In the book of Exodus, Moses has led the people of Israel out of Egypt where they spent more than 400 years in captivity. Soon after their exodus, while in the wilderness, the Lord calls Moses to the top of Mount Sinai. There, Moses spends 40 days on the mountain with God as he inscribes the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets. The people of Israel are getting restless and weary, wondering what’s happened to Moses and what’s taking so long. In their impatience and fear, they asked Aaron to take their jewelry to make a golden calf for them to worship. Ironically, the first commandment God had written was to “have no other gods before Me”. In Exodus 32:7 it says “Then the Lord said to Moses, Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol.” (ESV)
It’s easy for us to see how absurd it seems to worship a golden calf. What can a golden calf offer? It’s not living and breathing. It can’t communicate with me, encourage me or give me advice. It offers me nothing. In Tim Keller’s book Counterfeit Gods, an idol is “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give. Anything that is so central and essential to your life that if you should lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”
There are many idols in our culture that can easily creep into our lives and take root in our hearts. Most of these idols are “good things” we enjoy so we don’t even realize how they slip into our heart and become our gods. The idol of self, security, approval, relationships, success, peace, wealth, health, intellect and comfort are just a few of these “good things” that can easily and quickly take root in our heart as idols; things that seem more important than God.
I recently had a period in my life when all of these good things were tightly held in my hands. Deep friendships that I had where we talked about growing old together and living next to each other. The success and growth of the school that my husband and I started. Seeing my kids graduate from our school. I had taken Proverbs 19:21 and flipped it upside down on its head. What the bible actually says in Proverbs 19:21 is; “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” (ESV) Slowly the Lord was loosening the grip on these blessings in my life that had become my gods. I had been writing the story of how these things were going to play out in my life. Never in a million years would I have imagined that two of our best friends and their families would move out of state. Never did I imagine that I would not be able to see all of my kids graduate from Oak Hill Classical School. Never did I imagine that one of our best friends would die of cancer at age 47. None of this was in the script that I had written.
A song that spoke to me during this time was (originally a poem written by John Newton in 1779) called “I Asked the Lord”. Here are some of the lyrics:
Lord, why is this I trembling cried
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death
“Tis in this way, the Lord replied
I answer prayer for grace and faith.”
These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.
As the Lord was, finger by finger, opening up my hands off these idols I was holding, it made me realize how I was not earnestly seeking Him (Psalm 63:1) and how I wasn’t loving the Lord with all my heart (Matthew 22:37) I was living in fear because I didn’t want to lose these things and I wanted to be in control of my life. I thought (and most of the time, still do) I knew what was best for my life. I was leaning on my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6)- just as the Israelites, I had become a “stiff-necked people” and worshiped my own golden calf.
As Sarai, Rebekah and Jonah all chose to create their own story and take matters into their own hands, the Lord was and is graciously drawing us back to Him. Not in our own strength but only through the power of the Holy Spirit. Tim Keller said, “You don’t realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” Oh that your people would lay down the idols of our hearts, coming to you with open hands, trusting and worshiping You alone. I pray that we would daily surrender our plans, our stories and idols to the only one that can bring true joy. Only Jesus can satisfy all of our longings and desires.
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