Influenced - By Whom

We all know of people who are easily influenced by others to do wrong. We even read of such people in the Bible. Aaron was this type of character. When he stood before the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, they pressured him into making a golden calf. His faith was weak and he surely was not loyal and steadfast to God and His way. We are warned, “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.” (Ex.23:2). Paul said, “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” (Gal.1:10). Yes, Aaron and many today bow to the pleasure of the evil and are influenced to do wrong. It seems he offered no resistance at all when the people requested him to make an image for them to worship. When Moses confronted him with the sin, his reason sounds like some of the weak church members today. For one thing he laid the blame on the people, stating, “Thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.” (Ex.32:22). Then of all the silly things he could say, he said, “I said whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.” (Ex.32:24). It is amusing, yet disgusting, when we hear some in the church state why they wish not to be involved in the good programs on going, or why they do not attend all the worship services.

It is a different picture however with Moses, for in him we find a different attitude altogether. He was able to make decisions and stand by them. He was not afraid for people to know where he stood. His faith in God wavered only once (Num.20:12). Moses, unlike Aaron, was humble; he had no ambition to become the head of a great nation. He wished only to do God’s will. If we could learn to hate all that is evil and love all that is godly, we will have the problem of right living solved. To this Peter and John did, for when they were pressured by the “high-ups” and straitly commanded by them to stop their teaching, Peter and John said, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:25-29).

May I beseech us all to be influenced by the one who really counts! For “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” (2 Cor.5:17). We therefore have the capacity of causing an effect in ways of righteousness because we are influenced by Christ our Redeemer! Amen.

. . . . Fred House