September 15th

The Golden Calf

              When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”  Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”  So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”  When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.”

Exodus 32:1-5

            The Israelites had several low points during their trek through the wilderness.  This was the first, if not the worst.  Moses was on top of the mountain, receiving the word of God to cement the covenant between the Almighty and His children.  He had been up there for a while and the people got nervous.  So they did what people do when they get nervous: they tried to find a way to control the situation.

            A delegation approached Aaron, Moses’ brother and the current High Priest, and asked him to make idols to worship.  Not Aaron’s finest moment either.  He collects the gold rings of the people, melts them down, creates a golden calf, and brings the wrath of God down upon the people…but that is a story for another day.

            Do you know where the gold rings came from?  Where did a nomadic people filled with ex-slaves get enough gold to make a statue?

            Egypt.  The wealth came from Egypt.  After the plagues, the Israelites were leaving captivity and the people of Egypt gave them jewelry of silver and gold and clothing in the hopes that God would stop the plagues.  Exodus 12:36 says, “And so [the Israelites] plundered the Egyptians.”  The gold rings were the spoils of their greatest victory to date, the evidence that they were God’s chosen people.  They transformed God’s blessings into an idol to worship!  They used what God had given them to replace God himself.

            Before we get too judgmental on the Israelites, let’s remember that we do this all the time.  We transform God’s gifts into idols to worship.  We worship our nation.  We worship political leaders.  We worship sports teams.  We worship jobs and careers.  We worship wealth.  All of these are tremendous gifts but lousy gods.

            It happened to us at the Day Services Center as well.  We started off providing services to our clients in whatever fashion they needed.  Then we discovered the Medicaid waiver system and money poured in to fund our mission.  Then the Medicaid system changed and we had to make a choice of changing our mission to continue receiving the money or go broke and start over from scratch.  The means had become the master and so we changed what we did.  And then changed again.  And then again.  Until the original vision of who we were and what we did was barely recognizable.  That is what happens when the gift becomes the god, we drift away from who we were meant to be and become lesser versions of ourselves.

A moment to reflect:

What blessings are you tempted to idolize?  They can be sneaky to find.  Idols that live in plain sight are often disposed of.  I find a good indicator is to look at your monthly bank statements.  Where does your money go?  What does that say about what or whom you prioritize?  What does that say about what or whom you worship?