Exodus 32:7-10
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, ‘Go down at once, for your people (those who occupy your side of the Infinite Chasm of Transcendence), whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have (once again) corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way, which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
What is God saying here? Is He now going to kill His chosen ones? Will He scrap His wonderful ‘Plan A’ that contained the awesome Blood Covenant promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Did Israel take God by surprise and force Him to come up with a new unforeseen emergency measure, a hastily improvised ‘Plan B’, that would nullify the original Covenant God made with Abraham and start all over again with Moses and some other last minute substitutes?
Beloved, the great danger for us Sin-corrupted humans is that, due to how little we are able to know (compared to all there is to know), mentally speaking, we are abysmally handicapped! Our personal subjective perspectives and past experiences are all we are aware of. But we remain unaware of the great majority of the realities that exist throughout God’s Creation; thus we are grossly limited. And for this reason, we often over-generalize…arriving at conclusions that exceed the data we have with which to back them up. Thus we tend to be dogmatic and arrogant, assuming our conclusions are valid, when in reality they are grossly partial and inadequate! The vast array of dogmatic opinions concerning God, and His living Word, and Israel, and her history and true significance to the rest of the world, are great examples of that arrogant dogmatic ignorance.
God’s revelation is incredibly profound and far beyond the reach of our mental capabilities because it comes from and concerns the totality of His infinite and perfect nature! What He reveals does not at all depend on our mental equipment. The way we see or fail to see and how we interpret it does not affect His Reality and Truth in any way! God’s Truth depends on His Perfect changeless omnipotent nature and creativity! It flows from His eternal Perfect all-encompassing Finished Work, and His infinite, all-inclusive perspective and omnipotence. So His view is the true and authentic assessment of all that exists throughout the universe. We do not tell our Creator the way things are, He tells us! Reality depends on His eternal Omniscience and All-Sufficient Perfection. And He tells us the portion of what He alone knows that truly pertains to the way we fit into His Plan for His Creation! Not even the most exalted orders of angelic beings can begin to comprehend what the Creator of all things knows and sees.
We must keep this in mind when we attempt to interpret and explain what we think we see in Scripture. And this is why we are required to live by faith, in relation to Almighty God’s absolute Perfection and what He tells us that He requires of us. We must not dare idolize our limited perspectives and inadequate understanding and look to them to serve as our ultimate sources of knowledge and direction. God has clearly warned us that His thoughts and ways are not at all like our thoughts and ways. We can’t comprehend Him or all that exists in His eternity. We live in a Sin-corrupted, temporary, demon-afflicted time and space world. But in His eternal mind and will, everything needed for His Creation and its Redemption and Restoration, already exists! In Him, everything is complete, perfect, finished, paid for, and already given to us! And He makes Himself available to us all, through the Gift of His Living Word and Holy Spirit. So before Him, we must acknowledge this truth and humble ourselves. Our profound limitations make us incapable of fathoming the depths of Almighty God. This is why He requires us to rest upon His Perfection and the absolute credibility and authority and loving faithfulness of His Word. If we reject or ignore God’s Word, we can only trust in our own natural, very limited and Sin-twisted perspectives, ideas, opinions and desires. And that is idolatry…the worship and service of a false god. And idolatry is a demonic spiritual death trap!
Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Jeremiah 2:12-14
“‘Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate,’ declares the Lord. ‘For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of Living Waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Is Israel a slave? Or is he a home born servant? Why has he become a prey?” ( Emphasis added.)
There is a humorous old adage among Jewish people that says: ‘Two Jews, three opinions!’ But the strong tendencies to disagree and create confusion and strife and be adamantly ‘stiff-necked’ are not only Jewish traits, are they? That is common to the whole human race! And as long as we assume the nonexistent right to ignore, reject or contradict what our Creator’s Word reveals, there is no hope for unity, harmony or integrated cooperation among us. Apart from the union and synchronization that can only come when we’re all aligned with our Creator’s Word and Spirit, it will remain impossible for us to enjoy harmony and oneness of heart, mind and purpose, even with the people we love the most. Genesis revealed this even before God began to reveal Himself to Abraham and his descendants:
Genesis 11:5-8a
“The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do, will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth…”
So, like all other humans, Abraham and his family members inherited these traits from our ancient ancestors. And, just like all of the other peoples of this world, they carried them forward and passed them on to their descendants:
Judges 21:24-25
“The sons of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and family, and each one of them went out from there to his inheritance. In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
And this is why, even to this day, there is no unity or agreement (even among Jewish people) concerning what the proper, definitive understanding and set of qualifying characteristics that identify true ‘Jewishness’ and what authentic God-pleasing service actually is. Even concerning these basic concepts, we see that same Babel-like confusion and divergence of opinion and strife operating in the midst of every race and culture and man-controlled political, economic and religious system under the sun.
