The silent “gods”

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The book of Exodus amazes me every time I read it.  It is an awesome place to see the mercies of God being exhibited on a bunch of self centered & rebellious people.  The verse in Exodus 32:4 seems like an epitome of Israel’s rebellion against God., "He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."   We see that God has just delivered millions of Israelites from their 400 years of bondage, made them cross the Red Sea without a single boat, destroyed all their enemies, gave them food to eat and water to drink in the middle of the dry desert and finally seventy elders of Israel went up to the Mount of Sinai and “saw God” and “ate and drank” with God (Exodus 24). 

Now these people who have witnessed, seen and experienced the power of the living God are so quick to make up an idol, and call it a god and bestow the work done by God to these idol gods.  It appears that they seemed to have forgotten in a moment’s time the God who delivered them from all their trials and tribulations of 400 years.   I believe that this act was an outcome of their new found freedom.  We can see throughout history that whenever man has had a freedom to choose, he tends to choose the things that are contradictory to God and his principles.  Back in Egypt these Israelites were constantly crying out to God, while now in the land of freedom with free choices they chose to reject the same God who delivered them.  

As I looked into the possible reason as to why the Israelites did what they did was that they recognized a key difference between the Almighty God who delivered them and the idol gods. The idol gods never spoke to its worshipers and the idol god never gave any rules to live by like Almighty God did.  The worshipers of the idol gods were free to create their own rules and regulations as they pleased. 

For the past 400 years the Israelites had seen how the Egyptians had enjoyed their life and were living as they pleased, while they were suffering in slavery.  I believe their new found freedom made them desire the same.  They recognized that if they created an idol god, just like the Egyptians, then they too would be able to do as they pleased.  They wanted to re-define God and re-define their ways of living.  As soon as they were out of their bondage, they wanted to get rid of the God who delivered them out of bondage.  They did not have any more need of God.  They believed that they could take care of themselves.  They did not want God to dictate any rules and regulations for their lives, since they were happy to dictate it themselves.  They were happy to have an idol, since it was their silent “god”. 

It is sad to see the outcome of their rebellious nature, many of them who did not repent of their act lost their lives forever.  We see in the same chapter that God erased their names from the book of Life.  These were the same chosen people whom God delivered out of Egypt.  Jesus is the only God who lives, the idol gods do not live, hence cannot speak! If you think they speak, please do ask them, then you will know the truth.

The question that reverberates for all of us today is: Will we too forsake the God who is alive, loves us and delivers us from our troubles? 


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