On idols and freedoms... a study in Exodus 32

Introduction

I remember when Ronald Reagan died in 2004, on D-Day. His legacy is still being written, perhaps by contrast with current settings. This comment came from Charles Colson, who used to work on détente under President Richard Nixon and barely knew Reagan. He says that Reagan defined the 2^nd half of the 20^th Century. 

“He will define it because he had the boldness to make a sharp break with American foreign policy by calling evil by its right name. Whether it came from a well-formed Christian worldview or from his unfailing intuition, Reagan defined good and evil in a way that reflected Christian truth, and this is what changed the course of history.”

Reagan dared to challenge the Soviets on the basis of morality—good versus evil. Freedom and democracy were good, tyranny and communism evil. And so at the Berlin Wall, Reagan challenged Soviet tyranny with the unforgettable words, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" And it came down, and the Iron Curtain came down along with it.”

 

Today these thoughts are about good versus evil in our days. Not in light of some political scene like we’ve been watching in Ukraine or Gaza, but in terms of our own lives. And I want to talk about heroes and idols. And finally we will talk about freedom and Jewish law. All from our text in Exodus 32.

On idols and heroes

I’ve had heroes; people who have made an impact on my life and whom I admire. As we read about the Golden Calf, the question pops into my mind: is a hero the same as an idol? They say everyone should have an idol, but maybe that’s not right in light of today’s Bible portion and the complete teachings of Torah.

We read about trouble falling on idol worshippers. I remember going to Thailand with my wife and one daughter and everywhere there were statues and shrines dedicated to this god or that one, and one time our tour guide wanted me to kneel down and toss some sticks and say a prayer or something to a wise man. I wouldn’t do it.  I thought it was idolatry. My daughter thought I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get back up.

Here in Australia, we have our own version of an idol. I wonder what it is about music celebrities or movie stars that makes us want to idolize them? And why don’t we do the same with inventors or scientists? Why not our schoolteachers? Why not our parents?  I have my heroes. Are they the same as idols?

Let’s use this definition of ‘idol.’ The dictionary calls an idol, “an image used as an object of worship, or a false god.” It also says it is “One that is adored, often blindly or excessively.” Maybe that’s part of what we need to understand.   God always was warning my Jewish people against idolatry, which probably had to do with the false gods who were out there. They had names back then like Marduch and Baal and Asherah, but most modern people wouldn’t name those as their idols.  Worship was supposed to be only to God, and never given to others in his place.

So are heroes who are good for us, who model for us good things, like heroes in stories or in ancient fables or in modern movies… are they all bad? Are they all idols in the biblically bad sense?

The Greeks used stories to warn us of acting like gods. Consider the story of Arachne, who challenged Athena to a weaving contest and was turned into the first spider for her pains. 

Phaethon tried to drive the chariot of his father the sun god and was killed. 

Asclepius, a son of Apollo, was a physician so expert that he began cheating the underworld gods of their due--for he was saving people from death. Hades, king of the underworld, appealed to his brother Zeus, king of the realms above, and Zeus blasted Asclepius with a thunderbolt, burning him to a crisp. 

I think the difference is that heroes are human. They fail. We see them hitting 6s in the cricket pitch, but we also see them ending their careers with a duck. The best golfers sink 50-foot putts, but they also miss short ones to lose the Open. Idols never fail, but of course, they are not real. Heroes are like us; only they have gone on and done really great things. I can become like my hero; I could never be like an idol.

Back to the story of the Golden Calf.  Remember, idolatry didn’t help the Jewish people. Never does, never will.  Moses was called to go to the top of the Mountain, and to talk and meet with God. He tells the people to wait for him. And they do. And he climbs up Mt Sinai and is there for 40 days, nearly 6 weeks. That’s a long time to wait for an old man. Moses was in his eighties at the time. Some of the people probably thought he had died up there, or maybe he lost his way.  

So the people down at the bottom of Mt Sinai grew anxious.  What would they do now? No doubt, someone suggested making an idol and praying to it.   Unfortunately, Aaron and many of the people agreed and they rallied others to take the gold for the Tabernacle and make it into a calf. I don’t know how big it was, but I’ve seen pictures that show it to be the size of the Big Merino in Goulburn, and that’s really big.

The Bible says Aaron was responsible for making the Golden Calf and to be honest I wouldn’t want my name to go down in history connected with a bad situation like this one. I’d rather be like Elijah who challenged the prophets of Baal and made them realize that praying to an idol was a waste of time and that God is always going to win in the end.

This is classic Reagan-esque good vs. evil. Good is following God. Nothing else will do; it’s all summarized as evil.

So maybe you are wondering where Jesus fits into all this. 

My father used to tell me that believing in Jesus was like bowing to a tselem, that’s the Yiddish word for idol.  But what did Yeshua really say about idols and what did he do with worship?

Yeshua told everyone who was listening, that God was to be adored and worshiped. He wondered when people came and bowed themselves before him, what were they doing. Not that he refused worship, mind you, but he wondered if they knew what they were doing. Were they admitting that Jesus was God incarnate?

You see, the opposite of idolatry is the worship of the true God. And that’s what God always wanted. This makes sense personally too.

I need to remind myself that God is number one in my life.  Lots of things want me to give up what I know to be true about Jesus and to become like so many others. A Jewish man named Anton told me when he sees “Jews for Jesus” on our signage, that he wants to vomit.  On the other side, in the church, some want me to quit being Jewish and go eat a ham sandwich with them. But today I want to identify with my people and with my Messiah. I am a Jew, and I am a believer in Yeshua. 

Jesus is no tselem. He is not the idol who is so other-worldly that he cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. He was God who took on humanity and suffered like we do. In His death on the Roman cross, He smashed all idols of human invention. He took the punishment for our sins and opened the way for people-- all people-- to know right living with God, what the Bible calls ‘righteousness.’

