American Idols!!

Moses is one of my favorite bros in the Bible. I mean, this guy was radical by nature. He spoke to God directly, faced down kings and kingdoms, spoke his mind all the time, got angry often (with reason), doubted himself and his purpose, even suffered from some forms of depression according to many scholars...BUT...followed God with a passion!!

I've been studying up on him and came across a story I liked and wanted to share it.

In Exodus, Moses had brought the people of Israel out of Egypt (where they were slaves) and was leading them through the desert per God's command. Now understand that it probably wasn't a HUGE upgrade to go from being a slave in Egypt to a homeless person in the freaking desert...and most of these folks had done so to follow God!! One day, Moses went up on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments and other instructions from God.

As God is showing off His HGTV decorating skills, describing to Moses exactly how to build The Ark, Tabernacle, a Lamp, Robes, Turbans, etc...Aaron, the vice-prophet in the camp, was being bombarded with concerns about how long Moses had been gone.

The people were scared that Moses had abandoned them! He'd been gone a LONG time! Here they were in the middle of the desert...no spiritual leader...no guidance...no phone...no lights...no motor cars!! They demanded a spiritual replacement and Aaron abided. He gathered up all their gold and fashioned a calf (which some scholars claim had the words: Eat Mor Chikin) for everyone to worship.

Suddenly God interrupts the talk with Moses and says "You need to go now. Your people have acted corruptly."...He then says "Leave Me so that My anger can burn against them and destroy them."

Moses then throws his hands up saying "Whoa! Whoa! Lord...come on now! Please...don't destroy them all. I mean...I lead them out of Egypt and all this way!! They are YOUR people...Don't give those filthy Egyptians the satisfaction of saying "See...that's why you don't follow God!"...instead please spare them so that they can find worthiness in your eyes again as you have foretold!"

So God spared the people of Israel on account of Moses and gave Moses two tablets written on front and back to present to them. As he approached the camp, he heard loud noises and voices raised...as he got closer he concluded it was dancing and singing! How cool!!

Then...he saw that a golden calf had been raised and that everyone was dancing and praising the calf! Upon seeing it, he went ballistic and thrashed the two tablets against the mountain...breaking them in two...and stormed into the camp where he took the calf and burned it to dust and sprinkled it into the water supply forcing the people to drink it!

So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me." And all the Levites rallied to him. -Exodus 32:26

He ordered the Levites to walk through the camp killing their brothers, friends, and neighbors. About 3,000 people died that day!

All throughout the Bible it talks about worshiping idols. When we read this, I think our natural instinct is to think of little statues or golden calves...things people worshiped instead of God...or better yet...things people put BEFORE the Lord.

As I examine my own life, I sometimes find that I have a golden calf or two that I worship at times: Money...Job...Women...Relationships...Eli...My writings...

You see...anything you place above the Lord in importance is considered an idol!!

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." -Matthew 6:24

I think we can all think of examples money, power, work, possessions, etc. as idols, but think of these too:

Kids/Family: How many times have we heard someone say (or said ourselves) that our kids come first? Think about that...really?

Pride: This is a HUGE one! I'd say that the primary reason we dislike Church is because we hate being told what to do! But are we really going to be SO prideful that we cannot put God first?? I have found that I personally had to be completely broken before I could serve Him properly...

The Bible/The Church: I saved this one for last...Do you get your guidance from the Holy Spirit or from your church? This one came to mind as I read VERY heated discussions on the different versions of the Bible. Are we really going to be SO CONSUMED in what version of the Bible people are reading that we stop loving them and become hateful? Same thing with churches and denominations!

God first! I can honestly say that as I learn to do this more and more, blessing simply shower over me. It'd be amazing if it weren't written in black and white for all of us to read!! LOL.

Have a great day and as usual, please read the scriptures for yourself! They WILL speak to you too!!