“Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting”. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend…” (Exodus 33:7-11a)
The circumstances resulting in the above scenario indicate a unique phase in the spiritual evolution of the Hebrew people. But before we ponder its significance, let’s ingest a little more background:
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Issac and Jacob, saying, “I will give it to your descendants. I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.”
All that God had intended to instruct Moses and the Hebrews on at the Mt. Horeb (Sinai) base camp had been accomplished; the Commandments, the Tabernacle and all it’s furnishings, the priestly garments, the sacrifical system and the memorial feasts & festivals. It was time to possess the new land (and dispossess the pagan tribes living there). Yet the Lord Himself designated “an angel” to be their advance scout. Why was God’s desire not to personally, visibly, triumphantly lead His people into their inheritance of promise?
“Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.” (Ex. 33:3)
Obviously, a significant fracture has occured in the divine/human fellowship. But what caused it? Let’s continue the scriptural account:
“When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments.”
How could a nation of penniless slaves own any ornaments? Ah, because their Egyptian slavemasters sent them off loaded down with all manner of plunder, no doubt in a fearful attempt to appease their God. (Ex.12:33-36). What a tragedy, then, that they melted down all that gold to craft a calf idol when they thought Moses would not return from the mountain top.
“For the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’” (Ex. 33:5)
You see, the golden calf idol was more than an act of superstitious aegis. The unrestrained mob at the foot of the mountain were re-inventing their religion from top to bottom!
“[Aaron] took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ When Aaron saw this, he built an alter in front of the calf and announced, ‘Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord. So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” (Exodus 32:4-6)
Moses had disappeared up the mountain. Forty days had passed. No word from Moses, from Joshua or from the Lord. Aaron and Miriam were cluelessly despondent. The leaders among the Hebrews decided that Jehovah’s providential guidance had ended, and the only way out of the desert would be by their own ingenuity. Creating a religion really isn’t that difficult. You only need to address four subjects:
1) A Deity. Make a visual, tactile representation of what can’t be seen or explained.
2) Addressing Sin. The burnt offerings worked before; they’ll work again.
3) Recognition of Divine Will. The fellowship offerings satisfied God’s desire to be honored, and for believers to model themselves after a common doctrine.
4) Pleasure. Bodily consumption and physical (including sexual) satiation.
We must remember WHY this radical departure from intimate dependence (on God) occured. The Lord’s chosen people had concluded the following:
1) God is not dependable.
2) God is not trustworthy.
3) God is not our salvation.
4) God is not our strength.
5) God is not for us.
“I will not go with you…”
And so we come back to our opening scripture, that eerily quiet scene of every man, woman & child within sight of Moses standing at the entrances of their tents, solemnly watching the old man walk the long row of dwellings; his sandals shuffling across the cracked earth. Watching until he reaches the tent of meeting. The flap swings closed. The mammoth column of cloud moves to settle over it. And then all the witnesses begin … worshiping. How, specifically, they worshiped is not detailed. But don’t you bet it was authentic, passionate and sincere? Don’t you know these people felt the burden of guilt and sin upon their backs for forsaking the Living God? For disbelieving His promise of never orphaning them in the desert? For spitting on His countless acts of guiding, protecting, nourishing & maturing? For treading on His Name by giving their praise to another; a worthless effigy? For driving His patience to the point of actually having to turn His face away and delegate an angel in His stead. Such is the ferocity of His jealousy.
“I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:5)
“…the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” (Ex. 34:14)
“The Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” (Deuteronomy 4:24)
“Jeshurun ['the upright one'; Israel] grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior. They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to demons, which are not God — gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear. You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.” (Deuteronomy 32:15-18)
This last passage is particularly germane, in light of our lesson theme, because it describes three factors which have continually contributed to a church loosing sight of its “first love” (Rev. 2:4) and ceasing to be a house of worship.
1) Lack of Knowledge. (“sacrificed to … gods they had not known”) Christ counsels us to seek the same intimate relationship with the Father that He had. Such intimacy involves a willful transformation of mind, heart, soul & strength. Worship should be an intimate coupling; spirit with Spirit.
2) Lack of Credibility. (“sacrificed to … gods that recently appeared”) Once a congregation’s ministers or teachers begin assigning specific characteristics to God in order to add weight to their personal prejudices, worship cannot be done “in truth”. To claim that the thoughts of Almighty God would fall exactly in line with the thoughts of mortal man is nothing more than a control mechanism, and nothing less than an idol.
3) Lack of Reverent Fear. (“filled with food..heavy and sleek”) Worship should always be grounded in awe; mindful of the One whose audience we’ve entered. He is a Savior, but also a Stumbling Block; a Creator, but also a Destroyer; a Father, but also a Judge. Again, knowledge is key! We must seek Him; His teachings, His desires, His marvelous works! “Let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found.” (Psalm 32:6)
Attune your spirit to the heartbreaking tone of the Holy Spirit in the following passage from Isaiah’s writings. God invited the prophet to glimpse the extent of the divine patience & planning with regard to the growth, health & fruition of His beloved children:
“…My loved one [Yahweh] had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes…” (Isaiah 5:1b-2a)
What care this viticulturist (grower of grapes) took! How comprehensive, His foresight! Indeed, he exclaims in verse 4 “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?”
And yet “it yielded only bad fruit.”
The “choicest vines” elected to reject their very nature. Though they knew what they were, and where they were, and Whose they were … they developed an obsession with the potential of their own minds; specifically, how human reason could “improve” on Divine Will. In such a deception, the quality of worship is the first victim. Even though it “seemed” that their thinking remained more-or-less aligned with God’s (and, hence, righteous) the exact opposite was transpiring.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight.” (Isaiah 5:20-21)
And hey, if you think peaceful, gracious, compassionate Jesus veered even the slightest from His Father’s impassioned jealousy, listen to Christ’s instructions to His disciples as they were being sent out to spread the Gospel:
“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword … Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:32-34, 37-38)
But, of course, we choose family over Christ. We choose our children over our Lord. We choose work over worship. We choose to create our own worship service, in which no worship occurs. We create our own religion because - to repeat from the list above – what we create IS dependable and trustworthy; it IS strength to us, and CAN save us in the way we want to be saved. The only way to be sure that something IS for us is to control it ourselves.
Our religion is crafted to be ”for us”. Because God … is not.
That is the damning conviction the Holy Spirit whispers in brief moments of quiet sanity.
