What's Your Golden Calf?

Because of my job working with our church's Preschool/Kindergarten and the age of my children I have a lot of interaction with kids, especially preschoolers. In my professional opinion, kids are hysterical! There always seems to be something going on at home or at school. I find myself chuckling and rolling my eyes at children on a daily basis.  For instance, my three year old son has discovered super heroes and has decided that he is "hooper hero" himself ("s" is not an important consonant to a three year old). For his birthday we had a cape made for him and now he runs around the yard singing, "Da da DAH!" while killing scary monsters. My other three are just as funny... and just as weird.

Besides being humorous, my children have taught me a lot. This especially goes for spiritual stuff. How do you explain crucifixion to a three year old? I realized something hadn't translated right when he exclaimed, "They killed baby Jesus!?!" Most importantly, they've taught me about forgiveness.  Punishment comes easy for most parents, but forgiveness can be a little harder. I know my kids are still young, but I've never refused to forgive them. My problem with forgiveness was in letting my kids know I forgave them. Let's be honest, adults often have problems rationalizing that people still like us when we hurt them. It's hard to look someone in the eye when you've caused them pain. Sometimes the friendship ends because we can't bear to be reminded of our failures. A preschooler in trouble deserves to be there. An elementary age kid ought to be brought up short and punished. A teenager needs to have their life flipped upside down. They need this so they will learn. However, the most important thing they need to learn is that they are loved and can be forgiven...no matter what.

Let's look at Exodus 34:6-7 and discover God's forgiveness.

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

Before we start digging into more Hebrew definitions, let's take a look at the first phrase, "maintaining love to thousands" and review from the previous post. The word that is translated as "love" is the word checed. Remember that checed is the word that God uses in conjunction with His covenant to those who follow Him. Here he is saying that not only does He abound in it, but He sets a portion aside and protects it for those who keep His covenant. God's wording of this truth is slightly different earlier in Exodus and, I think, shows us better the extent of the portion He maintains. Exodus 20:6 reads,

but showing love to a thousand [ generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

There are many scholars that count numbers in the Bible, especially the number of years or the numbers of descendants, and declare the Bible as inaccurate when they don't add up. The problem is, we deal with hard facts and numbers in our modern world while ancient societies didn't. Instead of using mathematical terms like infinity, they used large round numbers to convey the same thought. God is saying that His promise of checed is accessible to anyone who loves Him and keeps His commandments regardless of the number. There's no heavenly Fire Marshal that limits God.

God's use of "those who love me" in Exodus 20:6 foreshadow the next part of our study, which is His forgiving nature. If God had decided to only say, "for those who keep my commandments", then we would have no hope. As we've stated in previous posts Romans 3:23 states,

 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

God knew and knows that we will fail to meet His standards. But if we truly love Him, then we are willing to admit our failures. In doing this, we open the door and allow God's forgiveness to fix us; to heal us. Just like I need to do with my children, God takes the time to show us that nothing we have done or will do is too much for Him to forgive.

The first thing God says he will forgive is our wickedness. The Hebrews word here is 'awon which means to pervert truth or pervert life. As I read through these definitions and tried to get a sense of them, this struck me as the most deceitful type of sin. We are not only doing what is wrong, but we are proclaiming our "wrongness" to be right. We are encouraging others to join us. We teach young minds our "truths" instead of God's. We knowingly twist what we deep down know to be right to serve our own desires. God says...I will forgive this.

The next word we come to is rebellion. 'Pasha refers to the sin that is intentional. A rebellion is defined by Merriam-Webster as - open, armed, and usually unsuccessful defiance of or resistance to an established government. We openly say to God that we know His rules, but I'm going to do what I want anyway. Defiance in the face of Supreme Authority...unsuccessful hardly describes it. But God says...I will forgive this.

The final word God uses is sin. The Hebrew word chatta't is used in the Bible to describe a multitude of different types of sins. However, the Chatta't (note the capitalization) was a sin offering God gave in Leviticus 4:1 for sins that were committed unintentionally. Here we find the little things that we do without thinking. Some of them used to be intentional, but have become routine. Some of them we aren't aware of because of societal or family beliefs that don't hold true to God's standards. But God holds us accountable for these sins. However, He says...I will forgive this.

Interestingly enough, God proves this in between chapters 20 and 34. Let's start in Exodus 20:1-6

And God spoke all these words:
 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
 "You shall have no other gods before me.
 "You shall not make for yourself an idol 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; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [ generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Here God is relaying the first two commandments through Moses to the Israelites, His chosen people. He quite simply states that they must worship no other god and don't make an idol to worship. God continues on and gives Moses four chapters of laws which are then ratified by the Israelites in Exodus 24:7.

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey."

After all this had taken place, God orders Moses up the mountain. Exodus 24:12,17-18 reads,

The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction."


To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Okay, here's where it gets interesting. Let's paint a picture. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They saw God bring ten plagues on Pharaoh and his kingdom that proclaimed God's authority and supremacy over all other gods. Then they walked on a dry river bed between towering sheets of water that God then dashed down on Pharaoh and his army. After all that, a column of smoke led them by day while a column of fire led them by night. After three months of this, they arrive at a mountain where God meets with their leader and then gives them the rules to follow. Even though Moses leaves, God's presence is certainly visible as a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Now let's read Exodus 32:1-6

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."
Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me."  So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 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."
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

Forty days. That's all it took. While Aaron was making a golden calf, God was telling Moses that Aaron would be the High Priest. Did you catch that? God's chosen priest gave into the crowd and led them astray. If you read on in chapter 32 he even lies about it when Moses comes down the mountain. After they messed up that bad, God still offers forgiveness. How can God do this? We'll talk more about the technical side of ll this next week, but the simple answer is...He decided to take our punishment for us. Almost 1000 years after the Golden Calf Isaiah records God's words in Isaiah 53:5-6,

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Though this was written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, God offers His forgiveness through His Son. The Hebrew word for "transgressions" is the same as the one for "rebellion". ""Iniquities" is the same as "wickedness". I believe that "sin" is covered by the idea of sheep wandering astray. God offers forgiveness, but only to those who love Him. He promises that the wounds Christ suffered on the cross will heal the blackness of our souls; all we have to do is love Him.

Most of have heard the story of how Peter denied Jesus three times. Weeks later, Jesus had a personal conversation with Peter about it. He didn't thunder at Peter. Jesus didn't give him a list of things to do to make up for his betrayal. Jesus didn't even frown at him. He simply asked Peter three times, "Do you love me?" This is where Peter found forgiveness. This is where God poured out some of the checed that He has kept. Many religions give you a list of things you must do to "clean up" before you can receive whatever they promise. God simply asks, "Do you love me?" Are you willing to follow Him? Are you willing to devote your life to His Son, Jesus? Jesus himself says in Revelation 3:20,

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door , I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

As you ponder God's forgiveness through Jesus, take a moment and listen to this song. What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

All scripture taken from the New International Version