So, What Is Israel?
Who has the authentic, objective Authority to determine Israel’s actual, definitive meaning and purpose? How should the created world actually view and assess her? Does Israel truly have a meaning and purpose that sets her apart from any other group of people? And, if so, from what source does that fact originate? In every generation there are many who adamantly insist upon Israel’s destruction and extermination! They accuse Jewish people as being the cause of every major human problem! But, as is always the case, there are many other divergent opinions. At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who assume that Israel can do no wrong! So what is the Truth? Can you see why it is so vitally important for disciples to be well versed in what God’s written Word actually says about Israel and her people, since He is the one who created her in the first place? God’s purpose for Israel is the only one that truly matters!
Therefore, the more the Messiah’s disciples know concerning what is in God’s written Word, and the more in touch they are with, and sensitive to, the Holy Spirit God sends to abide within us, the better and more accurately will we understand our Master, God’s living Word, and His true relationship with the people He has created and developed. He alone determines Israel’s authentic meaning and purpose. So, if you claim that Yeshua (Jesus) is God’s living Word who became flesh and appeared as Israel’s Messiah, then you must take to heart what He says about Israel:
John 4:19-22
“The (Samaritan) woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you (Jewish) people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.’
“Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You (Samaritans) worship what you do not know; we (Jews) worship what we know, for SALVATION IS FROM THE JEWS.’” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved, God’s opinion concerning the position that Israel holds in this world is the only one that is of vital importance to every human being in Creation. And we know that God’s opinion will never change! And we know that we are greatly handicapped by the universal Sin-corruption that damaged human nature and plagues all of humanity. Because Death is at work within us all, and because the Serpent and his powers of Darkness can still easily deceive and influence us, many opinions and positions concerning Israel and her purpose still abound in the world. So what is God’s view and opinion of Israel in the light of all of their faults and failings? What is His actual response to their many betrayals and Covenant violations throughout their history? How will He resolve and reconcile the great discrepancy between His original promises and Israel’s subsequent failure to respond adequately to His initiatives (not to mention the failures of all other humans when it comes to heeding His living and written Word)?
Jeremiah 31:31-34
“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord. ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’” (Emphasis added.)
Jeremiah 31:35-37
“Thus says the Lord Who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is His name:‘If this fixed order departs from before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.’
Thus says the Lord, ‘If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,’ declares the Lord.”
So we see that the golden calf incident, and as well as any other potentially confusing texts, must be viewed in the light of a major principle that governs sound Biblical interpretation. When we seek an authentic understanding of potentially confusing Biblical texts, this is the principle we must follow:
Allow The Bible To Interpret Itself…
In other words, don’t focus on just one text and then rush immediately into hasty judgments and conclusions. Always compare questionable texts to the rest of the revelation God gives throughout the other parts of the Bible. It is very dangerous to create whole theologies as a result of what you think you see in just one, or a few similar isolated texts. This is especially true if your native culture and era and worldview differ greatly from the Hebrew culture, era and worldview in which the texts were written. God chose a specific people, as well as the culture and historical milieu from which they emerged, to serve as the matrix or ‘womb’ from which His Self-Revelation was to appear. So that matrix is part of what is revealed; and we must take it into account. We must do our best to understand what the Israelite writers meant and how their Israelite contemporaries would have understood what they said, and how Israel has understood these revelations, before we arrive at final conclusions regarding any potentially confusing text.
This is true in the case of the golden calf and Israel’s gross violation of her Covenant with God. The specific words that were used by God are couched within an unbreakable Blood Covenant relationship God already had with Israel. So beloved, the golden calf incident did not take God by surprise or derail His plans. In His mind, everything is completely present and finished, past, present and future! So we must look deeply at what is behind the statement God made that makes it seem, at first glance, that He is going to dispose of His chosen people. What they did with the golden calf did not suddenly fill God with sudden disappointment and cause Him to erupt with vengeful wrath. That would be natural to us, who are always being taken by surprise by one thing or another; but that is not God’s way. Nothing takes Him by surprise! So Israel’s great lapse didn’t prompt Him to change course and exact revenge by destroying Israel and revoking His Covenant them!
God isn’t a betrayer or a destroyer! He is our Eternal Creator and Eternal Covenant Friend and utterly dependable Sustainer, Redeemer, Protector and Restorer! The Serpent and the Sin-filled powers of Darkness that serve him are the ones that are the treacherous malevolent destroyers! God’s reaction at Sinai after Israel’s fall into idolatry reveals His pure Lovingkindness and Mercy, not malicious vengefulness. God is omniscient! He has perfect foreknowledge of all things! Thus He operates in perfect, total awareness of every detail concerning His Creation at all levels and at all times. From the entire context of the whole Bible, we see that His eternal Solution to Israel’s Sin and that of all other people, is to heap all guilt and condemnation for Sin upon the One who is commissioned to serve as the Eternal Blood Covenant Substitute Representative of us all… the Ultimate Lamb of God… the living Word made flesh. God sent His own Word to cover Adam and Eve, and all of their children, including Israel and the entire human race. This golden calf incident was included in the Full, Perfect Atonement that the living Word had already made in God’s eternal mind and will, for us all!
