November 1 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Exodus 32:1–4

Devotional

Three months have passed since the children of Israel came out of bondage in Egypt. Now they are encamped according to their tribes at the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses has climbed the mountain to receive the holy law out of God’s hand. But waiting for Moses has taken so long. It has already been forty days since he went up the mountain. “Where can Moses be?” the people ask themselves. “We know not what is become of him,” they say to Aaron. Apparently they begin to wonder as to his whereabouts. “He may have had an accident. It is possible that we will never see him again. This has all taken far too long.”

Waiting always takes a long time. This is the wretchedness of man, for he has such little patience for waiting. He cannot surrender matters into the hands of God who governs all things according to His wisdom rather than according to man’s foolishness. Waiting for Moses was too long of a process for the nation of Israel. They wanted to see something. They had no desire to live by the Word of God and, therefore, they made an image of God. Moses stayed away and God was silent. They did not trust the promises of God that all things would work out for good, and consequently they fashioned for themselves an image of God. They who do not believe that God made all things sometimes make something themselves and lean on their selfmade god. Then they no longer need to cry, “Where is God, my maker, who giveth songs in the night?” They have appointed themselves as makers to devise their own god according to their own will and opinion. This is self-willed religion.

The old sin from Paradise is revisited. “You will be as God,” says Satan. You can then do as you please. You will be a law unto yourself. You will no longer be dependent on a higher will. In this way God is dethroned and man is enthroned. The old sin from Paradise constantly repeats itself in all the millions who are born from Adam. When man wants to live by sight and not by faith in all of the Word of God, he then has no regard for God, his Maker.

Do you realize that the Israelites had no other intention than to honor the God of Israel with their man-made image? Did they not say: “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord”? But one can say, “Lord, Lord,” and yet serve self. One can make an image of the true God, but this is sin against the second commandment. We are called to live by faith and not by sight.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.