Reaching for the Golden Calf, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture:  Exodus 32:1-14

32:1   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."
32:2   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."
32:3   So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
32:4   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!"
32:5   When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord."
32:6   They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
32:7   The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;
32:8   they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"
32:9   The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.
32:10   Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."
32:11   But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
32:12   Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.
32:13   Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
32:14   And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

          This is a fairly well known portion of scripture.  Moses, through the assistance of Almighty God, has broken the Israelites free from bondage to the mighty Egyptian Pharoah.  Through signs and wonders, and finally through the example of death, Pharoah has been convinced to let God's people go.  God has used the Egyptians to punish the 12 tribes of Israel, but the time of punishment is over and God determines His people will return home.  At first, the Egyptian Pharoah doesn't see it that way, but God has ways of changing his mind.

          Even after this great horde of people are released, Pharoah changes his mind and sends his mighty army after them in pursuit.  But the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not to be trifled with, and Pharoah loses his great army at the bottom of the Red Sea.

          The once enslaved people of Israel, being the object over which Pharoah challenges God, have been witness to all this.  They saw the miracles God put at Moses' hand, they saw the bloody devastation Pharoah caused when he challenged God, they knew the freedom of being on their own in the desert, slave to no man.  And yet, even though they were free, they complained to Moses because they no longer enjoyed the niceties of the Egyptian civilization.  Freedom had its price and they were not happy about doing without.

          Throughout their many years as slaves to the Egyptians they have continued faithfully their worship of God.  They did not abandon Him in the faith that He would not abandon them, even as slaves.  So how, we wonder, do they suddenly stray off into false gods and idols when Moses does not return immediately from the mountain?  And it isn't as though Aaron has led them astray, he merely responds, in the vacuum of Moses' leadership, to the demands of this huge demanding group of people.

          As a parent looking back on the misbehavior of a child, we wonder, did they not adhere close enough to the customs and traditions they knew from childhood?  Was God not strict enough with them?  Did Moses not pay close enough attention to them?  Perhaps Aaron should have had more training before he was left in charge of them? 

          Even knowing Moses was atop the mountain, meeting with the God that freed them, they became impatient.  They demanded of Aaron "a god" to follow, to lead them, something they could see whereupon they might lavish their worship, to which they might make their traditional sacrifices.  No, they were not abandoning the traditions of their religious activity, they just wanted to get on with it.  Their wants and desires were more important than whatever Moses was doing on the mountain.

          They had seen the God of the universe in action.  What happened?

          Consider with me for a moment the similarities between this nation today and the that ancient nation of Israel.

          We have recently been freed from being tied to the industrial revolution.  Like those before it, this trend of human activity and survival had its purpose, in its time in the same way God's punishment of captivity had its purpose for the Israelites, in its time.  But that time passed.

          Built into the industrial age heralded by Henry Ford's assembly line was also the end of the industrial age.  Each employee came to work each day and performed specific tasks that meshed with the tasks of other employees to produce a product, which was then marketed, and everyone got paid.  We bought homes, raised families, worshipped in our churches.

          Americans were good at this assembly line business.  In fact, we were so good at it that our excellence in production helped us win the First and the Second World Wars.  We out-produced our enemies, allowing our armies to move and maneuver more effectively, react more quickly, and with deadly impact.  We were blessed of God to be able to protect His precious gift of freedom, and to share it with the world.

          But it was inevitable that we would get so good at it, and with sharing it, that we would move on to more effective and efficient ways of operation.  Technology became the next logical step, and again, we were blessed of God and we were good at it.  However, technology of itself makes unnecessary previous procedures.  And with those lost procedures jobs were lost.  What was once done by 100 people earning salaries could be done by ten, and then by one with the latest technology.

          Commentator and best-selling author Seth Godin has written of this era, "This represents a significant discontinuity, a life-changing disappointment for hard-working people who are hoping for stability but are unlikely to get it. It's a recession, the recession of a hundred years of the growth of the industrial complex.

          "I'm not a pessimist, though, because the new revolution, the revolution of connection, creates all sorts of new productivity and new opportunities. Not for repetitive factory work, though, not for the sort of thing ADP (automated data processing) measures. Most of the wealth created by this revolution doesn't look like a job, not a full time one, anyway.

