WELCOME
PRAYER
SONG
SILENCE
Okay, we have to get a bit thick here before what I am trying to suggest might dawn on you.
I pray for His Spirit to open eyes and hearts to what is viable, true and of Him.
Exodus 32.2
March 10th 2024
The Golden Calf – Part II
Last week we spent some time on the making of the Golden Calf and how appealing idols are in the human experience.
To distinguish between that natural inclination toward idols and the choice each individual makes on whether to worship God or not, sits YAHAVAH’s ten-word commandment to the Nation in the covenantal marriage God made with the Nation, saying,
“I am the Lord thy God, have no other gods before me.”
Most Christians understand the importance of reducing, even eliminating the idols from their lives all of which steal from our time, attention and devotion toward the living God and replace our complete trust, hope and love in Him.
Few genuine believers would ever put an idol forged of gold on their mantle piece and bow before it or ask it for directions in their lives. We get that. But as we said last week, we thank the Living God for His saving grace that accepts our faith as a justification for all the hidden idols we hide in our hearts including the ones we aren’t even aware of.
But before we move forward there is another angle relative to idolatry that is even more sinister than the purposeful worship of non-YAHAVAH idols and that is the making ourselves idols for others to adore and appeal to.
It’s super important and the end result of such, from a biblical perspective, can be quite . . . sobering.
Here’s the deal – YAHAVAH does not accomplish His will and ways among men through the strength of men or the arm of human flesh.
He proves His power in and through the use of weak things, broken things to accomplish His will. And He works through the Spirit in all that seek Him.
This CENTRAL principle is seen (and frankly emphasized) throughout the whole of scripture – and it is one of the hardest principles for human beings – believer and not – to understand and accept.
The Apostle Paul walked with a weakness that he could not shake, causing him to write in 2nd Corinthians 12:8-9
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Think about that line, “for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
A direct product from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil is the idea that our strength, our wisdom, our money, our popularity, our talents are how the Living God accomplishes things, wins wars, and is exalted on earth.
Paradoxically, Paul also wrote,
2nd Corinthians 11:30 “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
And of course, he also wrote the following in the first chapter of 1st Corinthians that most of us recognize when he said
1st Corinthians 1:17-31 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart.”
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth;
27 but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong,
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption;
31 therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.”
Did Paul just pull these things out of a hat? Was this anything new? Hardly.
We see just one man using the wisdom of God to create an ark as a means to save the perishing world.
Yes, he acts, but he allowed himself to be lead by God on what to do and he did not gloat in the foresight given.
We find Moses weak in speech of the people being called to liberate them, of David, weak in the flesh, being made King and called a man after God’s own heart who got his start as shepherd boy that dropped the giant Philistine with a single stone – in YAHAVAH’s name and power.
And we read of Samson defeating thousands with the jawbone of an ass, and Gideon defeating the Midianites with three hundred souls compared to thousands – why? Listen to what YAHAVAH said to him.
Judges 7:2 The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, “Mine own hand hath saved me.”
Of course, looking at the Savior Himself, He was born of suspicious circumstances as a carpenters son and lived in an area looked down upon by the refined citizens of Jerusalem (Galilee) and he calling fishermen and tax collectors to represent Him – all untrained and apparently without any real means.
But the human need to have accomplished men to praise and herald in the faith remains ubiquitous, accepted and promoted.
The reality is in the faith today this unbiblical principle has become the rule rather than the exception as believers continue to extol leaders of wealth, power, intellect, education or material accomplishment.
It’s all a slippery slope because a fruit of this perspective lends to extolling the value and virtue of individuals (and all that they do “for God and the Kingdom”) BECAUSE and THROUGH their greatness and this all ends up being just another form – albeit subtle- of idolatry.
Oddly, ironically and paradoxically, when these same leaders are proven to have feet of clay, the modern church pulls back from glorying in them and turns them into social pariahs.
This response is just as bad as lifting them up in the first place!!!
Consider the debacle years past with Ravi Zacharias. He was wrongly heralded and praised in his strengths by foolish fleshly believers (WRONGLY EXTOLED AND PRAISED) but when his sin nature was discovered (which was admittedly unfortune and so hurtful to women) he was summarily reproached and renounced as horrid, a fail and weak.
