God’s special dealings with the Israelites may be said to have started while they were yet in the land of Egypt, under the wicked domination of Pharaoh and his cruel taskmasters. The Israelites had gotten down into Egypt because of the sinfulness of their fathers, and God was under no obligation to redeem them. However, it was in this wise that he manifested his great love and care. He delivered them, by bringing them first under the blood of the Passover lamb. Thereafter, he overruled all of their experiences, causing these to become his providences on their behalf, by which they might be drawn closer and closer unto himself. The recognition, and the appreciation of this grace and favor ought to have brought forth in their hearts a faith – “the basis of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” – moving them ever onward to stricter obedience to God’s will. Such obedience would indeed have separated them unto God, and they would have become his “peculiar treasure, above all people.” Yet, neither Rameses, Succoth, Etham, Pi-hahiroth, the eastern shore of the Red Sea, Marah, Elim, the wilderness of Sin, Alush, Dophkah nor Rephidim seemed to awaken this acceptable faith in them. On numerous occasions God had to remind them that he was proving them to see whether they would walk in his law, or no. More often than not, they answered God, by either forgetting him or murmuring against his gracious providences. Finally, he brought them to Sinai, the “mount of God” where he clearly made known his will concerning them – their consecration to do his will. Here they responded with an “all that the Lord hath spoken we will do.”

Now observe the deadly parallel! God’s dealing with us as the antitypical Israel also may be said to have commenced while we were yet in Egypt, in bondage to sin and death. We too, had been born there because of the sins of our fathers. Nor was God under obligation to redeem us therefrom. Yet it was after this wise that he manifested unto us his great love and care. He delivered us from under the condemnation of Adamic sin by first bringing us under the blood of the antitypical Passover lamb. Thereafter he overruled all of our experiences – causing them to become his providences on our behalf, to bring us closer and closer unto Him. While perhaps we recognized God as our Savior, we did not seem to appreciate his grace and his favor, for there did not arise within us that faith – “the basis of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” – moving us onward, first to determine God’s will concerning us, and then to render stricter obedience unto it. Such obedience would have separated us indeed from the world, and unto God, who would have made of us “his peculiar treasure, above all people” a “kingdom of priests, a holy nation.” Yet our diversified experiences at a Rameses, a Succoth, an Etham, a Pi-hahiroth, an eastern shore of the Red Sea, a Marah, an Elim, a Wilderness of Sin, an Alush, a Dophkah, a Rephidim, seemed not to bring this about.

Finally God brought us also to a Sinai – a “mount of God” – where he reminded us of all of his providences, and clearly made known his will concerning us, even our sanctification. Here too, we responded with an “all things that the Lord hath said we will do.” (See R4029:1)

Seeing this paralleled, we do well to recognize that “all these things happened unto them for types, and they are written for our admonition…” (1 Cor. 10:11) let us then carefully and prayerfully endeavor to keep from falling into the same errors of unbelief and disobedience.

Some time after the Israelites had declared their willingness to surrender themselves fully unto the Lord – to obey his voice and to keep his covenant (Exod. 19:8) Moses ascended the “mount of God” there to receive on tables of stone, the Commandments – the tangible evidence of the covenant and God’s will concerning them. (Exod. 24:12; 31:18) Moses had already written these commandments (Exod. 20:1-17) and sundry laws, etc. (Exod. 20:23-26; 21:1-36; 22:1-31; 23:1-33) in a book, (Exod. 24:4) and after the offering of suitable burnt and peace offerings, had taken of the blood of these and besprinkled the altar and then read the book unto the people. Again they had affirmed their consecration to do God’s will – “All that the Lord hath said We Will Do, and Be Obedient” (Exod. 24:7) whereupon Moses had taken the remainder of the blood of the offerings and sacrifices and sprinkled the book and all the people, (Exod. 24:8; Heb. 9:19) saying “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.” (Exod. 24:5-8)

Now, Moses was in the mount a long time – “forty days and forty nights.” (Deut. 9:9) And why should he not have been there so long: Did he not on this occasion, besides receiving the “tables of the law,” receive also those wonderful instructions concerning the Tabernacle: its structure, its priesthood, its sacrifices, its ritual, etc. (Exod. 25:1 to 30:10) It takes us years to familiarize ourselves with these, and then, how many of us really remember all the details! Yet Moses had to memorize all of this in the forty days, nor was he given any blueprints, manual of instructions, or a copy of the “Tabernacle Shadows of the Better Sacrifices”; but merely a “see that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the mount.” (Heb. 8:5)

Our real appreciation of the character of Jesus is not the result of an ordinary contemplation of his earthly life, though this must ever be taken into account. True, we could perhaps imitate him in these earthly walks, yet the full appreciation of even these comes only as a result of being called by God, up into the mount of spirituality, there to behold the glorious “pattern.” It is thus, in the mount, that we are given the true vision of Christ, and the instructions to fashion our earthly tabernacles according to this pattern. For Moses to obtain, and then to retain the indelible impression of the pattern of the original tabernacle, it was necessary that during the period of the forty days and forty nights he did not eat nor drink. (Deut. 9:9) So, too, must we in our meditations and contemplations of the heavenly things, not permit our earthly vicissitudes, nor physical necessities to stand in the way of these heavenly visions. In the presence of God we must forget self, yea, we must “let go, and let God!”

