The End of the Bull
September 30, 2008
In a prayer meeting recently, a parable came to me. Let me be clear that this is not a prophecy, but merely a parable. Recently, I was considering the golden calf that Israelites worshiped in the desert. This calf provides a picture that could be very significant to us in our day. To best understand what follows, before you proceed you must read Exodus 32.
To begin with, let’s make a few observations about the worship of the calf. First note that Moses was in the place of prayer and fasting upon the hill in the wilderness when the itching for the calf began. Note also that Moses was receiving the Law, or the requirements of God when the people became restless and demanded an idol. Note also that this calf was setup by the priesthood. A foreign priesthood did not come in, but rather it was Aaron who led the construction of this calf when the mood of the people called for a false god. Note that once Aaron setup the calf, he did not lead the people away to another god, but rather declared the calf to be the god that lead them out of Egypt. In other words, he did not replace God, he merely redefined Him. Note also that worship to the calf included many of Israel’s religious practices such as burnt offerings and peace offerings, but that the worship focused on sensual pleasures and frivolity. Let’s take a look here because I believe these events form a parallel and a parable for what is taking place in the nation at this moment.
Let’s consider the American landscape for a moment in light of the events that occurred so long ago. America finds herself in a very difficult place at this moment. She is hedged in on all fronts morally, politically, militarily, and economically.. Could we safely say, though, that as the church goes, so goes the nation? If so then the source of America’s ills can be found in the examination of America’s church.
God has been faithful to move on our land in spiritual awakenings and revival movements throughout America’s history. America has even been used to birth major spiritual movements and send out significant numbers of missionaries and resources to impact the globe for Christ. With all that said though, the sad truth is that the American church is looking more anemic by the moment. While I am greatly encouraged by the number of believers I meet that are desiring an authentic display of Christianity in America, the sad truth is that the majority of us are lifeless and powerless.
The truth is that we quite possibly have gone the way of the golden calf. We have not been content for the place of waiting on God until He brought something authentic from the mountain places of prayer and fasting, but rather we leap on any bandwagon that we believe will bring real revival. Rather than embrace the difficult places are fathers tread, we seek new and improved shortcuts to spirituality and blessing. When we should have been living in the awkward pain of waiting on God and acknowledging our own poverty of spirit and drastic need of God’s Spirit to bring awakening, we rather stood up as a body and declared, “we know not whether God’s time tested methods of revival will bring awakening and we want blessing now.”
We were not content to remain in that uncomfortable place while the law of God, or the requirement of God, was revealed that we might come into covenant with Him and labor for a great awakening. Instead our hearts demanded an instant religious fix. What makes this even more tragic is that there were priests ready to answer the cry. We needed men to stand up as fathers and rebuke our childishness and lead us down the difficult road to maturity that we might have a true awakening in the land. Instead, we found ministers aplenty that were deluded themselves enough to champion a new gospel that resonated with our fleshly appetites.
So, rather than casting aside the gospel, it was re-invented. No longer does it serve the glory of God primarily and the glory of man only secondarily, it now serves primarily as an enabler to the appetites of man. What drives my heart to grief is that this gospel has found its way through all spectrums of the body of Christ. All our guilty from the liturgical church to the Pentecostals. I weep most to see this infect that part of the body that would define themselves as being “Spirit filled.”
Consider the nature of Israel’s golden calf and you can immediately see the parallel. Israel was not content with a God that came down from above. They were uncomfortable with a God they could not see and touch at whim. In short, they were uncomfortable with a God that they could not control. The made a god then that they could see and touch and feel.
No more would they have to look above for God to come down to them and lay aside the flesh that they might embrace Him in the spirit. Now they could have a god of flesh on parade before them. Note that they made this god of gold. Again, rather than depending on that which comes down, their idol was made of stuff that was entirely earthly. They sourced their god from the ground, for gold is the stuff of the earth, buried deep in the soil. This man made god was entirely of the earth. For them there was now no need of looking for something that came from above.
Is this not our own great lack? We continually make and invent God in our own image, according to our own standards, and for the satisfaction of our own desires. (Let us not forget those desires can put on a religious face. The desire to “escape hell” can be just as much humanism as anything else.) We do not like the tension of a God that is pre-eminently spiritual before He is physical. We must lay aside the realm we are so familiar with and think we have so much domain over to humble ourselves and embrace Him in His realm. We are more guilty than we know of worshipping a man made and man defined God that is altogether different from the authentic God who is self revealing. The revelation comes of God comes down to man on God’s impetus. Man does not ascend to the revelation of God of his own impetus.
The church has totally embraced the nation of America and some how so co-mingled the economic and political state of America with the church that we almost believe ourselves to be another ancient Israel – a nation where the political and economic structures are essentially a physical manifestation of God’s kingdom. In this deluded state, we have joined the nation as it plunged into a materialism never before seen on the planet. Our thirst for materialism has been so insatiable that we could never get enough and so we found cheaper ways to produce the good we wanted and used debt on a previously unheard of scale to enable purchasing when our own incomes were not enough.
The monumental tragedy in all this is that the church never stood up and divorced herself from the system. Instead we have made God an enabler of our greed and thirst for self fulfillment. Even when the “prosperity gospel” was not openly trumpeted, I fear our message more often amounted to a recycled tale of self fulfillment and self enabling through God. The American dream became so intermingled with the church that I do not know if we can tell the difference anymore. I wonder how strange the apostle Paul might be to us in his understanding and proclamation of the fundamental conflict between the values of this age and the values of the age to come.