          "When everyone has a laptop and connection to the world, then everyone owns a factory. Instead of coming together physically, we have the ability to come together virtually, to earn attention, to connect labor and resources, to deliver value."

          We are freed.  But we don't know what to do with our new-found freedom.  We find ourselves in the desert of poor planning, outstripped job futures, resulting in people out of jobs, lost incomes, repossessed homes and cars, missed opportunities for education and family support.

          Gradually, over time, we had begun to believe our own press releases, that man is evolving into a better, more efficient being, and it is man that is important.  It is what man wants and needs that must be given paramount attention.  Oh true, God was a great help in getting us here, and so we still have our familiar touchstones of religious practice.  But when progress and success are too long in coming, too long on the mountain, we feel compelled to take things into our own hands and make for ourselves those compelling decisions for our future -- we reach for the golden calf.

          Which brings us to our uncomfortable situation today, populated with a next generation that believes their god is in the almighty dollar.  The almighty dollar can give mankind what it needs, it can assure daily sustenance, it can provide for a comfortable future.  It has become the golden calf.

          However, it is the golden calf that must have precedence in our lives, not its high priests of CEOs, company and corporate presidents, and other leaders of business.  It stands to logic that if we don't have enough access to that golden calf, it is their fault, and they must be punished.  And so those who neither participate in leadership roles nor yet have a stake in the religion of the golden calf are demanding "their fair share" of what they have not yet earned.  They mass in Wall Street in New York City, and in major cities across the nation, demanding the free market system be trashed, their bills be wiped away, credit cards be paid off for them, and the savings of those who have worked hard and earned their money be distributed among those who have not.

          There is a very telling CBS-TV video of a union demonstrator being interviewed in Sacramento, where the reporter asks why they were there.  The official said they had a committee meeting to come up with talking points.  The reporter asks, in so many words, if then they were there while others were coming up with why they were there.  The response was stony silence.

          In New Orleans protestors chanted, "Kill the cops!"  On Wall Street the female protesters pranced about topless telling the media to stop paying attention to what they were doing and listen to what they were saying, in apparent ignorance of their basic biology classes. As they were yet student age, I had to wonder what their parents, or their pastors, would have thought.

          The free market system of the God-blessed United States of America has long given all comers an equal chance at the level of success for which they are willing to work.

          Presidential candidate Herman Cain has said, " "Don't blame the banks. Don't blame Wall Street. If you don't have a job, if you're not rich, blame yourself."  This comes from a man with several degrees of education, successful careers in three separate fields of endeavor, and a successful lifetime as a business CEO and leader in economic problem solving.  He might well have echoed the guy who said, "Don't abuse the rich, the poor aren't hiring."

          Up on the mountain with Moses, God knew what was happening below.  He knows now, what is happening among the people of the United States of America, where greed is the denomination of choice, not love.  Not worship of the Christ and a commitment to live out His words from the Sermon on the Mount.

          Just as the Israelites had forgotten the miracles, the power, the determination of an Almighty God who freed them, we have forgotten how we got here.  Greed, me-first, and the sins and abominations of a self-centered people are bringing judgment on America when we should be following God's guidance to the next level of human endeavor.  The very foundation of God's love and "do unto others" is in danger of being lost in this nation. Thanks to riots and protesters the light of law and logic are going out all across America.   And this nation's enemies wait with baited breath for that to happen.

          Those who follow the Christ in more than name only, now is the time to step into positions of leadership with love-based problem-solving solutions and innovative programs.  This nation's problems are far from unsolvable, although not all will agree with the obvious solutions.  But Almighty God has given His people the gift of logical thought and creative processes, and we should be bringing them to the fore right now, supporting those who are Christians by virtue of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).  This is not the time to hate, but the time to plunge ahead in action on behalf of love for our fellow men and women, to support what is right and just, to protect children as the delicate future they are, to institute long-range plans for ensuring that the God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness remain available to all who will become citizens of this great nation.

          In the final analysis, God need not wreak further punishment on America, He need only remove His arm of protection.  We who claim the name of Christ must give Him reason not to do that.  Pray hard.  Time is short.  Amen.