Absence of Reverence

Absence of Reverence:

The Golden Calf 

“And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ”  Exodus 32:7-8 (ESV) 

And then the El Shaddai said, ^“I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” Let me tell you something, The Book of Exodus is no joke and without all the cinema license involved, I can't help to see Moses looking and acting the way Charlton Heston portrayed him in the movie "The Ten Commandments." I guess this helps me see just how livid Moses gets when he sees the Golden Calf after he comes down from the mountain, especially after the Israelites were specifically told "do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold." Can you say, “Dummies!?”

In the Cecil B. Demille movie the Israelites are shown dancing and wrapping the statue with adornments while the rest of the idolaters stuff their faces with food and drink. Considering the source I am using to illustrate this we can get the picture on just how easy it becomes to worship the creation and not the Creator. These “stiff-necked people” needed something visual so it was easier to become relational. It was about as stupid as worshipping a block of wood (see Isaiah 44:9-20). What can an inanimate object do for you when life comes at you on life’s terms?

If you said “Nothing” well then let’s raise an AMEN but if you disagree and really believe a block of wood will be there to support you, just set it on fire and see how long it lasts. Or take your "golden calf" and set it ablaze. Just a thing you should you know here, when Moses did this he took the statue after it got its cooking, ground it up and made the Israelites drink it with their water. This is a far cry from what Moses did for the Israelites right after they crossed the Red Sea. The waters of Marah (Exodus 15:22-26) were bitter but the Lord gave Moses a log and their first test of yielded obedience. Guess they forgot that moment…hmmm. 

I think the part that really grabs at me is the part that Aaron plays in the making of the Golden Calf. I’ve heard discussions that Aaron went back to the camp, the Bible doesn’t say that but because it was written as “the people gathered themselves together to Aaron” I’ll just leave it at that. But there seems to be room to put some possibilities that he may have felt dealing with the mob. If we were to just leave this alone it would seem as if Aaron was quite willing to participate in the making of “gods of silver or gods of gold” but I really don’t think that this is the case. I think he had seen a vast amount of disillusioned people lost, in need of something and becoming violent. Maybe this is the side effect of one too many Manna-burgers… I can’t be sure about this but something went wrong. 

I believe the reverence for YHVH had a rough time setting in for these recently freed slaves of Pharaoh. So much time spent in Egypt being labored in the building of idols for the Egyptians, what else did those Israelites know? For the time being I would like to end my thought there but ponder this if you will. When the Israelites grew weary of waiting on Moses, they had Aaron forge them a god. That was not a good idea. When you grow weary waiting on Jesus, what is it that you have forged? Is that a good idea? I’ll be back to finish this thought tomorrow. – Chris Hughes blogs regularly for our Freedom Fighter e-devotional. He graduated from the Colony of Mercy and is involved in a local church in South Jersey

Team YOU: 2 Chronicles 23-24; Proverbs 5; John 15

Motivations: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forego their use.

Galileo Galilei

Practice to Remember: Level 1: Ephesians 6:18; Level 2: Ephesians 6:21-24

Powered Up:  If you pray for bread and bring no basket to carry it, you prove the doubting spirit which may be the only hindrance to the gift you ask. D. L. Moody

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