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Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move
you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord,
because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1
Co 15:58)
Steadfast is standing firm, and standing firm is
anchoring down, being immovable in faith and
truth, regardless of what comes against us.
But how many of us fall to the smallest temptations
or the slightest amount of persecution? And how many of us can
justify why we fail to stand firm? Is it that the foundation on
which we stand is not a foundation of truth and faith, grounded by the
knowledge of God’s word?
As I read about Moses and Aaron bringing the
Israelites out of Egypt, their struggles were huge because everything
they were facing was new, they were literally entering the
unknown. The Israelites had been slaves all their life, being
cared for, told what to do and when to do it, but now they are moving
toward freedom.
And as we all should know, “Freedom is not free.” Our freedom
costs us something as did the freedom of the Israelites.
Moses and Aaron were leading the Israelites at this
point. (Exodus 24) The only responsibilities the Israelite people
had were to be steadfast in obedience.
But as we read on, (Exodus 32) it only took 40 days for insecurity and
fear to be established in the people, causing them to cry out for a
god, something tangible, something they could see, something they could
physically bow down to. They didn’t care if it was a false god,
they didn’t care if it was a cow, tree, or a rock they just needed
something they could see and bow down to.
After the verbal acknowledgment that the
Israelites would follow the commands and decrees, (Exodus 19:8) they
broke the very first command, even though God gave very explicit
instructions to Moses warning the Israelite people about Idols. (Exodus
20:22-26) Nevertheless, the people cried out for a god, an idol.
Aaron gave into the pressure of the people and was now relying on Moses
for his steadfast spirit.
Upon the return of Moses, he pleaded with God on
behalf of the Israelite people. God’s anger burned against the
Israelites so much that God wanted to destroy them because of their
idol worship. Moses was steadfast and remained before God
pleading for His people, reminding God of the promise He had made to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Exodus 32:9-10) God heard Moses
and turned His anger from destruction to punishment.
(Exodus 32:35)
Moses didn’t have to remind God of His promise nor
do we have to remind God of the promise he has made to all of us.
God wants our full and complete attention, He wants a relationship with
us without any other distractions. Moses was steadfast for an
entire nation, millions of people. Very few of us are steadfast
at keeping timely appointments, much less being steadfast in our faith
before others! Often times that is all we are asked to do, simply stand
steadfast for our faith, and we fall more often than we stand. We
need to ask ourselves why? Why are we so easily moved? Such
a simple task made difficult because of our weaknesses. Our
weaknesses are due to our lack of a strong foundation of truth and our
self centered thoughts.
Could it be insecurity that Aaron felt or maybe
fear, possibly both? Moses was 3 years younger than Aaron but
Moses was the direct voice of God,
Aaron was the acting prophet,
(Exodus 4:16) relaying the message God gave Moses to the
people of Israel. Aaron was working under the shadow of
Moses, his little brother, all though Aaron’s job was not less
important than Moses’. God chose both of them for a specific
task, each gifted in that task. But why did Aaron fall to the
pressure of the Israelite people? (Exodus 32:1)
I suspect is was insecurity combined with
fear. All the people were insecure, they were slaves, all their
needs had been taken care of by their masters. They had no
responsibilities, none other than to their master, all they had to do
was be obedient, and their needs would be met. They could not
come to the realization that their master from now on will be the one
true God, not a man or an idol. The master they are now being
asked to serve cannot be seen, touched, or smelt. Knowing
this, God provided signs and wonders, sight, smell, and taste,
but they still couldn’t understand, insisting on a tangible god.
Aaron had Moses to rely on. Moses made all the
decisions and took all the responsibilities. Aaron had to
follow Moses‘ instructions. But Moses was nowhere to be
found. Moses had gone up on the mountain and had been there for
40 days and nights. Who knew if he was going to return,
maybe God struck him down? Who was going to lead the
people? The people were now looking to Aaron for a leader,
demanding a god to lead them. Aaron had to have plenty of
thoughts going through his mind about what might happen, even the
possibility of a good old fashion stoning. What now? Aaron
was probably adverse to a stoning, so out of fear he gave into
the Israelites and built an Idol, a golden calf.