Somehow we unitedly forgot that Ravi should never have been lifted up, he should have refused being lifted up, but we also forgot that Ravi was righteous by His faith not his own righteousness.
Get it.
The bottom line is “where there is no elevation of a person there is no way for them to fall.
But that isn’t how we do the faith today.
So important are the strengths of Man most church denominations wouldn’t think of hiring a person to lead if they lack a degree!
Isn’t that amazing?
Isn’t that sheer hilarity in the face of how the faith got legs and whom God chose to bring it forth and to keep it real?
But believers cannot help but rationalize their idolatries and justify the existence of the most powerful religions and political empires on earth on the basis of how much GOOD they (apparently) do, what great leaders they have (due to their scholarly wisdom, material wealth and popularity) and how much God has used them.
Im not a big fan of that phrase, “look how much God has used them” because the reality is the way God works is via His Spirit and not our flesh.
Our flesh wants to believe that there in power in numbers, power in money, power in external worthiness, fitness, strategies and orders. We assume that there is power in politics, in a presence in Washington, and through corporate sponsorships of the faith but the fact of the matter remains –
When it comes to God and His kingdom, the power is in Him, through His Spirit as individuals humbly submit to His will and ways and NO others.
This also suggests that every person who seeks to glorify God in and through their weakness might strive to refuse the adoration of men and to do His will alone through His ways and for His glory.
The most amazing example of this can be seen in the example of His Son and His life lived exclusively for His Father.
Okay, with that in mind we are about to get real here, so hold on to your hats and allow me to build my case through the scripture.
First of all, who owns and runs the world?
Many people, including myself over the years paradoxically say that it is “God” and that it is “Satan or the Devil.”
I have long taught that Satan received the title-deed to this world when he got Adam to fall.
I have justified this by and through the story of Satan tempting Yeshua in the wilderness and offering Him all sorts of powers – including all the kingdoms on earth. Remember?
I that setting and because Yeshua does not tell Satan that this was not in his to offer, we make the assumption that Satan is the God of this world.
That phrase, “the God of this world” is a direct quote from Paul who wrote in 2Co 4:1-4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Right out the gate what stuns me is the term, “the God of this world” because in the Greek is, “the God of this age who had blinded the minds of them which believed.”
I have made the point in the past that the Satan in Yeshua’s day was the fallen Nation of Israel who made themselves Jews and idolized both the Law and their genealogy before YAHAVAH.
If this be the case – which I am convinced by scripture that it is – then the clear meaning of Paul’s words here is, “the Jews of that age” have blinded the minds of them which believed.
But we need to work back a little bit
further to understand some things in order to get the full grasp of what I am trying to say.
The scripture is very very clear that the Elohiym of this entire universe including earth, is YAHAVAH.
Over and over again He makes this plain in passages like,
Genesis 14:19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
Then three verses later we read,
Genesis 14:22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
At Exodus 19:5 we read
“Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
In Psalm 50:12 we have YAHAVAH say to the Jews seeking to feed Him,
“If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
Isn’t that a funny passage? God actually saying, “If I was hungry I’ll let you know – after all the world is mine and the fullness (meaning everything in it).
We have then tendency to think that we possess the worlds wealth and resources but the reality is ALL of it is His and we are merely managing what He allows us to have.
To offer Him an apple to eat is akin to visiting a King in His castle and offering Him some of His own food AS IF it came from us, right?
We recall when YAHAVAH dressed Job down in the second to the last chapter of the book, he said to him,
Job 41:11 Who has given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.
So, did Satan obtain the title deed to the world then at the fall? I reject this teaching today as errant and I apologize for ever having taught it.
Perhaps the tempter received power as “ha Satan” from that event, but the earth/world is, and always has been, YAHAVAH’s.
So, what was Ha Satan offering Yeshua in the wilderness? Before we answer that, we have a few more things to work out.
Let’s talk about the term kosmos which is translated to world in the Apostolic Record.
I have made another error in my understanding of scripture in the definition of that Greek term.
Yes, it is OFTEN used to describe the world and/or the heavens and the earth but the BEST definition of kosmos in scripture is . . .
an “orderly arrangement.”
When we look at the heavens (kosmos) we can say that there is an orderly arrangement, can’t we?