It is true that God spoke some very threatening words to Israel through Moses. But realize that Blood Covenants are corporate entities. He wasn’t speaking directly to those specific Israelites at Sinai. He was speaking to all of Israel. And in that sense He was speaking to one Israelite in particular…their Eternal Blood Covenant Representative, which is His own living Word! God was directing what He said over the heads of those individuals and speaking to all of humanity…and directing His words specifically to their eternal Blood Covenant Representative, the awesome living Word, who by His Father’s eternal commission, is forever committed to serve as ‘Blood Brother’ to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their physical and spiritual descendants. God’s Word is the eternal Supplier, Maintainer, Protector and Redeemer for all of the first Adam’s family, and for Abraham, and for all of his unborn physical and spiritual descendants! So what concerned them and the rest of us, is, ultimately, His Word’s responsibility! Thus God was speaking to Him, and He heeded His Father’s judgments and commands to Perfection…in our name!
This Is The Awesome Truth That The Torah Reveals.
Read the following commands God gave to Israel in Leviticus in light of those facts:
Leviticus 16:29-33
“This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native (Jew), or the alien (non-Jew) who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that Atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is to be a Sabbath of Solemn Rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute.
“So the Priest (My living Word that I am revealing to you) who is anointed and ordained to serve as (your Representative) Priest in His Father’s Place shall make Atonement: He shall thus put on the linen garments, the holy garments, and make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and He shall make Atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. He shall also make Atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.” (Emphasis added.)
Romans 11:28-32
“From the standpoint of the gospel they (unbelieving Jewish people) are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they (the same unbelieving people) are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are IRREVOCABLE! For just as you (non-Jewish believers) once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all (human children of Adam) in disobedience so that (through Yeshua, the Last Adam,) HE MAY SHOW MERCY TO ALL (of the first Adam’s offspring)!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
We dare not allow our natural self-centered lenses to mislead us into making false arrogant assumptions that contradict or distort God’s true revelation. Consider what happened and what was said at Sinai, in light of the Eternal Blood Covenant promises and relationship God is revealing throughout all of the other texts contained in the Bible. This is the revelation that reveals and reaffirms God’s undying, eternal Lovingkindness and Covenant Loyalty to Israel and the whole human race. When you keep that always in mind, you have a better chance of gaining and maintaining a proper, balanced view and understanding of what is happening at any particular point of Israel’s history.
What Is True fFor Israel, Is True For The Whole World
Realize this: If Israel can’t trust God to be infinitely, eternally Faithful to His Word and to the Covenants He made with them, then all other peoples, who do not have a Covenant with God, have no cause or reason whatever to trust Him either! If God breaks His Covenant with Israel, the rest of humanity has no chance for forgiveness, redemption and restoration. When we see this, we’ll see that this passage in Exodus is saying something that is much deeper than first meets the eye. The true understanding of what is happening is not man-centered; it is God-centered!
Romans 12:3
“For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
2 Timothy 3:13-17
“But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. ALL Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (Emphasis added.)
Remember This:
Scripture reveals that God’s Nature is Perfect, and therefore, absolutely changeless and utterly Righteous and Pure! Therefore, it is also unspeakably, supernaturally demanding! God requires Perfection in all things, at all times! And He is also omniscient. That means He knows everything, on every level – past, present and future! He has an eternal perspective, so nothing that occurs in our time and space dimension ever takes Him by surprise. He knew from all eternity exactly what would happen to these humans at Sinai. He knew what each and every other human who would ever exist, including you and me, would become and do… and fail to do. He knew all of this before Creation took place. And He chose to create us anyway!
God knows better than anyone that in order to please and satisfy His infinitely Perfect Nature and Standards of Righteousness, it requires someone with His infinitely Perfect Nature and Omnipotent Power and Authority to do the job. Only God can satisfy God! Only He can know His own mind and plans. Thus only He can do the necessary work of setting everything right and restoring the Divine Order to every speck of Creation and satisfying His Perfect Standards! So, only God’s Perfect living creative Word could accomplish such a task! That’s why our faith hope and trust in Him is always the main issue between God and all of humanity. It’s not how much we think we know or how deeply we think we grasp something with our abysmally limited, Sin-twisted faculties. The real issue is: will we trust our airtight faithful God with a corresponding airtight undying trust in His living and written Word, or not? That is the question with which all of humanity must grapple.
