“And all the people brake off the
golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.” –Exodus
32:3
As people, we are capable of trust and belief, but it is
often in the things that are seen. We
will trust in the tangible to the point of madness; going to ridiculous lengths
to put our faith in something that is seen.
The humanity in use, calls out to trust in the tangible, when all our
salvation lies in the spiritual.
In the thirty second chapter of Exodus we find the children
of Israel doing just that. Moses, their
leader and spiritual adviser, was up on a mountain talking with God. Moses who lead them out of Egypt, parted the Red
Sea, and fed them with manna from heaven.
They witness, and experienced marvelous miracles wrought by God through
the hand of Moses, and for the most part, followed him, but now God was calling
them to wait. He was calling them to
wait at the bottom of the mountain for Moses to return with instructions. They
did none of the sort, but quite the opposite.
They asked Aaron to make a golden calf; something tangible for them to
worship. So, he told them to brake off
their golden earrings and bring them to him; he then used the gold to fashion
an object for them to worship. Notice
that they used something on their person to provide the materials to create
their idol. It was something close by,
within their reach that they used to worship.
When Moses had gone, and they were expected to wait in faith, they
turned to the natural. The devil would
have us fall after the same “example of unbelief.” Sometimes in our spiritual walk with Christ
we find ourselves in a spiritual desert.
This is not the same as being lost in sin. It’s “knowing” you are right with God, but
not “hearing” from him in a while. You
pray daily, read often, go to church, but you haven’t felt the move of the Holy
Ghost; you haven’t had a fresh blessing, true worship, undoubted
communion. What do you do? How do you respond?
Satan would have us panic, fashion a god and trust in the tangible. The devil would have us think that God has
forsaken us; he is gone, never to return, and he would have us search for
something, anything, within our means to fashion a god out of. It may be your: job, husband, wife,
girlfriend, boyfriend, hobby; and perhaps it is not just one thing, but
multiple little things melted together to create no space for Christ. You go from one “I got to” another “I need
to” and then all that’s left for God is your spare time. This is how gods are created in our day and
age, not by gold and silver melted and beaten into an image; but by giving too
much of your time, money, and energy to something temporal. The temptation to trust in the tangible is
never more potent than when you cannot “feel” Jesus there.
Remember, Jesus is always there. “Draw
nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.”
Continue reading, continue praying, continue believing, continue
praising. Thank God for his goodness and
trust him for tomorrow. There is a
reason for the desert and a purpose for the suffering. Continue, then one day, one glorious day, the
Spirit will come down from heaven and pour out a wonderful, overwhelming
blessing on your soul, and you will be glad that you didn’t break off the
golden earrings! You will be glad that
you waited on the Lord to come down from the mountain.
