Contemplative Bible Reading

Exodus 32:5-6 (New Living Translation)

5 Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!”

6 The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.

Moses is up on the mountain somewhere, out of sight, unseen for just a little too long for the impatient people. Aaron builds a golden calf and an altar.

“Tomorrow,” Aaron proclaims. “A festival to YHWH (Jehovah) the creator.”

All right. We are ready. What happens? Pagan revelry. Hmmm. How did they go from good intentions to, well, something they didn’t intend or something like that?

Before we condemn too much, let’s recall that these people had lived in Egypt for 20 generations. You pick up a lot of pagan revelry and festivals in 20 generations. Should this result be a surprise?

Since Christ was on the cross, we have lived through about 100 generations. How much of our Sunday services are, well, you know, sort of pagan revelry? Oh, no! Not us! We worship just like the Christians in the first century. We have, well, uh, we have, well, we don’t have anything that tells us what they did. And besides, they lived in a pagan world and who knows what they did.

Religious festivals. Religious services. We do what we do. We trust in the grace of God. Let’s have some humility and realization as we do what we do. And let’s thank God constantly for His forgiveness.