The SIN of the GOLDEN CALF

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oldhermit

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Bu oldhermit

Chapter Thirty-two



I. The Golden Calf, 1-10

A. The circumstances – Moses has not returned after 40 days, 24:18


1. Impatience - The people feel a need to respond to their circumstances even though the circumstances require no response. "We don't know what to do but, we need to do something" seems to be the attitude. They are in no danger from enemies, they have plenty of food and water, yet there seems to be a feeling of restlessness.

2. Uncertainty - "As for this Moses...we do not know what has become of him."
3. Apprehension - They feel they should be moving on yet no one has given the command to move on. They feel they need someone else to "go before them."
4. Perhaps the feeling of vulnerability - The cloud and pillar of fire is no longer before them but is resting on the mountain, 24:15. With both Moses and the cloud no longer before them they feel abandoned. They do not seem to believe Moses will return. They have now convinced themselves they need another leader and another god.

B. The importance of visible representations - Moses, their visible representation of God, is gone and they do not know what has become of him.


1. Israel has not yet learned to trust the invisible. They feel they must have something they can experience at the sensory level on which they can depend. They must have something going before them they can see and touch. They do not feel they can depend on what they cannot see so they choose to abandon both God and Moses whom they can no longer see.

2. Their solution - This is only about 40 days after God has relayed them the commandments in chapter 20 and in 24:3, the people all declared, "All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!" Consider the absurdity of the request they now make."Make us a god who will go before us."

a. Someone has to "make" the god.
b. This god cannot "go before" them. It would have to be carried by the people.

3. The nature of Israel's idolatry

In their own minds Israel is still worshiping Jehovah, not a golden calf of Egypt. "Tomorrow, there shall be a feast unto Jehovah," 5. Having never seen Jehovah, how do they know what form to attribute to him?
When we talk about God, our mind is unable to formulate an accurate image since we have no experience with God at the sensory level. We simply have no point of reference from which to envision God. Every individual, despite cultural or religious exposure, will envision God in their own mind according to his or her concept of God, which is invariably formed out of one’s exposure to various religious teachings and cultural experiences. We do this because our mind must have some frame of reference to which to connect language. This is precisely what Israel did when they came to Mt. Sinai. Moses had been their only visible iconic connection with the invisible God.
4. Why the image of the golden calf? Familiarity
Since their only visible representation had disappeared, they replaced him with another. Being unable to connect their senses to the unseen world, they connected what was unseen to the natural world. They could only create a mental image of God according to their points of reference. Israel decided to adopt a familiar image that they could corporately associate as god. What they did was create a familiar frame of reference. They turned to the natural world to create something they felt would give them a sense of continuity. They created a god in the form of something with which they all had experience, either Apis the bull of Egypt or a different type of golden calf figure.

It seems that when visible representations are taken away, man will attempt to replace them in order to maintain some sense of connection with their idea of the unseen. In the Hebrew camp, there is a sense of abandonment and uncertainty. Apart from a revelation from God about himself, man will always fall into some form of idolatry. The farther away man gets from revelation the more naturalistic and perverted his image of God will become, Deuteronomy 4:15-19 - “So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire (Ex. 20), so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. “And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven."


C. Aaron's idolatry, 2-5


1. There is no indication that Aaron offered any resistance or that he even so much as disagreed with their suggestion. In fact, he takes the lead in the matter.

2. He solicits the gold ear rings of the people.
3. He goes through the process of making an idol.

a. He melts down the gold.

b. He then takes the raw gold and fashions it, and shapes it. The shape of the calf is a deliberate, premeditated choice. Aaron decided the form their god was to be given and he fashioned it accordingly.
c. He presented it to the people saying, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” Attributing the works of God to the works of the hands of man has to be the greatest offense that man can extend toward God. The example of Mark 3:20-30 and Matthew 23:22-37 offers a very similar parallel with regard to the seriousness of attributing the works of God to someone else. Understanding the nature of Jesus condemnation of those in Mark 3 will help us appreciate the severity of Israel's sin in Exodus 32.
"And he came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When his own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of him; for they were saying, he has lost His senses. The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, 'He is possessed by Beelzebul, and He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons'."

"He called them to himself and began speaking to them in parables, 'How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin because they were saying, He has an unclean spirit'.”