So now that Genesis has revealed the true, Sin-corrupted, living dead state of the human race, we can see that the Sin-contamination into which our first parents fell was also present in the Israelites of Moses’ day. The people Exodus speaks about were just like all other humans in the sense that they were already spiritually and physically dead! Yes, they could move and speak and engage in a variety of earthly activities, but, as is true in all the rest of us, the Serpent had already killed them. Death came into them at conception and was working beneath the surface, deteriorating and decaying their human makeup and leading them, moment by moment, to the inevitable final moment of their ultimate demise! So how could they perform at a level that would please and satisfy the Standards of the Almighty Living God? He didn’t choose them because they were so special and different. Nor was He planning to lead them into the wilderness to kill them as soon as they faltered and failed! It was just the opposite! He chose them even though, like all other peoples, they were already dead in Sin! He chose them with the idea of leading them out of the Serpent-induced Death that already had them in its grip. And then, through their example, He could lead the rest of the world out of Death and Darkness as well! He chose them because of His Mercy… out of His Covenant Faithfulness to Adam, and Noah and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! He chose them so that He could begin to bring them, and all the rest of us, back to Eternal Life and to endless union with Him!
John 3:1-3
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God!’” (Emphasis added.)
Yeshua was reminding Nicodemas of the original Genesis realities. This awesome salvation and spiritual regeneration can only take place when we use the free will God gave us and repent of our Sin state by actively, willingly and aggressively receiving and identifying with and appropriating to ourselves, the Life-giving Mercy God freely offers to us all. Our Exodus out of Death and Darkness can only reach its successful conclusion with our belief, trust, consent and obedient cooperation with God’s regenerating Life-giving Nature and its Eternal Light!
God knew that the children of Jacob and the non-Jews who accompanied them out of Egypt were spiritually dead and therefore bankrupt and helpless. He has said this repeatedly through His Israelite prophets and apostles. Here are some examples:
Isaiah 64:5b-7
“And shall we be saved? For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your Name, who arouses himself to take hold of You; or You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.”
Jeremiah 17:5-6
“Thus says the Lord, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant.’”
Romans 3:1-12
“Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect; first of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, ‘That You may be justified in Your words (choices), and prevail when You are judged.’ But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), ‘Let us do evil that good may come’? Their condemnation is just.
“What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one…” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
God was offering Life to the living dead Israelites at Mt. Sinai. But many refused the offer. Like Eve and Adam in the Garden, they backed away from, and rejected, God’s Word. Instead of acknowledging Him to be their True Head and only Source, many rejected and disobeyed Him. In effect, they were saying, “No, we don’t need You, or Your Salvation. We prefer to remain dead and trapped in our state of rebellion and abide in enmity against You!” But, in choosing to reject and disobey God’s Word, they violated their Covenant with God, and violated the first commandment the Word gave them that, supposedly, they had recently agreed to obey:
Exodus 20: 2-4
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the House of Slavery (to the Serpent). You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in Heaven above or on the Earth beneath or in the water under the Earth…”
Hebrews 11:6
“…Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Emphasis added.)
God’s Word Is The Only Source of Life
That rebellious portion of Israel destroyed their chance to become united with God’s Word as His image and likeness. They chose instead to retain their state of spiritual Death. Scripture tells us that Life can only be found in God’s Word! To remain cut off from Him is to choose to remain in the state of Death that is already ours! God’s Word is the only Source of Life! And God’s Holy Spirit causes Him to be alive and real and active and effective in each of us, and in our midst! But if we reject the Word and thus grieve His Holy Spirit…then, by our choice, we remain dead and guilty of Sin. And that is what the rebellious Israelites chose. But the portion of Israel that embraced and obeyed God’s Word was the True Israel, the chosen instrument out of which God’s True Salvation, His Word made flesh, would at a later time, appear on the earth as Israel’s Messiah.
God’s Plan wasn’t derailed by the golden calf incident. It was enhanced and expedited and moved forward. It affirmed and confirmed what Genesis has already revealed. What took place in Exodus was revealing God’s living Word at a fuller, deeper level. It told more about what the Genesis 3 ‘covering’ of humanity’s ‘nakedness’ actually means. Father covers our nakedness by sending His Word to be our Perfect intercessory High Priest and Passover Lamb. Notice how beautifully God reveals His Word and His nature and purpose through the intercession of Moses:
Exodus 32:9-14
“Then Moses entreated the Lord his God, and said, ‘O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.”
