Listen

The people saw that Moses was taking a long time to come down from the mountain. They gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come on! Make us gods who can lead us. As for this man Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t have a clue what has happened to him.”

Aaron said to them, “All right, take out the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took out the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. He collected them and tied them up in a cloth. Then he made a metal image of a bull calf, and the people declared, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Exodus 32:1-4

Think

The whole golden calf thing could have been avoided if the people had even a little bit of patience. The story starts with “the people saw that Moses was taking a long time to come down from the mountain.” To these people, recently escaped from slavery in Egypt, Moses was God’s representative, and with him being up on that mountain, talking to God, they got impatient and restless and decided to ask Aaron to replace Moses, and by proxy, God.

In our lives, it can sometimes seem that whenever God works and moves in big ways, we tend to get used to it. So when there are gaps in us seeing God at work, we look for things to take the place of that divine work. Often, our impatience leads us to make our own golden calves.

Chuck Powell

Question to Ponder:

What things/people/ideas do we often substitute for God when it seems like God is taking too long to act?

Pray

God, give me the patience to wait on you so that I can continue to see you at work in my life. Amen.

Go

Go, always remembering what our faithful God has done.