The blasphemy lay in the fact that they had attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to that of demons and calling the Holy Spirit unclean.

d. Aaron builds an altar for their new god.
e. He declares the following day to be a “feast to Jehovah.”
Jehovah was the one who regulated the worship of Israel and he had declared his own feast days. In idolatry it is man who must assume that role.

D. The people's idolatry, 6

1. Aaron offers the burnt offerings that belong to Jehovah and presents them before this golden calf. In this, Aaron is consecrating the people to their new idol. Their consecration to Jehovah is forgotten.
2. Aaron offers the Lord's peace offerings before this god and the people sat down to eat and to drink. They have now joined themselves in communion with this god of gold. God's consecration and fellowship is now abandoned in favor of their new god. They use the fellowship of the Lord's peace offering to unite themselves to their new god.
3. And they rose up to play - צָחַק - According to Strong, to laugh, play, mock, or to make sport of. This same word is used in Genesis 39:14 when Potipher's wife accused Joseph of attempted rape. The context of Exodus 32 is not simply that of harmless frivolity but of the uncontrolled sexual orgy associated with idolatry.

E. God's anger against the people, 7-10


1. “Go down at once."


a. This is a matter that requited immediate intervention on the part of Moses. God stops his discourse with Moses and commands him to tend to the conduct of the people.

b. “For your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves." Corrupted themselves - שִׁחֵ֣ת - destroyed, corrupted.

2. “They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” This certainlybetrays an air of fickleness and ingratitude toward the Lord. These are a people who are quickly and easily misled.

3. “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Obstinate - קְשֵׁה – stiff-necked, one who refuses to bow.
4. “Now then let me alone, that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.” This is a test of the character of Moses. Moses is told by God that he will now become the father of a great nation but at the cost of the destruction of the people. This would perhaps have been a hard choice for many to make because this appeals to one's sense of vanity. God has now entrusted the fate of the people into Moses' hands. Will he simply allow them to be destroyed and accept God's proposal or will he intervene? This is actually a win, win situation for Moses. There is no doubt their destruction is both warranted and justified and had Moses chosen to do so he could have simply kept silent at the Lord's request to "Let me alone," and left Israel to their fate and would have been justified in doing so. Or, he could stand between the wrath of God and the people. This has to be Moses' greatest moment. He stands between God and the people and argues his case before God on their behalf. He stands in the apex position of this triadic structure fulfilling his divinely appointed function as the mediator between God and man. "Therefore he said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen one stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them," Psalms 106:23. This typology is fulfilled in the function of Jesus as the Mediator between God and man, "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," 1 Timothy 2:5.


II. Moses Argues the Case of the People Before the Lord, 11-14 – Intercession is mediatorial function.

A. Moses presents four arguments


1. The argument of ownership – These are your people.

2. The argument of God's involvement – You brought them up out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand. Moses could not have done this.
3. The argument of false perception – Egyptians would have misrepresented the act as one of malicious and evil intent. "Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’?"
4. The argument of divine promise – “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.’”

B. God changed his mind. God's change of mind was not due to the force of Moses' arguments. God a;ready knew these things. It was for the simple fact that Moses was willing to intercede.


1. The fact that they were God's people and that he had delivered them does not make God unjust in his willingness to destroy them.

2. Do you really think God is concerned with how Egypt or anyone else may or may not perceive of his actions toward his own people? No. God will not be judged by Egypt.
3. If God had made a great nation out of Moses, his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would have still been fulfilled because Moses was also of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

III. Moses Destroys the Golden Calf, 15-20



A. Moses and Joshua return to the camp.

B. Moses destroys the tablets in his anger.

1. This is in direct response to their involvement with the golden calf. I can only imagine the indignation Moses must have felt toward the people after having spent 40 days in the presence of the living God only to return to camp and find the people worshiping a chunk of gold.

2. His breaking of the stone commandments was symbolic of the fact that Israel had already broken them in actuality.

C. Moses melts down the golden calf and grinds it into powder. He then spreads it across the water and forces the people to drink it. He makes them devour their own god.

 
Dec 19, 2009
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If that's you in your avatar, you don't look like an old hermit.
 

oldhermit

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#3
IV. Moses Confronts Aaron, 21-24


A. "What did the people do to you that you have brought such great sin upon them?"


1. Aaron did not do this under duress. He was not acting out of fear or intimidation. He took the commanding role in this abominable act.

