Some Particulars of Playing Church (Part 1)
Posted by: biblenotes <biblenotes@...>
From: Martin Overfield
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001
Some Particulars of Playing Church (Part 1)
"... the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. ... And
it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the
calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables
out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. And he took the calf
which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and
strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it."
(Exodus 32:6b, 19-20)
God was angry up on the mountain! Now, Moses was angry! God never
rebuked him for being angry at sin. When Moses cast down the tables of
stone and broke them (the Ten Commandments - God's law written by God's
hand) this was symbolic of what the Israelites had done morally and
spiritually. They had broken God's commandments!
Now we will consider some of the commandments and Biblical principles
that are broken when people are just playing instead of really striving for
victory in the spiritual battle.
Respect for Leadership
Just from the context we gather that the people had a lack of respect
for God-appointed spiritual leadership. They didn't like the fact that they
could not control Moses! They spoke of him disparagingly when telling Aaron
that they wanted to try a more palatable method of worship (a god made of
gold): "We know not what has become of this Moses." (Exodus 32:1).
They wanted their own selfish way. The man of God was getting His Word
for them and they were too busy doing their own thing -- setting up their
own little program -- keeping their own running commentary of the way the
people ought to worship. If it HAS to be YOUR way you need a killing! "Ye
are yet carnal." The Big I is still on board or it has been allowed a
shameful, satanic resurrection!
This disrespect blossomed fully later, when Korah's clan decided that
THEY should be the top leaders. Remember how God ended that controversy?
The earth opened, and the offenders fell into the burning pit! This well
illustrates God's attitude toward disrespect for God-anointed ministry.
Lest someone would say, "But, that was in the Old Testament. God doesn'
t punish people like that anymore." remember Ananias and Sapphira! They
dropped dead for lying to the man of God, who represefnted God Himself.
Peter said that they had lied to God, the Holy Ghost.
Some may wonder why the church service seems so dead. Why is it that
the preacher has such a hard time being able to proclaim the Word of God?
Well, sometimes it may be because some people sitting on the pews are also
sitting on the preacher by playing church. If they are not doing this by
open rebellion to leadership they may be doing so with their attitude of
reluctance to submit to a spiritual authority figure.
Sometimes this is even manifested by a spirit of levity and whispering
while the preacher is doing his best to preach the burden that God has laid
on his heart for the very people who haven't enough respect to take heed how
they hear! And we used to say that it was teenagers sitting on the back
pews who were guilty of such things, but we need to modify this statement to
include some high-professing adults.
This is hard truth to digest for some, but so was Stephen's message to
the Jewish leaders when he said, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart
and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do
ye." (Acts 7:51).
Yours In Christ,
Martin Overfield
Please pass this Bible Note to others who may
be interested or helped by it.
To subscribe to FREE Bible Notes just send an empty e-mail to
[email protected]