Tag: faith

The Golden Calf (Exodus 32:1-14)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Adoration of the Golden Calf, by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

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, 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.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. (New International Version)

The Golden Calf, by Sefira Lightstone

The ancient Israelites were dramatically delivered from slavery through a series of plagues on Egypt. Then, their lives were saved when God parted the Red Sea and the people fled from the advancing Egyptian army; collapsing the water on the soldiers when they tried to pursue the people.

The Israelites were led to Mount Sinai where God graciously entered into covenant with them; and gave them the law and the commandments. Yet, between receiving the covenant, and waiting for Moses to return from the mountain, the Israelites fell into chaos and a failure of faith. So, how did the relationship between God and Israel go so awfully sideways?

Moses spent a great amount of time with God on Mount Sinai. Apparently, the people believed that the forty days and forty nights on the mountain was too long and assumed that Moses would not return. So, what followed was idolatry, near annihilation, and intercession.

A failure of leadership

Aaron was left to lead the people during Moses’ absence. It didn’t take long for the people to get unruly and start working on Aaron. They asked him to make gods who will go before them, just as Yahweh and Moses had done in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.

For whatever reason, Aaron complied with their request. Maybe the people pestered him to death with constant bickering and asking, and he eventually gave-in to their coercion. Perhaps Aaron thought they had a point, and went with it as a willing participant. We aren’t told why. We are told that Aaron ordered the people to remove all the gold earrings they were wearing and bring them to him.

Aaron took all the gold he received and fashioned it into the form of a calf. Again, we aren’t told why Aaron chose to make a golden calf, in particular. Maybe he was forging a false god altogether in the shape of one of the Egyptian gods. After all, there had been a significant “back to Egypt” movement earlier, when circumstances got tough without food or water in the desert. Or perhaps Aaron was making a false image of the one true God. Either way you look at it, it’s not good.

The golden calf was handed to the people and proclaimed as the gods who brought them out of Egypt. If that weren’t bad enough, Aaron made the situation even worse by building an altar for the calf and declaring a feast for the next day. So, it’s no surprise to us as readers when we see poor leadership decision-making that leads to the people getting way out-of-hand in their festivities through drunkenness and sexual immorality.

The consequences of poor leadership

All of the revelry got God’s attention. The Lord saw the people’s depravity and commanded Moses to get back down the mountain, at once. God’s tone of voice and choice of pronouns took a turn. The Lord said to Moses, “Your people have acted perversely,” effectively distancing the divine from the mass of humanity at the foot of the mountain.

God was so upset that he started planning to destroy the whole lot of them and completely start over through the descendants of Moses. Yet, even though the Lord was very angry, and rightly so, Moses stepped in and interceded on the people’s behalf. Moses appealed to God’s reputation rather than God’s compassion. In an interesting twist, Moses turned the responsibility for the Israelites back onto God by saying they are your people, the ones whom you brought out of the land of Egypt.

What’s more, Moses pointed out to God that the Egyptians would question God’s motives for bringing the Israelites into the desert. And then Moses appealed to God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) to make a great nation of their descendants to dwell forever in the land God promised them. Moses actually persuaded the God of the universe to set aside divine anger and let the people live.

The people forgot who rescued them from slavery in Egypt. Regardless whether or not they had good intentions, the people failed in keeping their covenant obligations to God and sought to substitute God’s physical absence with a false image of God.

The implications of leadership for us

Today’s Old Testament story raises many questions for us. Here are just a few to ponder:

  • Which golden calves in our culture today draw our loyalty and love away from God when we get impatient with waiting for God’s timetable? Maybe our grumbling and complaining is a telltale sign that we are not content with God and what God is doing among us – and that we are fashioning (or have already fashioned) a god of our own making in the form of financial budgets, church buildings, or dogmatic theologies.
  • How have we made the God whom we worship into an idol that we try to control and manipulate for our own purposes? Perhaps we have substituted the one true God who is free, untamed, mysterious, and surprising, for a puny humanly constructed image, ideology, institution, or idol.
  • How do we maintain the balance between divine judgment with its consequences for disobedience, alongside God’s mercy, forgiveness, and faithfulness to the people? It could be, we are being led to grace, no matter how we go about answering the question.