In this interchange with Moses, God, the Father of us all, begins by revealing His Perfect Righteousness and Justice through the ominous, threatening words He spoke to Moses. But then, through the response of Moses, He reveals the Mercy and Compassionate aspects of His Nature. Thus He is revealing the awesome Work He had already sent His living Word to do on our behalf. He contrasts the mind-boggling Justice and Righteousness part of His Nature with His Perfect Mercy, Compassion and Eternal Blood Covenant Faithfulness. He reveals the redemptive aspect of His nature, through the reactions and responses of Moses. For in Truth, the real Moses, the Moses of the entire human race, is God’s living Word made flesh. God Himself is the Messiah and Redeemer and Rescuer of Israel. Only He can fulfill the responsibilities of the true, ultimate Passover Lamb and Eternal High Priest and Perfect Kinsman Redeemer to the human race. He is…Yeshua…the revelation that God alone is Salvation! In Exodus, the Father revealed His Word as Israel’s Messiah to come…and He did it through the intercession of Moses.
God doesn’t change His mind the way we humans do. He doesn’t abandon His Plan A and later resort to some hastily drawn up alternate Plan B. But because our minds are so limited, He does have to reveal His Perfect Fullness to us progressively. We can only begin to grasp and understand God’s vastness a step at a time. Only by degrees can we understand some of what is contained in God’s infinite nature. We are so limited and confined by time and space temporalities that God has to communicate His Fullness in human terms and ways that we can relate to, and grasp.
Isn’t it true that we would naturally expect God to be as self-serving and controlling and vengeful as we are? The gods that the imaginations of men create are just like us in that sense, aren’t they? If the enemies of false gods deal with them in treachery, do not all false gods take pleasure and feel completely justified when they pay the humans that displease them back…in kind…and with interest? But that is a revelation of fallen Sin-corrupted human nature! It is a result of what Sin has done to us! In our living dead state we can’t think or act or respond as God’s pure, holy and righteous image and likeness. We respond with self-adoring anger, competitive rage, spiteful vengeance and death-dealing destruction…because Sin made us to be the image and likeness of the Serpent! And so the gods we create operate at that level.
So Torah reveals the true Nature of the real, Living God. He is telling us that His living Word must become our new, Eternal Life. He must abide within us and work in us by the Power of God’s Holy Spirit, to fulfill the Justice and Righteousness portions of our Covenant with God, in our name. Only He can make full and perfect Atonement for the all of the offenses against God’s Justice that the human race commits. Only He can fulfill mankind’s portion of the Covenant by serving as our Perfect Blood Covenant Representative. As soon as we agree with Him and submit to His Authority over us, and receive from Him, the Fullness of what He has already done in our name.
So later in Scripture, we see that God’s Word was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of an Israelite virgin of the line of David. And He was raised by her Israelite husband, also of the line of David, and the tribe of Judah. And the child grew to manhood and lived the Perfectly obedient, faithful, Spirit-led Israelite life. He was doing that, fulfilling the Torah commandments to Perfection, in the name of all of His Jewish brethren. God’s Word Himself embodied and fulfilled, in time and space, the Eternal Covenant that never changes. He fulfilled God’s part, and also our part. And because the Messiah’s Humanity is Perfectly Sin-less, Sin and Death have no legal hold on Him. Thus by God’s Authority and Power, Yeshua was raised from the dead, proving His absolute Triumph over the Serpent. And His Resurrection proved that God is totally pleased and satisfied with what He had done from all eternity, on our behalf.
This is what Exodus is beginning to reveal at this point of Israel’s history. Everything is going to be handled in time and space by what the Word of God has already done in Eternity, in our name. God’s awesome Grace is transmitting to us in time and space, what already exists for us in eternity! The Perfect living Word and Holy Spirit of Almighty God ensure that everything will be done perfectly, to God’s Perfect, total Satisfaction, in Israel’s name because in eternity, it is already finished. And we can know from His revelation, that, by God’s Grace and Mercy, we can be perfectly equipped and prepared to pass Almighty God’s Final Perfect Judgment when the time for that awesome event finally arrives. The Good News is that we can be ready to face Almighty God Himself – without any trace of fear, shame, condemnation or dread, because His Word has already perfectly satisfied God’s Perfect Justice and Mercy in our name. He took all of the blame and curse and condemnation and punishment upon Himself and paid for all of us, in full:
Jeremiah 29:11-14a
“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord…’”
2 Chronicles 7:13-14
“If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
John 10:9-11
“I am the Door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have Life, and have it abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down His Life for the sheep.” (See also Isaiah 53 and Ezekiel 34)
1 Peter 1:3-9
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great Mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an Inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who are protected by the Power of God through faith for a Salvation ready to be revealed in the Last Time.
“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” (Emphasis added.)
