🌿BREATHE TRUTH🌿
The people made a calf at Mount Sinai; they bowed down before an image made of gold. They traded their glorious God for a statue of a grass-eating bull. —Psalm 106:19
🌿LIVE THE REAL TRUTH🌿
On March 40, 1867, US Secretary of State William Steward signs the Treaty of Cession to purchase Alaska from Russia, as agreed by Tsar Alexander II. Effective that day, the United States gains 370 million acres of wilderness land, an area about 1/5th the size of the United States. The price tag: $7.2 million. Despite its bargain 2 cents per acre price, the sale is opposed in Congress. Hostility pervades this treaty so much it’s passed in Congress by a margin of only one vote.
Almost thirty years later in 1898, the discovery of gold begins a marvelous uncovering of vast reservoirs of oil, fishing, and metals that rake in billions of dollars and redeems Steward’s vision of territorial expansion.
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The Americans’ gain is astronomical while the Russians’ loss causes them to miss out on a plethora of natural resources and a strategic proximity to North America.
Dubbed originally as “William’s Folly,” this purchase becomes the most fantastic real estate deal of the century. Awesome. Trade. Ever.
On the other hand, the Israelites’ trade of God for a golden calf is on the opposite end of the bargain continuum. Really. Bad. Trade. Ever.
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Bad trades are humanly derived.
The people made a calf at Mount Sinai; they bowed down before an image made of gold.
We compose the idea. We conjure it into being. We choose to make it real. Moses goes up to the mountain to meet with God. He is taking longer to return. Maybe he’s not going to. Let’s take matters into our own hands. Here lies the problem. When we remove our circumstances from God’s hands into our own hands. Then we attempt to remold it. Like a potter with one piece of clay to work with. We must take apart to make something new. Thus, we break our covenant with God to form a new one. We sculpture until our expectations are met.
Our circumstances + our insecurities + our uncertainties = a new idol
People secure in their relationship with God don’t leave. People certain of their worship of God don’t bow down to something else. But as we see, the Israelites are neither secure nor certain about the role of God in their lives. The God of their fathers’, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is just that. A God of their past, but not necessarily of their present nor future.
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Time and time again, when given the opportunity to keep or trade God, they trade. They trade Him at Mt. Sinai for a golden calf. They trade Him later in the desert when they are hungry and hunger to return to Egypt where they recall the availability of food.
Human nature is fickle nature. We waver in our devotion and determination to keep God, God of our lives.
We trade our relationship in God for an ideology.
We trade our fellowship with God for an idea.
We trade our worship of God for an idol.
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Bad trades are humanly designed.
They trade their glorious God for a statue of a grass-eating bull.
Bad trades are inferior trades. Bad trades exchange something we possess for something worse. A statue can’t find food for them in the desert nor fight their battles for them. But they covet this trade anyways. In fact, they celebrate it. When Moses comes down from the mountain, he encounters a grand party of ungodly epic. All centered around, incredulously, a cow.
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The source of the Israelites’ idol design originate from their slave masters: The Egyptians have a statue of a bull they worship called Apis Osiris. To the Egyptians, bulls represent force, fertility, and a fighting spirit. Apis Osiris symbolizes all this. Consequently, the Israelites adopt this idea as their new god.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Idolatry is the lowest form of giving your heart to something inferior. The Israelites combine these high and low to emulate the worship of a cow like their Egyptian oppressors. The Israelites pervert this copycat ideology, making imitation the most ungodly form of idolatry.
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Bad trades are humanly decided.
No one forces the Israelites to make bad trades. It is of their own volition. God always leaves open opportunities for good trades. God wants to connect with us out of choice, not constraint.
Acquiring Alaska connected the United States to an incredible cornucopia of riches. But God offers even more lucrative, spiritual connections. Philippians 4:19 tells us, “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. If we endeavor with our whole heart to make good trades to relationship with God, He will provide all that we need from the incredible storehouses of His riches in Christ Jesus.
Make good and godly trades. Alaska was a tremendous trade, but with temporary benefits. Striving to live and love God, and keeping Him as God, is a godly trade with epic, eternal benefits.
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Copyright 2019