Exchanged for an Idol

When we read the biblical account of God’s people worshiping a golden calf, we can often look on with judgment. Today, R.C. Sproul warns us to be on guard, reminding us that we have this same capacity for idol worship.

When God delivered His law to Moses after He had rescued His people from slavery—and the focus of that law was a prohibition against idolatry—while Moses was speaking with God on the mountain, Aaron and the people made for themselves a golden calf and worshiped it. And the Scriptures tell us that when God saw that, He was outraged.

I remind you, dear friends, that that episode in the Old Testament chronicles for us the most successful worship service in human history. The attendance that day at the worship of the golden calf surpassed all statistics before or after in Israel. The singing was so lusty that, miles away, Joshua hears the music, and he thinks he’s hearing the sound of warfare. The church was filled to the brim. The people loved the music as they danced around an idol that distorted the very character of God.

Do you think that was the last time that happened in church history? That’s our propensity—it’s to exchange the God of heaven and earth for an idol and fashion for ourselves a God who requires no payment for sin.