#DailyDevotion When Worship Goes Wrong

Easter Week 2 Saturday

Read Ex 32:1–14

Exo 32:4-5  And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”  (5)  When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”…11  But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?…14  And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

Sometimes you have to wonder about the Israelites. They had seen the Lord’s mighty acts. They had heard the voice of the Lord from the cloud. Yet no sooner did Moses not work on their time table they forget everything they heard the Lord say. Well to tell you the truth, we probably aren’t much better if we are honest with ourselves. We may just not do it on the scale the Israelites did.

Now it is human nature to worship a god or gods. The people wanted to worship. Aaron fills that desire by fashioning a golden calf for them to worship. The Israelites had received the commands not to fashion graved images and worship them. Aaron should have known better but he feared the people more than God. We should note that Aaron does not say the golden calf is another god but it is the Lord who had taken them out of Egypt. They weren’t worshipping other gods but they were worshipping the Lord in a manner he had forbidden them. Perhaps we too should pay some attention to how we worship it the Lord and make sure it isn’t a manner that offends him.

Now the Israelites had roused the Lord’s anger against him because they had rebelled against his word. But Moses intercedes on their behalf and reminds the Lord of his promises. The Lord then relents from the disaster he was going to bring upon them. It is the Lord’s primary will towards humanity to have mercy, kindness, patience and forgiveness. Now when we sin against the Lord, we have one greater than Moses who intercedes for us. Indeed he has taken God’s wrath upon himself, the wrath that is rightly ours. That one is Jesus. He not only has taken God’s wrath upon his own flesh he is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us day and night. He prays for God’s mercy for you that you would turn from sin, believe in his name and walk in the Lord’s way. The Father hears Jesus and remembers his promises. We too need to regularly hear God’s promises, remember them and live our lives according to them.

Heavenly Father, ever hear the voice our Savior Jesus Christ interceding for us and have mercy upon us. Grant us faith to believe your promises and may your Holy Spirit guide all our ways all the days of our life here on earth. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.