LESSON 12

MARCH 23, 1889.

RETURNING TO BONDAGE.

  1. AFTER the covenant between God and Israel had been ratified, what did the Lord say to Moses? Ex. 24:12.
  2. What covered the mount, and what was its appearance? Verses 15-17.
  3. How long was Moses in the mount? Verse 8.
  4. Did he eat or drink during that time? Deut. 9:9.
  5. When the Lord had finished talking with Moses, what did he give him? Ex. 31:18.
  6. What was on these tables of stone? Deut. 9:10. .
  7. Whose workmanship were the tables, and how were they filled? Ex. 32:15, 16.
  8. What did the people say and do when they saw how long Moses was gone? Verses 1-3.
  9. What did Aaron do with the gold? Verse 4, first part.
  10. What did they call this golden calf? Verse 4, last part.
  11. What does the psalmist say of this? Ps.10:6:19, 20.
  12. Before they could do this, what did they forget? Verses 21, 22.
  13. How did they worship this image? Ex. 32:6.
  14. What must we conclude as to the nature of this “play”? See notes.
  15. How did the people happen to make a calf to worship, instead of the image of a man? See notes.
  16. What was the Egyptian calf-worship? See notes.
  17. How extensive was sun-worship anciently? and what was the nature of it? See notes.
  18. What did God think to do to the Israelites for their abominable idolatry? Ex. 32:9, 10; Deut. 9:20.
  19. With what words did Moses plead for them? Ex. 32:11-13, 31, 32.
  20. Did the Lord grant his request? Verses 14, 33, 34.
  21. What immediate punishment did the people receive? Verses 19, 20, 26-28, 35.

NOTES

IN an article entitled, “ Sun Images and the Sun of Righteousness,” in the Old Testament Student, January, 1886, Dr. Talbot W. Chambers calls sun worship “the oldest, the most widespread, and the most enduring of all the forms of idolatry know to man.” And again: “The universality of this form of idolatry is something remarkable. It seems to have prevailed everywhere.” “ In Egypt the sun was the kernel of the State religion. In various forms he stood at the head of each hierarchy. At Memphis he was worshiped as Phtah, at Heliopolis as Turn, at Thebes as Amun Ra. Personified by Osiris he became the foundation of the Egyptian metempsychosis.”

In “Religions of the Ancient World,” p. 21, Prof. George Rawlinson says: “ No part of the Egyptian religion was so much developed and so multiplex as their sun-worship. Besides Ra and Osiris, there were at least six other deities who had a distinctly solar character.”

Concerning Osiris, the “Encyclopedia Britannica” (art. Egypt) says:—

“Abydos was the great seat of the worship of Osiris, which spread all over Egypt, establishing itself in a remarkable manner at Memphis. All the mysteries of the Egyptians, and their whole doctrine of the future state, attach themselves to this worship. Osiris was identified with the sun. … Sun-worship was the primitive form of the Egyptian religion, perhaps even pre-Egpytian.”

But while Osiris was the Egyptain sun-god, or OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 33 the chief representation of the. sun, he was chiefly represented by a sacred bull, called Apis. On this the Encyclopedia Britannica “ (art. Apis) says:—

“According to the Greek writers Apis was the image of Osiris, and worshiped because Osiris was supposed to have passed into a bull, and to have been soon after manifested by a succession of these animals. The hieroglyphic inscriptions identify the Apis with Osiris, adorned with horns or the head of a bull, and unite the two names as HapiOsor, or Apis Osiris. According to this view the Apis was the incarnation of Osiris manifested in the shape of a bull.”

From these quotations, it is easy to see why the Israelites made a golden calf, instead of an image of something else. They made the god and began the form of worship with which they had been most familiar in Egypt. And when they did this, they were simply engaging in sun-worship, the form of idolatry which in all ages has been the most universal rival of the worship of Jehovah.

As to the nature of sun-worship, it will perhaps be sufficient to quote what the “Encyclopedia Britannica” says of Baal:—

“The Baal of the Syrians, Phoenicians, and heathen Hebrews is a much less elevated conception than the Babylonian Bel. He is properly the sun-god Baal-Shamem, Baal (lord) of the heavens, the highest of the heavenly bodies, but still a mere power of nature, born like the other luminaries from the primitive chaos. As the sun-god, he is conceived as the male principle of life and reproduction in nature, and thus in some forms of his worship is the patron of the grossest sensuality, and even of systematic prostitution. An example of this is found in the worship of Baal-Peor (Numbers 25), and in general in the Canaanitish high places, where Baal, the male principle, was worshipped in association with the unchaste goddess Ashera, the female principle of nature. “

This is a mild statement of the case; and so when we read of the Israelites that “the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play” (Ex. 32:6), and learn that the word rendered “play” is the same as that rendered “ mock “ in Gen. 39:14, 17, we get a better idea of the heinousness of the sin of the Israelites.

WHEN it is remembered that the Egyptian calf-worship was sun-worship, and that Sunday was “ the wild solar holiday of all pagan times” (North British Review, vol. 18, p. 409), and has its name “ because the day was anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its worship “ (Webster), the Heaven-daring nature of the sin of the Israelites, just after they had heard God’s holy law, and especially the first, second, fourth, and seventh commandments, is most strikingly set before us. A more perfect insult to the God who had delivered them from Egyptian bondage, that they might serve him, can hardly be imagined.

ONE more point should be noted, to show how completely, in intent, the Israelites went back to Egyptian bondage, by their worship of the golden calf. A preceding quotation has shown that Ra and Osiris were intimately associated as leading representatives of the sun of Ra. Professor Rawlinson, in “ Religions of the Ancient World,” p. 20, says:—

“Ra was the Egyptian sun-god, and was especially worshiped at Heliopolis [city of the sun]. Obelisks, according to some, represented his rays, and were always, or usually, erected in his honor. Heliopolis was certainly one of the places which were thus adorned, for one of the few which still stand erect in Egypt is on the site of that city. The kings for the most part considered Ra their special patron and protector; nay, they went so far as to identify themselves with him, to use his titles as their own, and to adopt his name as the ordinary prefix to their own names and titles. This is believed by many to have been the origin of the word Pharaoh, which was, it is thought, the Hebrew rendering of Ph’ Ra - ‘the sun.’“—Ib., p. 20.

Thus the Israelites not only deliberately sunk themselves in the bondage of sin, but also more fully showed their willingness to return to bondage under Pharaoh, than when they sighed for the leeks and the onions of Egypt. Their deliverance from physical bondage was in order that they might be delivered from spiritual bondage, and was a representation of it; and when they had plunged into sin, they placed themselves in a worse bondage than any physical oppression could ever have been. Being overcome by the idolatry of Egypt, they virtually returned to the bondage of Egypt, “for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” 2 Peter 2:19.

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