What
the people did was gross and indecent. It was an orgy. The word used here is
wild. It carries the meaning of nakedness. They could be engaging in immorality
and perhaps even committing sexual sin. Aaron was to be blamed. He allowed them
to go out of control. He had failed to ensure discipline. This is the same even
for any fellowship of believers. Every time the leadership fails to ensure
discipline and allows disorderliness and chaos to reign, God’s name gets
discredited. It behoves us as leaders to ensure that the people entrusted to
our care will never run wild. We must never let our ministry become
a joke and the Lord’s name be mocked.
A great leader always does something when things
are wildly wrong. That was what Moses did. He stood at the entrance of the camp
and called for those who were for the Lord to come to him. He was making an
allowance for those who would change their mind about sinning and leave it to
join him. The only men who responded were the Levites, people from Moses’ own
tribe. They all made a personal commitment to leave sin and join Moses to be on
God’s side. Like those Levites, choosing to be on God’s side is a decision that
every one of us has to make personally. We must choose to forsake sin and
submit to the Lordship of Christ. If we are not for Christ, we will be against
Him. There is no third alternative. Christian living is making a choice between
truth and falsehood, between righteousness and unrighteousness, and between
humility and pride. There can be no neutral ground when we are living for the
Lord. Every day we must choose to take a stand for Him. Choosing God’s
side requires absolute obedience.
Once the Levites took their stand with Moses, they
were taking their stand with God. Moses at the direction of God ordered them
saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every
man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth
from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man
his friend, and every man his neighbour.’” This was a serious
assignment and it did not come from Moses. It was from God. This dastardly sin
must be dealt with swiftly and completely. They had broken a blood covenant
with God and it had to be paid with their life. They had forfeited the right to
live. To worship other gods is a serious sin and it had to be dealt with
swiftly and thoroughly.
Everyone guilty of worshipping the
golden calf must be dealt with, but only 3,000 were killed. Why? The 3,000 men
that were killed were not the total number of people who had sinned. From this
figure, we know that God’s restraining hand was even in judgement. When the
judgement was being executed, people stopped their sinning. The truth is this,
3,000 were killed so that the others could stop from continuing in their sin.
The Levites did it regardless of whether they were family members or friends,
they would not be spared. In the life of obedience, God has first claim over
our life. We must prefer Him over mother, father, sons, daughters, relatives or
friends. When there is a conflict in allegiance between God and the people
close to us, we must always choose God. One other lesson can be gleaned
from here. That holiness must be pursued relentlessly. Purity must be pursued
if we are to serve God. We must put all idolatries in our life to bed forever.
There should be no concession. It must always be God and nothing else. This we
have to do by taking up our cross daily to follow Him. We need to take a stand
for God!
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