The Golden Calf

The children of Israel were camped before Mount Sinai, far out in the desert. Moses had left the camp; going up into the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments and he put his brother Aaron in charge of things while he was away. It had been an amazing few months for the Israelites. They had witnessed the miraculous wonders that brought Egypt down to her knees, watched in awe as God parted the Red Sea and destroyed Pharaoh’s army in the process, and ate manna in the midst of a desolate wilderness while sustaining themselves with water brought forth from a rock.

The Promised Land was in their future; after all, God had promised as much and so far He had not been slack at all concerning His promises. Everything was as close to perfect as could be hoped for with nothing but proverbial blue skies on the horizon. What could possibly go wrong?

Moses was on the mountain a little bit longer than they were comfortable with. The days went by with no word and they began to grow restless. (Camping will do that to you; I know all about it from my own experience) Sure, God had brought them out of bondage, but maybe they no longer needed either Moses or Him to get to where they were going. In a nutshell, the Children of Israel wanted ‘change’. They wanted something they ‘could believe in’. (This is fun!)(Might get me into trouble...)

Exodus 32: “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.” Left to their own devices and with weak leadership holding them in place, they fashioned their own golden calf to worship. Then the party started.

But God can see all, hear all, and He knows all. He pointed this out to Moses: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”

I was pondering this story while watching the television news this morning. An official being interviewed stated that those citizens that are against the government’s programs introduced during the past few months – those that instead call such well-thought-out plans ‘socialistic’ and protest them as such, may be considered as ‘unreachable’. I was floored. Me? Unreachable? Probably so.

You see, I still think of my country as a Christian nation because it was founded as such. Like it or not, the people that settled this nation escaped from the bondage of oppression and bravely founded a country that became one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hard work, sacrifice, and determination were required along the way, not entitlement programs or tolerance initiatives.

I’m afraid that somewhere down the road we lost our way. The God that blessed us and guided us as a nation was removed from our courts and schools and replaced with a form of secular humanism. Now we are reaping what we've sown. With no God left to worship, and being that we are creatures that were created for praise; the government has stepped into our hearts and filled the void.

In essence, we aren’t so different from those misguided Israelites dancing around a man-made idol out in the desert so long ago. We’ve turned aside (quickly) from the way that God commanded us and turned to the golden calf of government to solve all of our problems and lead us to greener pastures as we shamelessly worship at its feet. What made our country great? It was our government. Who led us into freedom? It was our government. Who sustained us and provided for our care? It was our government. We have literally corrupted ourselves with this manner of thinking.

I think Moses has been gone far too long. He better get back soon, or there may be nothing left to return to.