Deception

 February 11, 2024

”Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for 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.” And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.”“

—Exodus 32:1-5 

Pay close attention to what is happening here. Impatience is the driver. Idolatry is the result. They didn’t bow down to any of the gods that were worshipped by the Egyptians or the Canaanites. They fashioned an idol, a golden calf, which in appearance was little different than the gods of the nations around them. They didn’t call it Baal or Isis, or Molech. They gave the idol the name of the one true God. Today we don’t literally fashion and bow down to idols out of gold and say, “This statue is the LORD, the Creator and Ruler of all.” We’re more subtle about it. 

We bow down before the same idols, the same sins, the same obsessions and addictions of the world, but bless them by claiming they are really not what they appear to be. “They are,” we say, “the work of God.” We say, “God wants to bless you.” True enough until we add words to the effect that God wants you rich. We justify our greed, our lust, our prejudice or laziness by taking Scripture out of context and blessing our sin with God’s Name. So I have to ask myself, “What sin am I hiding behind my pious talk, blessing it in the name of Jesus?” And I must also ask, “How is my self-deception keeping me from truly bowing before the one and only God and Savior, Jesus Christ?”