evokes God’s loving kindness and mercy.
Moses gave one last invitation for them to choose sides namely to be a part of God’s kingdom or to stay in the devil’s camp. There was no middle ground or neutral zone. What was it the people really craved? Was it now a hunger and thirst after righteousness or a craving for the delights and things of the Egypt of this world? The time had come for them to choose as it will come for the professing Christian Church. In the last days the faithful Body of the Messiah will be empowered with the Holy Spirit to expose false teachers and their heretical doctrines and fight them with the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. As Paul writes; “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.” (2 Timothy 3:8-9) Notice specifically that the ones who repented and went to join Moses were the sons of Levi or the Levites who had been entrusted with teaching and proclaiming God’s Word. These were the men and their families who made the quality decision to return to the Word of God and to obey it. After this they were commanded by Moses to take their swords and to go through the camp and to start killing those who did not want the LORD to reign over them.
Today Bible believers have the sword of the Spirit and by this sword can demolish all and every spiritual stronghold of Satan that has secretly infiltrated the Church. When a revival comes to any church sin and rebellion and witchcraft are exposed and renounced in the lives of those whose hearts have been touched by the convicting work of the Sword of the Spirit being the Word of God. In the last days God is going to raise up ‘Levites’ who will faithfully teach God’s Word and they will not come out of the theological institutes or seminaries but from every walk of life. Ordinary working class people will become God’s anointed servants and by the sword of the Spirit will ‘slay’ many who profess godliness and are teaching false and spiritually seductive and deceptive doctrines. These servants of God wielding the sword of the Spirit will have supernatural power that will separate those who are really for the LORD from those who are not.
The Lord Jesus is coming back for a beautiful clean and spotless bride washed and purified in His atoning blood and who really love Him in their hearts even though they have been harassed and hard-pressed by the temptations of the world the flesh and the devil, but having resisted them all, having stood their ground on the solid spiritual foundation of God’s unchanging Word. Also notice that around 3,000 Israelites fell, however on the Day of Pentecost around 3,000 Israelites were saved. In the last days God will especially anoint with the power of the Spirit those who stay true to the Word of God but it will be amidst times of spiritual deception unparalleled in the history of the Church. This persecution will not only come from the unsaved world but from within the very rank and file of wider Christendom.
Already the apostasy has started but will be in full swing when the clash happens between those who follow the Holy Spirit from those who follow the spirit of Antichrist. There will be no middle ground in that day. The final cry will go out from the Lord Jesus to His people as it did from Moses; ““Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!” In the end who will we follow? Will it be ‘Benny and Kenny’ and Co or the Lord Jesus as we cannot have it both ways. As the Lord Jesus also said about the love of money; “”No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)
9. They would reap what they had sown.
(Vs.30-35) “Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.” So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.”
Once again we see the very heart attitude of Moses for God’s people. Even though he felt and expressed God’s anger against their sin and rebellion he also had the disposition towards God to show mercy to His wayward people even to the point where he was prepared for God to erase his own name from the Book of Life. Moses had a shepherd’s heart as all true pastors should have. Moses was prepared to even lay down his own life for the sake of the sheep. The Lord Jesus the chief shepherd, of whom Moses was a type as were all the prophets in some way, actually gave His life to redeem His people from their sins and so to reject the Word of God is to reject Him who is the living Word of God made flesh and to reject God and to remain under the curse of the law which the Lord Jesus broke at the cross.
When any man or woman, whether Jew or Gentile for that matter, truly repents and turn to God for salvation and righteousness through faith in the Lord Jesus to save them the curse of sin over their life is broken. When any church repents before God and throws out their unbiblical doctrines and practices and false teachers then they are in line to receive the real and genuine blessing of God. If the leaders of any Church are not willing to obey what God has already revealed in His Word for them to do then why should they expect Him to give them any further guidance?
If Moses had not interceded for the people of God they would have been destroyed because of their rebellion. Sadly judgement would ultimately come because of what they had done. It was unbelief in God’s promises mingled with the desire for sin and fleshly gratification that caused them to rebel and ultimately no one of that generation was able to enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief and rebellion. Only two of that whole original company went into the Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb gained their inheritance bequeathed to them by God. In the last days it will only be a faithful remnant that will reign with the Messiah on earth in His Millennial Kingdom and then be with Him forever in the final and eternal state once the Millennium is finished. Will you be a part of the company?
Postscript:
Once more God is delaying judgement on Christendom in the western democracies associated traditionally and historically with Biblical Christianity. The western Church by enlarge is lukewarm, materialistic and heretical, and plagued by liberal theology, ecumenism, interfaith, postmodernism, existentialism, seeker friendly, Purpose Driven, Kingdom Dominion, faith prosperity, counterfeit signs, miracles and wonders, and people’s opinions overriding the Word of God. Pastors and leaders rule at their own discretion and no longer consult the Word of God but seek to bend its truth to 21st century thinking. So called prophets and apostles are running wild with an endless stream of personal prophecies, dreams, visions and the thoughts of their own imaginations and financially fleecing the sheep. They are into grave soaking, tarot cards, glory clouds, gold fillings and other manifestations not even mentioned in the Word of God. In all of it if the truth be known is the love of power, fame and money and all of it around the Golden calf of wealth. Indeed it is the Golden Calf Syndrome that plagued Israel now regurgitated by the devil.
One more chance
God is giving the western Church one more chance to repent. He still has many faithful saints in Israel and by extension and inclusion the Church who have not bowed the knee to the Baal’s of this world but they are becoming fewer in number as time progresses. Many preaching from the pulpits are ignoring or choosing not to preach on the weightier matters of God’s law such as Biblical authority, true repentance, sin, righteousness, holiness, sanctification and the coming judgement and Hell, the doctrine of the last days, the coming of the man of sin and the Great Tribulation, the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus and the need for the saints to persevere. These doctrines are sadly lacking in many churches today. The authority of the Bible is no longer held by many pastors and leaders. Today it is all hype and emotional euphoria and entertainment seen as worship. There is very little if any exposition of the Word of God especially in most if not all of the mega-churches that are into money big time and slaves to the Golden calf Syndrome.
Seasons of Refreshing
Many churches want spiritual refreshing but do not realize or ignore that repentance must come first before the seasons of refreshing come from the presence of the LORD in heaven! What Peter preached is still relevant and applicable to us today who name the name of the LORD. “Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus, the Anointed Messiah, who has been appointed for you.” (Acts 3:19-20) Even though it was addressed to unsaved Jews it is still relevant in that without repentance there can be no spiritual empowerment by the Holy Spirit.
“Whoever is on the LORD’s side”
Just before the Lord Jesus comes back the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan will clash violently and it will be in the area of supernatural power. Many in Christendom are sitting on the fence with one foot in the kingdom and the other in the Egypt of this world, if this is possible, but God is soon going to electrify the fence so that they will have to jump one way or the other as they had to jump in the time of Moses. Indeed let us all take to heart what the Lord Jesus is saying to Israel and by extension and inclusion the Church, “Whoever is on the LORD’S side—come to Me!”
