most of us are familiar with the story in exodus 32 in which the hebrew people make for themselves a golden calf. often the scene runs through my mind of a charlton heston-esque moses running down a mountain for the sole purpose of throwing the ten commandment tablets onto the sculpture of a golden calf. as the tablets hit, sparks and flames erupt in an explosion.
that is the story i've always pictured in my small mind. as i read the story again today, a question popped into my thoughts -- was their motivation for sculpting the calf based out of their fear of God? and if so, what were they afraid of?
in exodus 20 we learn that God had come upon mount sinai in the visible form of smoke and fire. scripture tells us that the mountain was covered in smoke and God spoke with sounds of thunder, flashes of lightning, and sounds of a trumpet. in verse 18 and 19 of chapter 20 we learn that when the people see and hear the presence of God, they moved farther away from the mountain.
the people even tell moses to speak to them because they believe if God speaks to them they will die. i think that we miss the beautiful response from moses because of our focus on the idolatry of the people. moses tells them to not be afraid, but rather to understand that God has come to instill in them awe and wonder within their souls so they won't sin again.
as we follow the story, we come to the scene in exodus 32. moses is up on the mountain communing with God, receiving instruction for the hebrew nation. the masses are at the base of the mountain awaiting the return of moses.
i would assume that the people grew tired of waiting for moses to come down and share the word from God. i'm sure some even thought he might have died. it had been 39 days since they saw him last. out of their desperate impatience, they approached aaron, asking him to "make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."
it's interesting to note that the word they use here for "gods" is the plural form of Elohim, one of the names of God. most often we are taught that the sculpture of the calf was an image of some new god for the hebrew people to worship, but what if that wasn't the case?
from further study, i wonder if the people weren't making an image of another god but rather of God Himself.
if they made an image of God that appeared more acceptable for their minds, then they could worship. they needed an image of a god that didn't act, appear, or speak like God did. God spoke through thunder and lightning in dramatic fashion. He didn't appear like anything they had been used to.
the people are coming out of a very religious culture who had a god for everything. the egyptians not only had multiple gods, but the pharaoh himself was a god. all of the gods the hebrew people had been surrounded with in the egyptian culture for the last 400 years could be seen and they had human or animal traits. they needed to see God differently than the way he presented Himself.
do you think we ever do this today?
do we ever create our own portrait of who God is that fits our feeble minds?
do we create an image of Christ that is easier on the eyes? easier to understand? easier to follow?
don't answer to quickly. think. dive into your soul and search yourself.
does the Gospel look like an american way of life or a radical way of living opposed to all that is worldly?
we, as humans, have a tendency to sculpt a Jesus who teaches ideas that support our own thoughts and beliefs.
we have painted a Jesus that looks and thinks more like a 30 something, white, upper-middle class, republican rather than an earthy, jewish rabbi.
it is much more comfortable to take scripture and say that it supports wealth and selfishness, rather than seeing that scripture calls us to regard others higher than ourselves and take on the status of a slave (Philippians 2).
it is much more comfortable to take scripture and read that God simply wants us to believe rather than seeing that God desires for us to change the world with our actions, not just our words (James 1 & 2).
it is easier to think of God as someone who thinks and acts like we do, rather than a God that is not limited by our minds and cultural baggage.
all too often it is the culture that we are raised in that influences our perception of God the most.
it's easier to think of God as a God who supports american ideas because we're american.
it's easier to think of God as a God who supports republican ideas, because we're republican.
it's easier to think of God as a God who supports democratic ideas, because we're democrats.
it's easier to think of God as a God who aligns with baptists beliefs, because we are baptists.
but what happens when God doesn't fit into who you have Him sculpted Him to be?
do your thoughts, beliefs, and the way you live change or do you step back from the mountain and say, "you go to God and tell me what He says."
will you step up to the mountain and look deeply into the heartbeat of God and ask Him to reveal Himself to you? if you do... be ready to change, because as soon as you ask God to reveal your depravity to yourself, He will. and there is much that we can all change.
the question is: are you willing to see God for who He is and not what you've created Him to be?
may we see that God is bigger than us.
may we understand that God is more than we've sculpted him to be.
may God show us a little more of who He is today.
