Overlooking The Obvious

“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.”  Exodus 32:1

I live in Lake Placid, Florida, a lovely, little town made even more beautiful by twenty-nine natural lakes and forty-six painted murals.  On my ten minute morning commute, I pass four of the lakes and twelve of the murals, but most days I hardly even notice.  Familiarity has bred complacency, and the obvious is often overlooked.  My oversight causes me to miss out on some nice views and vistas, but what happens when we grow accustomed and callous to the ultimate reality of God and His presence?

Before you say, “No way!” consider the golden calf.  

The crowd of Israelites camped around Mt. Sinai was only a few months past Egypt’s slavery and Pharaoh’s cruelty, but they had already walked through the Dead Sea on dry ground, gathered divine manna each day for food, and quenched their thirst with rushing water from a desert rock.  Just a few weeks back, they had stood in awe as God Himself had descended onto the summit with blazing fire, black clouds, deep darkness, loud trumpets, and billowing smoke.  They had trembled along with the mountain as “the Lord spoke out of the fire.  He declared his commandments, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow”(Deut 4:11-13).  

But now, it was forty days later, and the “glory of God that looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain as Moses entered the cloud,”(Ex 24:17) had become so commonplace that the people discounted God’s power and ignored His presence.

They called for Aaron to “make 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,”(Ex 32:1).  And just like that—quickly, simply, and easily—their leader was written off, God’s commandments were discarded, and the people charged full-steam ahead with their folly—while, all the while, the peak above them billowed with black smoke during the day and the bright light of God’s glory at night. 

Even Aaron, whose staff the Almighty had caused to bloom and bud and also turn into a vicious snake, even Aaron, who himself had recently climbed the cliff, seen the Lord, and stayed for a divine dinner, had grown so accustomed and callous to the nearness of God’s presence that he succumbed to peer pressure and produced the golden calf.  “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”(Ex 32:2-4).

We’re not talking heathens—we’re talking God’s holy people, those set apart for His purpose and rescued by His power.  We’re talking the very ones who should never, ever discount God were overlooking the obvious and going their own way. 

We say the same won’t happen to us, but we should be very careful.  The enemy is subtle, and our hearts are fickle.  Stay soft to God’s Spirit.  Don’t let familiarity breed complacency.  Do let the reality of your redemption stay fresh. Marvel at God’s majesty every day, and keep your eyes and your heart open to God’s surrounding glory and the truth of His astounding Gospel.  

Billowing fire might not be enough to keep us faithful, but beautiful grace will keep as God’s own.