Peer Pressure, Conformity, Giving in – Aaron was Moses’ brother but also his right-hand man. When Moses continued to object to being a spokes-person for God to Pharaoh, God told Moses that his brother would be the mouthpiece - “Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do. Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God to him. You shall take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.”(Ex 4:14-17) God gave Moses the Ten Commandments along with a lot of other rules to help separate the Israelites from the corrupt culture of Egypt, where they lived in for 400 years and the cultures they were about to encounter. (Read Exodus chapters 20 -23) After receiving these instructions, Moses came down and met with Arron, the other leaders and all of the people and recounted what God had shared with him. The people where so excited that they shouted in unison, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!” (Ex 24:3) Then Moses took Aaron and the other leaders to the mountain and they “saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank. (Ex 24:10-11) You would think after all they have seen God do, heard all the Laws and rules God has given, and even sat and ate a meal with God, that they would do exactly just as they said -“All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do! – But this was the not the case. Moses goes back to the top of the mountain, leaving Aaron and the other leaders in charge. While God was now sharing with Moss the how the ark, tabernacle and worship tent should look like, the people began it get restless. After 40 days of not seeing Moses, they come to Aaron and say – “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” (Ex 32:1) Aaron tells them to turn in all their gold jewelry and he fashion a bull out of the gold and says - “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt…. Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” (Ex 32:4-5) God sees what is going on and tells Moses that He is going to destroy them, but Moses pleas with God not too. Then Moses comes down and smashes the tablets with the law was written on and ask Aaron the question of “Why”? Aaron tries to explain how evil the people can become, but the bottom-line was that Aaron fell under pressure. Now it is easy to point a figure at Aaron and say he should have known better – but what about us? How do we cave in to pressures around us and minimize God into just an idol? Do we brag about what God is doing in our lives when in realitiy we hardly pray to Him or seek His guidance? Are we so comfortable with our lifestyle, knowing there are parts of it that is offensive to God, yet we say to ourselves - “God forgives and forgets”. We continue to be disobedient thinking God is overlooking those sins. Do we cave in to the culture around us and only talk about God’s love but never mention His anger towards sin? There are a lot of ways we cave in to pressure and reduce God to just a word or symbol of our faith while our lifestyle is totally opposite of how God wants us to live. Aaron conformed to the people wishes and made them what they asked for. Knowing it was wrong, he did not have the guts to stand up for what is right. We are not to minimize sin around us or even in our own lives. While Christ did died for all sin, there still is a choice on our part of where He lives. To the Church of Laodicea, God knew they deeds and conformity. He wished they would either be right with Him or totally denounce Him so that it was as clear as black and white. But they were a church of middle of the road… happy about their riches but totally naked, poor and shameful to God. To this Church – Jesus was on the outside, stand at the door and knocking, asking… “if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me” We need to ask God to search out hearts – Are we conforming to the pressures of the world or are we truly the salt and light God wants us to be?
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 11:19:20 +0000
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