Misunderstanding God

The story of the golden calf in Exodus 31 is pretty bizarre. Moses is up on the mountain talking to God and the people come to Aaron and say "Up, make us gods who shall go before us." At least they knew that they needed something beyond themselves to survive. But where were they when the Lord parted the Red Sea? "Make us gods"? I'm sure.

So Aaron tells them to take off their earrings and he fashions them into an idol. (Of course later he claims that he threw the gold into the fire and out popped a calf - I'm sure!).

So what is interesting to me is Aaron's response to the people. He says to them "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." (5). Aaron actually thought that he was worshiping Yahweh (that's what the LORD means) by making an idol of gold and bowing down to it.

It wasn't that the people and Aaron wanted to abandon Yahweh, they just created their own ideas about God in the absence of clear direction.

That didn't make it right, and the people suffered because of their disobedience. Though why Aaron doesn't suffer I still don't know.

But anyway - here's my point. We can be really sincere and really want to know God and serve him with excitement and fervor. But if we don't have clear direction about who He is, serving the creation of our own mind is just the same as creating a calf out of gold and bowing down to it.

And what is the clear direction about God that we have received? His Word and His Son. Just as God came down to the mountain and gave Moses the Law, Jesus came down from heaven and gave us grace and mercy through His death.

Don't think that just worshiping the god of your (or anyone else's) mind is enough. It isn't.

Pastor Tom