Read: Exodus 30-32
Focus Verse: “When Aaron saw this he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, ‘Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.’ So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” (Exodus 32:5-6).
Devotion: You may have heard this story before; God gets angry that Israel has made a golden calf to worship. What I haven’t slowed down enough to see before is that in 32:5 Aaron says that it is to the LORD. I’m not sure I’m convinced, but it seems to suggest that the Israelites think that they are worshiping the LORD (not another god), or at least that Aaron does. Aside from their drunken party, what’s the main issue then? If this calf and sacrifices are supposedly offered up to God, then what’s the problem? I think it is further addressed throughout scripture, but for now, ‘do not make an image for God, or of God’(Exodus 20:4); why not though? Perhaps because a creator cannot be imagined as one of his creations (a calf). It is impossible to visualize a creator as one of his creations because the creator is vast beyond comprehension and cannot be distilled down to the form of a calf, or any other image. The image of the creator as a creature cannot happen at least until the Creator decides and picks an image (the person of Jesus). I think the issue is limiting a creator into an image made by the creation, you know? It’s the attempt to say ‘this is what God is’ when we cannot know all that God is. Rather than trying to define what God is [in their case a golden calf], we have to let God tell us who he is [as seen in the incarnate Jesus Christ].
Pray: LORD help me remember how vast you are, how great your love is, and how you cannot be imagined. God you’re beyond our understanding and we need to sit back and let YOU be God. Help us to be humbled before you. Amen.
Additional Scripture: “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)