Torah Shows Us That God’s Nature is Eternal Perfection
Perfection is complete and full. It does not change because the Work of God’s living Word has already been fully completed! God and His Work do not need anything to be added by any of us creatures! The Work is already the epitome of our Creator’s Divine Fullness and Perfection! So this is the revelation: what Almighty God, in His Perfection, begins in space and time, He has already finished in eternity…to Perfection! What God sends His Word to reveal and promise in space and time…His Word has already fulfilled for us in eternity. And it is done to Perfection! This is what God’s New Covenant with Israel is meant to reveal and fulfill in our temporal world. It reassures us that God has already supplied and filled in, whatever we ‘time-dwellers’ think we lack. It has been done to God’s Eternal Satisfaction. This is the significance of Yeshua: Through His own living Word, God Himself is our Messiah! And we are eternally and perfectly covered! So the entire range of the revelation God gives in Scripture must be kept in mind when we try to understand texts like these that reveal God’s immediate response to Israel’s idolatry at Sinai. The whole picture will enable us to know what He was really saying to Moses, and through Moses, during those specific interchanges at Mt. Sinai.
In light of this, we see that despite Israel’s failures, as far as God is concerned, nothing has changed in His mind, will and plan. Many Israelites have rebelled against His Word and to this day, many continue to do so. It is true that after the golden calf incident, about three thousand Israelites were put to the sword. But when we keep in mind the Genesis revelation that all humans are already dead in Sin, then neither God, nor Moses, nor the sword-wielding Levites, were the ones who killed these unrepentant people. The Serpent had already killed them! So when they were struck down in Exodus, it was their unrepentant insistence on remaining in their living death state that finally finished them off. The Death process that was already at work in them was simply brought to its conclusion at that point. Since they were adamant in refusing to repent, their living death existence was ended. Death had already done its work in them, thanks to Adam’s fall. So, knowing that they would not repent and would continue to refuse the Life that He had sent His Word to offer them, God terminated their inevitable death process.
God Does Not Send His Living Word and Holy Spirit to Destroy
He comes to save, regenerate and restore His Creation! This is why the True Gospel of Salvation always begins with the word, “Repent!” But the only way He can restore us is if, by our free will, we repent of our state of Sin and living death and forsake them…by believing, embracing, obeying and following His Word…out of demonic Darkness and into His awesome Light and Eternal Love. So perhaps this will help us better understand what God is revealing about His Son, the Word, in this portion of Exodus:
Exodus 32:9-10
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.’
God first reveals His Perfect Justice and Righteousness and Perfect Standards. These changeless aspects of His Perfect Nature must always be kept in mind when we consider God and His interactions with us. He always deals with Sin as it really is! And He also deals with all of Death’s effects with Perfect Justice and Perfect Thoroughness. He will never ‘wink’ at Sin or make peace with it or cut corners when He deals with it. He will never conceal or overlook even a speck of it! All of it must be redeemed! Someone always has to pay for any creature’s transgressions! Everything must be dealt with and made right with absolutely Perfect Truth, Purity, Integrity and Righteousness. And in His Mercy and Compassion, He knows we can’t do that. So He sends His Son, His own living Word, to do it in our name and in our place.
Someone with God’s Nature and Perfection has to represent us before God and shoulder all of the blame that we have coming to us. Someone who is perfectly Worthy and Pure must assume full responsibility for each and every crime against God that we have committed. So only God’s Perfection can perfectly satisfy God’s Perfect Standards. Full and Perfect Atonement must be made so that our Redemption can be total, entirely perfect, and beyond any question or challenge or accusation that the Serpent and his minions might raise against us in a legal sense. There must not be even a shadow of anything left in us that would justify any further accusation against us or any claim over us. And all of that Perfection has been accomplished and is waiting for us to receive it by faith, trust and rest in God’s Perfection.
We learn from Scripture that God (even before Creation took place) saw and took into consideration the fact that we would all fall into the state of Sin. But He chose to create us nevertheless. And He gave us the ‘image and likeness of God’ identity and purpose and destiny nevertheless…knowing in advance what would happen, that we would defile ourselves during our space and time existence on Earth. And that is why He made a Blood Covenant with Himself, that is, between the Father and His living Word. And that is why the Word brought Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their physical and spiritual descendants into the Covenant…to reconcile them to God and to redeem, regenerate and completely restore them so that they could again share in His Eternal Life and Perfect Inheritance. All of this Covenant Fullness is contained in God’s Torah, the revelation of His living Word. And this is what the Word is referring to when He rebukes those so-called ‘believers’ who glory in and rely upon their self-devised, radically independent religiosity:
Revelation 3:17-19
“…you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me Gold refined by Fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”
There are Jewish people and non-Jewish people who do not place their faith, hope and expectations upon our Messiah’s Perfect Finished Work. They look to themselves and their religious practices and beliefs and many other created, man-controlled things. They trust in what they think they can accomplish by their own wits and religious efforts. But God forbids us from trusting in ourselves, or in anything that God has created. We are to trust in only one Source – our uncreated God and His eternally perfect, finished Work. And so we might consider Moses, and the way He responded to what God said, and the way He interceded on Israel’s behalf, as a profound revelation of the task that God’s living Word came to fulfill. Moses led Israel out of Egypt. But actually, he wasn’t leading. He too was following God’s Word. And the Word was sent to lead the entire human race out of the clutches of the Serpent and out of Sin and Death. So God’s living Word is humanity’s ‘Ultimate Moses.’ And He is here, not only to deliver Israel, but the entire human race as well:
Exodus 32:11-14
“Then Moses entreated the Lord his God (the living Word caressed the face of His Father), and said, ‘O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. Remember (Your Eternal Blood Covenant with) Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself (that is, unilaterally promised), and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I (through My living Word) will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ So the Lord changed His mind (that is, He revealed the Fullness of His Perfect Nature and Perfect Plan of Redemption) about the harm (which the Israelites and all flesh justly have coming to them) which He said He would do to His people (who are covered by their Passover Lamb that He sent to take their place).” (Amplification added. See also Isaiah 52:13-15 and all of chapter 53 for a fuller understanding of God’s awesome Grace and Mercy and Perfect Justice.)
