Following Blind

Read Exodus 32:1-14

“Following Blind”

I am a dog person. I love dogs. Well, I am an animal person. I love cats, dogs, birds, squirrels or anything of such. But, I am a dog person and if you have met my dog, Polar Bear, you can tell he his royally spoiled. One thing that is difficult about dogs or being a dog parent is their lack of patience. I know kids are not the most patient people in the world either but I don’t have any of those so I am going to illustrate my point with dogs.

One of the most difficult parts of my life is when I have to leave the house without Polar Bear. Here is why: it doesn’t matter how long I am going to be gone, it could be 10 minutes or two hours, but he gives me this terrible look. It doesn’t matter how many times I have told him, “I will be right back; you be a good boy.” I still get that same response. When I say those words he gives a full expression change and he looks at me as to say, “Oh, putting me up for adoption. I am just going to lie on the couch and die. Have fun.” I think he genuinely thinks I am never coming back. When I get back he acts like he has just won the milk bone lottery, as if he were never going to see me again and by chance I show up. Saint, the dog I had before Polar Bear, took it to another level. He would give me the same face, then pee on the floor. He did it every time I left. He did it as to say, “I’ll just do this; it doesn’t matter, he’s never coming back.” Then when I showed up to a puddle by the door he would look at me as to say, “I am so happy to see you! Oh, that… I didn’t think you were coming back.”

I love dogs. All of that sounds funny and ridiculous but the truth is humans are quite similar in regard to patience in our master. Have you ever thought to yourself, “God has definitely left my side.”? Or, “God is not with me today; God has left me.” When this happens we sometime go so far as to look for other things to ease the struggle or the pain. Sometimes we search for other people, substances, or a material to replace our discomfort in believing God has forsaken us.

The Israelites became very impatient and Aaron did not know what to do or how to guide them. He wanted to do the right thing but the people were becoming anxious and they had no home, they were getting hungry, and they thought God had left them. Moses left Aaron in charge before he went on top of the mountain to speak with God. In defense of the Israelites, they were under a lot of stress. They had been led away from their home. Some of them argued that they were in better shape when they were slaves in Egypt. They had been running from the Egyptian armies. They had been in battle with the Amalekites. This had been going on for over three months and they had no established home. And, the person that had been leading them (for God) had been missing for a quite some time. He went on top of a mountain and not come back. The Israelites knew they needed something to worship so they could stay in touch with God. God even announced the building of a tabernacle for a place to worship but their needs were not being fulfilled at the moment so they wanted more. “Make us a God that can lead us!” They demanded of Aaron. Even though God had led them so far, they became impatient with their waiting time at Sinai.

I can only imagine that Aaron was in fear. Perhaps Aaron was becoming impatient himself. Perhaps he, too, believed that his brother Moses had misled them this far. Perhaps he believed they needed something more. Regardless of what he had planned, he did what many leaders like to do when they need to appease the people; he told them what they wanted to hear. He denied God’s will and decided to just make them happy. How many times have you seen this in our own context? We often see it in politics. A leader comes along and tells everyone that they will do many things to make people happy but much of the time it is simply building false hope. Much of the time their voices are no echo of God’s will. Because, typically God’s will is not what the people want to hear. People want what is best for them and they want it right now. That is what Aaron gave them. He said, “Here is how we are going to worship and we are not going to wait on Moses; we are going to do it now.” So, they created something beautiful. It was a monument of what they wanted God to be and it was made out of gold, a very costly material. Be mindful that they were not replacing God with the golden calf. They were worshiping God by use of the golden calf. They replaced Moses and the tabernacle with the golden calf. They basically said, “We can do better than Moses.” Verse 5 says, “When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf. Then Aaron announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord, (God)!” It doesn’t even sound that bad. But, here is the catch; it is not what God instructed. God instructed the people to worship the alter upon which Moses created and worship in the tabernacle that God instructed Moses to build. But, that is not what they did. They became impatient because they did not feel like God was helping them anymore. They did not feel like Moses was leading them anymore because things were not going the way they wanted them to. They did not wait for Moses; they offered their allegiance to something else. Putting their focus on themselves and these other things caused them to fail at acknowledging God’s role.

Just like when a child fails to do as the parent asks, God became angry. God’s children had no patience for God. They did not want to wait. They did not want to trust in God’s instruction. So they decided to take things into their own hands. They decided to use other means to satisfy themselves. Even though they claimed they were doing this for God, they were actually doing this for themselves because they were tired of waiting on Moses and God’s instructions. They sought other means for their own satisfaction.

The people lost patience and trust in Moses and God’s commandments but God lost patience in them when they failed at acknowledging God. Moses understood the people so he pleaded their case and God spared them. I wonder how many times God has lost patience with us. I wonder how many times God has been disappointed in our decisions to seek other means of satisfaction when we think God has abandoned us? I wonder how many times we have failed at waiting for God’s right timing? We are blessed to have someone constantly pleading our case. We have God’s grace through a sacrifice. The result of that is God with us all the time. Most of us understand that, but we still often think we have been forsaken when we don’t get our way. We often think our time is God’s time and God must be on Central Standard Time because that is our time and why would God not respond to us on our time because surely I know when the best time is… And, I really can’t wait. Moses led these people through some really tough spots in just the right time, God’s time. And, they survived it on God’s time. The Holy Spirit leads us and if we trust in the Spirit, God will lead us, in the right time. We follow Christ blindly but we do it with faith just as the Israelites followed Moses. It is essential to listen to the Spirit and not seek other means to appease our desires. Patience is a product of faith.

Have you ever felt like God was not with you? Have ever felt alone and without guidance. If you have the Spirit of Christ in you, God is in you and with you all the time. But, I think we have all had those times when we felt like God left us. That is not God leaving us but rather us separating ourselves form God. During those times we feel alone and we feel like we’ll never recover from our trials and obstacles in life. Then we do things that we would only do if God were not watching us. Much like my dog when I left to go somewhere and he would pee on the floor. We often lose our focus on God and we do things we know we shouldn’t do. Then something happens where we experience God in our lives and we rejoice, “Thank you God for all that you do! Thank you God for being with me and allowing the Spirit to come to life!” Then we recall the mess we made when we thought God was not coming back. “Oh, what? You mean that? Yeah, I thought you were gone and I didn’t know you were coming back… I am sorry. Forgive me?” When this happens I think God offers the same response that I offer my dog. I bend down, clean up the mess he made, grab him in my arms and embrace him, and I give thanks that we are together.