Basic HTML Version
92
Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers
of the tables of stone was but a representation of the fact that Israel
had broken the covenant which they had so recently made with God.
It is a righteous indignation against sin, which springs from zeal for
the glory of God, not that anger prompted by self-love or wounded
ambition, which is referred to in the scripture, “Be ye angry, and sin
not.” Such was the anger of Moses.
“And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the
fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and
made the children of Israel drink of it. And Moses said unto Aaron,
What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin
upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot:
thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said
unto me, 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
not what is become of him.” And “Moses saw that the people were
naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among
their enemies).”
Special Influence of Satan’s Work
To us the warning is given, “All these things happened unto them
for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom
the ends of the world are come.” Mark the influence of their extremes
[102]
and fanaticism in the service of the great master worker, Satan. As
soon as the wicked one had the people under his control, there were
exhibitions of a satanic character. The people ate and drank without
a thought of God and His mercy, without a thought of the necessity
of resisting the devil, who was leading them on to the most shameful
deeds. The same spirit was manifested as at the sacrilegious feast
of Belshazzar. There was glee and dancing, hilarity and singing,
carried to an infatuation that beguiled the senses; then the indulgence
in inordinate, lustful affections—all this mingled in that disgraceful
scene. God had been dishonored; His people had become a shame
in the sight of the heathen. Judgments were about to fall on that
infatuated, besotted multitude. Yet God in His mercy gave them
opportunity to forsake their sins.
“Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on
the Lord’s side?” The trumpeters caught up the words, and sounded