There can be many reasons that we set up false or functional gods. Identity, need, pain. How about this one? God’s silence. Whew!! Ouch!!
In Exodus 24 we find God calling Moses up on Mt. Sinai to receive the Law. Moses was gone for forty days and nights. The people grew impatient waiting on him and in Exodus 32 they ask Aaron, Moses’ brother, to make them a god to lead them because this fella Moses has split the scene.
There are two things that I want to highlight here. Exodus 32: 1 says, “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.” (NKJV)
The commentary on this verse from the MacArthur Study Bible is pointed and thought provoking. It says, “Such was the influence of the polytheistic world in which they lived that the Israelites, in a time of panic or impatience, succumbed to a pagan world view. What made it even more alarming was the rapidity with which pagan idolatry swept in despite recent real-life demonstrations of God’s greatness and goodness toward them. But they weren’t just requesting gods, but gods to lead them forward—‘that shall go before us’. The pagan world view had robbed them of seeing God as having led them out of Egypt and instead they scornfully attributed the Exodus to Moses.”
How often do the gods that you and I fashion for ourselves rob us of seeing God at work in our lives—of seeing God for Who He truly is? Pretty often, I think.
The other thing I wanted to highlight is in Exodus 32:2 where Aaron agrees to make them an idol (good grief, Aaron, have you no shame?!) and he says 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.” Aaron used these golden earrings to make a calf for them to worship. Where did the Israelites get these golden earrings? It was plunder that God allowed them to take from the Egyptians. It was free loot that God blessed them with. (See Exodus 12:35-36). Here is what struck me so as I read these verses: When we fashion for ourselves false or functional gods, it ALWAYS costs us something personally. It may cost us our money, our freedom, our integrity, our character, our peace, our relationships or any of a hundred other things, but there is always a cost to us personally.
Is a functional god worth the cost? You have to make the decision for yourself but I think it is not!!
