Lost Mandate of Heaven, Part 1H [Ideas Series, #8]

Exodus 32:2-4

"And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears 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: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

As we saw in the previous post, the people lost patience with Moses (and with God) and confronted Aaron about making them gods. He acquiesced. However, God gave Moses instructions for taking a free-will offering to be used in making a holy place for God (Exodus 25:1-7). Here Aaron received a collection, an offering of gold to make an idol.

All the people broke off the golden earrings and turned them over to Aaron. Suddenly there was a gold rush! It was more important to have something to look at (ie, a golden idol) than Someone to look to.

Aaron fashioned the gold with an engraving tool. It was all manual labor; that is, all hands and no heart. I'm talking about how this wasn't the Spirit-inspired craftsmanship of Bezaleel and Aholiab. It was the flesh-inspired work of Aaron. He thought it out, melted the gold, molded it, and fashioned it carefully with an engraving tool.

Upon completing his community project, he said, "This is your god". Again, notice that Aaron did not anoint this thing as their god. He simply went along with the people as they proclaimed it as their god. Also, take note that he deflected the idol worship on the people as if he was washing his hand of the entire spectacle. Pontius Pilate attempted to do the same thing, but history has not been kind. It was after all his hands that wrought the idol. Aaron in just as culpable in creating the idol as the people were in demanding one.

True leadership would have cried out, "This is idolatry! We must destroy this golden calf. You people are wrong in calling this creation of man your god!" But Aaron wasn't a true leader. He is an example of the one who leads by following popular opinion. If you put yourself in Aaron's shoes and you were accosted and confronted by hundreds, if not thousands, of men demanding an idol, what would you have done? Consider where you're at right now at work or your sphere of influence: Are you being a light in a dark, wicked world (Matt. 5:16) or a you like Aaron, hiding behind the idolatrous veneer of conformity?

Leading From Behind

President Barack Obama's infamous saying caught the attention of many here in the U.S. as well as abroad. To be clear, the "Leading from behind" quote was not stated by the president, but did in fact come from a White House official who was quoted in a a "journalistic" piece in "The Consequentialist: How the Arab Spring Remade Obama’s Foreign Policy" by Ryan Lizza. So, even though it was explicity stated, the president sure has practiced this philosophy quite consistently. The only people who "lead" from behind, as far as I can tell, are the carnival workers who follow elephants at a parade, if you catch my drift.

From Syria to Iran and the broader Middle East policy, Mexico, Russia, and China, America has been less assertive in the world. The attitude behind this line of thinking is that the relative power of the U.S. is declining, as rivals like China rise, and that the U.S. is reviled in many parts of the world. Therefore, the logic follows, if the U.S. is weak and hated then we have to lead from behind, taking the back seat to atrocities that are committed around the world (Syria as a case in point). Thus, the U.S. gains power by "acting modestly", by acting powerless. Huh?

Truly, the liberal line of thought is corrupt, dishonest, childish and dangerous. Heaven help us if we're going to face another 4 years of this debacle of a presidency.

Put simply, someone who leads from behind is a coward.

The Cult of Personality

As Barack Obama did not become president until January 20 of this year, it seems irrefutable that his cult of personality was bestowed upon him by so-called journalists who in order to help him get elected abdicated their solemn responsibility to report the truth to the American people.

As this typically occurs in a totalitarian nation, that country's ruler, with complete control of the media, is able to mandate what images of him or herself are being disseminated thereby furthering his cult-like status. Think of North Korea's late leader Kim Jong Il.

The Obama team is formulating its campaign strategy convinced that their guy's charisma and delivery combined with a willingness to say anything will result in re-election.

The Obama Team knows it will not be able to honestly campaign on the President's record of accomplishments. Their campaign will be solely based on blaming everything on President Bush and the mantra that things would have been worse if they had not pursued their policy agendas.

The Cult of Personality strategy works something like this:

1. Contrasting Obama against the dull and bland personality of the Republican candidate.

2. In concert with the once-mainstream media and the unions, leveling the well-worn and threadbare accusations of the Republican nominee as being mean-spirited and in league with the "rich" will be on full display. Consider the Bain Capital attacks presently being waged on Romney by the press.

3. Racist accusations being used to create headlines and sidetrack the Republicans whenever the opportunity, real or imagined, presents itself.

The Murder of Naboth

In I Kings 21, Naboth is murdered for his vineyard because he refused to give up his land.

