TYPES,
SHADOWS, AND PARALLELS
“And Moses went into the
midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount [Sinai]:
and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.” (Exo 24:18).
Moses (a type of David) went up into the midst of the cloud for “forty days”
(1 Sam 17:16) where God spoke with him, instructing Moses in the “pattern” (Exo
25:9,40) of the building and operation of the Tabernacle (the body of
Christ in the Old Testament) as recorded in the next seven chapters of the
Bible, Exodus 25 through Exodus 31 (exceedingly important). This experience of
Moses parallels the experience of David when David received the
“pattern” of the Temple “the LORD made me understand in writing
by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern” (1 Chr 28:19) and
gave it to Solomon. At the conclusion of Moses’ instruction on Mount Sinai,
“And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing [teaching] with him upon mount Sinai, two tables
[tablets] of testimony [the Ten Commandments], tables of stone, written
with the finger of God.” (Exo 31:18). On Mount Sinai, Moses (a type of David)
was “redeeming the time” (Eph 5:16) by obediently serving and worshipping
(“dress it” Gen 2:15) God, by being taught by God how to build
God’s “sheepfold” (John 10:1; the tabernacle of Moses – the temple of
Solomon – the barn of Jesus: Mat 13:30) on earth so that Moses could “feed
his father’s sheep” (1 Sam 17:15). Meanwhile, back in the
Israelite camp Aaron the high priest (a type of Saul) and the people (a type of
the Israelite armies – the church in apostasy) were foolishly spending their
allotted 40 days of attention-time (their life-time) serving and worshipping
the golden calf (a type of Goliath) by wasting their “substance with
riotous living” (Luke 15:13). 1.
(1 Sam 17:16) And the
Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days. 2.
(Eph 5:14-18) Wherefore he
saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly [diligently],
not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord
is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess [unsavedness: riot]; but be filled with the Spirit;
3.
(Gen 2:15) And the LORD God
took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it [serve: + husbandmen, worship] and to keep it [guard, protect: be circumspect, preserve, watch (man)]. 4.
(John 10:1,2) Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the
sheepfold [a yard (as open to the wind); by impl. a mansion: court, hall, palace],
but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that
entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 5.
(1 Sam 17:15) But David went
and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem [house of bread]. 6.
(Heb 11:1) Now faith [belief] is the substance [essence] of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. 7.
(Luke 15:13) And not many
days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a
far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. WHY
WAS THE GOLDEN CALF MADE OF EARRINGS?
(Exo 32:1-6) 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 the land of Egypt, we wot [know] not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings [a nose-ring; earring], which are in the ears [instruments with which you pay attention, i.e. sacrifice your time] of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf [a male calf, one nearly grown: bullock (symbol of youth, health, strength, and fertility)]: and they said, These be thy gods ['elohiym], O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD [Jehovah]. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings [their sacrifices in thoughts, words, and deeds: their life: Rom 12:1]; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play [singing and dancing v.18,19, and “the people were naked” v.25 before the Lord, and “wasted his [their] substance with riotous living” Luke 15:13]. 1.
(Rom 10:17) So then faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 2.
(1 Tim 6:9,10) But they that
will be rich [i.e. possess gold]
fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which
drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root
of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the
faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 3.
fashioned = Heb: (through the squeezing into shape); to mould into a
form; espec. as a potter; fig. to determine (i.e. form a resolution):-- X
earthen, fashion, form, frame, make (-r), potter, purpose. 4.
The
Nelson Study Bible: A molded calf was an ominous worship
symbol. Not only were the cow and the bull worshipped in Egypt, but the bull was
a familiar embodiment of Baal [Goliath]
seen in Canaan. Aaron had thus led the people in breaking the first three
commandments: They had bowed to another God beside the Lord; they had made a
graven image; and they used the Lord’s name in false worship (see v.5). God
had said repeatedly that it was He and only He who had brought the Israelites
out of Egypt (Exo 20:1,2; 29:45,46), and event they had all witnessed. 5.
The
Living Bible: The cow, or calf, was one of the most popular
idols in Egypt. Hapi and Hathor, two of the most worshipped cow gods, were
symbols of power and fertility. Therefore they were closely connected to immoral
sexual practices. 6.
(Gen 1:1) In the beginning God
['elohiym] created the heaven and the earth. 7.
(Rom 12:1,2) I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice [to
God, and not to gold, mammon, Goliath, the world, Satan], holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may
prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. FOR
STUDY: MORE INTERESTING PARALLELS
Compare the commonality of
the reactions of Aaron (Exo 32:21-24) and Saul (1 Sam 15:13-21) to God’s
investigation as to the cause of their disobedience. Did they acknowledge
and confess their sin and ask for forgiveness? No! Both Aaron and Saul (symbols
of religious leadership in apostasy) blamed “the people” for their own
transgressions. However, the psychological pattern of refusing to confess our
personal sinfulness to God, but instead attempting to shift the blame for our
own sin upon someone else, thereby shifting the focus of the anticipated
punishment, an action motivated by FEAR of retribution, originates with Adam who
attempted to blame the only other “people” then existent for his sin of disobedience,
“The woman.” (Gen 3:11-13). CONCLUSION:
SIN BRINGS THE SPIRIT OF FEAR
The title of this series
is “DAVID AND GOLIATH: THE SPIRIT OF FAITH AND THE SPIRIT OF FEAR.” The
Israelite armies under Saul (the church in apostasy) had walked away from God
(Bethlehem), literally, and were standing in sin “in the valley of decision”
(Joel 3:14), “in the valley of Elah” (Heb: the tree, i.e. the cross: 1 Sam
17:19). “Sin lieth at the door” (Gen 4:7). Then Goliath appeared, “as a
roaring lion” (1 Pet 5:8) seeking to dominate them, seeking to devour them,
wholly.
|