He leads me …

1Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for 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.”

2 And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.

Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”[1]

_________________

For a long time this seemed to me to be really stupid on the part of the Israelites. After all the Lord had provided significantly for them. He had bought the ten plagues against Pharaoh in Egypt and the Israelites were set free from slavery. Before they left Egypt the Lord assisted with the plundering of the Egyptians so that they became very wealthy[2] and would have what was needed later for the construction of the tabernacle.

The Israelites left Egypt and came to the Red Sea. They had the water in front of them and Pharaoh’s army pursuing them behind. Then God did an amazing thing. The water parted so that there was a wall on each side and the Israelites could walk through on dry ground. Once they got to the other side of the Red Sea, and Pharaoh’s Army was still in the area of the parted water, the Lord made the water go back to normal and the army was drowned, thereby saving the Israelites.[3]

In the wilderness the Lord lead the people by fire and by cloud, and provided water to drink, along with manna and quail for them to eat.

So later on when they had not seen or heard from Moses for some time they decided to build their own god. Surely they would reflect on where they had come from and see the overwhelming goodness of God? Apparently not.

The other thing that is really sad is how did they expect to be better off? Initially they expected the god to be able to provide for them so that they had comfortable lives, but what happened when something went wrong and the crops failed or there was a lot of sickness? They would have to do things that pleased the god so that it would remove the affliction. What if this did not work? Maybe they would try to do something more profound? Like sacrificing a child instead of an animal?

When we look at how our God works it is so different. It is not about us doing what we can to please Him out of an obligation, but rather from a loving two way relationship.

We revive the meaning of this special relationship when we take the emblems at communion, and consider once again what Jesus did out of His love for us. Not only in what He did on the cross – which is huge in itself – but in His teaching and the way He lived.

Jesus left us with what fundamentally comes down to two key principles – love the Lord God with everything we have, and to love the people around us in the way we would want to be loved. When we do this the Lord is part of what we do each day, guiding us and blessing us in small and not so small ways. We also find that others find us nice to be with, and we are able to make a positive difference in their lives. It is interesting though that it is often the Lord working through us that makes the real difference.

Is there anything to be gained by turning our backs on this experience and focussing on another god like money, power, or possessions? I cannot see even one. We find this is what keeps us going to push deeper into what the Lord has for us because when it comes down to it nothing else can match a relationship with the Lord.

[1] Exodus 32:1-4

[2] Exodus 12:34-37

[3] Exodus 14:1-31