Forging Idols

Exodus 32

“Forging Idols”

09 October 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

 Have you ever been in such trouble or disturbed your parents so much that one looks at the other and says, “he’ your child…?” Me too. Did you know that even God has those moments when humanity has gotten on his last nerve? So, parents, when you let your significant other know that the offending party is solely his or her responsibility , know that even God sometimes wants a break from us. For those of us who have caused those words to be spoken, we aren’t the first to hear those words from our parents.  Israel had quite a party causing that reaction from God. Even Moses was getting in on the act, describing Israel to God as “your people.”

Now, before we get all smug with Israel let’s set the stage just a bit as to how Israel got to this moment. Three months after leaving Egypt Israel arrives at Mount Sinai and God tells Moses that God will appear in a dark cloud and speak to Israel. From that cloud, Israel receives what we now know as the Ten Commandments. After Israel heard the Ten Commandments, Moses was called to spend some more time with God receiving some additional laws, including how they aren’t to build gods of silver or gold. God then calls Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders of Israel to worship at a distance. Before this occurred, Israel swore a covenant with God to keep all that had been decreed, including the Ten Commandments and that bit about not building gods of gold and silver.

After this, Moses is told by God to come a bit farther up the mountain where God would provide him with stone tablets containing the law and commandment. Moses went up into the presence of God as instructed. From the ground it looked as if Moses had entered into the ash cloud of a fiery volcano for the “glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.” So here we are 40 days later and Israel is getting a bit nervous.

Their leader followed the voice of God into a fiery cloud to retrieve some stone tablets. How long could that realistically take? I mean God is all-powerful. Surely God already had everything ready for Moses. Did Moses get lost trying to find God? If so what kind of bumbling leader did God choose to lead us out here in the middle of nowhere. Did God kill Moses and is God preparing to take out the rest of us out here where no one will know?

Then they remember that Moses left Aaron in charge. Aaron has done some pretty impressive things before, so obviously God has some special plan for Aaron and surely Aaron can make some decisions for the group. Succession of command and all that. It’s important to know who we’re following. So, they take their concerns to the acting CO.

Moses is gone and we’re a bit worried that God is angry at us, just look up there at the mountain. Moses went into that firery pit and hasn’t come back. We’re pretty sure we need to do something to appease God. God’s given us commands, but nothing since then. We’ve go to do something, right?

So, Aaron forgets everything he’s been told by God and Moses. He forgets everything he’s seen God do, everything God’s done through his hands. He too gives into peer pressure, fear of missing out, fear of the unknown, whatever reason is going on in our own minds and gives up on God and God’s promise to Israel. Aaron collects all the treasure of Israel, melts it down, and casts an image of a calf.

We can get into a semantic debate whether this was an image of God or if it was a foreign God for Israel to follow. Either way, this represents a lack of trust in God, a lack of hope within a people.

This isn’t just an Aaron or Israel problem, we still do this today. All of us, including yours truly.

Our idols aren’t usually golden calves. Ours are money, fame, stuff (2.35 billion square feet of self-storage in the US), friends, politics, status, phones and other technology, work (that’s the one people would probably blurt out first about me), the list is long.

Humans throughout history have wanted to take things into their own hands and we’ll find a way to fill a perceived hole in our lives. Usually with something that is only a temporary patch that will never address the reason we turned to that idol in the first place. We look around and assume that God isn’t in control so its up to us to bring order into the chaos we see everywhere. We forget that God originally brought order from chaos, something we’ve never been able to master.

When people have a strong desire to control their own destiny, to control their surroundings, people assume the best action is to do something. Doing something is always better than doing nothing, right? Maybe not.

In this case, had Israel waited just a bit longer, Moses would have descended the mountain with the full law and proof of an unbroken covenant with God. Instead, he is stuck pleading with God to not just wipe everyone out and start again, like with the flood. Luckily it worked and God’s anger subsides. Eventually, the covenant is renewed and new tablets of the law are made for Israel to carry.

Now, there are situations where waiting is not an option and it takes some wisdom to learn when action is necessary and when it isn’t. I don’t think that’s the point of this episode in Israel’s life.

From this story, we learn that God is always working in the background, setting the stage for the next thing in our lives. God may feel distant, but God is there. We also learn that God listens to us and to those who intercede on our behalf. Prayer is our conversation with God and in prayer, we can be open, honest and blunt knowing that God is listening and may alter course a bit if that change still fulfills the plan.

Most importantly, God will always honor the covenant. Even when we lose focus on God and turn to idols to fill a perceived void in our lives, or when we get nervous that God has left us to our own devices, or when we make bad decisions regarding our lives, God will always honor the covenant. No matter how many times or how completely we destroy our own covenant tablets, God will rewrite them on a freshly chiseled set. No matter how angry and disappointed we may make God, God will still listen to us and forgive us, because God loves us. That is good news to take into the world.