The Torah is the announcement of God’s Salvation, Redemption and Restoration…despite anything the powers of Darkness have tried to do to us. They damaged us; but they will not prevail! God’s Word has come to be whatever we need Him to be. Thus we dare not reject or refuse Him when He comes to us and for us, personally. For if we embrace and submit to His absolute Authority, He will be our full and eternal Salvation. And if we reject Him, we remain dead and Life Himself will be our completely Righteous Judge. And there will be nothing we will be able to say in opposition to His determination over us:
Exodus 32:15-16
“Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they were written on one side and the other. The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets…”
Exodus 32:19-24
“…It came about, as soon as Moses came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf, which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it. Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?’ Aaron said, ‘Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
Poor Aaron! When Moses left to ascend the mountain in order to hear God’s voice, he was left in charge of that unruly, discontented mixed group of people. And now the Scriptures reveal that his faith and that of the other Israelites was not yet at that time, firmly fixed upon God and His perfect finished Work of Creation (Genesis 2:1-3) and His perfect finished Work of Redemption, which God was in the process of revealing to them (See Leviticus 16).
And beloved, did you catch what Aaron said concerning the Israelites? “…you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil.” Again we see that God did not choose them because they were special or better than any other group of humans. Humans are all the same; regardless of their DNA, ethnicity, culture or religion…there is that strong tendency within us all that makes us want to embody the Serpent, instead of serving as the pure image and likeness of God! Moses knew this; Aaron knew it. And so, obviously, Almighty God must have known it too.
And notice what else Aaron said: “For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ Take note of the object of the peoples’ focus of attention. On whom were they still truly relying? Did they not along with Aaron, not see the golden calf as being a replacement for Moses? This tells you where their minds and hearts were centered around at that point of their Exodus journey. Even after what God had revealed to them of Himself, they were not yet able to put transfer all of their faith to Him and His Word. They could not rest upon the Eternal Perfection of His Nature and His Perfect Finished Work of Creation and Redemption! They still placed their half-hearted trust upon the man, Moses, who was currently leading them.
And so, when Moses went up the mountain and remained out of sight for too long a time, they became uneasy, impatient and restless. Instead of learning to rest in God and what He had already done, they still anxiously waited for something else to happen that they thought would be better and more effective than what they already had! Because Moses was absent, they began to feel alone and needy and insecure. Without him, they felt as if they had nothing. They had not ‘switched over’ from a false god to the True God. And now, since they could no longer see or touch or hear their ‘false god,’ anxiety drove them to seek and create a replacement…one false god for another! But isn’t that what most of the human race does, even to this day?
The distance that remained between God’s living Word and these Israelites, with only a few exceptions, had not narrowed. God’s living Word came to them through Moses. He was there in their midst, to identify with them and become one with them so that He could represent them before God as their atoning, reconciling Passover Lamb. But they remained blind to His Reality. Instead, they continued to obsess over Moses. Therefore, they remained unbelieving and distant from the Word Himself. Instead of cleaving to the living Word, God’s True Message, they placed half-hearted trust upon Moses, a human messenger that had been just as damaged by Sin as they were!
So, inevitably, when Moses failed to meet their expectations and remained out of their sight for too long a time, they invented a substitute god to put in his place. This proved that they were still no different than the Egyptians out of whose midst God had so recently extracted them. And beloved, is that not also true of many of us? Do we not think and act in similar ways? Do we not also fixate upon people, and what we think they will accomplish? Do we not also allow circumstances, feelings and human perspectives, viewpoints, opinions and trends to rule our lives? Do we not place our faith hope and trust on created things and future events, because we do not believe God or trust that what He has done is sufficient? Yes, it’s true: just like that first Exodus generation, many of us remain severed and distant from God’s living Word, who has come to become one with us and abide within us.
Exodus 20:18-19; 21
“All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die…So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.”