King Ahab wanted the vineyard near his royal house in Jezreel that he might have it as a vegetable garden, and was willing to trade for the land or pay for it. Naboth's response was an emphatic "No." His rejection of the otherwise reasonable offer was rooted in the ancient Israelite idea of the land. They believed that the land was an inheritance from God, parceled out to individual tribes and families according to His will. Therefore land was never really sold, only leased - and that only under the most dire circumstances. You can imagine that the Real Estate offices in ancient Israel didn't do very good business.

See Leviticus 25:15, 25:23, 25:25; Numbers 36:7; Ezekiel 46:18 for further study.

What does Ahab do to this legitimate decline to sell him the property? He pouts before Jezebel.

So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food. He seemed to be a spineless, pouting man who reacted this way when he met any kind of adversity or denial of self-fulfillment. He was like a sulking child who could not get his own way. Trust me, I've got eight kids. I know what sulking looks like!


"You now exercise authority over Israel . . . I will give you the vineyard of Naboth" Men, take note. Jezebel's manner of speech revealed who really exercised authority in the palace of Israel (Michelle Obama, are you listening?).


Friends, Jezebel plotted the plan and Ahab executed it. It's a little stretch, but see it this way if you can: President Obama is trying to steal our great Nation right from under our noses. What are you going to do about it? Believe the mainstream media? Or, put your trust back in the only One who is trustworthy: Jesus Christ?


The choice is yours. Make no mistake, though. I'm not referring to the choice of voting between a Muslim or a Mormon. What I'm talking about is humbly & quickly returning to God and begging for mercy on this great land.

America's Prestige Is On the Line

America is weak because we have a weak leader in Obama. But, he's doing it purposely, to transform this Nation from being a Superpower to an Impotent One. America needs to be taken back from the godless Liberals, Progressives, Democrats, Republicans and yes, the carnal-worldly Christians.

A weak leader who depends on God for strength and wisdom is truly a strong leader.

A weak leader who perceives himself as strong, because he sees himself as the answer to the nation's problems is in reality a fool.

Brace yourselves, folks. We're in for a rough landing come November 2012. Stay on your knees and keep looking up. Christ is on the way. God bless you!

The Plan of Salvation

Sources: The New Yorker; newsbusters, Washington Free Beacon, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fox News, Smith's Encyclopedia

A Stranger Comes to Town

Romans 12:2
"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."

Unperceptive men exist and interpret reality only by means of sensory experience. The only real and true things for these men are their physical experiences. This certain breed of man excels in existentialism; that is, they suscribe to the idea that there is no “higher” meaning to the universe or to man’s existence, and no rational order to the events of the world. It is all coincidental, happenstance and circumstantial. Human life is not invested with a redemptive or affirming purpose. There is nothing beyond man’s physical existence. Therefore, the modus operandi of these men is a gentle indifference of the world. Live and let live, as it were.

Ironically, these men are unperceptive because they are not introspective. They perceive, but do not comprehend. It is only when they are confronted with something beyond their immediate interpretation or carnal appetites that they are compelled to become introspective about life, its meaning, and all the while contemplating about their impending death. This kind of man only becomes perceptive after he acknowledges his mortality and responsibility for his own life. In Hebrews 9:27, man clearly has a reckoning beyond meaninglessness: "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"

After apostasy, the greatest threat to a Christian is apathy, the so-called gentle indifference that takes root as a consequence of living in the world and cooperating with it. Please read all of I Corinthians 3 for further convincing.

To illustrate this threat of indifference, I've included a story I came across somewhere on the web. Please seriously consider where you're at in your walk with Christ as you read.

A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche.

My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. Both read the Bible and shared its wisdom with me. But the stranger was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and funny stories.

If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future!

He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.

Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, and Mom submitted to Dad's authority without complaint, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor these convictions.

Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home, not from us, our friends or any visitors. The stranger, however, got away with four-letter words that burned in my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush.

My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and smoking pipes distinguished. He talked freely - much too freely - about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. Over time, he only got worse.

I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked. And never was he asked to leave.

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first.

Still, if you could walk into my parents' home today, you would still find him sitting over in his special corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.

His name?

We just call him TV.

Now, the stranger has a wife. We call her Computer.

"I  know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. "   Revelation 3:15-16

Please be prayerful about your choices as they relate to time spent watching TV or on the computer. They are powerful tools. Without godly purpose, they are the Devil's toys to take us away from God's will through distraction, doubt, and indifference. In godly endeavor, they can reach a lost and dying world. Choose wisely!

Here's a choice you can't afford to ignore: The Plan of Salvation