Turning Our Backs
“They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it, sacrificing to it and crying out,
‘This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’”
Exodus 32:8
How often do we try to kick a bad habit and find it coming back to us not long after we have made some progress? We are weak. There’s no doubt about that. But that doesn’t have to define us. In fact, it doesn’t and it shouldn’t.
After God led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and into the wilderness, the Israelites promised God that they will listen to Him and follow His commands. However, not too long after, when Moses went up to the mountain, the people began to melt their gold and fashioned a golden calf to worship! Talk about turning your back on someone. They just saw how God worked in their lives, promised to be obedient, and now they do this. Betrayal, loud and clear. Some say well maybe they just wanted something that resembled God and so they made this golden calf - after all that’s what every other group of people seem to do. Yes, that’s right. They do. But these were people set apart by God. You and I are set apart by God. We were made holy and are called to holiness.
What are some ways we have turned our backs on God? What are some bad habits that keep us away from living the special mission that God has called us to? Yes, we fall and we sin. But that’s not the end of the story. Our sinfulness and weakness does not define us. How we are defined has already been determined by God - His Holy People, His beloved sons and daughters. It is His love that defines us. Let us not allow our bad habits and fleeting moments of temptation draw us away from that love and lead us to define ourselves, because when we do, we will become like the pagans who each worshipped their own false gods, believing that their worth comes only from earning it by appeasing their gods. They do not have a god who loves them. We do. Let’s not forget that. Let’s not turn our backs on the One who has loved us from all eternity.