When we look at the earth/world we can say the same thing – it is ordered and arranged with cycles of evaporation, rain and snow on mountains and plains, watering the land with the run-off traveling by rivers to seas and a repeat.
We see an orderly arrangement in our seasons, cycles of life from birth to death, and in almost every other aspect of the created universe.
In these broader ways we might see the term kosmos today, and not in the limited sense or application of just this world and heaven.
There are a couple of other Greek terms that tend to reflect kosmos in a similar way and they include oikonomena, which takes oiko (meaning household) and nemein (which means management and administration) and puts them together.
As a means to understand, perhaps we could say that when George HW Bush was in office as the US President of the United states, he had a staff and house that was one oikonomia (a Republican administration) and then when Bill Clinton assumed office another oikonomia stepped in with a Democratic administration.
Kosmos is a similar term in the scripture even though there are times when the word also (ALSO) speaks to the world administration under which it exists.
So, with this in mind, I want to cite a couple passages of scripture to help bring us closer to my ultimate point.
The Old Testament, well after God created the material order of the material heavens and the earth, also describes God creating a kosmos (order of things) over which the Nation of Israel would exist.
To understand the Hebrew scripture foundations (which includes the Old Testament) the book of Hebrews, most of the apostolic record, and especially Revelation) it is super important to know that God speaks of creating several orders, both in heaven and earth, that have more to do with ADMINISTRATION than the material “heavens and the material earth.”
The Nation of Israel understood this and were well aware of a time in their culture when the “former administration” (under the Law) was going to be replaced by a “new administration” (which, whether they knew this or not) would be one of His Grace.
That is why we sing,
For the Law was given through Moses, but Grace and Truth came through Yeshua the Messiah our Lord. John 1:17
It is in this vein, the vein of one order going away and another administration stepping in and taking over, that we understand Isaiah prophetically having God say,
Isaiah 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
One chapter later God reiterated the point saying,
Isaiah 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
When Yeshua sat on the Mount of Olives He described the signs of the end of that former oikonomena to Peter, James, John and Andrew and when he added at Matthew 24:35
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
That heaven and that earth was the one created under Moses, under the Law and was the heaven and earth under the Law and of material religion.
With a little more nuance, listen to what the writer of Hebrews has to say. Its not easy to discern because of our training in English, but it is consistent with the Hebrew way of describing these changing economies and administrations. He wrote:
Hebrews 1:10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning (this is not the beginning described in Genesis as tempting as it will be to think) In the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; (Ghay – which means soil or area) and the heavens (under the economy established through Moses) are the works of thine hands: 11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; 12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be “changed:” but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
Jumping out to Hebrews 8: we also read, where the writer speaks of Christ, and says,
Hebrews 8:6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Hearkening back to the Old Testament, Joel in chapter 2, describing the very Hebrew expectation for the former economy to die and a new administration to begin, wrote,
Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
When Peter stood before the 3000 souls at Pentecost witnessed the apostles speaking in tongues, we remember that he said,
“This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel,” tying the pouring out of the Spirit as the indicator of the beginning of the new administration.
Understanding this helps us determine what Peter meant later in his epistle when he wrote,
2nd Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire!
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
This very same language is used all through the Old Testament to describe God’s judgement falling on various people-groups that had displeased Him.
Let me give you three examples to show you what I mean:
With regard to Babylon, we read:
“For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light” (Isaiah 13:10).
This prophecy was fulfilled in 539 BC (according to Daniel 5)
Then speaking of Edom we read,
“All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree…her land shall become burning pitch. Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever…” (Isaiah 34:4, 9-10).
(which was a fulfillment of Ezekiel 25:14).
Then speaking of Egypt, we read in Isaiah 19:1 and Ezekiel 32:
“Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them… When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and put darkness on your land, declares the Lord God”
This took place in 711 BC.
Another vivid illustration of the Bible’s use of this type of language to denote political events and shifting in economies can be found in Psalm 18, where David wrote,
“on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul,” that he was entangled by “the cords of Sheol” (verse 5); the earth reeling and rocking and the mountains trembling (verse 7); devouring fire coming from God’s mouth (verse 8); God bowing the heavens, thick darkness, God riding on a cherub and coming to him (verses 9-10); hailstones and coals of fire coming to the earth through the clouds (verses 12-13); God sending arrows and lightning (verse 14); and the sea being divided and “the foundations of the world” being laid bare (verse 15).
