The Israelites had 400 years of slavery in Egypt to assimilate the Egyptian practice of idol worship. When Moses met with God on Mount Sinai, they had only been away from Egypt for a few months.
As Moses seemed to delay returning to the camp, it is understandable that they reverted to their previous idolatry.
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” (Exodus 32:1).
At its very foundation, idolatry is centered on humans. Humans have needs and desires that they want to be fulfilled. When they believe God is unwilling or unable to give them what they want, they turn to other gods.
James calls this being “double-minded.” He writes, For the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord (James 1:7-8).
A double-minded person may have God as the “Plan A” of their lives, but they also rely on a “Plan B,” if they run the risk of not getting what they want from God.
James is right. This kind of person is unstable in every way and can not count on receiving anything from the Lord.
Faith fully trusts God, despite the circumstances.
I wonder if you can relate to this aspect of my life.
I haven’t been freed from slavery to sin and the world’s system for a few months. In my case, it is more like multiple years of freedom. When I met Jesus as an 18-year-old man, He set me free and started me on a new life with Him.
Unfortunately, like the Israelites, I tend to be focused on my needs and wants. I trust God to meet them, but I a guilty of being double-minded. I am frequently tempted to turn to a “Plan B,” a Bob plan to meet my needs if God seems to delay my request.
Syncretism
Syncretistic religions blend two or more objects of worship into one. The next verses reveal Aaron’s blending of the worship of Yahweh/Jehovah with a golden calf.
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 these from them, formed them 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 a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord” (Exodus 32:2-5).
While visiting with Rudy Ross this morning, he pointed out that Aaron declared a festival to Yahweh/Jehovah in verse 5. When we find Lord in lower capital letters in modern translations, it refers to the Hebrew for Yahewh or Jehovah.
This is a picture of syncretism, the blending of two objects of worship into one. On one hand, there is a golden calf and the words, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
On the other hand, there is a “festival to the Lord [Yahweh/Jehovah].”
Before we are too harsh on the Israelites of old, let us engage in a little self-examination. What are some of the idols of our current culture that can be served alongside God?
Richard Foster identifies three American idols: money, sex, and power.
Money and power are obvious “acceptable” objects of desire in the church. Prosperity gospel preachers are a glaring example of that truth.
The church crowd has been courted by politicians both on the left and the right to garner support for their candidacy and interests. The pay-off for the church is power for their causes.
Sex is harder to pin down as an outright idol in the church. However, special guest speakers comprised of beauty queens, athletes, and musicians have been common attendance draws for years.
By themselves, money, sex, and power are not idols. They become idols when they are part of a double-minded approach to discipleship. We should be alerted when our needs and desires lead us to combine our trust in God with these three powerful impulses.
If the Israelites had devoted themselves to God as the “Plan A” of their lives with no recourse to a “Plan B,” they would have not resorted to a golden calf.
The same is true for us. Let’s determine that God will be the “Plan A” of our lives.
Not a Sunday School Picnic
We can count on the fact that the next day’s activities were not a Sunday School picnic for the Israelites.
They rose early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel (Exodus 32:6).
Pagan rituals involved all of the behaviors that we associate with pagan activity. We can be assured that the Israelites, who had experienced 400 years of Egyptian idolatry, didn’t hold back in their revelry.
God opposes the worship of idols for many reasons. One of the major reasons why idolatry is discouraged is humans become like the idols they worship.
Again, let’s engage in some self-examination.
- What sort of harm is done to other humans when we make money a god?
- What is the cost in human lives when one nation exerts its power over another in war?
- How much brokenness is inflicted on humans when the pursuit of sex becomes an idol?
Reflections
I believe we all struggle with trusting God instead of pursuing our needs and wants. I know I struggle with this daily.
My prayer and desire is to be so connected with God that He is my “Plan A,” despite the temptation to resort to a “Plan B.”
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 