Entry time.
I came across an interesting point in the story of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32 that I had never noticed before. When the people demand Aaron to make gods for them, he obliges and crafts the singular object and then says, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD (YHWH)." (vs. 5)
It seems that Aaron tried to rationalize it by saying that it was made in the image of God himself, which God continually addresses through Exodus and seems to make it his first objective many times in listing rules by saying that first you shall have no other gods before me and that also you shall not make images of anything even of things in "heaven above (20:4)." Did Aaron believe they were worshiping God through what they were doing?
The people worshiped this image of YHWH that Aaron had created though they seemed to be a little confused as to the identity of its representation for they say things like, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. (32:4) which then prompts Aaron's decree that YHWH will be worshiped the following day.
I wonder if this is occurring today in the church through the things that are made to worship God. Are we worshiping things like worship bands, sermons, authors, the comfort of Christian circles or places like Christian camps, and failing to recognize the one who is truly deserving of worship? And like the people of Israel, do people that show up know why we are doing what we are doing, or are they confused and can't pinpoint the object of our worship. It seems like the thing that is discussed following services or campus events is how the music sounded, or how "awesome" a certain musician was, or how good the speaker was, and I believe that leads to people leaving the place and having no meaningful, lasting impact in the long run, and sometimes even in the short run. What if instead, the focus and desire of everyone was for the presence of God to absolutely permeate the place, what would happen then? I believe then we would finally be able to "worship in spirit and in truth" and we would be changed, we would not be able to leave and be the same as when we entered, we would reach new levels of intimacy with Christ, we would have lasting change through the Spirit.
Are our religious practices just metal cows or are we on the mountain face to face with God?