2. He was the High Priest and as such, the leader of the people. The people's participation in this sin was therefore laid at his feet. He was responsible.

B. Aaron shifts the blame to the obstinance of the people. You know what these people are like. He attempts to use their record of obstinence as a defense. This is what is known in criminal psychology as acting helpless and taking the victims stance. He portrays himself as the victim of the will of the people.

C. Aaron recounts the demands of the people, "make us a god". This was the will of the people.
D. Aaron marginalizes his duplicity in the making of the calf. He denies any personal responsibility. Essentially what he is saying is that under duress, I demanded the gold, I collected the gold, I threw the gold in the fire, but I did not make the calf. It just magically appeared out of the fire. I did not have anything to do with it.

V. Moses Regains Control of the Camp, 25-29



A. Aaron had allowed the people to get out of control. How could Aaron have avoided this entire situation; by putting the people to death who had initially made the request for another god. After all, he was the high priest and it was his responsibility to protect the sanctity of the worship of Jehovah.

B. Moses regains control of the situation by rallying "whosoever belongs to the Lord, come to me." Not everyone had rebelled. He was then joined by the Levites and ordered the death of 3000 people on that day. "Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor, (or son, verse 29) .’” Judgment and justice was not to be a respecter of persons. It was to be measured without respect to whoever the guilty may have been. Personal relationships to the guilty were not to be regarded. It must be recognized that not all the people were guilty.
C. This act of expiation was to result in a blessing. What was the blessing? The Lord would not destroy them all.
D. Moses calls for rededication to the Lord after expiation was made.

VI. Moses Returns to the Presence of the Lord, 30-35



A. Moses convicts the people of a great sin.

B. Moses returns to the presence of the Lord to make atonement for the people.
C. Moses confesses the sin of the people and pleads for them.
D. God charges Moses to continue to lead the people to Canaan.
E. God also promises that this matter is not closed. Punishment for this blasphemous behavior is not averted, it is only postponed. "Then the Lord smote the people, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made."


Chapter Thirty-three
I. The Severity of Israel's Sin, 1-7

A. God gives instructions for the day of departure from Sinai, 1-2. Although instruction is given for their departure here in chapter 33, they do not actually depart Sinai until Numbers 10:11-13. They remain camped at Mt Sinai for ten months.


1. "Take them to the land." It is clear from this command that in spite of Israel's sin, God still intends to give them the land.

2. "I will drive out the inhabitants from before you." It is clear from this promise that in spite of Israel's idolatry, God still intends to clear the land of its occupants but, this was to be accomplished through the dispatching of an unidentified angel which is so designated by the use if the indefinite article without any definition of attributes such as were used in 23:20-23. The Lord himself will no longer go before them. God has now distanced himself from the presence of the people.

B. The immediate impact of Israel's sin, 3-7 – Will God renew the covenant? How will God restore the relationship?


1. Loss of consecration results in broken fellowship. God withdraws his presence from the people. Israel has made their presence intolerable. "I will not go up in your midst because you are an obstinate people and I might destroy you along the way."

2. The people obeyed the command of the Lord to put off of their ornaments as they await the decision of the Lord concerning them.

a. "If I were to go in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you."

b. "Put of your ornaments from you that I may know what I shall do with you." This is to be a long term statute. They did not wear their jewelry from that day onward as a constant sign of repentance.

3. The tent is moved outside the camp. This is not the Tabernacle but apparently a tent owned by Moses that served as a temporary tent of meeting. The tabernacle has not yet been built. LXX "and Moses took his tent...and called it the tent of meeting."


a. Israel's communication with God is cut off.

b. Everything has now been put on hold.

* The plans for the building of the tabernacle

* The appointment of the priesthood
* God's instruction to Moses from the Mt.
* Even their system of tabernacle worship is halted until God decides how to resolve this matter.


II. Moses and the Tent of Meeting Outside the Camp, 7-11



A. Now, those who sought the Lord must go outside the camp to him for he will not come into the camp lest they be destroyed.

B. The impact of this separation upon the people seems to have been profound.

1. Whenever Moses left the camp to go out to the tent of meeting, the people stood and watched in reverence until Moses entered the tent. The people now seem to have a whole new respect for this man Moses.

2. The Pillar of cloud would then descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and the people would again stand and worship. There is a renewed reverence for the Lord.

