WHAT'S YOUR IDOL

In Exodus 32, the children of Israel decided to take matters into their own hands and create their own idol, or god. Moses was away, Aaron couldn’t give them the answers they wanted so they gave up waiting and convinced Aaron that it was ok to build a foreign god. Despite all they had seen God do for them, the Israelites were pretty quick to turn their backs on the true, living God to create and throw themselves to a breathless idol. Seems pretty ridiculous right…or does it?

When I first read the account of the golden calf, I just like many believers, were very quick to judge the Israelites very harshly and wonder how they could fathom the thought of creating another god despite everything the Lord had done for them. How dare they be so arrogant and defiant against God! Moses went away for a second and the Israelites quickly turned their hearts away from the Lord. Years later I read the same passage again. And while I stood in righteousness indignation over the blatant disrespect to God, the Holy Spirit quietly tapped my shoulder and said, “Umm…you’ve done the same thing ma’am. Take all your righteous indignation and go repent!” So I automatically responded with Me?!? How could anything I’d done possibly compare with what the Israelites did!! I had never worshipped ANY other god! I was saved and been in church all my life. I didn’t understand what the Holy Spirit was trying to show me…until I received more insight about the mindset of the Israelites at the time.

The Israelites had become accustomed to Moses and God leading them EVERY step of their way. The Israelites would bring requests and concerns to Moses, Moses would meet with God and God would immediately provide for them. By the time we reach Exodus 32, verse 1 states that Moses had been away for a while…and they weren’t sure when or if he was coming back. They went from seeing Moses and the hand of God very consistently to not seeing either at all. Instead of using this opportunity to reflect on what God had done in the past and trust that He nor Moses had not abandoned them, they along with Aaron panicked and decided to go back to their comfort zone…which was making other idols to serve. Being Egyptian slaves for generations made them very familiar with this practice.

So what does that have to do with me, or us as children of God? We can sometimes fall into the trap of making idols in our lives when we don’t see God move when we want him to. Instead of waiting patiently on His timing and reflecting on what He’s already done, we get anxious and impatient. We miss the fact that God is trying to increase our faith in Him and take us to another level. Then we resort to our comfort zone and try to ‘make our own way’. Our creation then becomes our idol. Because instead of trusting God’s timing we put all our focus and energy into making our creation meet our levels of comfort. By doing this we not only miss an opportunity to grow in God and trust Him at another level, but we run the risk of missing the best He has planned for us because we took over the process. Examples of idols can be a job, school, relationships, money, social organizations…or anything that takes place of God as the main focus in your life. Or anything that causes you to sacrifice spending time with Him.

This week I challenge you to seek God and ask Him to reveal any unknown idols in your life…areas or things that receive more attention than Him. A good place to start is to ask yourself this question: “Will I easily get rid of _________ if God asked me to?” If you can’t say ‘yes’, that may be your idol.

Have a great week

MITZI