The Golden Calf

Question

Is it ok to do “just anything” unto God?

For example:

• Is it ok to pray to saints if I’ve come from Catholocism
• Is it ok be “spiritual” and a Christian?
• Is there anything wrong with studying other religions?

Thoughts

The answer: kinda…

• Let’s start with the story of the Golden Calf

  Exodus 32:1-15

  32 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us godsa who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

  2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,b Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

  5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

  7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

  9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

  11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

• A few things as I’m sure you’re already thinking you know where I’m going with this:

  • To the Israelites, idol worship had become normal
  • Though they’d just witnessed God’s attack on Egypt and experienced a form of salvation, what was comfortable was still the Egyptian way
  • Their earthly leader (Moses) had been gone for over a month and the people grew uncomfortable
  • God’s response to their worship OF HIM was “leave me alone so that I can destroy them”
  • Moses recalled back to God’s promises to save His people and God relented

• Turning this back to us:

  • What is considered your norm?
    • Frusteration or anger
    • Lust
    • Going to a bar or club or just ‘hanging with the guys’
    • Scrolling through Instagram
    • Gossip
  • How do you respond when things get uncomfortable or hard? Do you revert back to what’s “comfy,” those norms, even if it’s not necessarily Godly? If so, do you recognize that or do you claim it for God
  • The antithesis of the golden calf story is the name-it-and-claim-it theology
  • God does not want us to learn about other gods and worship Him the same way
  • God wants us to learn what He likes, how He acts, and how he likes us to act, and do those things
  • To use the tired example: this is the idea of buying your wife chocolates on your ex’s birthday, forgetting that your wife doesn’t really like chocolate. While it may be well intentioned, it could be slightly insulting, especially if it were thoughtless
  • When we choose to bring in ideas of the world to our faith, we should review them carefully and consider how God might like us doing that
  • Don’t forget: though God wants us to worship Him the way He likes, He remembers His promises and withholds his wrath for Jesus’s sake

Important

Question: What are some exampes of things you have as a norm that shouldn’t be?What are things you could replace it with or how can you avoid it?

• Ok, so we know what God maybe doesn’t want us to do. So what does God want us to do?
  • Love God and profess Jesus

    And thou shalt Love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. -Deut 6:5 > Jesus said to him, Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. -Matt 22:37-38 > Whoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven. -Matt 10:32-33

  • Live humbly

    Blessed [are] the meek: for they shall inherit the earth -Matt 5:5 > At the same time came the disciples to Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child to him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say to you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
     Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me.
    **-****Matt 18:1-5**

  • Live unashamed of your faith

    Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes [will be] they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it. -Matt 10:34-39 > For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. -Rom 1:16 > I Love them that Love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. -Pro 8:17

  • From the outpouring of His Love for us and ours for Him, Love others

    Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt Love thy neighbor as thyself; I [am] the LORD. -Lev 19:18 > Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said to them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. -Matt 22:28-39 > We Love him, because he first loved us. If a man sayeth, I Love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he Love God, whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God, Love his brother also. -1 John 4:19-21

  • Look for those that are not valued in society - paying special attention to the poor, widows, orphans, and church leaders and welcome them in as a part of your family for celebrations

    When thou .. forget something … leave it for those that are forgotten in society, it belongs to them now -Deut 24:19-22

    [At the feasts] thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that [is] within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that [are] among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there -Deut 16:11

  • Live righteously, by grace through faith

    I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: -Deut 30:19 For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God **Eph 2:8** But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. -1 Tim 6:11