First of all you need to understand that God has determined the end from the beginning. Isa. 46:10 He has determined that this world be destroyed by fire.
Therefore for us to understand what the Scriptures are dealing with is to know the spiritual truth not the physical or worldly. The Scriptures deal with religion not with the natural physical things.
The account of Moses and the Hebrews that made the golden calf are meant to teach us spiritual truth not physical. It wasn't because Moses was holy that God spoke to Him but that he was a chosen vessel and raised up to the work that was determined for him. He was prepared for that work and sent to it. You may remember that when he listened to his father-in -law he lost a great portion of the Spirit that was with him. Num. 11:17 Things were never the same with Moses after that.
The holiness that Moses wore and which they could not look upon was not Moses holiness but the holiness of the Lord. Moreover it wore off.
Now the calf that the Hebrews made do you recall what they named it? They called it Jehovah. They pretended to worship Jehovah but all the while they worshipped a false god. That is worldliness. Religion will teach and entice you to things but never to Christ alone. Just because it is called "Christian" doesn't make it so.
Religion is natural to man and he will always seek to worship that which satisfies his nature. Rom. 1:18-25 He will run to this religion or that until he finds one that suits his ideas of what and how things should be. But he will not come to Christ that he might have life. John 5:40
Moses and the golden calf is not intended to teach us about holiness but about replacing true faith with false religion.
Now what you are trying to explore is the truth of sanctification. I have much to say concerning that but since as usual it goes against the majority of religious thought I will abstain until the Lord leads me to expound on it.
Ok, now you are moving in a direction I have been hoping to explore more of in this thread, and I'll try to offer some encouragements in that direction without being too disagreeable. I am not trying to explore the truth of sanctification in this thread. Many have posted wonderful detailed biblically supported thoughts in that area. I am looking for to explore the meaning of "the things of the world" which we are told directly in first John not to love as it would be in direct opposition to God. "Friendship with the world is enmity with God". Looking again at the children of Israel who had totally abandoned all desire of holiness while Moses was soaking up God's holiness so much that he glowed with it fearsomely, the children of Israel show a love for the world and things of the world.
God's commentary about them begins in Exodus 32:7And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: 8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 9And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
First, God said they were Moses's people. At that point, God had disowned them. They had corrupted themselves. They had become disobedient to God and had turned aside out of the way He commanded them. They made an idol and sacrificed to it and worshipped it as their gods. They were stubborn, "stiffnecked", and God asked Moses to leave Him alone while He destroyed them. (My own little personal translation of God's Word there, kidding of course. I would not dare to call my own commentary a translation of God's Word any more than I would call my own translation of the originals God's Word. I fear God and have no desire to promote myself by claiming to be His translator.)...back to the topic at hand....
The first thing Moses observed was the noise. Joshua thought it was a noise of war. Moses said no, it was singing. They were making music in their corrupted way. It was not holy music. It was not godly music. It was music they were enjoying as they danced naked around their golden calf idol. Now on this point I want to make a comparison by referring to a rock and roll song which was one of my favorites and one which I won an award (nothing big, but I earned it) for singing before I renounced all rock and roll music as inspired by devils and all my pleasures in it as carnal, fleshly, soulish and not spiritual.
I forget the title, and I think it was by Deep Purple, and the first line was...
"Ain't nobody gonna take my car, I'm gonna race it to the ground....." ...then...
Ain't nobody gonna stop me now I'm gonna break the speed of sound
Oooo, it's a killer machine, it's got everything
(forgot a couple lines here)
then it screams....
"I LOVE IT! I NEED IT! I BlEED IT! All day, all night, I'm a highway star.....
That was the name of the song, "Highway Star", pretty sure.
Ok, so how does that compare with the children of Israel and their newly made idol? Was not the car this man singing about actually his idol? He identified his whole life and being with owning and using it. He honored it with many compliments the same as the children of Egypt honored their idol by saying it was the gods that brought them out of Egypt. The man was singing for and about his car.....and I think we all know how young women at those rock and roll concerts like to disrobe during the music performance. In Exodus 32:25.."Moses saw that the people were naked (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame unto their enemies). Moses wasted no time in calling for those who served the Lord to separate themselves, and they killed 3000 of the stiffnecked people.
The thing I want to explore in this thread is how the concept of loving the world and the things of the world is very much about material things and indulgences of entertainments which are not consecrated to God as Moses, in verse 29 had said for the men to do when he called them to separate themselves as being on the Lord's side in before Moses told them to go through the crowd killing by sword until about three thousand of them had been killed (verse 28).
Now before anybody gets up in the air on me, I am by no means calling for violence against anybody. We live in a different time, we live under a new covenant, and God acted in Exodus at that time for a specific purpose specific to the historical surroundings. What I'm doing is trying to show that to love the world and the things of the world is all about material things and passing time in ways which are self-indulgent for fun or exhilaration of feeling which is self promoting or idol promoting and not consecrated for the honor of God's name in word, substance, and action.
We have to love people, even if they love the world and things of the world, because we certainly were one of them before we were saved, and in far too many ways we resemble them today. I keep saying I love this new computer, and then I have to repent of it and say it's only a thing of the world, it's not going to heaven, it's going to be burned as hay and stubble because it is of the world, an invention of man, and it is not of God. I have consecrated this computer to God, and committed all of my works to Him and in so doing I am claiming His promise that my thoughts will be established. It is my desire that my words be His Words as His words will not return to Him void and they will remain forever settled in heaven. I want my life to be honoring to Him, and the things I do and say to produce a record of things that will remain honorable by God's grace in heaven throughout eternity. I want Him to bend me, break me, mold me, conform me to His image because I know my own heart is full of darkness, deceit, and wickedness.....self-centered, proud, worldly and my own heart deceives me. My own mouth and my own actions prove to the world far too often how deprived I am even when I think I am all that Mr. good and wonderful (of course the people who know me do not think I'm all that good and wonderful...why do you think I have so much time on my hands to sit here on this computer?)
Ok, the cat's out of the bag and I'm sure a lot of people are ready to attack me for saying rock and roll music is inspired by devils. "Don't mess with my music, man"