A God We Can Control

Exodus 32:1-14 

Introduction

What is God like? This is one of the most basic questions of humanity. And people have widely varying views. Some see God as personal, some as impersonal. Some see God as infinite, some a finite. Some see God as all-loving, some as being more wrathful. Try to picture in your mind the images that arise when you think about God.

Where do our ideas about God come from? We probably want to say that all of our ideas come from the Bible, even if that is probably not quite true. But even if you limited yourself to what the Bible says about God, there is so much information that, depending on what passages you focused on you, could still come up with multiple concepts of what God was like. For example, those who see God as a judge ready to smite at the smallest indiscretion could find passages to support that. Those who see God as loving and patient, caring for us like a devoted parent, could also find passages to support that.

I say this not to surrender any hope of being able to think accurately about God. Rather, we all bring a bias to our reading of Scripture. There is a reason why both supporters and critics of apartheid were able to find proof texts. It is impossible to be completely unbiased on any subject, but this is especially true about how we see God.

This is not a modern problem, it is something that has been with us since the beginning of humanity. Even though the Bible says that God created us in his image, there is truth in the reverse: we create God in our image. I don’t mean that we have invented the concept of God. I truly believe that God exists. But granting God’s existence, we apply characteristics to God that are convenient for us.

Part of this is just a natural component of our cultural conditioning. We are shaped by both our religious and cultural context. It happens unconsciously and we have to work hard to at least recognize it.

But this also happens at specific events in our life. We encounter a situation in life that seems incongruent with our understanding of God. If you strongly believe that God always heals and then watch a loved one die from a disease, you have to do something with that. This is called cognitive dissonance. Psychology Todays says “The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people are averse to inconsistencies within their own minds.” Our mind cannot hold to two contradictory ideas. This means when certain events happen, we may consider changing our understanding of God. This can be good or this can be bad. It depends on what our starting point is and the kinds of adjustments we make to our concept of God.

This may sound rather complex but thankfully the passage that we are looking at gives a helpful example of this concept.

The Golden Calf

We need a bit of historical context. The Israelites had been in slavery in Egypt for some time. God used Moses and his brother Aaron to bring them out of slavery. This led them to Mount Sinai, where Moses ascended to receive the Law from God. This was not a quick trip but was for forty days and forty nights. This caused the people to panic. They did not have a sense that they had direct access to God. At this point they had no Scriptures and their only prophet was missing in action. As the readers, we know that all is well. Moses is receiving revelation in the presence of God. But the people do not know this. They are having one of those crises where people begin to rethink their beliefs. On the one hand, they believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. No one can deny that God had brought them out of Egypt with many signs and wonders. This God seemed present and active in their lives. But how do they reconcile that with a God that leaves them alone and without a prophet for a long time. These two things do not seem to fit together.

Now what the Israelites do sounds very strange but remember at this point, no part of Scripture had yet been written. All they had to draw on was their experience. And what was their experience? They had lived among the Egyptians and the Egyptians never felt abandoned by their gods. They had idols, golden statues that represented their gods, and they could bring them wherever they wanted. It was like the difference between being lost forty years ago and not knowing where a phone booth was, and being lost today with a cell phone in your pocket. Surely, they could do something like that, to bring back a sense of control. A God who came and go as he wished was too unpredictable. So the Israelites asked Aaron to provide such a god.

Aaron, being the “loyal” brother to Moses on the mountain, complied with their wishes. He took their golden jewelry and made a golden calf. As they were doing this, Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments. The first two commandments are: 

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” (Exodus 20:3-4)

You might think these are saying the same thing but they are not and it is relevant to how the Israelites saw the golden calf. The first commandment is not to have a different god. The second commandment is against idols. But it is possible to make an idol of the true God and that is equally forbidden. There is a debate over whether they thought the golden calf was a totally different god or if they believed that this represented the same god that Moses had been speaking for. Considering Aaron was involved, it was likely the latter.

Ultimately it does not matter as their goal was to exchange the unpredictability and the seeming silence of God for a god they could control and make the way they wanted. We will not focus on this part, but neither God nor Moses was impressed with this and the people narrowly avoided God’s wrath.

What is Our Calf?

This might be one of those stories where we as modern Christians look at the Israelites and wonder: “How could they be so stupid?” And yet as we began this message, we continue to create God in our own image. We do not exchange God for a different god, but we make our own golden calf to support the god we want. Like the Israelites, we are uncomfortable with God’s unpredictability. What is God actually doing on that mountain? Has he killed the prophet and abandoned us?

We are in a time of incredible cultural and religious turmoil. Almost everything about life is completely different. If someone who fell into a coma fifty years ago woke up today, what do you think would be the most shocking?

Why has God allowed so much change to take place, change that we find so uncomfortable? Why has God allowed such difficult events to happen in your personal life? Do you ever wonder what God is doing because the plan seems like darts thrown against a dartboard?

How do we avoid exchanging one God for another God that just happens to fit our preferences? It is an ever present danger but there is an answer and the answer is Jesus.

The Apostle Paul said this about Jesus “He is the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15)

Christians believe that God revealed himself in Jesus Christ. Jesus lived his life in a certain way. Jesus spoke to the situations of the day, which have changed in detail but not in principle from our day. When we suspect that we are building a golden calf by which to control God, we need to look back to Jesus. Jesus will not promise to keep us comfortable but he will promise to show us the way. The one who is truly the image of God can help stop us from recreating God in our own image. When we are confused if this is what God would want, let us ask if it looks like Jesus.

Conclusion

When I look at the story of the golden calf, I understand that it was disobedience and foolishness and sin. The people should not have asked for it and Aaron should never have given it to them. But at the same time, I am sympathetic. I can imagine myself in that camp, looking to the mountain and wondering if Moses was ever coming down, wondering if God had abandoned them. I can feel the temptation to exchange an unpredictable God who cannot be controlled for a God that is much more manageable. 

The only solution to this is Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Jesus is the one who reveals the kingdom of God. Jesus is the one who keeps us on the straight and narrow. Jesus is the one who protects us from ourselves. Jesus is the answer.