Moses was up on Mount Sinai, in the
presence of the Lord, carefully listening to His instructions
regarding the Tabernacle, the priests and His covenant with Israel.
And whilst Moses was gone the people complained to Aaron that Moses
was gone and that they wanted to make gods for themselves to lead
them. Aaron shockingly listened to them and actually followed their
suggestion.
The Israelites didn't want a God
they cannot see. They wanted a visible one. They wanted a god they
could mould and shape as they wanted to. They wanted a god that was
predictable and a god that was exactly like they desired. They
wanted to be in control of the god, not a God that was in control
of them.
It shocks me to my core when I read
this. It really does. They were a nation who saw God's mighty works
for themselves, they didn't read about it or hear about it, but
they experienced it for themselves! They saw His splendor and
witnessed how He miraculously saved them! Plus they saw Him every
day leading them either by a cloud or a pillar of fire; they even
heard Him speak from Mount Sinai. I mean what more evidence could
you want of the Living God? And yet they turned from Him the moment
Moses left their side. In fact if you look at Scripture they even
attributed their miraculous escape from Egypt to Moses!
"Make us some gods who can lead us.
This man, Moses, who brought us here from Egypt, has disappeared.
We don't know what has happened to him." Exodus 32:1
They wanted a god that they could
manipulate. And it was easy too. They simply took their gold and
made an idol from it. As easy as that. They had their god to twist
and turn at their slightest whim. Terrible. But we are the same
sometimes. I have discussed in a previous devotion how we make our
own idols today and how we 'worship' them by the amount of time we
devote to them. But despite that, we sometimes make God also into a
'manageable idol'. We reduce Him to our size in a manageable form.
We pray when we have time, we read a verse a day if we have time,
we go to church and listen to His Word, but we don't put it into
practice. We pray before we eat and we pray before bedtime and that
is it. Our God is manageable and predictable. We can handle Him
that way.
The problem is the moment a crises
hits our lives and we realize that God is not predictable and that
His ways are not our ways that we fall to pieces. Our religion
comes to nothing; it is crushed to the ground into fine powder,
like Moses crushed the golden calf into fine dust.
No, God is not an idol to be
managed, He is not Someone to play with and reduce to our size. We
need to respect Him for Who He is and have a reverent healthy fear
of Him. We should exalt Him for Who He is and praise Him as being
the mighty One, infinitely wise. Because that is Who He is, totally
different from us.
We exalt Your Name Father. You are
above all gods, principalities and powers. You are the infinite
wise One and we praise Your mighty Name. You are exalted above all
and worthy of honor and praise. We love You God. Amen