Uncovering Modern Idols: Lessons From The Golden Calf Transcript

So last week we talked about the Passover, that first Passover, the slaughtering of the lambs, the painting of the doorposts in blood, the calling of the people to remember the story. That remembering of the story, that telling of the story, includes this mountain experience. It's been about four months since the Israelites left Egypt. It's been about 40 days and 40 nights since Moses went up on the mountain. He has been gone for a while.

And for most of this time, while the people were in Egypt and the plagues were happening, the Passover plague, and then in the desert, the people had Moses to look to. They had their eyes focused on him. They saw God working through him. And so when he disappeared for those 40 days, they became afraid. The security that they thought they had, the security that they clung to, was placed on Moses instead of God.

They saw Moses as the one who had directed God's path and who God had called and worked through. And without Moses, they wondered what was going to happen to them next. Without Moses, they were afraid. Without Moses, they felt that God, who was with Moses, who worked through Moses, had abandoned them. They had no words. They had no words.

They had no word from Moses. They had no idea what had happened to him. And here, this man who God worked through, who could call down death itself on the Egyptians, was nowhere to be seen. And fear rose up. Worry rose up. And they had to decide what they were going to do next.

And what they did was most unfortunate. They made Aaron. They had Aaron, the priest, among them, build a calf. Something else to put their attention on. Something else that would not go away. Something else that would not disappear. Something that they could say, there is that representative of God that we can focus on and know is in our midst. And we can find security in that.

They were done putting it into a person who could disappear. And so they made an idol. And Aaron did this. He gathered their gold. He formed the calf. He told them how to worship this. If you're reading along in your Bible, any time you see in most Bibles the word LORD in all capitals, this is the name of God. This is that four -letter word without vowels that nobody knows how to say.

Traditionally said Yahweh or Jehovah, depending. But ultimately, we have no idea how to say. So it wasn't so much that this calf was a different God, but this calf was to represent, the Lord, Yahweh, the God of the Israelites. But they worshiped the calf. They placed their security in something physical. Something that they thought would last.

problem we run into is that when we think about idol worship today, we don't think that we can fall prey to it. None of us are making golden calves. None of us are making idols of a God. None of us are doing any of the things that we see as idols. We see as idol worship in the Old Testament. So we think we're safe. We think we're okay.

We're not going to fall to that particular sin. We're not going to break away from God's commandment to not worship anything other than God, because we don't make those idols, those representatives of God. So we have to go a little broader to understand this. We have to go a little broader in how we think and how we approach idol worship, and our understanding of what they were doing.

And when we do that, I think we will find that we are just as guilty as the Israelites were in the mountain. If we think about the fact that what they were trying to do was have something in their midst that they can trust in, that would not leave them, that would give them the assurance that God was with them, that would give them the sense of safety and security and what they needed, that would take away their worries, and their fears, then we begin to see some examples in our lives.

Sometimes these are people. Sometimes there's somebody that comes out, a politician or a leader of some sort that says, I can save you. Trust me, believe in me, and I will be the one to guide you to safety and the future that you know you want. And then we start trusting them. We start believing in them.

Sometimes it's our job. Sometimes it's the wealth we've accumulated. We think I have stored up plenty of treasures here on earth so I know that I'm going to be okay. And I can trust that. I know it's not going to go away. I know it's a sense of safety and security that makes my worries and my fears disappear.

It could be your job. It could be a family member or your family in general. When we understand this sense of idolatry, we start seeing those places where we put our trust in something because it makes us feel better, it alleviates our fears, it alleviates our worries, and at least makes us feel good for a little while.

But the problem with idols, the problem with idolatry, the problem with the golden calf is it cannot last forever. The golden calf is not God. The golden calf is not the one who brought the people out of Egypt. The golden calf is not the one that would protect them and lead them into the promised land.

And yet, when they saw the golden calf, they not only feasted and dined among themselves, but they made sacrifices to it and found security. Their worries that they had just had that this Moses had gone away and they didn't know when he was coming back all disappeared. But that golden calf could not hold all of the people's expectations. It could not lead them to lasting safety and security.

It was ultimately going to fail them if they followed it into the desert. It was not the God who would eventually give them manna to eat and quail for meat and water from stones. It was not enough. The same is true for the idols that we lift up. The politician will fail you. Your financial status can change. You could lose your job. Your family could let you down.

These various things that we think, once I have this, I will be fine and safe and secure from all harm, will fail us. And we are all the way back to the beginning. Worrying, fearing of what will happen next. And wondering where our security will come from.

But in that in -between time, while the idol is still standing and before it falls, that idol draws more and more of our energy. It draws more and more of our focus. It draws more and more of our time and our talents so that all that we are and all that we have goes to maintaining the stature of that idol so that it will hold our security.

