Devotional Exodus 32: The Golden Calf and Modern Idols Study on Exodus 32: the impatience of the people of Israel, the idolatry of the Golden Calf, and the danger of replacing God with the distractions of the world. Topics: Devotional, Old Testament.

Devotional Exodus 32: The Golden Calf and Modern Idols

My reflection today can be found in the book of Exodus, chapter 32. Where the people of Israel, while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the tablets of God’s Law, decided to ask Aaron the following: “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.’” (Exodus 32:1 NIV)

After this request, Aaron received all the gold items handed over by the people and fashioned a Golden Calf, which was to be their god who brought them out of Egypt, whom they should worship and praise. Because of this action, God became angry with the people and nearly judged them at that very moment—wiping them off the face of the earth. Moses had to intercede for the people before God to lead Him to relent from destroying them. Yet, Moses still had to order the execution of the idolaters to fulfill God’s Will.

This chapter reminded me of how in modern times there is a prevalence of discarding God and idolizing things of this world (i.e., creating gods). People say they need earthly evidence to believe in something. That is, they claim they cannot believe in God because they cannot see Him and their prayers take too long to be answered. They hold a more empirical perspective on things, influenced by the Enlightenment and science in general. This is no different from the perspective of the people of Israel who were brought out of Egypt.

Even today, we use the same arguments and try to justify prioritizing life’s distractions above God: raising them to the highest level, worshiping and praising them as if they were gods. Just as Jesus mentioned: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21 NIV)

Nowadays, people’s treasure is money, fame, status, social standing, etc., because that is where their hearts lie. And because of this, they end up drifting further and further away from God, as these distractions compete for our attention, just as Jesus described in the parable of the sower: “Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.” (Matthew 13:7 NIV)

Later, Jesus also explained the meaning of this parable to His disciples, saying regarding the seeds that fell among thorns: “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22 NIV)

In other words, the fact that we do not prioritize God in our time demonstrates that we have other priorities and worries, which gradually draw us away from God if we do not put the Kingdom of God in its rightful place (i.e., first place in our lives).