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| The Dance of the Golden Calf |
When many of us were children, long road trips could be challenging. We can get impatient. From the back seat we can be heard asking our parents: “Are we there yet?” Such was the perspective of the people of Israel as they traveled across Sinai toward the Promised Land. They could be heard on many an occasion whining about their situation. Then, when Moses seemed to disappear after going up the mountain to visit with God, they got worried and decided to take things into their own hands. If Moses, who spoke for God, wasn’t around to lead them, maybe they needed new leaders and new gods.
Now, when God made a covenant with Israel, God gave the people a set of rules and regulations that defined God’s covenant expectations. We call these rules the Ten Commandments. This set of commandments begins with this proclamation:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth (Ex. 20:1-4).
The point seems clear. There is only one God and don’t make idols of anything. While these two commandments seemed clear enough, it didn’t take long for the people to mess things up.
When Moses went up the mountain to receive further instructions from God, he left Aaron and the elders in charge of the people. When Moses' time on the mountain lasted a lot longer than the people expected, they got worried. What if Moses never returned? What would they do? Then they came up with a plan. Maybe they needed different gods and different leaders. So they approached Aaron and asked him to give them new gods who could lead them out of the wilderness.
Now, organizations regularly change their leaders, especially when things don’t go according to the plan. It happens in churches, businesses, and sports teams. Remember when the Lions replaced Jim Caldwell with Matt Patricia because Caldwell hadn’t produced a playoff win? Well, the Patricia era didn’t go all that well. Hopefully, Dan Campbell can produce that elusive playoff win. In the case of the Exodus, the people hoped that Aaron would prove to be a better leader than Moses. And Aaron seemed ready to take on the job.
When the people asked Aaron to create new gods for them that would do what they asked, he was ready and willing to comply. Even though Yahweh, the God Moses represented, told the people not to make idols, they decided they needed gods they could see, touch, command, and manipulate. Even though Aaron knew what God had done for Israel through Moses, it seemed as if Aaron wanted to have his own shot at the top spot.
When it comes to Aaron’s position in the leadership structure, Frederick Buechner might have gotten things right. He suggested that Aaron might have been a bit like many older brothers who get lost in the shadow of a more charismatic younger brother. Buechner wrote:
Aaron went quietly off into the ministry where in the long run he didn’t do so badly either except that the only people who know about it were the ones who turned to the religion section on the back pages. Moses, on the other hand, was forever making the cover. The pay-off came around the time Moses hit eighty and out of a burning bush God himself voted him Man of the Year. As usual, Aaron had to be content with playing second fiddle, which he did well enough until he got the break he’d been waiting for at last, and he blew it.
Despite his theological training and time spent at the denominational headquarters, Aaron gave in to the people’s demands that he provide them with a new god who could lead them to safety. Buechner concludes with these words:
Nobody knows whether this was Aaron’s way of getting even with his kid brother for all those years of eating humble pie, or whether he actually believed with the rest of mankind that a God in the hand is worth two in the bush. [Peculiar Treasures, pp. 1-2]
Since Moses seemed to be out of the picture, at least for the moment, Aaron had his chance to be in charge. Because he wanted to please the people, he decided to give them what they wanted. So, he directed them to gather up all the gold jewelry and bring it to him so he could melt it down and create an image. When he presented the golden calf to the people, they said: “These are our gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the Land of Egypt.” Yes, this golden calf, not Yahweh, delivered them from Egypt. At least that was the new story they told themselves.
Aaron liked what he saw and decided to build an altar so the people could worship this new god of his making. In fact, he called together the worship and fellowship committees so they could plan a big celebration.
On the day of the festival, the people brought offerings and sacrifices to the altar and they “sat down to eat and drink and then began to party. It turned into a wild party!” (Exod. 32:6 MSG). The people were excited because now it seemed like this golden calf was the kind of god they could control. They were so excited they danced and drank and got really drunk. Now, doesn’t that sound like a fun kind of church service? It might draw in a crowd, but of course, as Pastor Dan might say, the Presbyterian authorities likely would frown on such a service!
Even though the people down below seemed happy with their new god, Yahweh was not happy. You can understand how God might feel after seeing this rebellion take place on the desert floor.
When God saw the people worshiping this idol, God began to wonder whether liberating these “stiff-necked people” from slavery was a mistake. In fact, the LORD sort of disowned them and told Moses to go down and take care of this situation. After all, these were Moses’ people and Moses’ problem. Yes, these people Moses brought up out from Egypt were acting perversely by disregarding everything the LORD had commanded. Therefore, the LORD was ready to pass off responsibility to Moses.
This conversation between the LORD and Moses might sound a bit like what parents might say to each other when a child acts up. You know, one parent says to the other: “That child of yours sure messed up.” Maybe it’s “your child smashed up the car;” or “your child wrote on the wall;” or “your child flunked the semester in school.”
God is so frustrated with these people that a more drastic idea emerges. Why not wipe out these stubborn people who won’t follow directions and set up idols in God’s place, and then start over with Moses. After all, since Moses was a descendant of Abraham and Sarah, God could start over with him and still fulfill the covenant God made with Abraham and Sarah. That way God wouldn’t have to continue putting up with this group of malcontents who “exchanged the glory of God for an image of an ox that eats grass” (Psalm 106:20).
Fortunately for Israel, Moses intervened and reminded God that it wouldn’t look very good if God brought the people out of Egypt just to kill them. In other words, what would the neighbors think? What kind of reputation would God have in Egypt after doing something like that? After Yahweh calmed down a bit and considered the wisdom of Moses’ pleas, God had a change of mind and decided to spare Israel. So the journey continued.
It would seem that idolatry stands at the center of this crisis. God had liberated the people, but when the process took longer than expected, the people got impatient and decided to exchange the God who liberated them with gods they could control. They got Aaron to make an idol for them. In doing this, they rejected the LORD who had commanded them not to create idols.
The story we’ve heard this morning invites us to consider the kinds of idols we create and embrace in place of God. Is it fame or fortune? What about our allegiance to the nation, do we place America ahead of our allegiance to God and the way of life Jesus reveals to us? There’s a difference between patriotism and nationalism because it’s one thing to love the country you belong to, it’s quite another thing to put one’s nation above everything else including following Jesus. One antidote to nationalism is to embrace the Lord’s Prayer as our pledge of allegiance to the realm of God, which stands above every other realm.
We face strong temptations to create and embrace gods we can control and manipulate, especially when life gets difficult. Theologian Miguel de la Torre asks a good question: “Would we not be more secure if we were to rely on a god made of gold, or in reality, in gold alone?” That is, have we numbered ourselves among the stiff-necked people who choose “mammon over God” and “risk being consumed by their own greed?” [Preaching God’s Prophetic Justice, p. 431].
Here is the good news: Despite the temptation we face to create gods we can control and manipulate for our own benefit, gods that include nationalism and greed, God is patient and long-suffering, merciful, and loving. Like children who test their parents’ patience, we also test God’s patience. Even though God can have a change of mind from time to time, ultimately God remains faithful to the covenant, even when we’re not. But, if we’re going to get to the Promised Land, we need to heed the words of God that can guide us to our ultimate destination.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Troy, Michigan
October 15, 2023
Pentecost 20A
Herrad, of Landsberg, Abbess of Hohenburg, approximately 1130-1195. The Dance of the Golden Calf from the Hortus Deliciarum, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55985 [retrieved October 14, 2023]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hortus_Deliciarum,_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb.JPG.
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