Mocking God
“That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.”
— Ecclesiastes 1:9
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.”
— 1 Corinthians 10:1-4,6
Observation:
How can we follow the Bible as a map in this world today? I believe the apostle Paul gives us the answer. The story of Israel is the archetype or pattern that is stamped upon the wider world in the “new age” and Covenant which Jesus Christ inaugurated by His shed blood on the cross. When we read the story of Israel’s calling and election to be God’s “priesthood” (palace servants) to the surrounding nations during the time of the “old age”, we need to see the church and her relations with the entire globe. In other words, what Israel was to the ancient near east is what the church is to the globe. in the end, how did the nation of Israel fare?
Not so well. They sinned against God to His face - with a “high hand” - following the world’s voice rather than the voice of their Covenant God. Like Adam, they “hid” to escape God’s evaluation because they had already “evaluated” God, tried Him and found Him wanting. They violated the rights of God as King, eating from the Tree of ethical evaluation of His Kingdom rule, holding Him up to scrutiny with philosophical precision; making God their “dog” in the process.
Just as Adam and Eve committed apostasy against God in the Garden, which Israel recapitulated on a wider, national scale, so too will the church “complete it” on a GLOBAL scale.
“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it (The Day of the Lord Jesus’s Second Coming) will not come unless the apostasy comes first….”— 2 Thessalonians 2:3
To follow the Bible as a “tried and true” map that will NEVER lead us astray and get us where we need to go, we simply need to “be on the watch” for the repeating patterns. These patterns WILL repeat themselves. As King Solomon taught us:
“That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.”
When Israel became “leavened” by the satanic Egyptian culture during their “stay” in the land of Goshen, getting “stamped” by Egypt’s idols and pyramidal shaped apostasy, so too will the church get stamped by the world’s “idols” and “pyramidal shaped apostasy”. Look for it. It will happen. It IS happening….
During the first apostasy In the Garden, the apostle Paul teaches us that Adam and Eve (and Israel) “knew God.”
BUT….
“they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”
— Romans 1:21-23
This apostasy was repeated by Israel in the wilderness after God rescued them from Egyptian bondage, bringing them “back to Life” from “exile death”.
“Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us….He took this (gold jewelry) from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt…..So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.”
— Exodus 32:1,4,6
In our day, as the pattern repeats itself, dare we say:
“the Church did not honor Him as God (by obeying His Word) or give thanks (for His Son’s penal death on the cross for their sins), but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be philosophers and theologians, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the Gospel Promise into a “system of ideas”; “icons of the mind” which they worshipped…..”
— Romans 1:21-23
And
“When the people saw that Jesus delayed to come down from the hyper-dimension of heaven where He is seated as King, the people assembled about the church leaders and said, “Come, make us a Jesus who will go before us in this world and tell us what we all want to hear…. So the next day they rose early and offered their respective “liturgies” of Word and Eucharist; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to “play”.
The word “play” in the Hebrew is the same word for the name “Isaac”. The people “rose up” to “Isaac”. The true Son of Promise is Jesus. He is the true “Isaac” of the Covenant, God’s laughter. Is it possible that apostasy can happen among the people of God in the Name of the true “Isaac” - Jesus?
Is their “laughter” a sign of their “mocking” God??
“For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
— 1 Peter 4:17