There is no record, Biblical or otherwise, of any such events literally taking place during David’s lifetime. Again, this is apocalyptic and metaphorical language, common throughout the Bible to describe a change in economies.
And so, we finally come to my point about refusing to become idols to others in any way, in refusing to take honors, glory or to accept power from any source other than the living God.
After Yeshua was baptized we read the following in Matthew 4 beginning at verse 1
4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
From this we know this was a spiritual event not necessarily literal by any means.
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Which was probably literal.
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
A driver of people allowing themselves to be idolized is often had by serving oneself, ones desires, ones wants and will outside of the will of God.
This was the first item Yeshua was asked to do – perform a miracle to serve yourself. “You’re hungry, right?” If you are the son of God feed yourself!
But the Lord cites the scripture that man is not to live by bread alone BUT by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Now, I have earlier made a case that the Nation of Israel, by the time Yeshua arrived on the scene, had become “the Jews” of their own making, and that as such, were in “full mode” as “the Satan.”
We might believe that here, Yeshua was being offered the kingship over that group and that what He was spiritually being tempted with was to become their leader, to put Himself before the Father, and to serve as the “idol of Judaism.”
Let’s read on.
5 Then the devil taketh him up (where?) into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of (what?) the temple,
The now desolate house of His Father which had become the House of the ha Satan.
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Of course, Yeshua refused this offer (verse 7)
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
What an idol you could become to the world as our King if you would do this, Yeshua! Right.
But here is the kicker – ready?
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
If or since God is the owner of the world and all that in them is, how was Satan able to offer this to Yeshua and why doesn’t Yeshua correct Satan and tell him he has no right to make such an offer?
Because all the Kingdoms of the world (kosmos) here does not mean the world that God possesses.
It was all the Kingdoms of Satans oikonomia, which was headed up, in Yeshuas day, by His own whom He came to save!
“The Satan” in this case then was the devilish spirit of the Fallen Nation of Israel turned Jew, and the offer was for Yeshua to bow down to them, and to worship them, and to lead them in their kingdom and in so doing, He could have become their King and all the Kingdoms of that world would have been His!
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Which is almost a direct reiteration of the ketubah 10 words!
In other words, Yeshua was being tempted to assume the reign over the children of Darkness and all the Kingdoms that they could have governed IF He agreed to their will and ways.
(beat)
The world was and is Gods. The man Yeshua was being offered the administration of evil here and that is why He does not challenge their right to offer that to Him.
This temptation was akin to Yeshua selling His soul to the Satan, and when rejected, led the Nation of Religious leaders to put Him to death.
He refused to be idolized. He refused to assume any and all authority or power from their hands and because He would not sell out to that Dark Empire, they hated Him.
In conclusion, when we read Yeshua’s parable of the Sower, its intriguing that, speaking to and of His own people, He says, relative to the first wayside ground,
Mark 4:15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Ha Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.’
Is this not what the religious leaders of His day were doing?
Two more items to consider – Yeshua is getting ready to go to His Passion and has been teaching His apostles of things that would come to pass and this is what He said,
John 14:29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this “world” cometh, and hath nothing in me.
The prince of that Administration (the Jews of His day) were “coming” YESHUA said, and they (or it) had nothing in Him – as proven in the wilderness rejection of them.
Ask yourselves something – who came or was coming? Who came to take Him?
The religious leaders, whom He said had Satan as their Father – they were coming to get Him – and came.
Now that we understand “world” in the scripture as an order of things, listen to what Yeshua said to His own Apostles before going to the cross in John 15:18.
18 If the world (that old world which was going to be destroyed) hate you (meaning the Apostles who are facing it), ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
The world (at large) didn’t hate them nor did the world at large hate Yeshua – just the governors of that former world – they hated Him!
And then He says to them,
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Are you starting to see what we are really reading here and the context to them/then? Then He adds and says to them/then:
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
That is context, folks.
That is the scripture.
And it is an amazing view of both what Yeshua faced at the hands of those religionists who hated Him because He would NOT join their fleshly empire as their idol, and who put Him to death because of it.
Questions/Comments
Prayer
May 7th 8pm 2024.
