Tuesday Reflections
Morning Office Reading from Exodus 32:21-34
Gosh.
I was a part of a group that decided to read through Exodus during Lent (even though I knew I would be returning to it again during Easter for the daily office), and I remember reading this passage a few months ago. After the incident with the Golden Calf, God is ready to kill his chosen people, but Moses talks him down and it seems like all is well. Then, however, the appointed priests slaughter the worst of the idolaters at Moses’ command. It’s a horrible rollercoaster ride, and let me tell you, it doesn’t feel good as someone aspiring to holy orders to see that zeal for the Lord is displayed by murdering heretics.
One of the things I’ve been trying to do with these passages is to remember that every word of scripture is “God-Breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16), and that “the Bible we have is the Bible we need” (Kathy Grieb). What might this passage say about our practice of the religion today?
Well, there are the idols you can see, and the idols you can’t see, right? There are those Christians among us (outliers, I hope) who are perfectly willing to erect monuments to the 10 Commandments, or elevate the Bible, almost as a relic, to venerate its very presence, not caring about the loving messages contained within. This, to me, is an idolatry. And there are still Christians today who would go so far as to murder those they would call heretics, to display their zeal for the Lord. Seen through the lens of Christ, this zeal is woefully misplaced. The idolatries that objectify the elements of our teaching (the Bible, the 10 Commandments) is scary, but not as insidious as the idolatry of homogenous thought.
Aaron’s revelers might have been worshipping the Golden Calf, but to enforce unity of religion by the edge of the sword does not instill the fear of God. It only makes us fear our fellow human beings.
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