The gold that the Israelites took from Egypt

The worship of the golden calf by Filippino Lippi


Exodus 3 (New International Version)

18 "The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.' ¹⁹ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. ²⁰ So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

²¹ "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. ²² Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

The question i shall address here is why did God want the Israelites to ask articles of silver and gold from the Egyptians to be put on the sons and daughters of the Israelites?

The Israelites had sojourned for some 400 years in the land of Egypt. They came there as guests but were made to slaves in later dynasties of the Egyptian pharaohs.

Imagine that you are living under God and for some reason you lose your faith in God and you are going to live your own life. Later you repent for this and you want to come back to God. This equals the situation of fallen Adam who first had received from God dominion over all of creation, but later he fell and came under evil influence.

Whoever wants to find back the way to God stands as fallen Adam or Eve who are in need of restoration and who are in the same position as the Israelites who were leaving Egypt. For each step in restoration it is needed to bring offerings. The Israelites had served the Egyptians for a long time. Instead of being able to dedicate their lives to God, they had helped the Egyptians to build up their foundation. To make restitution for this, God asked the Israelites to collect all which they could from the Egyptians to bring this as an offering to God.

Even though the Israelites were enslaved, they still should feel to be God's children first. Being God's children, their work for the Egyptians did not belong to the Egyptians, but it belonged to God. The Israelites had to make effort to gather everything from the Egyptians for which they had a right. This was the offering of the Israelites needed to start their new course in the wilderness.

The gold and silver they had earned as slaves in Egypt had to be brought as offerings so God could accept them and work with them. Always when we leave a situation that compares to slavery in Egypt, in a spiritual sense, we need to collect the results of what we did in 'Egypt' and offer that to God.

Later we see that a number of Israelites used that gold to build a golden calf, an idol that represented evil deities of Egypt. This showed that many Israelites had not brought their offerings to God in the right way. They had clinged to the gold as if that gold belonged to themselves and they offered it to evil deities in order to gain blessings for themselves.

Gold is to be offered to God always. It is not to be used for expanding worldly foundations and it is not to be taken as a 'blessing' coming from God.

Religious people never crave for gold or power, they desire for developing their inner relationship to God.

Practicing true religion

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There is no true religion without spirituality. Spirituality means that you are aware of the spiritual meaning of all that you do. This should not be just a way of speaking. It should be reality through and through, to the bone.

In true religion there are no set rules or practices. Even if you inherited such traditions, you renew them each time that you live them. You never just pray or meditate or do any ritual unless your heart fully desires for it.

You don't pledge to do this or that, unless you are entirely certain that this promise is the last time you are making it. Each promise you give should lead to serious fulfillment. If you pledge again and again, or even worse, do it as a daily or weekly habit, that's bullxxxx.

When you have to choose between getting influence over people or working for your own inner development, you choose for the latter.

When someone offers you money or material things, you never automatically accept it. You know that you are a priest who must pass on the offerings to God and you are responsible that no impure offerings ever are brought before God. So you pray and pray until you know what to do with the offering.

You never claim that you have reached this or that level or position, because your focus is always ahead of you, to go further and do more good.

There is no religion without spirituality. This means a living connection with God and all heavenly angels and spirits. If you don't have that connection, if you don't receive God's straight answer and if you do not yourself relate to the good spiritual world, your religious life is void of meaning.

Power, influence and wealth are never to desire for. Only center on doing the Creator's will and all will be taken care of. It's a lie to say that you need influence and wealth in order to do your mission for God. Power, influence and wealth are temptations, most of the time, just like sex can be a temptation.

Don't ever ask or pray for blessings. Only ask to understand to do God's will and then do it. All you need will then be given to you. Do not make up your own mind about what you need.
This world is never going to get better because people run behind leaders. This world will only get better when each single person has become a leader him- or herself. When you are a leader, lead yourself.

Never, never let yourself be tempted to be a leader to others. In the world of religion and spirituality there are no leaders. There are only elders.

What you want to reach in true religion is your own liberation. This is not possible by worshiping a religious leader or guru. You need to be your own guru, always and only. You can learn from elders and your guru may be an elder too. To be an elder is the highest value a guru can have for you.

Do not use the name of God if you do not directly get answers to your prayers from God. You are using the name of God in vain if you speak about God without actually having a direct relationship to the Creator.

Do never mistake revelations and inspirations from spirit world as if coming from God or as if giving proof how special you are. You should get revelations and inspirations from the spiritual world, but this is something totally normal. It is like reading a book. And books can be benificial or harmful.

Do never think that your religion stands above other ones. Religion should not be something that has a name in the world, it should be practiced in your inner life. What does it matter to which organization you belong?

Religion is about your inner life. Spirituality is about your relationship to the eternal spiritual world, the place of eternal life of past, present and future. External life in this world or material life only has meaning insofar it is immersed with the love of your inner life and the value of your spiritual life.

Do not speak about spiritual life when you have no relationship to God and the good spiritual world.

Do not speak about religion when you have no contact to the Creator and no love and respect for people who are different from you.


Photos by Lover of Truth