Faithful God, you preside over an unfaithful people. Just as the people of Israel doubted your power and turned to other gods to fulfill their needs, we too, turn to other gods, seeking acceptance, power, and independence. Show us how to live humbly and walk in your ways, through the One who offered true power to all humanity, Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Embrace the Change, Slowly (Exodus 24:12-18)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Moses receives the law from God on Mount Sinai, by Unknown artist, 1877

The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there; I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up onto the mountain of God. To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come back to you. Look, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”

Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the Israelites. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. (New Revised Standard Version)

The Lord graciously entered into a covenant with the ancient Israelites. Following this, Moses was summoned to come up the mountain into God’s presence. There he would receive the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment on it. Yahweh was providing the people with instruction on how to live in the covenant relationship.

The scene was set for the Lord to give an extended revelation to Moses. Moses ascended the mountain, into the cloud, so that the people did not see him. For the next forty days and nights, God’s law and commandments were relayed and taught to Moses.

What did not happen is God tossing some stone tablets containing the law to Moses and then going on God’s merry way. The whole encounter unfolds over an extended period of time. That’s because we are people; we need time to wrap our heads and hearts around new realities. Humans require the gift of slowness to learn and absorb.

Western society, however, does not operate that way. More, faster, and better seems to be our cultural creed. And it’s found everywhere around us. Speed reading. More money. Bigger stuff.

Hogs and chickens are raised on factory farms in large confinement buildings. They never see the light of day. Instead, they are given steroids and growth hormones to grow faster and bigger, so that they can get to the market more quickly and get a better price.

Churches and faith communities in financial trouble look for quick solutions and fast turnarounds by expecting pastors to work more, faster, and better. Sports teams hire and fire coaches with dizzying frequency, believing that if the athletes aren’t faster and better with more wins, then there’s something wrong with them, the coach, or both.

But we have no further than the end of our nose to look for change.

People are in control of very little in this world, and so, a great deal of life is the ability to respond in changing circumstances – both wanted and unwanted. Resilience and flexibility are needed.

Moses receives the Ten Commandments, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1860

The Lord brought about the end of Egyptian slavery for the Israelites through a series of plagues against Egypt. God miraculously delivered the people from the Egyptian army by parting the Red Sea. And Yahweh graciously entered into covenant with them at the mountain. All of this was a major change of life.

It was the people’s responsibility to respond in faith and obedience to the actions and words of God. The Lord was allowing them the space and the time to come to grips with their new reality – which is one reason why Moses met with God for forty days and nights on the mountain.

The Israelites needed to spend their time adjusting to their new life, and contemplating the giving of the law, which was about to happen. Since we are privy to the end of the story, we know that the people did not do this. They became impatient, and experienced a failure of faith and obedience.

Aaron and Hur were the leaders who needed to step up and guide the people in the special opportunity of preparation for receiving the law. Whatever it is they did, it wasn’t that.

Murmuring, complaining, and arguing are the initial signs of impatience and wanting things to happen faster, even immediately. But faith is not forged this way. Faith is developed through dealing with adversity by looking to God, listening, and obeying. Faith knows that all things can be faced with joy.

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face various trials, consider it all joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance complete its work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4, NRSV)

Waiting, patience, and the stretching of faith is not typically what people sign up for. Whenever there are circumstances which warrant endurance and perseverance, it’s far too easy to become antsy and begin grumbling about the situation.

That’s what happened to the ancient Israelites. They had a stiff price to pay for their impatience and impertinence. Don’t be like them. Instead, decide now for encouragement, in and through, all circumstances.

Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that none of you have an evil, unfaithful heart that abandons the living God. Instead, encourage each other every day, as long as it’s called “today,” so that none of you become insensitive to God because of sin’s deception. We are partners with Christ, but only if we hold on to the confidence we had in the beginning until the end. (Hebrews 3:12-13, CEB)

May almighty God give you grace to persevere with joy, so that the Spirit may complete the work begun in you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A New Outlook on Life (2 Corinthians 5:17-22)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (New International Version)

Everyone sees things (and people) only in part. We all have our own unique perspective and take on life. And we interpret life from that particular angle.

God has brought us new life, and with it, a new outlook on life, made possible by the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul gained a new orientation on his life because he encountered God’s love through Jesus Christ. And his experience of love caused Paul to live for Christ and not for himself. He gained a new perspective.

Conversion to Christ and following Jesus brings a new outlook on life that enables us to live a good and beautiful existence on this earth for the sake of the church and the world.

God brings a new outlook to us in three major ways. The way we look at ourselves, others, and God:

  • No longer do we need to compulsively demean ourselves, nor think of ourselves as better than we really are. Instead, encountering a new life in Christ, we see that we are truly loved by God and worthy of giving and receiving love. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!… This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:1, 16, NIV)
  • No longer do we view others as tools to take advantage of; and neither do we look merely at one’s outward appearance. Instead, experiencing new life helps us to see other people as spiritual persons, important to God and needing divine love, just like us. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:10-12, NIV)
  • No longer do we view Christ as merely a good teacher or a moral man. Instead, our new life gives us the lenses of seeing Jesus as Savior and Lord. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:13-18, NIV)

With new life comes a new perspective that results in a new way of life. I was once walking with my late mother-in-law through an art museum. We came upon a piece of art that didn’t necessarily speak to me; and I really didn’t understand it. But my mother-in-law happened to know the artist who painted the picture. And she told me about the person, why she painted it, and what she was trying to convey with her art. This information completely changed the way I saw the painting.

As we progressively get to know God, it really ought to transform how we view the Lord and look at Holy Scripture. And when we discover God in Christ, we see a caring Lord who went out of the way to become one of us, become the pioneer of our salvation, and bring about redemption and reconciliation through an ignominious death on a cross.

God has deliberately sought us and brought us back into the divine dance through Christ – which is why we celebrate. And the highest form of celebration is imitation, that is, becoming ambassadors representing who Jesus is by being just like him.

We imitate Christ through our relationships. Whenever we act with humility, mourn over the world’s sin, deal with others according to grace and gentleness, seek right relationships and keep everything above board, are pure, merciful, and peacemaking in all our dealings, and love and pray for our enemies – then we are encountering God, imitating Christ, and living a new life from a new vantagepoint.

Because Christians have been reconciled to God through Jesus, it transforms how we see people and our desires in our relationships with them; and it changes our stance and perspective on the God who initiated and brought salvation and reconciliation to us. I want to:

  • Grow in a relationship with God through worship, prayer, and scripture reading
  • Grow in relationships with other Christians in fellowship, service, and love
  • Grow in relationships with my neighbors and everyone I encounter, to be an ambassador for Jesus, as if God were working through me to accomplish the compassionate loving of the world and demonstrating how to live a blessed and peaceful life.

In finding our true spiritual home, we find life. There’s nothing quite like being able to live a peaceful existence because of God’s reconciling work in Christ on our behalf.

Lord God, bring us together as one, reconciled with you and reconciled with each other. You made us in your likeness, and you gave us your Son, Jesus Christ. Enable us to know you and one another in the spirit of grace and love. Amen.

Who Is Jesus? (John 7:40-52)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Light of the World, by William Holman Hunt, c.1853

On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

“You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.” (New International Version)

Orthodox Christian icon of Jesus Christ

There was a lot of buzz in Christ’s day of who Jesus really was. Prophet? Messiah? And, if Jesus really is a big deal, would he really come from Hicksville Nazareth? What about his credentials? His class? His pedigree?

