Filling The Vacuum

Exodus 32 is written as an epilogue to Moses having spent forty days on Mount Sinai communing with God and receiving the Commandments from the Lord. Exodus 32:1 says, “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods 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.”

Aristotle reportedly said, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” While that may or may not be true in physics (sorry, I really am not up on a natural physics), It is definitely true spiritually. The Israelites had been led by Moses in their worship of God. He has been gone for forty days and they couldn't go that long without worshiping something! Since they were not worshiping God, they filled the vacuum with a god they created.

They asked Aaron to build them a god or idol, so he had them bring their golden earrings. These earrings were a gift from God. Let's go back to go back to Exodus 12:36,  “The Lord caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So they stripped the Egyptians of their wealth!”

Don't miss this...the Israelites turned a gift from God into an idol. If we aren’t careful, we can easily do the same thing.. In fact, the greatest blessings pose the greatest danger for idolatry.

The people said in Exodus 32:4: “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt.”

Think about all the miracles the Israelites had seen God perform in the days preceding this catastrophe. God had sent the ten plagues to gain their release from Pharaoh. They had watched the parting of the Red Sea. They were eating manna and quail miraculously provided for them. Water had come out of a rock. And now they are giving a golden calf the credit for delivering them from Egypt? Are you kidding me?

In it's essence, worship is giving credit where credit is due. Sin is giving credit to anyone besides God for any blessing you have enjoyed...including giving credit to your own abilities, talent, or intellect.

God has rescued the Israelites. He has shown them miracles and given them gifts. And what do they do? They take the gift God had given them and use it make an idol.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ.”

Allow me to make a closing observation today. There is a part of us that reads this story in Exodus 32 and we think, "Those silly ancient people! How could they worship a golden calf? They were so primitive." But don't we worship little green pieces of paper with numbers on them? Is that really any different? If we’re worshipping anything other than God, we are bowing down to a golden calf.