World or the Word?

 Exodus 32:2-4 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 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, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
 
PARENTS, you have a very good son. He has special gifts of leadership and speech, and you designate him to teach your younger children about God. You also assign him to lead the family to worship God. You even honor him with a special suit of clothes to enhance his dignity as he leads his family to be the guardian of God’s word and law.
     Confident in this, parents, you go for several days’ journey and leave this special son to discharge his duties to God and to your children. But sadly, when you return home, you find the house filled with all forms of immorality that dishonors everything you have taught your family. The worst of this is that your specially gifted son is the leader of the immoral activity.
     Aaron became that bad son in God’s sight. How can a man God has chosen to be his High Priest, his holy representative to Israel, approve of idol worship to the point he crafts the golden calf? How could Aaron allow his people to say the most horrid of words to the metal image, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
      Aaron was influenced by Israel’s sinful heart. They had been accustomed to worshiping such idols in Egypt. This is one reason God, their heavenly Father, freed his people from Egypt. The idolatrous country had put idol worship into Israel’s hearts and minds. When the strength of Moses’ leadership left the camp, the Word of God went with him. Aaron failed in his commission. He pleased the world. He insulted God.
     Be alert. This is easy to do if we take our eyes from God’s Word. Our nature is to sin, to replace God with the things of this earth. Check what you worship and be sure that you worship God alone.
    
LIFE Link: “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)