Laying Down the Armor

“And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him” (Exodus 32:25-26, KJV).

The Hebrew word used here for naked is para, meaning “to loosen, expose, dismiss.” It also implies “a new beginning.”

A modern beer commercial admonishes this generation to “turn it loose tonight.” It simply means to throw off past moral inhibitions, shake free of all law, and begin pleasing yourself. Do your own thing, whatever makes you happy.

Merely taking off their clothes was not corruption; it was the signal, the message they were sending to the heathen looking on. Can you see the Amalekites on the surrounding mountains far off, looking on this peculiar scene? These enemies, who had trembled when they saw God at work among them, now laughed and mocked, “Look at them. They are just like us! Their God has no power. They don’t even trust in him! They want to lust and party and play just like all the rest of us. What hypocrisy!”

In that one act of nakedness, they belittled their God in the eyes of the ungodly. They made God seem heartless, cruel, uncaring, and helpless. They besmirched the honor and majesty of an omnipotent God. They were no longer an example, no longer admired or feared or respected.

They had laid their armor down to party. They put in jeopardy God’s plans for their salvation. They were saying to the world, “We don’t want to fight any more enemies. We don’t want to resist. We have had enough of rejection, of sacrifice, of future hopes and far-off blessings. We want to live now! We want to enjoy ourselves. We want the good times to roll.”

The corruption was this: This was to be their new beginning in their own strength. If they were going to have to exist in a hard, cruel wilderness, then they would quit the struggle and make do the best they could on their own.

As believers, we must not follow their path and lay down our armor in order to pursue our own way.