February 14
Exodus 31-32
Psalm 22:6-10
Proverbs 5:7-8
Matthew 26:26-51
The Golden Calf
“Then the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain. So the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, ‘Arise, make us gods who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And Aaron said to them, ‘Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’…And he took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’” Exodus 32:1-2,4 LSB
It seems crazy to us to make something out of gold, silver or wood and then turn around and bow down to it in worship. We understand that anything we make with our hands cannot possibly be something worthy of our worship. We don’t have statues or altars in our homes where we kneel and pray to an inanimate object. But let’s explore the idea of idols a little deeper. The ancient Egyptians were polytheistic. They believed that their gods guided them through life and the afterlife. They worshipped gods of the sun, the planets, the earth, fertility, animals, agriculture, etc. They had different rituals and practices for each one. The children of Israel had been living in Egypt for 430 years before their exodus. The sons of Jacob who came to Egypt with their families to escape the famine had died and several generations of Hebrews grew up in Egypt surrounded by their foreign culture and its practices. The Egyptians allowed them to worship their God because they thought He was just one of many gods and the more gods you can have on your side the better. Over time, the culture and beliefs of the Egyptians seeped into their own religious practices blurring the lines. After they crossed the Red Sea, Moses went up Mt. Sinai to talk to God. When 40 days passed, they began to fear that he had died or had left them. Their natural instinct was to return to what was familiar. They asked Aaron to make a god for them to follow. Aaron took all the gold he could find and melted it into the image of a calf and he told them it represented the God who delivered them from Egypt. He didn’t come up with a new god to tell them to worship. He said the calf represented their God.
Satan is very cunning. He knows how to twist the truth just a little so that it sounds good. Aaron probably didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. He was giving the people what they wanted, an image of God, but it was still their God they were worshipping. Right? The problem is that we can’t make up our own idea of what God is, call it God and worship it. God is God. We don’t get to decide what God is like or what pleases Him. This was the first thing God dealt with when He gave them the Ten Commandments. He told them not to worship any other gods and not to make an image of anything in heaven or on earth to worship. God knows that if we have an image, even if we say it is Him, we will start worshipping the image instead of worshipping Him. It will limit our understanding of Him. An image cannot capture His glory and majesty.
Satan doesn’t have to convince us to worship him, all he has to do is get us to worship anything else but Jesus. He provides lots of alternatives. He can take our attention off God and place it on any number of things as long as our eyes are off the One true God, it doesn’t matter. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14 LSB Anything in our lives that takes priority over our relationship with Jesus can become an idol. It is subtle and can happen before we realize it. It is a good idea to ask God on a regular basis to examine your heart and your priorities.
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