Gleanings – Come On God, Giddyup!
Exodus 32:1-20
“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
Memories often fail us, huh? When our almost four year old Dow meets a new friend and the friend inevitably asks, “How old are you?” Dow runs over and says, “Mommy, what’s my number?” He is not good with names either. He is worthy of some slack though. He is ONLY almost four and he has never forgotten who is parents are.
Forgetting who brought you out of Egypt is like forgetting who your parents are. It doesn’t happen. Well, it shouldn’t. But the Israelites, because Moses was delayed, have forgotten who brought them out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt. In the place of God and His servant Moses, they cast their lot with a golden calf that is void of any power.
Boy we humans are lame. “We?” you ask. Yep. I am an Israelite called by another name. If I have a leg up it is that I am not deceived by a golden calf. If I have a leg up! Because my heart is, just as John Wesley says, a veritable idol factory. And as the prophet Jeremiah says of all hearts, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” The NIV says “beyond cure” in lieu of “desperately sick.” Ugh. My heart is terminal.
So what is your idol, the thing you exalt in the place of the God who brought you out of Egypt? Most often mine is me. When something is not happening according to plan, I am inclined to step in and think I will bring about the desired result. I’ll help God. It is the perennial challenge for me in this church plant called Grace Community. God birthed the idea and promised to birth the people through relationships. In spite of the abundant fruit to the contrary, He seems delayed to me. I want to take the reins and say giddyup. I can plan an attractive event as well as anyone. I can draw people. Same desired outcome, right? Right! But the means matter and He has another plan. But, I argue with myself, His plan isn’t on pace. So again I am tempted to usurp what is His, and replace Him with myself.
And of course that is where He wants to change me, in the area of trust and patience, in Him of course.
Listen. Did you hear that? “Come on God, Giddyup!” Was that me? Or you?