Opinions on Jesus haven’t really changed all that much from the ancient world. They are still just as diverse now as when he was on this earth.

Unlike today, ancient people could not simply “Google” Jesus and find out where he was born and grew up. And they had no access to doing background checks in a matter of minutes to find out all kinds of things about him. Had the religious authorities bothered to do their homework and investigated Jesus, they would have found that, indeed, he was born of the Davidic line and in Bethlehem.

The short of it is that a chunk of the people simply assumed they knew Jesus wasn’t of proper Messiah credentials. They assumed and did not investigate because they did not want to know. No one can be faulted for ignorance. However, purposeful ignorance is perhaps the greatest of all sins, betraying a deep egoism of pride and prejudice.

In their hubris, the religious leaders sent the temple guards to bring Jesus in. Yet, in a clear demonstration of heavenly authority, the guards actually listened to Jesus and saw for themselves who he really is. Their simple confession testifies to Christ’s credibility. If one would but just see and listen for themselves, and engage in a genuine investigation, they could walk away finding truth.

6th-Century Byzantine mosaic of Jesus

Opponents of Jesus for the past two thousand years assume that Christians have been duped into taking the opiate of the people. Many think that followers of Christ were manipulated by religious hacks trying to gain power over others. But that’s a curious opinion, considering Jesus continually did just the opposite of that and was a champion for the poor, the powerless, and the marginalized persons of society.

When professional people with recognized degrees and competence do not believe you, nor take your own experience and learning seriously, what do you do?

Well, you could listen to them, or you could listen to your own gut telling you that you’re being gaslighted by a bunch of highly intelligent simpletons who are unfamiliar – are ignorant – of the faith you are familiar with.

What’s more, there are always smart and experienced people in the room who know better. Nicodemus was such a person. He was a serious scholar, and chose to speak up about these things. Authorities and credentials matter, yet of first importance is to know how to go about any sort of inquiry – rather than just passing over an objective investigation and assuming you know better.

Ethiopian artist depiction of Jesus teaching

For decades, I have (graciously) challenged others who do not believe in Jesus to actually read the Gospel accounts and at least engage in some minimal investigation – rather than giving opinions based on limited knowledge and secondary sources.

After all, as Nicodemus pointed out so long ago, shouldn’t we first give Jesus a fair hearing before we start dismissing him as nothing more than a religious figure that a bunch of people follow?

And I must also point out that this applies to us Christians, as well. Rather than waving aside Buddha or Muhammad or any other religious figure as false, don’t you owe their followers the basic respect of hearing them out before you dismiss them as fake, or in some cases, worse than that?

If you accuse another point of view, which is different than your own, as wrong or not real, without first hearing the accused and gathering objective evidence, then we really have no business getting uppity when another person accuses or dismisses our own faith.

Sadly, the colleagues of Nicodemus chose not to answer him but to instead engage in the age old practice of ad hominem argumentation by attacking the person, thereby deflecting having to give an answer.

People attack other people out of fear. And, in this case, it seems to me the religious leaders were downright afraid of investigating Jesus and giving him an honest hearing. Because if they did, they just might have their world turned upside-down; and they wanted the status quo to be maintained, at all costs, even if it meant ignoring the truth.

Jesus Washing the Feet of His Disciple, by Japanese artist Sadao Watanabe (1913-1996)

You don’t have to take my word on any of these things about Christ or Christianity. Read the Gospel of John for yourself – in one sitting if possible. Ingest the words. Drink in the experiences. Then, come and have a conversation with me.

Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us.

Jesus, Bearer of our sins, have mercy on us.

Jesus, Redeemer of the world, give us your peace.

Jesus, Light of the world, shine in our hearts.

Jesus, Hope of all, be our companion on our way.

Jesus, Great Physician, heal our broken lives.

Jesus, Beloved Son of God, kindle within us the fire of your love. Amen.