We have stood proud in our might and our strength. When the terrorists humbled us on 9/11, we immediately printed bumper stickers that said, “The Power of Pride” and immediately vowed to use military might to subdue any who would dare destroy America. We determined that men would die in third world lands lest any more Americans die on our own shores. I understand that sometimes nations are thrust into difficult decisions at a political level, but the issue is bigger than the question of military action. The issue is that Americans have not humbled themselves in light of recent events, but rather become even more arrogant and brash in dependence on the the power of the flesh.
What then is the prime symbol of our strength and our wealth? Is it not the bull? Have we not made our own golden calf, planted it in lower Manhattan and then proceeded to worship it? Could it be that God is now crushing our golden calf? Could it be that God has finally had enough and, since we will not humble ourselves, He will now humble us?
When Moses came down the mountain, he ground the calf to power and the people were forced to drink the bitter remnants of their false god. Could it be that we are now beginning to drink the powder? We have trusted in our wealth and materialism. Preachers have told us not to fear because no matter what may come to the world, God will keep us wealthy and happy all the while. In short, they have told us to fiddle on while Rome burns, while the word of the Lord very well may be to call us to a Jeremiah generation that will weep and suffer with the people as they go through one of the most painful seasons in the nation’s history.
Our god was greed and Wall Street is merely a reflection of Main Street. Wall Street is nothing more than an exaggerated picture of everyday America. We see in it the ultimate magnification of our own greed and ideals. We cheer it as it succeeds and then curse it when it falls. Regardless, the American financial system is the gold that we made this bull out of. Now, I fear God is going to force us to drink the power of our God and we are beginning to see that the taste is truly bitter.
While He could allow any number of external threats to humble us, and very well may do so yet, it should inspire fear that he seems to be letting us implode upon ourselves. Rather than suffer the arrows of outsiders, we are being poisoned by the gold dust from our self made bull. In short, God has put His finger on our calf and He is judging us by us.
Where are the prophets? I trust that they have been on God’s holy mountain and will thunder in the nation once again. A great preacher once said that prophets are, “God’s emergency men for crisis hours,” and if that definition be true, which history has so proven, the time for their arrival might now be at hand. These prophets will have God’s voice, but they will also have God’s heart. In the midst of the terror of the crisis as it deepens, quite possibly to a yet unseen depression, they will speak with clarity, power, and love.
God’s prophets will be called to set things right again. They will thunder against our excesses and sin and call us back to our first love. Once again the glory of God will become the great focus of the gospel over our own fulfillment, satisfaction, or titillation. However, remember that these must also have the heart of God. Moses personally administered the wrath of God but before he was qualified to do this, he stood in intercession before the entire nation lest God should destroy it. God is looking for men with this kind of love.
We must love the nation so passionately that we plead for mercy before God to avert total destruction even while we may be called to administer His painful medicine. Those who gloat over the destiny of the nation will have no part among God’s true prophets. Justice and mercy must be found together. Love and truth must be bound one to another. In short, we must have the Father heart of God. The Father heart loves to the end even as it does not hesitate to speak harsh words and administer cruel discipline when necessary. Truly this is an hour that desperately needs the harsh words of the prophet and the judgments of God which seem cruel to us, but God is not going to give these things in the hands of men that don’t have a Father’s love for the people.
The young hotshots who long to “set things right” will be passed over. God is not going to trust His tender bride at the hands of men who do not share His ultimate, selfless desire for the bride to succeed and be made whole no matter how grievous it’s sin. Man may divorce God, but God never divorces man. Preacher, you had better consider this before you step up to the holy desk and rail upon God’s people. Make sure you have His heart of redemption before the harsh words fly.
Let us not forget the priesthood as well. Was Aaron cast aside? No. Rather he was rebuked heavily but not given over to destruction. True, a great standard and requirement must be laid upon the priesthood and there will be those who will be utterly lost. However, let us likewise carry a heart that the Lord’s ministers in the nation might be reformed and ultimately redeemed and restored to a place of fruitful ministry among the people. We must remain mindful that there is one who’s heart desires destruction and there is One whose heart desires redemption though He will bring painful discipline. You must discern whose influence you are under.
Moses called the priests to account and they inflicted great judgment, but Moses also set and restored the priesthood. Immediately following, he made a fervent intercession that parallels the heart of Christ as he cried out that he would rather be damned than the nation destroyed. Beloved, this is how we can test the heart of the prophet. The prophets are holy and consecreated and have gained favor with God. Legitimate prophets then use their God given favor as a tool to access God and obtain favor, not for themselves, but for those who have no favor with God. This can be a great way to divide the prophetic. Any prophet who uses favor and gifting for his own purposes should be cast out. The genuine prophet has great favor, and possibly gifting, from God, but he always uses it to obtain favor and mercy for the people rather than himself. In short he will willing to suffer with and for the people rather than be insulated from them.
Friends the bull of America if falling. The trials coming will be tough to endure and God will make sure we receive the fruits of the false god we have been following. Let us cleanse our own hearts and smash our own “bullish” idols that we have clung to. Let us pray that God releases prophetic voices in the nation, with the heart of the Father, that can admonish the church and address the nation. Let us soberly prepare for hardship. All the while, let our hearts be filled with thanksgiving and gratitude.
It is God’s glorious mercy that He is now divorcing us from the idols that destroy our hearts. We will be eternally grateful for these days of pain as God finally separates us from our wordly lovers and exposes our adultery of the heart. Let us receive His rebuke and cleansing, for it leads to life. Let us wash ourselves and remain faithful to the end, all the while being consumed with His heart of redemption and snatching as many from the fires of delusion as we can.