Exod. 32:1 – “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.”

How desperately wicked is the human heart! (Jer. 17:9) Only a short time before the Israelites had reaffirmed their consecration of themselves unto the Lord, (Exod. 24:7) to “be obedient” to his divine will. It was bad enough when in times past they had forgotten God, and murmured against his providences: but here they seemed deliberately to forsake him. Had not God declared that they were not to fashion unto themselves “any graven image or likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth?” (Exod. 20:4) Nor need we assume that they intended to abandon God, but they did forsake him, when they ignored his covenant and violated his command.

Thus far, Moses had been the visible representation of the arm and power of Jehovah. To the Israelites, it seemed that it was Moses that had brought them out from under the bondage of Pharaoh; it was Moses that had brought them through the Red Sea; it was Moses who had sweetened the bitter waters at Marah; it was Moses who led them to the peaceful rest of Elim; it was Moses who brought forth from the smitten rock the waters of life; it was Moses who through his intercession on the mount had won for them the battle against the Amalekites. Now the time had come for them to prove their faith in the invisible God, who was the real source of all their blessings and favors.

As long as Moses was present among them, they could and from time to time would remember God, for Moses ever directed their attention unto him. But faith, like that of Abraham, by which he was also justified, could not so be developed. The visible crutch (Moses) would first have to be removed, and they would then have to lean upon the invisible arm: for faith is not only the basis of things hoped for, but it is also the “conviction of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1) Accordingly Moses was removed from their presence up into the mount of God.

Now it must be remembered that “God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24) It is matters like these that God is extremely jealous about. He will not suffer anyone or anything to stand in the way of the worship and praise due him. Notice how emphatically he has declared this:

Exod. 20:2-5 – “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God…” and again,

Isa.. 42:8 – “I am the Lord, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another neither my praise to graven images.”

Idols and images, be they graven or otherwise, are not always intended to be objects of worship. Often they are merely intended to serve as crutches upon which the arm of the flesh desires to lean. They are not, never were, and shall never be conducive to the development of a God- pleasing faith, but quite to the contrary, they are always destructive of its very elements.

With the removal of Moses from their midst, God was affording the Israelites an opportunity to exercise, and thus to demonstrate, their faith. What a privilege! Did they live up to it? Alas, no! Nor has spiritual Israel responded more nobly. In the beginning of the age, the Apostles were present with the church, and they ceased not to direct its attention God-ward. But the time came when the Apostles fell asleep, then came the opportunities to demonstrate faith in that invisible God WHOM these had declared, but it, like its prototype Israel, cried, “Make us gods.”

“Alas! Alas! It has ever been thus in man’s history. The human heart loves something that can be seen; it loves that which meets and gratifies the senses. It is only faith that can endure as seeing him who is invisible. Hence, in every age men have been forward to set up and lean upon human imitations of divine realities. Thus it is we see the counterfeits of corrupt religion multiplied before our eyes. Those things which we know, upon the authority of God’s Word, to be divine and heavenly realities, the professing church has transformed into human and earthly imitations. Having become weary of hanging upon an invisible arm, of trusting in the invisible sacrifice, of having recourse to an invisible priest, of committing herself to the guidance of an invisible head, she has set about ‘making’ these things, and thus, from age to age, she has been busily at work, with ‘graving tool’ in hand, graving and fashioning one thing after another, until we can at length recognize as little similarity between much that we see around us and what we read in the word, as between ‘a molten calf’ and the God of Israel.”

As already suggested, for Israel of old, Moses had long served as a crutch. Now with him gone from their presence, instead of being rightly exercised toward God, they cried out for another crutch, failing to realize that this was open rebellion against the providences of God. How were they ever to become his “peculiar treasure?”

Now let it be noted to whom their cries were raised. Aaron!!! Aaron himself was a crutch, furnished to Moses when the latter felt himself unable to step out in the fulness of faith upon the promises of God. See Exod. 3:11,12; 4:10-17. True, Moses was not using this crutch at the time, but it was left in the way of temptation for Israel. Now note how quickly the Adversary took advantage of the situation:

Exod. 32:2-4 – “And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me…and he received them at their hands, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf; and they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of Egypt.”

How utterly subtle and deceptive the human heart can be! Let us look at ourselves. Does not God ofttimes remove from us our crutches, so that we may grow in grace and in favor through our faith in the invisible, though ever-present God! But how we do rebel and cry as it were for other crutches, idols or even graven images, to fill the void created by the removal of the earlier ones. Be assured, there will always be “servants of God” (?) who will in response to the cries of our hearts create or fashion for us “golden calves” and these out of the very substance which we ourselves have contributed of the things brought with us out of Egypt. (Exod. 3:22) How significant!

