Natch'yo Golden Calf
Waiting for It*
You are the mouthpiece to your Levite brother, Moses, who is an intimate servant of the true God. The true God's miracles happen through Moses. The campers identify Moses as the means of the true God being among them. You are Aaron.
Moses, on Mount Sinai, had given the appearance of abandoning the tribe of Israel. Aaron at the request of about three thousand inflamed campers, who need to see a leader, makes a calf to replace the missing Moses.* As the calf is pulled from the fire the inflamed crowd declare, 'the calf is our god.' Aaron, further facilitating the lunacy, built an altar in front of the calf and declared, 'A festival of YHVH would be tomorrow.' The festival was raucous. The blood of three thousand revelling campers God spilled to quell the rioting. (God asks, "Can you see that scene?")
The raucous festival was the event that sent Moses down the mountain early. The original ten commandments Moses obliterated in honour of this festival, crashing them to the ground on sight of the party. He pulverised the calf into powder and made the revilers drink it. (On some desert there is gold dust in the sand.) The second set of Ten Commandments Moses carved and set in the later constructed ark with manna. The true God used the ark for Him to be present among His people.
Throughout the Bible, the true God is identified with, God, the LORD, the LORD God, and Lord GOD. Elohim (or elohiym) is used for, God, god, gods, and objects of worship. The god definition of this calf is elohim, deity in the plural form.
At Satan's lie, in Genesis, "gods" is first written. Satan originated false worship. Elohim, in the context of, "You will be like gods" is preceded by kaf. This character is translated: as or like. The use of this character turns God into, like a true god.**
All cases of elohim do not use preceding characters. Elohim is Hebrew for God, god, and gods in the Bible. In the golden calf event, the concordance shows the word for the calf god as elohim אֶלֹהִים. In truth it is אֱלֹהֶיךָ in the Masoretic text. This word, elohim at its root, means divine ones and is a masculine plural noun.*** That word is translated, "gods." The problem? Bible concordances simply use elohim אֶלֹהִים. The text indicates more detail. There is no ideal reference where biblical research is concerned. Employ tenacity to examine a verse's text across references. Finding spiritual gems has rewards from God.
The Tetragrammaton, YHVH, is translated as, "the LORD" and "the LORD God." The arbitrary (pronunciation is uncertain) vowel insertions form Yahveh and mean; He Who Is. The Lord GOD is from adonai meaning; My Lords.
The Tetragrammaton appears thousands of times in the Hebrew text. Interestingly the devil, Satan, gets very little airtime. Look that up for yourself in a Bible concordance. The Bible is the true God's text. For the trouble we are in, there is very little mention of the evil doer that won us our seat in sin. To clarify, the true God does not dwell on, nor hold onto, the negative. He does not waste His regard on those that are dead. (This often means unrepentant in scriptural context.)
In Hebrew the characters of the Tetragrammaton, YHVH (יְהֹוָה, יֱהוִה root יהוה) are read from right to left. The vowels we assume in annunciation. In a "Christian" Bible the Tetragrammaton, and other other titles, is translated as "Jehovah." Four scriptures in the King James Version (circa 1600) articulated the name "Jehovah" in place of four occurrences of the Tetragrammaton. (Tetra meaning four and grammaton -- not a word on its own -- loosely meaning letter. (Is there something wrong here with the true God's self-designated title being a Romanised four-letter word? The Roman empire did fall.))
Let us look at "Jehovah" with four illustrations from Young's Analytical Concordance(1)
Figure One
The LORD and the LORD God
Figure Two Lord GOD, also LORD God the Lord. These Hebrew characters are the root.
Figure Three Lord GOD, Lord and My Lord
Looking at Figure Four's definitions of "JE-HO'-VAH," comparing it to the other instances of Hebrew God actor designators, doesn't this random definition of "Jehovah" as, existing one, on the same Hebrew characters that in thousands of places means He (who) is (pictured first) seem out of place? God asks, "Did y'all hear what mama said?"
Examining the original text does not make it any easier. Often the original text does not agree with transliterated values and Isaiah 26:4 is no exception. There are two occurrences of Strong's H3068. The root word of H3068 is Strong's H1961 הָיָה. This text is the last three characters of the Tetragrammaton meaning; was, become, come to pass. For the first occurrence the original Masoretic Text shows בַֽיהוָה same root and the second occurrence יְהוָה.
Simplifying the true God to a name is a challenging business. Employ a convention; use one title for the root, then add the text appropriate verbs indicating who He was being. That means the true God is always a noun and a verb. He is always in existence and always doing something.
For a singular moniker to work requires a perspective other than humanity. How about the perspective of Satan? Her unrepentant fornications, that are destroying humanity, earned her a death sentence. In this case, "Dick" is the one name for the true God that can do it all for her.
The macdukes.com websites make use of pictures. The pictures God chooses as editor and chief to stimulate thought. Ignorance, regrettably, hides the personality of the true God who His sheep wish to worship. The truth is, He is flexible in His approach dealing with each-and-every-person individually and without partiality to lead us to righteousness.
Every human being will enter the true God's Kingdom. Mercifully, He is flexible working with us. His standards are not on a sliding scale. Remember, He took, kept, His ark and the ten commandments. John revealed this and Jeremiah wrote about concern over the ark's location. There is no possible way to idolize a deity this dynamic and not become a worshiper of the garbage we carved, moulded, painted, or tooled. The result is that idolatry puts limits on the true God. The second we think we know who He is; wait, He is more.
Returning to Aaron, he indulged idolatry and the true God lost three thousand. The true God ultimately never loses even one life. Later Aaron's sons Na'dab and A-bi'hu, Levite priests, used; utensils of, and sacrificial gifts to the true God, to concoct their own ritual. Fire from the true God consumed these two sons of Aaron in this act of idolatry. Meat is on this bone for you enjoy. Start reading from Exodus chapter thirty-two.