Father, reveal Your Truth to us in such a way that we are in absolute Awe of You.
free us from our religious and cultural baggage.
that is the story i've always pictured in my small mind. as i read the story again today, a question popped into my thoughts -- was their motivation for sculpting the calf based out of their fear of God? and if so, what were they afraid of?
in exodus 20 we learn that God had come upon mount sinai in the visible form of smoke and fire. scripture tells us that the mountain was covered in smoke and God spoke with sounds of thunder, flashes of lightning, and sounds of a trumpet. in verse 18 and 19 of chapter 20 we learn that when the people see and hear the presence of God, they moved farther away from the mountain.
the people even tell moses to speak to them because they believe if God speaks to them they will die. i think that we miss the beautiful response from moses because of our focus on the idolatry of the people. moses tells them to not be afraid, but rather to understand that God has come to instill in them awe and wonder within their souls so they won't sin again.
as we follow the story, we come to the scene in exodus 32. moses is up on the mountain communing with God, receiving instruction for the hebrew nation. the masses are at the base of the mountain awaiting the return of moses.
i would assume that the people grew tired of waiting for moses to come down and share the word from God. i'm sure some even thought he might have died. it had been 39 days since they saw him last. out of their desperate impatience, they approached aaron, asking him to "make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."
it's interesting to note that the word they use here for "gods" is the plural form of Elohim, one of the names of God. most often we are taught that the sculpture of the calf was an image of some new god for the hebrew people to worship, but what if that wasn't the case?
from further study, i wonder if the people weren't making an image of another god but rather of God Himself.
if they made an image of God that appeared more acceptable for their minds, then they could worship. they needed an image of a god that didn't act, appear, or speak like God did. God spoke through thunder and lightning in dramatic fashion. He didn't appear like anything they had been used to.
the people are coming out of a very religious culture who had a god for everything. the egyptians not only had multiple gods, but the pharaoh himself was a god. all of the gods the hebrew people had been surrounded with in the egyptian culture for the last 400 years could be seen and they had human or animal traits. they needed to see God differently than the way he presented Himself.
do you think we ever do this today?
do we ever create our own portrait of who God is that fits our feeble minds?
do we create an image of Christ that is easier on the eyes? easier to understand? easier to follow?
don't answer to quickly. think. dive into your soul and search yourself.
does the Gospel look like an american way of life or a radical way of living opposed to all that is worldly?
we, as humans, have a tendency to sculpt a Jesus who teaches ideas that support our own thoughts and beliefs.
we have painted a Jesus that looks and thinks more like a 30 something, white, upper-middle class, republican rather than an earthy, jewish rabbi.
it is much more comfortable to take scripture and say that it supports wealth and selfishness, rather than seeing that scripture calls us to regard others higher than ourselves and take on the status of a slave (Philippians 2).
it is much more comfortable to take scripture and read that God simply wants us to believe rather than seeing that God desires for us to change the world with our actions, not just our words (James 1 & 2).
it is easier to think of God as someone who thinks and acts like we do, rather than a God that is not limited by our minds and cultural baggage.
all too often it is the culture that we are raised in that influences our perception of God the most.
it's easier to think of God as a God who supports american ideas because we're american.
it's easier to think of God as a God who supports republican ideas, because we're republican.
it's easier to think of God as a God who supports democratic ideas, because we're democrats.
it's easier to think of God as a God who aligns with baptists beliefs, because we are baptists.
but what happens when God doesn't fit into who you have Him sculpted Him to be?
do your thoughts, beliefs, and the way you live change or do you step back from the mountain and say, "you go to God and tell me what He says."
will you step up to the mountain and look deeply into the heartbeat of God and ask Him to reveal Himself to you? if you do... be ready to change, because as soon as you ask God to reveal your depravity to yourself, He will. and there is much that we can all change.
the question is: are you willing to see God for who He is and not what you've created Him to be?
may we see that God is bigger than us.
may we understand that God is more than we've sculpted him to be.
may God show us a little more of who He is today.
Father, reveal Your Truth to us in such a way that we are in absolute Awe of You.
free us from our religious and cultural baggage.
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