We can start seeing what is becoming an idol in our life when we start seeing how much of our life we are devoting to it. How much we are willing to lose to maintain it. How much we are willing to let go of who we are and who we think we are so that that idol can remain standing. It starts consuming every part of our life. It starts drawing power for itself from every part of our life.

So that we are willing to break family and friend relationships. We are willing to give up our character and our trust. We are willing to give up so much just so we think it will survive and last. A job that offers security for yourself and family will start consuming all of your time until there is none left for anything else.

We start to see the challenges and the dangers of idols. They cannot hold your fears at bay. They cannot hold your worries at bay. They cannot give you safety and security forever. And so you must devote more and more of yourself to them so that you can have the illusion that they will hold you and protect you and guide you. And in the process you have given up so much.

These Israelites in the desert who had confused Moses for God at least in his presence had hoisted all of their concerns and their worries and their need for safety onto this calf. And they gave up their identity at least for a little while as God's people. Such that God was ready to disown them. To wipe them from the face of the earth. To consume them and say, OK, Moses, I'm going to begin again and I'm going to do it through you.

They were willing to give up who they were and who they were in God for the sake of safety and security that would not last the journey. we do the same. So we have to be mindful of our lives at all times. We have to be mindful because our idols are not always clear. Because we don't have altars with statues on them. Because they're not so readily apparent.

We have to be vigilant. We have to look at our lives. Where are we spending our time and our energy, our money? Where are we looking for safety and security? What are we willing to give up when people or things offer that to us? We have to be vigilant because those idols are so clear. They're so hidden.

And we are a people prone to go after and seek refuge in the physical. The thing that we can hold on to. The thing that we can control. The things that we can influence. And all of those things are not God. We cannot see God in our midst. We cannot control God. We cannot influence God. For God is God.

And so we go to something that isn't God. And yet Jesus tells us in the midst of all of our worrying and that worrying leading to idolatry so often calls us back to a trust in God that no matter what comes our way whatever happens we can trust in Him. We can follow after Him. We can see in nature itself the splendors of the field and the flowers growing in it and knowing that everything that we could accumulate for ourselves would fail in comparison.

That worrying doesn't add to the length of our life. It doesn't increase our life expectancy. It doesn't increase our life enjoyment. In fact, it does the very opposite. And so instead of lowering that worrying instead of trying to alleviate that fear by trusting in God we trust in the idols.

But Jesus says that God freely gives of the kingdom of peace, of justice, of mercy, of grace and forgiveness of gentleness and kindness something that will last something that rust cannot destroy something that cannot be stolen from you. God freely gives of these things these things that will sustain us because they are given by God and not created by our own hands.

And in this we can place our trust. In this we can place our sense of security and our sense of hope. So if you looked at your life today if you had to look at it if you could put all of your all of your hopes and dreams and where they are if you could figure that out or where you're spending your time or where you're spending your money or where you're spending your talents or where you are placing your trust or where you're drawn to security if you had to take stock today where would it come up? Is it on something that is created that will fail? Or is it on something freely given by God will never end?

Our trust our desire to be free of worry and anxiety and believe me I know this internally is something that I struggle with myself. If we could find a way to take it back from those things that we have been creating that we can place it on God I guarantee you our lives will be better. They may not be easier but they will be better.

My hope and prayer is that you will be willing to take stock. You will be willing to be vigilant. You will be willing to say where am I placing my trust and is it God or is it something else? Because if you're willing to take stock if you're willing to do that regularly if you're willing to say I am prone to wander then you can also say God help me. Say God I am so tired of placing my trust in people and in things that will fail and I need to place my trust in you but I need help.

And then watch where the worry goes. Watch where the fears arise. They will arise. God does not erase our emotions. He doesn't make all things easy and so fear and worry will come up and creep in. But when you're vigilant you can say God this worry is coming to me. I am going to place it on you. I am going to focus on you. I am going to place my trust in you. I have to place this worry and this anxiety and these fears and these feelings on you and trust you because I am too prone to place it on something else.

When we do that we've taken stock we keep accounting of our fears and our worries and praying earnestly to place them on God so that we might trust in Him. We will find that more of our time and our energy that would have been sucked up by those idols those things that we would have been willing to sacrifice of who we are and who we are what we have and who we love those things that would have consumed from us is amplified because it is placed and trusting in God. We will feel our spiritual lives grow we will find our faith grow and we will find our relationships grow and flourish because it's God not placed on an idol that consumes but on a God who freely gives from His kingdom.

For we worship and follow a God that loves us so much that He gave His Son Jesus Christ who walked among us who knew what it meant to be human who felt fear who felt sadness who bled from worrying and thinking about what was coming on the cross and then who died for our sins. and rose again proving that He will outlast death itself and anything else that would come to destroy it.

This is the God that gives freely is the God that invites us to follow Him this is the God that invites us to come back to Him when we have turned away and build up idols is a God that can hold our worries our fears and who will never fail.