C. The Lord spoke to Moses "face to face," or friend to friend. In other words, God is not speaking to Moses from out of heaven but in a very direct and intimate face to face encounter. There is no separation here. What do you think God and Moses were discussing in the tent of meeting? Moses is in mediation for Israel over the question of whether or not God will renew the covenant. We are not told how long this continued. Just from the language of the text it seems to have continued for a numbers of days.

D. In the absence of Moses from the tent, Joshua would always remain, apparently as the sentinel or guard of the tent of meeting.
 

oldhermit

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#4
III. In these Face to Face Encounters, Moses' Pleads With God, 12-23

A. Moses pleads with God to change his mind and go before the people. You have said...


1. You have known me by name.

2. I have found favor in your sight.
If this is true, then let me know your ways. Also, consider the fact that these are your people.

B. God relents and promises that his presence will go with Moses, 14. "My presence will go with you." Or, "My face will go and I will give you rest."


1. "Face" = the personal presence of Jehovah. This is understood from Isaiah 63:9, "In all their affliction he was afflicted and the angel of his presence (face) saved them; In his love and in his mercy he redeemed them and he lifted them and carried them all the days of old."

2. Moses is not willing to be satisfied with this. He continues his pleading on behalf of the people, 15.
"If your face / presence is not among us, do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not by your going with us, so that we, I and your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?"
God relents and changes his mind yet again. He now agrees to go before the people. God promises to do this thing for Moses based on the intimate relationship he has with Moses. "This thing I will do also." "Also," represents an additional clause to the agreement. In addition to going before Moses, he also now agrees to go before the people. In all of this, Moses fulfilled his function as the mediatotial type. He has petitioned the Lord on behalf of the people and God had accepted.


C. Moses seeks confirmation from God as a sealing of the terms of the agreement. "Show me your glory." This is not a simple matter of curiosity on the part of Moses. This was a means of confirming the restoration of covenant. God always confirms covenant. What Moses requested was a revelation of Jehovah himself that went beyond any encounter Moses had previously had with God. He wanted to see God without any protective barriers between himself and the unshielded presence of the Almighty. Moses did not simply wish to see another manifestation of God. He wanted to see God in his actual glory, not just a representational form of God. Moses is not requesting to see some anthropomorphic form or some form that accommodates the frailness of the human frame such as in the burning bush or the pillar of cloud or of fire. Moses wants to see God himself, and God agrees. So, just what is it that God shows Moses?


IV. God Reveals Himself to Moses yet, in Very Limited Expressions, 33:19 - 34:9.


Moses needed to first develop a visual aid to represent the nature of God.

A. What Moses asked to see was the glory of God. What God said he would show Moses to satisfy his request was:


1. "I myself will make all my goodness to pass before you."

2. "I will proclaim the name of Jehovah before you."
3. God would then declare his graciousness and his compassion. These are all extended moral attributes that are characteristic of his glory.

B. The prohibition - “You cannot see my face, for no man can see Me and live!”

In his natural state, God does not have a back or front as we understand the use of these terms. Since back and face are anthropomorphic terms, how should they be understood in the context? This seems to suggest the lesser as opposed to the greater? How is back defined in the context?

1. Face - the greater - intrinsic attributes - These cannot be seen

2. Back - the lesser - extended attributes - These can only be seen provisionally.

C. God's provision to shield Moses from the presence of the Lord

"Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while my glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. “Then I will take my hand away and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” The rendering of "back" - אֲחֹרָ֑י - offers two possibilities.

1. "The back of me, or back parts." In other words, Moses would be permitted to see only the least glorious of God's attributes. These would be the moral attributes of God, representing the "back" or lesser of God's glory.

2. "That which is left behind." Moses would not be permitted to see even the least glorious of God's attributes but, would only be allowed to see where these attributes had "passed by," witnessing only the residual glory from those attributes. Whatever God allowed Moses to see would be all that Moses would be able to endure in the flesh. This seems to be thus defined in the text.
3. What Moses could not see were those attributes that characterize God's intrinsic nature - his face.

