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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Sunday, August 1, 2021
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :The Golden Calf [1] Bible Verse:Exodus 32:1-11 (ESV) "When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. 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.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” [We have omitted Exodus 31 in its entirety. The first half of it repeats the items to be built for the tabernacle, and the second half is yet another reminder to keep the Sabbath. In the last verse, God gives Moses the tablets. If you have set out to read Exodus cover-to-cover, you can click the link or go to your own Bible to read it.] " Message:
Everyone who has read this story wonders the same thing: How on earth could the Hebrews — and, of all people, Aaron — so quickly abandon the promises they had just made to Yahweh, considering the enormous miracles he had performed on their behalf? It shows how difficult fundamental change can be; for they, like the entire world of the time, were used to seeing their gods. Everything that they had been taught, previously, corresponded to what any human being believes by his nature: Reality is primarily visible. We are still the same way; we say, “I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”
golden calf
Egyptian bull-god
This might be that the most difficult lesson for us to learn: that the spiritual world is primary to, and in control of, the physical world.
And thus, when Yahweh seems to have disappeared, and Moses has been gone for well over a month, the Hebrews become anxious and afraid, and revert to their old habits, as people frequently do under great stress. They are used to seeing God go before them and they want to see their leader; they have not fully grasped that the pillar of cloud and fire that has gone before them is only a manifestation of the real invisible God who will be with them, whether they can see him or not.
We might have trouble understanding Aaron’s conduct, but Aaron is not ours to judge. His actions must be understood in the context of potential violence against him. The people circle around and against him; they make him into the scapegoat.
Most accounts of the golden calf imply that the Hebrews had decided to worship an old god and abandon Yahweh completely, but reading the text, we see that it is not so simple. Aaron, perhaps trying to cobble together some sort of compromise in a difficult situation, declares that there shall be a “feast to the Lord,” meaning a sacrifice to Yahweh. So their sin is polytheism, adding old gods to their worship of Yahweh, rather than outright disavowal of God. Also note, the celebration at this point is not the orgy many picture in their head, but simply a spirited feast with singing and dancing.
The cult of the bull, to which they reverted, was extremely important in early Egypt (although it became less so over time). The bull represented both Ptah, the creator of the universe, and the pharaoh.
Meditation : Prayer : God of love, Father of all, the darkness that covered the earth has given way to the bright dawn of your Word made flesh. Make me and all who confess your holy name people of this light. Make me faithful to your Word that I may bring your life to the waiting world. Grant this through Christ our Lord.......Amen |
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