Exodus 32 is undoubtedly one of the most disappointing chapters in the entire Bible. You know the story. While Moses is on Sinai receiving instructions concerning the new Eden, the tabernacle, Israel grows impatient. “Where is Moses? What’s taking him so long? We don’t know if he is dead or alive.” So they panic, and they look to Aaron, and they say, “Make us a god who will go before us” (Ex 32:1). Aaron obliges.
We read that and we see gross idolatry at unbelievable levels. And, indeed, it is that. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t see that we are suspectable to the very same things. We are drawn to idols, too. We are also prone to cloak our idols in the language of religion or piety.
Look what Aaron says after he builds the calf out of the plunder that was to be used in construction of the tabernacle. And observe what the people do after it is built:
Aaron: This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt (Ex 32:4, emphasis added).
Aaron: Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD (Ex 32:5).
Israel: the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings… (Ex 32:6).
Notice that the language and actions are cloaked in the religion of Yahweh. Aaron goes so far as ascribing the actions of Yahweh to the idol and even says that they will feast to Yahweh. The people use the forms of worship that God gave them and used them to worship the idol. In other words, Aaron and the Israelites seem to think that they are honoring Yahweh in the midst of idol worship. They marry worship of Yahweh with worship of the calf.
It is important to see that the making of the calf, while from one perspective an act of gross apostasy and rebellion, was from another perspective an act driven by a need for reassurance and even by a misguided piety…Aaron does refer to the consecration ceremony as a sacrifice to YHWH, showing that in his mind the making of the idol did not imply turning from YHWH.[1] -Duane Garret
This is how insidious idolatry is: we can worship idols and think, not only is it not wrong, but that we are actually honoring the Lord in our idolatry!
Anyone who believes themselves not tempted toward idolatry is lying to themselves. “Idols are always a temptation for us as human beings. We want to make God manageable. We want to see him. We want to manage him. We want him in a box. We want a god who will do what we want him to do.”[2] – Trevin Wax
The pull to a golden calf rather than the God who is a consuming fire, and appears in thunder and lightning in Exodus 20, is that a golden calf is manageable. You can turn its head this way and that. You can turn it to look west while you sin in the east, and it won’t see you and be disappointed (plus, it’s fake so… it won’t see you anyway). Manageable is good, and we like it.
So here’s the thing: idolatry and sin are so insidious that we can worship things in the church and not think twice because, well, they’re in the church. Surely we can’t worship idols while we use the language of Yahweh worship, right? We may be tempted to think that idolatry is not possible while we are doing things we believe to be for the Lord. But not so fast. Israel shows that it is possible to worship idols whilst thinking you’re honoring God. They also show that one can take the worship God gave and twist it to fit one’s own ends.
Anything can become an idol. Anything. Worship music can be an idol. Sunday School can be an idol. Programs can be an idol. The pastor can be an idol. The building one meets in can be an idol. The order of service (or an element in the order) can be an idol. “The way we’ve always done it” can be an idol. Polity can be an idol. All things that are, by no means, bad in themselves, can become idols. Things that are used to worship God, can themselves become gods. Do you see how insidious idolatry is?
In Tim Keller’s book Counterfeit Gods he says this: “What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”
Then this: “A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”[3]
In the church, then, we can say that if there are things that attract us to the church that isn’t Christ, it is an idol. If we are looking for a church and what we’re looking for centers on us and what we want or prefer, that’s wrong. If what we want in the church, and what we focus on in the church, is something that is intended to worship God, we are actually worshipping that thing. If there is something in the church where we say, “if the church didn’t have/provide this, it wouldn’t be worth attending, serving, and giving myself over to it.”
We saw this in the worship wars of the last 30 years or so: if you don’t play (insert favorite genre) I will either (A) protest vigorously or (B) go to a church that does provide that (or in some cases, both A and then B). You can insert virtually anything into this. “If you don’t have this program,” “If you don’t have this Sunday School format,” “If you don’t have this as part of worship,” “If you don’t provide something entertaining for my kids,” etc.
And it’s important to note, these typically are not things the Bible actually commands us to do. In other words, if the church doesn’t preach the Word and point to Christ, then yes, it is an unhealthy place, and such things should be addressed. But the battles churches often face have little to do with what the Bible says and more to do with what we simply want.
My question then is this: Do you love the church or just parts of the church? Do you want the church itself, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, or just aspects of the church that you happen to like or even potentially idolize? Is it possible that something good, something intended to glorify God, has actually become an idol to you?
Israel responded in sinful fear because they were anxious. They were afraid that Moses would not come back, and they’d have to go to the Promised Land without him or Yahweh’s leadership. This is why they wanted a god that would go before them (Ex 32:1). The hardship revealed their character, as it always does.
The pandemic of well over a year has been a hardship indeed. Nearly every church is facing the same sorts of pains. But it is a hardship, and thus, it has revealed character. It has revealed what churches actually value the most and caused churches to strip down their services. Was it enough to offer congregational singing and the preached Word? Or were we in such a hurry to “get back to normal” that we figured church without “what we did before” the pandemic was not worth attending?
Again, let me say that there are many things that are not bad things, and may even be good things, but a church could still be a biblical church without them. And there are good things that we can turn into idols even within the church if we say, “We need these things or we will abandon the fellowship.” And they are things, like the golden calf, that we can control (another idol) – we can turn them this way and that – and that control slips away when the calf gets melted, which scares us.
How we react when certain things are absent also reveals what our idols are. If we react violently and angrily to certain things, is it possible that’s a sign that we were idolizing them or elevating them to a first-order place at the level of even things like Jesus’s divinity or salvation through Christ alone?
It would truly be a shame if the American church (who is, at best, spiritually anemic) would miss this opportunity to recognize her idols. We have been provided an opportunity to do honest introspection and to be humble enough to admit, “Yes, I gave these things an improper place: this is what is actually important and a first-order issue: _______.”
After all, who of all people should readily be able to admit and recognize sin if not Christians? And once we do that, we can still enjoy things but in their proper place. Too many times we are willing to abandon the fellowship of the church for petty things that have nothing to do with the Bible. We simply like them and if we don’t have them, we don’t want the church either. What a tragedy!
The pandemic has undoubtedly been a terrible thing, the human toll we perhaps will never truly and fully understand. However, in God’s providence He has provided this time for us to reorient and reset. He has given us space to ask, “What truly matters in the church? What does the Bible prioritize? What have we done that was unhealthy and now we have a chance to refocus?”
It would truly be a mistake to see what idols have been exposed and do nothing with that. It would be a mistake to see our idols and then rush to put them back up. Now is the time to see what matters according to Scripture, to focus on those things, give things in the church their proper place, to honestly evaluate our motives, cling to the gospel and one another, and embrace a simple church model with a healthy, biblical ecclesiology.
[1] Duane A. Garret, A Commentary on Exodus, Kregel Exegetical Library (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2014), 618-619.
[2] Trevin Wax, “No Idols,” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/no-idols/
[3] Trevin Wax, “Counterfeit Gods: Tim Keller Takes on Our Idols,” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/counterfeit-gods-tim-keller-takes-on-our-idols/
The Bearded Ecclesiologian 
I had never considered that the Aaron may still have thought he was honoring God with the calf. I have always been angry with Aaron and could not figure why God would have allowed him to continue in such a respected role. This kind of cleared that up.
I also cringe at all the programs and activities that seem to run themselves. I would not want to go back to that.
Good job letting the Holy Spirit guide you into keeping us central on His word and Jesus, the better high priest, the one mediator between God and man.
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