D. God passes before Moses.

"So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth; who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

1. Moses ascends the mountain to the place the Lord instructed.

2. God then descended in the cloud just as he had at other times.
3. God stood there with Moses as Moses called upon the name of the Lord.
4. Then the Lord "passed by in front of him."
5. As he "passed by in front of him" the Lord places Moses in the cleft of the rock and shielded him with his hand against the glory that was passing before him.
6. Then the Lord begins to declare his name and his extended attributes of goodness.

a. His compassion

b. His graciousness
c. His slowness to anger
d. His abundance of loving kindness
e. His abundance in truth
f. His forgiveness
g. His justice and judgment

E. Moses Response to the glory of God

"Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. He said, if now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your own possession.”
This is a plea to renew the fellowship and the covenant - "Take us as your own possession." God sealed and ratified the bargain with Moses by the revelation of his own presence in a very unique way that had never been seen before by any man and has never been seen by any man since. This is an unperalleled event in human history. All natural boundaries between the two worlds have been suspended for one man.
 
H

HisHolly

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#8
They didn't make a new God. They reduced His image to that of a calf. That's what angered God. If you research you will find they called it Yahweh.. They didn't deny He was their God
 
R

RobbyEarl

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#9
They didn't make a new God. They reduced His image to that of a calf. That's what angered God. If you research you will find they called it Yahweh.. They didn't deny He was their God
UMMM if you look at the Hebrew, they had an orgy.
 

oldhermit

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#10
They didn't make a new God. They reduced His image to that of a calf. That's what angered God. If you research you will find they called it Yahweh.. They didn't deny He was their God
This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” verse four
 
R

RobbyEarl

Guest
#11
The only reason that Jeroboam made these two calf is the fact that He was worried that the people would defect to Judah and Jerusalem where the Temple was. It was a political move. However, the calf or cow or bull must have some significant meaning because in the good ole USofA if the market is doing well it is described as a bull market and even have a statue of a bull in front of the NY exchange. If not it is described as a bear market.
 

breno785au

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Jul 23, 2013
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#12
The only reason that Jeroboam made these two calf is the fact that He was worried that the people would defect to Judah and Jerusalem where the Temple was. It was a political move. However, the calf or cow or bull must have some significant meaning because in the good ole USofA if the market is doing well it is described as a bull market and even have a statue of a bull in front of the NY exchange. If not it is described as a bear market.
I thought they were more likely to defect back to Egypt...
 
Jan 25, 2015
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#13
If we look at the Hebrew aleph bet we will find the first letter is an aleph with the sign of an ox. The ox is also a picture of the might and glory of God. Israel was in Egypt for 400 years and they though that God would not be offended being celebrated in a pagan manner.

God is clear that He hates mixed seed and if we are luke warm we will be spitted out. Israel was busy mixing the seed because if you look at the picture some of them were dancing before the altar of Yahweh and others were dancing before the golden calf.

To understand this picture in full we have to dig deeper into Hebrew traditions and understand that when a husband suspected his wife was being unfaithful they had to go to the high priest and what the high priest then would do is take some dirt, put it in a bowl of water and ask the woman if she was unfaithful. If she answered no, he would tell her to drink the water with the phrase that if she is lying she will never be able to bear children (I can’t remember the exact wording).

Back to Israel dancing in front of the calf. Moses comes down the mountain and sees his people dancing “before God”. He see the calf and find out from God what to do. The high priest (Aaron) must take the calf and grind it into small pieces and the people must drink the water. I wonder what Aaron asked them before they drank the water? Yes, the people died because of their false intentions and not from drinking gold (as I always thought :) ).

God followed His own rules (Torah) and He will never ever change His ways because He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow :)
 

Yet

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#15
Golden calf! Bull! Horns speak of authority. Nimrod depicted with horns. A hunter of men. First king of authority over the first empire. A project of works building a cathedral toward heaven. First world religion/government. Man worshipping the golden calf of religion. I'm on a train ride here. Somebody stop me! Smile.
 

oldhermit

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#16
LOL. All the points I made in these three posts and all anyone can comment on is the stupid bull? LOL
 

notuptome

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I'm tempted to ask about the golden calf of water baptism but that would tread on the toes of the calf and I hate to hear them moan.

Though the majesty of God is round about them they sought a tangible god because they could not trust the invisible God Who is God. Men want tangible rites and ceremonies because they cannot trust Gods word that grace alone saves. That God forgives sin through the blood of Christ because He loves us and wants to restore us to Himself.

For the cause of Christ
Roger