Passion From Presence

“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.” (Ex 32:19 AV)

Moses had just spent forty days and nights on the Mount Sinai with the God of creation, receiving the law and instruction in it.  He spent forty days at the feet of a holy God learning of the purity of the law of God.  He spent forty days without food or water because the beauty of the holiness of God’s law removed all pain from lack of the necessities of life.  He was completely and totally engrossed in the perfection that is the law of God.  No wonder Moses had the reaction described above when he saw the sin of God’s people.  No wonder he acted in passion at the utter wickedness of the half-naked dancing and idolatry.  Some may excuse his behavior as an expression of his anger issues.  But I think not.  I think the purity of God’s law overcame Moses and when confronted with the evil of God’s people, he was moved with passion at what he saw!

There is a reason God’s people are cold towards sin.  Today, if we were to see something similar, it probably wouldn’t bother us nearly as much as it did Moses.  This past weekend, there were two games on T.V. which had just such an activity.  People who were half-dressed, drunken, and worshiping the gods of athleticism openly and unashamedly violating the standards of holiness and righteousness in front of an entire nation.  We would look at that today and it wouldn’t even bother us.  Companies are falling all over themselves trying to accommodate the sodomites.  There was a commercial that recently aired which showed two males trying to find a babysitter for “their” daughter.  One has to wonder how much it bothered the saints of God to see such a thing.

There is only one reason these things no longer bother us.  We spend far too much time in the wickedness of the world compared to the holiness of God’s presence and study of His word.  Yes, some of this interaction is mandatory.  We have to go off to work.  We have to go shopping for life’s needs.  But that doesn’t mean we have to participate in voluntary activities that are flooded with wicked influences.  The shock factor has long worn off because we spend more time around those who are half-naked and dancing than in the word of God and on our knees.  No wonder Lot is the type of later day church.  He vexed his righteous soul by the influence of a wicked city. The saints of God are doing the same thing.