ARE YOU FOR THE LORD?

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

So he (Moses) stood at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me."

And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to them, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'"

The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.

Then Moses said, "You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and He has blessed you this day."

The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."

So Moses went back to the Lord and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book You have written."

The Lord replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against Me I will blot out of My book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and My angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for Me to punish, I will punish them for their sin."

And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.

Exodus 32:26-35

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

After coming down from his encounter with God at the top of Mount Sinai, an encounter that lasted forty days and nights, Moses witnessed how the Israelite people had sinned through the worship of false gods and a gold idol, fashioned by his own brother Aaron. In yesterday’s message, we saw the utter disgust that Moses felt, a disgust that led him to smash the stone tablets which God had written His Ten Commandments on, symbolic of how the people of Israel had destroyed their side of the covenant made with God.

As we turn to today and look at the closing verses in Exodus, chapter 32, we see where Moses reassumes authority over the Israelites, something Aaron had failed at, and begins to take the initial steps needed to try and make amends with God over what had happened. He begins with a very simple question posed to the people:

"Whoever is for the Lord, come to me"

It was a fundamental inquiry but one that required immediate response. The Israelites were put on the spot to make a choice. The question posed to the Israelites gave them a choice. They could either be for the Lord which meant that they were willing to take a stance on the side of right and righteous living in obedience to Him or they could choose to not be for Him which meant they would rather stand on the side of evil and sin.

Ultimately, the question was one that literally meant life or death.

Well, unfortunately, the scriptures tell us that only the “Levites rallied to him”. Everyone else decided to continue to turn away from God. And so Moses gave the following orders to the priests:

"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'"

Now, imagine that you were one of the Levites and heard this command. For after choosing to be “for the Lord”, you now were going to be used by Him as an instrument of judgment on those who chose to reject Him.

What was the judgment the Levites were to carry out?

In essence, it was to execute the death penalty on all who chose to turn away from the one true God and we need to remember that these were fellow Israelites the Levites were told to kill. It was clearly a test of their professed allegiance and as we see in our passage, the Levites did as God demanded, serving as the executioners for “about three thousand” Israelites.

Through this scriptures passage, we find several key truths to take away from this message:

1. God hates evil and sin.

God, the supreme Creator and Ruler of all created things was not going to tolerate His people turning their backs on Him, especially to worship false gods. This decision by the Israelites was akin to favoring evil and sin more than living in righteousness and obedience to God’s commands. In the case of the Israelites, they opted for spiritual death over spiritual life and we learn that supreme disrespect toward the supreme Creator and Ruler can result in supreme judgment.

2. God expects our absolute loyalty.

This means that we have to choose God over our own family if it comes right down to it. The Levites had to kill their own people (even their family members) that had chosen to turn away from God. Through complying with the Lord’s difficult tasking, they displayed that our relationship with God is the most important relationship we can have, far more important than a relationship with our kin.

In regard to the Levites and their loyalty, Moses said this:

“You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and He has blessed you this day."

In other words, the obedient actions of the Levites were pleasing to God, so much so that the Levites were set apart by Him. They would go on to be the spiritual temple leaders from this point on.

3. Atonement does not come without a cost.

In regard to those who were not killed by the Levites, we see Moses telling them this:

"You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement."

We have already seen where Moses had interceded for the Israelites who God wanted to wipe out entirely. Here, we see where he returns to the top of Mount Sinai to once again serve as their intervener with the Lord. The scriptures tell us that he said this to the Lord:

"Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book You have written."

Note here that Moses was willing to go as far as taking God’s judgment in place of the people of Israel, his brothers and sisters in the faith. This involved Moses’ name being blotted out of the book the Lord had written.

Moses knew that sin atonement came with a price. In the yet to be constructed tabernacle, it would come by way of the animal sacrifices and the blood shed from those animals. Now, he was willing to shed his own blood in order to save his own people.

If this act of willing self sacrifice feels familiar in the Bible, you would be right because the core of our salvation and the new covenant God makes with His people in the New Testament is grounded in the willing self sacrifice of Jesus, God’s only Son, who came to the rescue of all sinners by purchasing their pardon from sin through shedding His blood on Calvary’s cross. He shed His blood in their place and by His wounds, they were healed (Isaiah 53:5).  

Here, the atonement of the world’s sins – past, present, and future - came at the heaviest cost of all time, the crucifixion of God’s only Son as He gave up all so we could have eternal life in Heaven.

4. Sinful actions result in negative consequences.

Our scripture passage closes with God refusing to accept Moses’ willingness to pay the price for the people of Israel. Instead, He tells Moses this:

"Whoever has sinned against Me I will blot out of My book."

In other words, every person is accountable to God for their own sins and those sinful actions bring negative consequences. For as we see, the remaining Israelites who survived the Levites didn’t go unpunished. Rather, we read where the Lord "struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made." Clearly, we see where God doesn’t tolerate willful disobedience.

You know, sometimes I wonder if believers today haven’t adopted a cavalier attitude toward God when it comes to the way they live, sinning when it’s convenient for them to meet their own desires and in doing so, dictating the times they will and won’t be for the Lord. Perhaps we need the reminder that is at the core of this passage, that God hates sin and administers harsh judgment on those who choose to willfully disobey Him.

Friends, we serve a merciful, loving God but we need to also remember that He said He is also a jealous God (Exodus 20:2-6), One who expects our undivided attention, respect, and loyalty.

Ultimately, we each have a choice to make.

We can either be for the Lord or against Him and there is no middle ground.

So where do you stand today? Are you truly for the Lord?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.