Aaron asked for the people’s jewelry and after
gathering the jewelry, Aaron fashioned an idol in the image of a calf,
then the people said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you
up out of Egypt.” Then Aaron built an altar in front of the calf
and announced a festival to the Lord. (Exodus 32:4-6)
Needless to say, God was not happy about
what Aaron and the Israelite people were doing, so Moses was told to go
down and deal with the corruption. (Exodus 32:7) Moses did so
just to find God’s anger burning against the Israelite people, so
much that God wanted to destroy them.
What are the areas in our lives where we give in to
the pressure of popular culture, family or friends? It is
critical to recognize our weak areas and deal with them. God did
not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power, of love, and of
self-discipline. (2 Ti 1:7) Aaron depended on Moses for his
instructions the same way some today depend upon a pastor or minister
for their instructions. The difference between Aaron and us is
that Moses gets his instructions from God, Aaron gets his instruction
from Moses, and the people gets their instructions from Aaron via the
assembly. For us, our freedom comes through Jesus Christ, not a
pastor, minister, or any other label or authority. Pastors are
just teachers, tools chosen by God to reveal the truth of Jesus, the
same way Moses was used to reveal God to the Israelite people.
(Granted,there are those who are not called by God to be in the
ministry, but God will deal with them at a later time.) But a
pastor, priest, or a minister cannot get anyone into Heaven. They
may give them the road map, but each one of us has a personal responsibility
to choose which road to travel (God’s or the world’s) and how we are to
travel it.
Steadfast is having an even keel, not being tilted
to one side or another. Steadfast is being upright in our thoughts
and actions regardless of the circumstances. You see, we humans
are very capable of justifying our views, wants and desires, mostly
coming from selfish intentions. Let’s say I wanted to live a life
of promiscuity. I could surround myself with like minded people,
Christians as well as non-Christians, allowing myself to be swayed back
and forth until I make up my mind, (usually the “easier” path,
which is seldom God’s path). Aaron was strong as long as Moses
was there, but as soon as Moses left Aaron could easily be swayed
toward popular opinion. The easy path, the majority.
We can even see Aaron giving a really lame excuse,
lying to Moses about how the golden calf came about. (Exodus
32:24) Aaron had to justify his disobedience to a very angry
Moses, and to an even angrier God. Aaron blamed everything on the
people saying, “You know how prone these people are to evil.” (Exodus
32:22) Notice: Aaron did not include himself as an evil doer,
just the people. Aaron then explained that all he did was take
the jewelry, throw them in the fire and “Wala“ out comes a calf.
(Exodus 32:24) I’ve often wondered if Aaron ever realized
how foolish he sounded with such a ridiculous excuse.
I’ll ask the question again, are we any different
than Aaron? How many of us fall to popular opinion, knowing
it is wrong but still doing it because of the influence of others? Then
after falling, blaming our failures on those other influences, as if we
had no part in it.
The reason is simple, we depend on others for our
growth, when we should depend upon God. God has given us a
how-to-manual, it’s called the Bible, instructions on life and how to
live it. The sooner we turn to God and the Bible (His Word) and
let God speak through His Word, the sooner we will see freedom in our
lives. With the greatest majority of us, God only asks a
very simple task, “Relationship
with Him and Obedience to Him.” The same thing we want from our
children.
It is easy to shake our heads and laugh at Aaron,
but in reality are we any different? We need to be honest in
asking ourselves, “Who am I, do I stand firm or do I shrink to
influences other than God? Do I seek favor from God or from
family, friends, and coworkers? Am I Moses or Aaron?
Do we stand firm for the truth or do we
compromise the truth for insecurity and fear, or maybe we are trying to
defend our golden calves that have crawled out from the embers.
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