Devotion:
Read Exodus 32:9-14.
“All that glitters is not gold” is an old saying worth remembering. Fools’ gold or pyrite looks like gold, but pyrite is brittle and will break whereas gold will bend.
Often in our lives, just like the Hebrews in the wilderness, when God doesn’t respond on our timeline, we will attempt to make our own “new and improved god”. We become impatient with God. But God remains patient with us.
The problem with gods we can make is that we have fooled ourselves into believing that we are god enough to make a god! We forget how finite we are. Any god we might try to make would be like fools’ gold.
Aaron and the people made a golden-calf god. The glittering golden calf could not hear the cries of the people or respond to the needs of people. The glittering golden calf could never give the gift of life. It was a god whom they could see, but could never see them. A fool’s god.
This scripture in Exodus tells of the time when God’s own heart was broken. The people in covenant with the true God had left their first love. They left to worship a glittering golden calf. God’s patience was tested. But out of God’s great love for the people, God restored the relationship with them. God gave Moses for a second time the laws of the covenant relationship for the people.
We see how foolish the people were, but how often do we also chase after fools’ gods which consume our lives and take us away from our first love. Instead, we need to return to the God who made us, who is able to breathe the very breath of life into our lives with each brand new day!
Personal Worship Option:
Let us ask ourselves, “Am I impatient with God today?” Know beyond measure that God is patient and compassionate with us. God is hearing our prayers. God is seeing our wilderness situation. God is giving the gift of new life to us this very day. God is keeping the covenant relationship. “Patient and loving God, forgive us for thinking we can make our own gods. Bring us back to You. Amen.”
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