This call was uttered by Moses at a most solemn moment in the history of the children of Israel — at the time when they worshipped the golden calf. Only a short time before this they had seen the power of the Lord’s arm displayed in their deliverance out of Egypt. They had only lately seen the miracles of the Lord in the plagues on Egypt, the opening of a way for them through the deep and the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea. As if that were not enough to constrain them to serve the Lord, the Lord had given a further display of His glory on Mount Sinai. But all this was soon forgotten and Moses in returning from the Mount finds them in the very midst of the idolatry which they had been specifically warned to eschew.
It would appear that Aaron was an unwilling partner in their sin. Fear of the people and fear for his life overcame him. He was conscious, no doubt, of the rascally mood of the multitude and that they would not be thwarted in their plans. This, however, did not excuse him in yielding to their insistent demand: “Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.”
That this defection of the children of Israel took place while Moses was in the Mount with God rendered them all the more culpable. There God was giving Moses laws and statutes for the people, including the moral and ceremonial laws, as well as various civil laws for governing the theocracy. Moses was a mediator between God and the people. The people had requested that God speak no more with them face to face so terror stricken were they at the sound of the trumpet and the voice of words. Yet how soon they forgot God. Moses returns to find them worshipping the golden calf and engaged in the shameful practices of the heathen. On seeing this, he casts from his hands the tables of stone bearing the written law of God, breaking them in pieces, for his anger waxed hot when he saw the calf and the dancing. The calf he burnt in the fire and ground it to powder and made the children of Israel drink of it, and said to Aaron, his brother: “What did the people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them.”
It was in this situation — a situation of gross apostasy from God — that Moses issued that searching and separating call: “Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me.” To this standard all the sons of Levi gathered themselves and to them were issued specific instructions for the infliction of swift retribution upon the shameless idolaters in Israel. They were told: “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour,” and there fell that day 3000 men. “Ye have sinned a great sin” was the verdict of Moses on Israel’s sin. And how pathetic and heart-rending was his plea at the Lord’s footstool: “Yet now if Thou wilt forgive their sin—, and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.”
“Who is on the Lord’s side?” is a call that still goes forth. In a day of apostasy such as ours how applicable it is. It is a separating call to men to forsake sin and to take vengeance on their iniquities. In this day of abounding iniquity, when the love of many waxes cold, the cry is heard, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” We must face this cry ourselves and give our response to it. How much is involved in being on the Lord’s side. It involves separation from evil of every kind. Wherever grace is in the heart that person desires to cast off the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light. We need the new heart and a right spirit if we are to be truly on the Lord’s side. We must be opposed, not only to the sin which we see in the world but also to the sin which we find within our own bosom.
“Who is on the Lord’s side?” is also a separating call as it relates to allegiance to a Scriptural testimony in the Church of God in the world. We are not warranted to join ourselves to any Church or organisation merely because that Church or organisation cries out: “We are on the Lord’s side.” We must examine the claim of each in the light of God’s Word. The Church of Rome cries out, not only “We are on the Lord’s side,” but also “We only are on the Lord’s side.” All the while her doctrines and practices declare her to be against the Lord and His Christ. The World Council of Churches cries out, “We are on the Lord’s side,” and goes on to claim, “We have the Spirit of Christ because we seek outward unity among the Churches of Christendom.” All the while the W.C.C. is an enemy of the true unity which the Word of God inculcates — that is, unity in the truth, which alone can lay the basis for God-honouring outward unity. So, too, must we examine the claims of all who say, “We are on the Lord’s side,” and establish in which respects such a claim is or is not honoured.
In the same way let us examine the claims of our own Church as to its witness on the side of Christ. Let us examine it in the light of God’s Word in its teachings, practices, discipline and government. Are these Scriptural, or are they not? If not, then we must conclude that we have failed to maintain the witness for truth raised in 1893 by the Fathers of our Church — which was a testimony for the whole Word of God. If it is not still amongst us, we are warranted to go and seek it elsewhere. On the other hand, if it is still maintained in our midst in the face of much weakness and difficulty, then we are not warranted to forsake it, but to cleave to it and seek to maintain it with our whole heart, until it shall please the Lord to pour out His Spirit to revive His work throughout our beloved land, and throughout the nations of the world. If we have it still, then let us be thankful for it and be humbled in the dust because of it — for verily we are unworthy of it.