The two sides of the Law: Freedom

 One final thing. In the last chapter (chapter 31. verse 21) we saw that the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God.  In today’s lesson we read

Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they were written on one side and the other. And the tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets. (15-16) The writing was done by God and are known as the 10 commandments, 

 

A couple things to note. The writing was done on both sides, but could be read by people on each side the same way. Like we could do with the letter “A” or “H”, but we could not do with “E”. Thus the mention of ‘one side and the other side.”

 

The writing was done by God, engraved the Bible says, on the tablets.

Harut is the Hebrew word for engraved. Herut is the Hebrew word for liberty or freedom. Allow me to change the voweling on the text and translate it thus, “And the tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, freedom on the tablets” In other words, the Word of God is what brings freedom.

During these troubled days of war and uncertainty, when freedoms continue to be major news each day, we turn our thoughts to freedom. And we rarely think that freedom comes with restrictions. Yet to the wise man, the truly free is one who is taught freedom and its guidelines. The truly free is one who is bound to the rules and joys of freedom. 

Yeshua said it this way, ““If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8.32)

French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, after visiting America in 1831, said, "I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests--and it was not there…Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!" 

I say that to remind us of the good vs evil comments about Ronald Reagan. I say that to commend right living or righteousness to us. I say that to remind us of Jesus, our only mediator and Lord, who gives us righteousness by faith. It’s not in the Law, and our obedience to a set of rules. Our relationship with God determines our freedom. It’s not how many rules you can break, although that sounds attractive to many. Freedom comes from knowing the living God, being taught by Him and His word, and having those words engraved on our hearts. It’s in the Word of God that true freedom comes. We shall know the truth and that’s the truth about God and the truth about ourselves not being God, and that we desperately need God, That truth will set us free.

Timing is everything

A full three hours before I arrive at our rented house in Melbourne’s suburb, my GPS told me that it would take another three hours of driving, that I would arrive at 4:18 PM back at the house. I sent a note to one of our colleagues who was awaiting the car for hand off, so he could plan his day, which included an appointment he had at 5 o'clock. If I arrived as scheduled, he would make his appointment with ease. To me it was amazing. I was so distant and yet my little machine could sort out all this out. I arrived at 4:18 pm.

In another case, the size of the baby on the sonogram told the doctors a likely date for the birth of our third grandson in October this year. As a result, my wife and I made bookings to fly over on certain days in acknowledgment of that medical prediction. The date: 27 October.  I guess it should come as no surprise that just past midnight on 27 October our daughter’s little one entered the world. What precision in their prediction four months earlier? Timing really is everything.

 I think about the some of the sins of the people of God. For instance, when you think about the Golden Calf the Jewish people began to get into trouble when they saw Moses delayed in descending Mt Sinai, and they grew weary of waiting. They could wait no longer and built something else to work and give them satisfaction. Of course, the issue was their relationship with God, not with Moses, but it demonstrated itself in their impatience with him. (Exodus 32.1. “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”)

King Saul was told to wait by Samuel the prophet. (1 Sam 10.8. “And you shall go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do.”)Saul waited seven days butwas reluctant to wait beyond what he seemed reasonable. Thus, before Samuel returned Saul went back to making up his own rules and forgot about the command to wait.  And God judged him severely. (For more on this see this website)

Here in Sydney we pray regularly for the Lord to do His bidding in our lives in a time that suits Him. Yesterday I was working at the office when a phone call from Fairfax Media interrupted. Would we want to take an advert in the Friday paper? Full page. Back of a pull-out section. Discount price. Everything seemed right. I shot up a quick prayer to the Almighty. Within minutes, not only had I written up the text but had spoken directly with an artist who would put together the advert required, in the time required. It was due in less than 24 hours!

Sure enough within the time required, we had a beautiful advertisement and anticipate a great response to the ad running on the Friday of Hanukkah this year. Timing is everything.

Last Saturday I went to ANZ Stadium to pray. What? No synagogues in my neighbourhood? Of course, but this was a special stadium event titled “Jesus loves Australia.” I had heard about it only a few weeks earlier and it captured my attention. 

I began promoting the event on my Facebook and Twitter. Some said they would attend as well. The event was 10 am to 4 pm for prayers, and some other activities and a concert would be held later that afternoon/evening. 

When I received an invitation to pray from the stage last week, I was humbled, and quickly accepted. I prayed about what to pray and God led me well. I took my tallit and kippah, travelled to the stadium and gathered with the others. I was led to the stage, and was the opening batsman, the first one of the invitees, and there were dozens and dozens, to pray. Well, “to the Jew first” makes sense.

I stayed in the stadium and was about ready to leave at 4 pm when some Chinese Christian ladies I had met previously approached me. They introduced me to Amy, and said, “She’s an unbeliever!” and with the wave of an arm invited me to do what I do, to share the love of Jesus with this teenager. 

Long story short, she prayed and professed Jesus as her saviour and Lord. And the ladies were taking photos and Amy was crying and God was smiling. Timing is everything… I was ready to leave and got distracted by a quick catch-up with a mate just metres from where these Chinese ladies found me. If I had left; if my mate hadn’t stopped me; if… but God’s timing is everything.

 And God’s timing is still everything in your life today.

Look up and see Him. Wait when He says, ‘wait.’  Go when He says, “Go!” Serve when He says, “serve” and well, you get the idea. Do what God says. 

Life is good when He is our GPS.

Life is good when He defines our timing.

The Psalmist said, “My times are in Your hand.” (Psalm 31.15)

That’s my humble offering to you this 5^thday of December, and the 4^thnight of Hanukkah.