Nor need we suppose that Aaron was at first in fullest accord with the demands of the Israelites. Anent this Pastor Russell says in R4022:3:

“We cannot suppose that Aaron fully sympathized with the people in the matter of this making of the golden calf; we must suppose that he knew better, and meant better, and that it was a mere expedient on his part to hold in check the rebellion of the people whose discontent was manifest in this demand. We must suppose that, in apparently acquiescing in the demand, Aaron was seeking to gain time until Moses would return. Possibly, too, his demand that the people produce their earrings

and other ornaments of gold was originally a mere subterfuge; that he hoped by making this demand they would draw back and decline to part with their ornaments, and thus he would be able to say, ‘Well, I cannot make you what would represent a god except out of gold, and I have no gold for the purpose unless you sacrifice your jewelry.’ But however good his intentions, the lesson for us is that his course was an improper one.”

We are never to compromise, nor to do evil that good may come of it. The account reads:

Exod. 32:5 – “And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.”

“Evils are progressive; one wrong leads to another. Thus after the golden calf had been made the next thing in order, was to make a golden altar before it to offer sacrifice to it. So it is with respect to the idols of spiritual Israel. An altar implies sacrifice, and it is but the natural thing that we should sacrifice to whatever we set up in our hearts as our idol…some hearts have many idols, others few, and it is not difficult to determine which idols a man worships. The worship will be indicated by the sacrifice. Tell us the things to which a man or woman sacrifices his or her best thoughts, best time, chief influence, and we can tell you readily the idol which he reverences most and before which he has the largest altar and sacrifices most.” (R4023:2)

While it is true, that the Israelites may not have desired, nor intended to displace Jehovah, their God, they did cry for a visible, a tangible representation of him. This desire can very readily be traced back to the Egypt of their bondage and their oppression, for there they had seen symbolic representations of other gods. The subtlety of all this, however – lies in the fact that the human heart is ever ready, and sooner or later endows the visible image with all the powers and attributes of the invisible reality; the image thus becoming an idol is then regarded and worshiped as something itself, most sacred. It is at this point that the idol shares in the glory and of the praise belonging only to the reality. Is it any wonder then, that God knowing of this human tendency, so specifically forbade his typical people to make graven images and likenesses! (Exod. 20:4) Surely there can be no doubt as to the significance of the already quoted passage from Isa. 42:8 – “my glory will I not give to another neither my praise to graven images.”

There have been, and today are, institutions which while not in their very nature, idols, nor images, nevertheless have in the hearts and minds of many antitypical Israelites, served not to displace God, but to share in the reverence, honor, glory, and praise and worship due him, and him alone. The nominal church is such an institution.

And as Aaron the mouthpiece of Moses erected the golden calf for typical Israel, so too, a modern Aaron – the clergy (also a mouthpiece) – has erected a golden calf for the antitypical Israel of God. We are glad that this golden calf is already being destroyed by the antitypical Moses, now returned from the mount. Let us who have declared “all that the Lord hath spoken we will do” be on our guard to render to God, and to him alone the faithfulness and loyalty of our consecrated lives. Let us not make the mistake that in order to worship God, it is necessary to regard some particular brother or sister, some particular group, some particular class, corporation, institution, or society as the means through which homage becomes acceptable; for quite to the contrary, our God, who is a jealous God, desires us to worship him directly – in spirit and in truth – to consider his will and his alone. This may separate us from many other professed children of God, but we shall then be unto him, a peculiar treasure.

Dear Lord, spare us, deliver us, from the idols of our own making!

“We are called to live by faith; we can see nothing with the eye of sense. Jesus is gone up on high, and we are told to wait patiently for his appearing. God’s word carried home to the heart, in the energy of the Holy Spirit, is the ground of confidence in all things, temporal and spiritual, present and future. He tells us of Christ’s completed sacrifice; we, by grace, believe, and commit our souls to the efficacy thereof, and know we shall never be confounded. He tells us of a great High Priest, passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, whose intercession is all prevailing; we, by grace, believe, and lean confidently upon his ability, and know that we shall be saved to the uttermost. He tells us of the living Head to whom we are linked, in the power of resurrection life, and from whom we can never be severed by any influence, angelic, human, or diabolical; we, by grace, believe, and cling to that blessed Head, in simple faith, and know we shall never perish.…He tells us of ‘an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us, who are kept by the power of God,’ for entrance thereinto in due time; we through grace believe and know we shall never be confounded.

“Thus it is, or, at least, thus our God would have it. But then the enemy is ever active in seeking to make us cast away these divine realities, take up the ‘graving tool’ of unbelief, and ‘make gods’ for ourselves. Let us watch against him, pray against him, believe against him, testify against him, act against him: thus he shall be confounded, God glorified, and we ourselves abundantly blessed.

“Let us now apply the lesson to spiritual Israel: after the Christian has left the world, the slavery,

the sin, after he has passed the bitter experiences of Marah, after he has had manifestations of God’s favor, after he has partaken of the bread from heaven after he has entered fully into covenant relationship with God – there comes a time when he must walk by faith, and not by sight. He is being proved by the Lord. If he fails in this lesson, as the typical Israelites did, it will be a serious matter for him.

“We are not meaning to suggest that any Christian would be liable to make a golden image literally. We do mean to say, however, that this matter of making images, and of allowing them to divert our worship of God is one of the greatest trials and tests which come to spiritual Israelites.” (R5298:4)