Skeptics say that they only believe what they can see. They want a visible God. Christians sometimes fall into this too; if I’d lived during Bible times and seen all those miracles, believing in God would be easier.
This morning I’m reading Exodus 32. It begins, “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, ‘Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for 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.’”
These people had seen the plagues including deliverance from death through putting blood on their doorposts, deliverance from Pharaoh and his army by the parting of the sea, and more recently the fire of God’s presence on the mountain where Moses had gone to receive the Law. It was a time of great revelation, a time where not too long before they had fallen on their faces and swore allegiance to the LORD their God.
But as they waited for Moses, they became impatient or perhaps overcome by panic. Moses had been up on that mountain for what seemed like forever, and instead of trusting the Lord who had already led them this far, they wanted a god they could see.
Aaron went along with their request. He gathered their gold, which was supposed to be used for their tabernacle, and made them a calf. This image was a pagan religious symbol of virile power and by honoring it as their god, they fell into pagan idolatry and broke the first three commandments of the Law.
One of my commentaries says that whenever God’s people panic or become impatient, a slide into pagan practices can quickly follow. This is the way of our sinful human hearts. Instead of waiting for the Lord, we revert to what ‘everyone else’ is doing.
I’m thinking about the times that I panic or become impatient. What are the ‘pagan practices’ of today’s world? I suppose they include taking charge, forcing issues, getting even (if someone is being hurt), and all sorts of manipulations to assuage fears or to make things happen, to bring to pass whatever is desired.
The Bible tells me to wait on the Lord. If I am tired, He will renew my strength. If I am heavily burdened, He will share the yoke. If the trials are intended to perfect me, He will establish, strengthen and settle me in His time. He calls me to faithful endurance, trusting Him with my very life if need be.
As I think about all that God had done for His people in Exodus, I marvel at how quickly they fell. They could not wait a mere forty days to hear back from Moses before they reverted to idolatry. It seems so idiotic.
Then I think about myself and waiting. I know that patience is not just about spiritual things. It is a trait that shows up in every area of life, such as waiting in a checkout line this busy Christmas season. How patient am I? Am I pushy, or crabby? Do I try to hurry things, or at least make the clerks feel bad for not going faster? And what about the people who don’t know the Lord? How do they handle their impatience in long lineups, or on the freeway? Do I do the same things?
I also think about this idea of wanting a god that I can see. I may not build a golden calf, but how many times have I prayed and not seen or heard anything for forty minutes, or forty hours, or forty days? Some things I’ve prayed about are coming up forty years and my heart cries out, “I want to see You, Lord. I want to see You in action. Do something I can see.”
God wanted Aaron and the people to wait for Moses. Instead they forgot all about the past faithfulness of their God who had led them this far. They put their deliverance on Moses instead of glorifying the One who had delivered them, and when Moses didn’t show up as soon as they wanted him to appear, they made an idol they could put in front of themselves as their god. By being impatient and taking things into their own hands, they found out the hard way the folly of insisting on worshiping something they could see.
I need to be careful when I come before God. While I long to see Him, even see Him in action, if I insist on making it happen (‘it’ being whatever I want), then I’m apt to fall into the same error as the Israelites. Instead of trusting Almighty God who made and sovereignly rules the entire universe, I’ll wind up acting as if my god is only a calf made out of trinkets.
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