Israelites rebelled against God and served the Golden Calf: Jesus Christ is rebelled against to serve the god of this world.

Acts 7:37-43

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you will hear.’ “This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us, whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’” Acts 7:37-40

Moses prophesied about our Lord Jesus Christ being raised up from the twelve tribes of Israel, He was of the Tribe of Judah. Moses said, Him you will hear, and even as God said, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” Luke 9:35 Stephen is becoming more direct in saying to the Jewish leaders that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy about the coming of the Christ as spoken through Moses. Our Lord Jesus said, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” John 5:46-47

The same Moses who prophesied about the coming of the Christ, is the same one who received the Ten Commandments that the Israelites rejected and would not obey. Stephen is putting the Jewish rulers in the same category as those who rejected the word coming through Moses, those who rejected his prophecy about the coming of the Christ. In their hearts, like the Jewish rulers Stephen was speaking to, they turned away from God when they rejected Jesus Christ. Jesus addresses the corruption of the Jewish rulers and the Jewish people in Matthew 23.

When Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, the Israelites felt that he would never come back. They became tired of waiting for him and decided to serve their own god, not the Living God of Jesus Christ. Stephen is clarifying the image of the Jewish rulers he was speaking to as losing faith in the coming of the Christ. They began to turn to a false god that empowered and enriched them in worldly ways but corrupted the word of God.

“And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.” Acts 7:41

Stephen is now describing the Jewish leaders he is speaking to by quoting the Old Testament scriptures about when those of their forefathers made a golden calf and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Click here for a post on the Golden Calf. The calf represents “milking” the false god for their own physical/fleshly/carnal benefit and rejoicing over what they were doing by their own efforts and “ingenuity”. Our Lord Jesus addressed their corruption in Matthew 23.

“Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, images which you made to worship; And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’” Acts 7:42-43

The reason for the offering of animal sacrifices was to atone for sin, but more importantly, served as a reminder of the Christ, whose name is Jesus, who would come as the Lamb of God to atone for sin, once and for all. When they rejected those sacrifices, they threw out the atonement for sin, served a false god, and threw out any hope of the coming of the Christ who would atone for sin.

When God is rejected, this leaves a void within the human soul for adopting the worship of the “universe”, the “environment”, and the false god in the heavens. This is said of the god in the heavens, “For [Satan] have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregations on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’” Isaiah 14:13-14

Today’s culture, which is global, worships the star in the sky, which Ezekiel addresses in his vision of the space satellites, space station, and space shuttle in Ezekiel 1. The power that we see and are informed about in the air, is the power of Satan, he is the prince of the power of the air, “…the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience…” Ephesians 2:2

“This is their resemblance throughout the earth: Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket”; then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover over its mouth. Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.“ Zachariah 5:6-9 Click here for the full post on the woman and the basket.

Today’s culture worships the “star in the heavens” that gives them what to speak, do, think, and feel. That is an artificial entity that disregards the need for the human spirit and emotions as it opposes the presence of the Holy Spirit. Click here for a post on the “number of the beast [6-6-6] is the number of the man.” That beast gives breath/life to the image of the beast to speak by speaking and living through people. They are groomed to the mark, name, number of the beast by what they are given to say and do.

The god that today’s culture worships sets itself up as God within the temple of God [our body] as if it is God. This is done by giving people what to speak, do, think, and feel. This is the one “…who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4 The “he” in this verse is the “man of sin”. Click here for a post on the “man of sin”.

Today’s global government and its global culture have no regard for the sacrifice that Christ made on the Cross to atone for sin. They do not make any offerings to God, Jesus Christ, nor the Holy Spirit. They will be utterly destroyed on this earth and within their eternal death in hell.

---

“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11