While patiently awaiting the train this morning, I came to read the passage in Exodus about how Israel defiled themselves before Mt Sinai with a golden calf. To me, the most incredulous thing is that the people of Israel were standing around, delayed (in their journey to their promised place), demanding that gods be created to lead them; then, they choose the least impressive image to rely on. I don’t know about you, but if I saw a calf, I would immediately salivate while imagining how to BBQ it. That said, I want to pick up the passage at the beginning of Exodus 32.
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt! When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD. (Exodus 32:1-5)
The story picks up with Moses not coming down from the mountain after going to seek after God and the people asking Aaron to “make gods for us, who shall go before us.” The observation is simple: in a time of uncertainty, people will follow anything they are certain of. Just think about the last time you were facing uncertainty, did you not inquire of uncertain gods in regards to what to do or how to do it? Those gods may not be cows, spirits, angels or idols as we read about them in the Bible; but they most certainly are self-help books, blogs, pseudo ritualistic religious practices (Prayer of Jabez, anybody?), etc. We take those things to move before our steps because we feel that God has us in a holding pattern and are delayed from whatever promise land we are journeying toward. This is not where the story ends. The worst part about following uncertain gods as leaders to move us forward, is that we take those uncertain gods and confuse them as our God. At the end of our passage, Aaron states, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD.” He says this as if the God that delivered them out of Egypt is this statue he just created. If your life is standing in a holding pattern, delayed by some non-response from God, this is NOT the time to seek out uncertain gods in order to placate your uncertainty. Rather, this is the time to stand before the mountain of God in prayerful faithfulness. The delay, the uncertainty is not a big deal in comparison to what God has brought you out of. He rescued you and brought you to this place: it would behoove us to faithfully wait for Him, no matter how delayed or uncertain things may be. It is time to seek God at His mountain and stand by for His next command. You don’t need uncertain gods to take you through uncertain territory: You need a certain God. His name is Yahweh and He will deliver you through the uncertainty.
Comments are closed