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Exodus 32:1-14

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.

By: The Rev. Dr. W. Ross Blackburn

Idolatry is a serious sin, the most serious sin in the Bible. But what is it? Why would Israel, having been miraculously delivered from Egypt, make a molten calf in explicit disobedience to the Lord’s command?

Fear. It really is as simple as that. Moses delayed on the mountain, and Israel began to fear they would need to go into this promised-but unknown-land by themselves. “Come, make us gods who will go before us; as for this Moses, them an who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!” Can you hear the fear?

Moses brought them out, but they do not know where he is. Who will go with them into the land? Hence their charge to Aaron. Idolatry is, in effect, turning to anyone or anything that would seem able to deliver us from our present distress. The problem with idols is that they can’t do it. Regardless of how promising it might seem in the short run, idols always leave those who trust in them in a place of despair, for idols cannot save.

We do well to remember that many women and men who resort to abortion do so because they are afraid. It is very difficult to think clearly and to think with a long view in times of fear. One of the best things we can do is to understand that people in this situation often feel cornered. (I have serious doubts of the existence of the self-actualized woman who walks confidently into an abortion clinic and cheerfully out of one.) In her book Real Choices, Fredrica Mathews-Green writes “There is a tremendous sadness and loneliness in the cry ‘A woman’s right to choose.’ No one wants an abortion as she wants an ice-cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal, caught in a trap, wants to gnaw off its own leg.”

Idols do not save. Abortion does not solve problems. Certainly not in the long term. But that may be very difficult for someone in the midst of great fear to hear. Not all of us have been confronted with the fear that is an unexpected or unwanted pregnancy. But we all have had the temptation to look away from the Lord to deal with our fears–which should give us grace in dealing with others who may be doing the same thing.