By reading the entirety of scripture, we see that trusting God during difficult circumstances and waiting for Him to act has been a struggle for believers since before sin entered the world. And, as we have all personally experienced, it continues to be a struggle for us today. Far too often, because of our sin nature and selfish desires, we all have made and will continue to make the wrong choices and have to deal with the negative consequences of our actions. In Exodus 32, we see a perfect example of this scenario taking place when the Hebrews (Israelites) grossly disobeyed the Lord. By studying this passage, we will see three realities of both their standing before the Lord at that time and our standing before the Lord today. The first is that…
We engage in Impatient Idolatry
In this passage, we read that Moses has been on Mt. Sinai for 40 days with the Lord receiving the law and the instructions for the tabernacle and the priesthood. During this same time, the Hebrews were waiting at the bottom of the mountain without both Moses and the holiness of the Lord who had been near them in the form of a cloud. While waiting, the Hebrew people became impatient and restless; they desired to keep worshiping and to keep going. As a result, they took matters into their own hands and Aaron made a golden calf for the Israelites to worship. Then, the following day, they offered sacrifices to the golden calf (idolatry) and engaged in sexual immorality (Exodus 32:1-6). As sin always does, it gave the Hebrews temporary satisfaction. However, shortly thereafter, they faced the grave consequences of their idolotry and sin (Exodus 32:25-29). Now, you may be thinking that you would never do what the Israelites did. How could they be so foolish? However, are we not the same? The specifics of our sins may be different, but they are just as grievous. When dealing with unmet expectations and selfish desires do we wait for the Lord to work or do we act on our own accord? When our plans do not go perfectly, do we become angry? When we do not get the raise, promotion or recognition from our employer that we want, do we run to drunkenness? Do we turn to pornography or other sexual sin when we do not get the praise from others that we desire? Sadly, the far too often answer to these questions is this; even though the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we run to sin instead of running to and wholeheartedly trusting God.
Now, we would all agree that the aforementioned sins are egregious and that we should forsake them. However, we must also guard against more subtle sins that often slowly creep in and distort our worship when we become complacent and tolerant. Truly worshipping the Lord is not what we make it; true worship is what the Lord expects it to be. In American culture, it is very easy to worship something that makes us comfortable. We often take the Jesus of the Bible and twist Him into a version of Jesus who is comfortable with our sins and who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream. Furthermore, we often make our version of Jesus align with our politics, finances and priorities. But Jesus will not accept that. He does not look like your idols, and He will not accept them anymore that he accepted the Israelites distorted version of worship. Christian, Jesus died on the cross because of our idolatry. In order for God to accept our worship, we must honestly and continuously confess and repent of our sins to be cleansed of our unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Then we must worship God alone for who He truly is!
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