{"id":1540,"date":"2019-04-18T08:52:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2019-04-18T08:52:10","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:52:10","slug":"devotion-acts-7-1-51-irrefutable-defense-part-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1540","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Acts 7.1-51 Irrefutable Defense Part 16"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Acts 7:1-51 \/ 40-43\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0They told Aaron, \u2018Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt\u2014we don\u2019t know what has happened to him!\u2019\u00a041\u00a0That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made.\u00a042\u00a0But God turned away from them\u00a0and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars.\u00a0This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:\u00a0<\/i>\u201c\u2018Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?\u00a0 43\u00a0You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship.\u00a0 Therefore I will send you into exile\u2019\u00a0beyond Babylon.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThey told Aaron, \u2018Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt\u2014we don\u2019t know what has happened to him!\u2019<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 The Jews fought, resisted and rebelled against God even as He was rescuing them from the cruel slavery they had been under.\u00a0 This verse is recounting\u00a0Exodus 32:1<\/b>.\u00a0 Sure Aaron should not have given in, but he was not just asked, they demanded him to make the golden idol.\u00a0 In the contemptuous remarks of the people concerning Moses it is easy to understand their remarks as a reply to Aaron who called for them wait for Moses to return.\u00a0 In stating \u201cthis fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt<\/i>\u201d we see them calling Moses \u201cthis fellow<\/i>\u201d instead of prophet, or deliverer, or man of God.\u00a0 Moses was in front of God on their behalf while the people were calling him \u201cthis fellow.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 It was an open disregard for Moses who was given by God to lead them out of slavery.\u00a0 This group would rather stay where they don\u2019t belong than to seek out the promise of God to Abraham for them to inhabit the Promised Land.\u00a0 This was showing open contempt to Moses and to God, even to their own Abraham.<\/p>\n

They said they don\u2019t even know what happened to Moses and where he is.\u00a0 This was a lie.\u00a0 They had been told and they knew that Moses was with God to receive God\u2019s message to them.\u00a0 They just didn\u2019t want to wait.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t want to obey.\u00a0 They wanted it their own way and not God\u2019s way.\u00a0 Yes, they rebelled with great contempt against Moses, but also great contempt against God.\u00a0 This in spite of the great signs from God through Moses, they turned from God.\u00a0 Or perhaps many of them never had never turned to God?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 The Israelites turned against Moses and so turned against the will of God.\u00a0 What then?\u00a0 Man was created to fellowship with God and even now it is an innate desire to obey and worship God.\u00a0 It is true that it is impossible for man to cause himself to walk with God due to our fallen nature, but it is through Jesus our Savior that we can.\u00a0 Then, God gave them Moses to lead them in the ways of following God and that way would ultimately lead them to Jesus their Savior, but they rejected Him, they fought the call of God to come to Him.\u00a0 So when one rejects the truth to satisfy the call of God, but the call of God still pulses within, what next?\u00a0 If one rejects the truth they turn to lies.\u00a0\u00a01 Thessalonians 2:10<\/b>\u00a0\u201cand all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 See also how Paul describes people who know God exists, who know who He is, how despite what they know they turn to what they want, and so deceive themselves.\u00a0Romans 1:21-23<\/b>\u00a0\u201cFor although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.\u00a022\u00a0Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools\u00a023\u00a0and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images\u00a0made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Romans 1:28<\/b>\u00a0further states \u201cFurthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Family, all people know that God is.\u00a0 They are born with the knowledge and the proof surrounds them.\u00a0 Rejecting God, rejecting the one true God is a forced act of the human will.\u00a0 But no-one can fully rid themselves of the call of God and so idols are made to replace Him and to hopefully appease this call that is within.\u00a0 Idol making is man calling himself God.\u00a0 Man creates gods in his own image (or of his own imagination), or religions (not from God), again to create God.\u00a0 They force from their minds that God created man and not vice-a-versa.\u00a0 All idolatry is a rejection of God to please one\u2019s own God, themselves.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c42\u00a0But God turned away from them\u00a0and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars.\u00a0This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: \u201c\u2018Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?\u00a0 43\u00a0You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship.\u00a0 Therefore I will send you into exile\u2019\u00a0beyond Babylon.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 All these are idols.\u00a0 Some idols are manmade and some idols are creations of God embraced as divine.\u00a0 It really doesn\u2019t matter whether one bows to a manmade image, or a false religion (all religions but Christianity) because there is only on Truth and all the rest are a lie.<\/p>\n

Amos 5:25-27\u00a0<\/b>is a clear reference to these verses.\u00a0 As we read these verses and Stephen\u2019s statements we see that, these rebellious people, even in their punishment of wandering through the wilderness did not repent.\u00a0 They continued to make and worship idols and false religions.\u00a0 How incredibly stubborn!\u00a0 Yet and again, let us see ourselves in them.\u00a0 The day is coming that even in the midst of the Great Tribulation the hearts of people will remain hard, not repent, and cling to the idols of their minds (Revelation 16:8-11<\/b>).\u00a0 Men have not changed.\u00a0 Some will submit to God.\u00a0 Others will demand that God submit to their will.\u00a0 They will not repent and they will refuse to let God save them.\u00a0 Family, they live amongst us and we are called to love and pray for them so that the name of Jesus will be honored.\u00a0 Let\u2019s pray for the lost and for each other.\u00a0 It is the will of God.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n

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Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Acts 7:1-51 \/ 40-43\u00a0\u2013\u00a0They told Aaron, \u2018Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt\u2014we don\u2019t know what has happened to him!\u2019\u00a041\u00a0That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,2490,2257,94,17,711,10,757],"class_list":["post-1540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-amos","tag-exodus","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-revelation","tag-romans","tag-thessalonians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1541,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions\/1541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}