Israel Is The Chosen Example
Beloved, what is in Exodus does not just reveal Israel; it reveals you and me and the whole human race! God uses what happens between Him and His chosen people as an object lesson through which to teach us about ourselves and what He has to do to bring us into alignment with His awesome nature and our true purpose and destiny. So, regardless of whether it is some triumph on Israel’s part, or one of her tragedies, Israel is God’s instrument of revelation for the world. Through her example, all men can learn what they need to know about their Creator and His Nature, Character and Disposition…in relation to the children of the first Adam. Perhaps this will help us better understand what God said to the Israelites before they decided to make the golden calf:
Exodus 20:25-26
“If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’”
Despite their exalted calling and the commission God had recently offered to them, He was not expecting anything from them. He knew their true state, and that nothing good or of spiritual value could issue from them. They were dead! So Israel wasn’t God’s instrument for creating and restoring Perfect Righteousness for the human race. No Sin-corrupted human or group of humans can be capable of that! Israel truly is God’s instrument; but her function is to serve as a looking glass, a mirror in which the human race can see itself, just as Almighty God sees us. We can know, by learning from Israel, what to expect from God when the day finally arrives for all of us to give an accounting to God for all the choices we’ve made with our free will!
And so now the real question arises: if it isn’t Israel that saves us, who truly is the only One fit to serve as God’s Real Instrument for our redemption and salvation? Who actually has what it takes to redeem and restore Israel and all the rest of humanity, and fulfill our part in God’s Covenant? Who is the true Hero of the story and Star of this show? It is God’s living Word…the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. Israel’s True Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth, the risen Lord of Glory…He is the one and only Human in whom God can be, and is, truly pleased and satisfied!
Matthew 3:16-17
“After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased!”
Matthew 11:2-6
“Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.’”
Beloved, if we truly have spiritual eyes with which to perceive the spiritual things of God, we will realize that Yeshua, God’s living Word, is the one being revealed throughout the Torah, from beginning to end. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all Creation! He is commissioned by His Father to come after us to be our Coverer and Covering and Ultimate Fulfillment. Everything God does on behalf of fallen mankind is done by and through His Word. That is why His Father named Him, ‘Yeshua’ (God is Salvation). The New Covenant (that, in God’s good time will, through Yeshua’s Perfect Finished Work, fulfill everything the Sinai Covenant failed to fulfill) is also being progressively revealed.
Yeshua came into our time and space dimension to institute God’s Eternal New Covenant Era. He is its Perfect Fulfillment. All of the Work has been done in and through Him. Through Him, God has fulfilled everything He revealed, commanded and promised. We are caught up in the Serpent’s Death Trap; but Yeshua, our Covenant Representative, is here to be our Liberator and our Eternal Life! Only by repenting of what we are in ourselves and allowing Him to make us one with Him, can any of us be redeemed and restored. This is what the written Torah reveals to the world about God’s Living Torah, His Word. The Word is the bedrock Foundation upon which God bases all other Reality and Truth. Moses utters the following words, but God’s living Word is actually the one that is speaking to us through him:
Exodus 32:30-32
“On the next day Moses said to the people, ‘You yourselves have committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.’ Then Moses returned to the Lord, and said, ‘Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!’”
So beloved, we can see that God is offering the Fruit of His Son’s intercessory Work, to all of us. We can’t duplicate or earn or cause it to come about. All we can do is believe God’s Word and humble ourselves before Him, like little children. In that state of mind, we can repent of our rebellion against Him and receive from Him what He has already done in our name and made available to us. If we do that, our names will be written in ‘The Lamb’s Book of Life’ and we will be included in all that comes from being one with Him in God’s Eternal Covenant. But if we reject God’s Word and the Salvation He offers us, then, regardless of how smart and learned, holy and exalted we think we are, by our free choice we are opting to remain trapped in our original living death state of Sin and rebellion against God. In that case, the Serpent retains the hold on that person, that, since Adam’s fall in Genesis 3, he already had on us all!
Matthew 12:33-37
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good (Word-embracing) man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil (Word-rejecting) man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words (choices) you will be justified, and by your words (choices) you will be condemned.”
Revelation 20:11-15
“Then I saw a great White Throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence Earth and Heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the Throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life; and the dead were judged from the things, which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead, which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead, which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds (choices). Then Death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire. This is the Second Death, the Lake of Fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.”
Matthew 11:25-30
“At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise You, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My Yoke (Torah revelation) upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My Yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Beloved, Yeshua’s ‘Yoke’ is easy and His burden is light for us. Why is that so? It is because of what God has revealed to the world in Genesis concerning His totally transcendent, utterly Perfect Nature, and the Perfect Finished Work of His living, creative Word:
Genesis 2:1-3
“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work, which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God (through His Perfect Word) had created and made.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
John 19:28-30
“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘IT IS FINISHED!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
Beloved, give Glory to God, for His wonderful Finished Work, which He is offering to everyone of us, is absolutely PERFECT!