How easy it is for us to imagine God the way we think He should be. I was listening to Kirk Cameron, the teenage star of the old sitcom called Growing Pains, give his testimony. At one point he spoke about a fictional conversation he was having with someone about the character of God. He said "So what do you think God is like?" the fictional character said "I believe God is good and would never send anyone to a place like Hell." Kirk went on to say that what this person was doing was creating a false god in their own imagination. He went on to say that this God was neither God or a god because this person had made this god in their own mind. In fact he said the person who creates a false god in their own mind has created and idol and is called idolatry. "Yes God is good" he said "However the god this person was referring to was a total fabrication and not the divine true God. This is so dangerous. Yet we are prone to do this when we try to imagine or envision what God is like in minds, especially when it comes to holding ourselves accountable for our behaviors and actions. Our first inclination is to not judge ourselves at all. Why? because God won't judge me because I am a good person. Our second is to imagine what we believe God would think. The third is to create a god that would neither judge our behavior or action but instead justify it some way some how or dismiss it as not that big of a deal. But this kind of walk with Jesus is both delusional and dangerous. Yet, this is exactly how most of us end up creating a false god. We craft it with our intellect and own reasoning forming an object we call call god but is just an idol in our mind. And this is how we form it. We just evaluate what everyone else around us believes, then we embrace all points of view, we put our own ideas and perceptions in the mix throw into our minds and poof...out comes this golden calf. This is not the way God intended for His creation to experience the fullness of His nature and come to the knowledge of the Truth. Jesus told us that God is seeking those that will worship Him in Spirit and Truth. It is through His Spirit that God is revealed to us And it is His Truth that He has revealed His Character and Nature. As the Bible declares "let God be true and every man a liar." Rom 3:4
When God brought His people out of Egypt He told them He wanted them to come to Him and worship Him. He told them that He wanted to separate unto Himself a special people in which He could reveal Himself. And this is the key to knowing God. Our God is a God that reveals Himself to us. There is no need for us to imagine or create an image of God. He would reveal Himself to us. No guess work no struggle to wonder what He looks like or what He thinks. He had determined to reveal Himself to His people, speak to His people, and spend eternity revealing Himself to His people. However, I found this section so insightful in the way we chose to create a god in our mind instead of waiting on God to reveal more of Himself to us. I found it at the the point of the story where the Hebrew nation had assembled themselves before God at the base of mountain. God had called His people to cleanse themselves and prepare to meet Him. He reveals Himself in great thunder, darkness, and the mountain shakes violently. He spoke to them and the sound was so intense it sounded like standing behind a Boeing 747 as it hit full thrust at take off. The people were terrified and rightfully so. However, Moses is called up to meet God in the mountain. Moses leaves the people and for over 40 days there is no sign of him. This is when the people of God turn from waiting on God and His plan to reveal the fulness of His character, nature, and plan for them and they turn to construct a false god instead.
Exod 32:1-5
1 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."
2 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."
3 "So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
4 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!"
5 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."
(NKJ)
Our God is a revealing God. We have no right to fashion Him the way we think He is. The text said Aaron took an engraving tool and took the place of God to create Him the way he believed God to be. Yet God already has determined the way in which He desires to reveal himself. His way is perfect and it is pure as we will see later when God gives Moses the pattern of the tabernacle and all that is involved in worship to God. When Moses is ordered by God to come down from the mountain and confront the people he asks Aaron for an explanation. This is what I find evermore alarming. It is not so much what was created in place of god it was how it was created!
Exod 32:24
[Aaron speaking] 24 "And I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.' So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out."
(NKJ)
I don't believe Aaron was playing the ignorant servant here. This a people who had come out of the world and had been exposed to all kinds of mystical indoctrination. It is not hard to look at our culture today and see the occult and mystical flooding our minds through television and movies. We are surrounded by people who call themselves religious but are absorbed in mystical beliefs and practices. Aaron is saying here that I was trying to allow God to flow through me and reveal Himself to me. I took the gold and tossed it in the fire and then god actively formed this calf. It was a mysterious and mystical experience. However, the One and only true God was not involved in this form of occult practice. Instead this as close to conjuring up a not God but a demon of other spirit in order to create likeness in which it could attach itself too. And this is why God had called them out of the land of Egypt and into the wilderness. To separate them from world and it search and desire to contact and worship other gods. God specifically comes down to reveal himself to the world and He chose the small insignificant Hebrew Nation to do it.
God desires to reveal to us how we are to come to Him and how we are to know Him and experience the fullness of His Revelation to us. Unfortunately we are a people who are all to often stiff-necked. It is easier and more natural for us to break of some gold through it in the fire and ask ourselves now lets have some fun. If only we would wait on God and allow him to show us how we are to come before Him. If only we would ask God what is it that you would like me to do to see your face. Or even in what way could I approach you that would please you the most?
"I know Jesus", you say."I already know what He is like." I suggest you take another look. Make sure you are not staring into the eyes of that gold calf. How long have you been casting others peoples gold into the fire hoping the kind of god you want would come out of it. God has been known to judge harshly those who make a false image of Him and raise it up for others to follow. So who are what are you worshipping today.
I have determined not to bow to the cow but instead turn toward the mountain of God. Call on His Name and allow God to reveal Himself to me through His Spirit and Truth of His Son Jesus Christ. The Rock of my salvation! And as I gaze into the eyes of Jesus and will say "I desire to know you Jesus and you alone.Reveal yourself to me"
