Golden Calves
The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity – 11/17/2024
Exodus 32:1-20
Rev. Christopher W. Brademeyer
That portion from God’s holy Word is our Old Testament reading from the book of Exodus in the thirty-second chapter with special emphasis on verses one through six which read as follows:
“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”[1]
Thus far the Scriptures.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today’s readings deal with two themes: idolatry and the end of the world. Despite how dissimilar these things seem, they fit together quite well. Let me explain: our Lord warns us about the end of this age and in so doing, He warns that there will be false Christs who seek to lead astray Christians from the Church of Christ. This is to say, there will be idols aplenty in the last days. And many of these will, unfortunately, blasphemously bear the holy Name of our Lord Jesus, claiming either be Him or be someone greater than Him.
And make no mistake about it, the last days are not some far in the future reality. They are not a distinct period to come, they are the present time. This is the last phase of history of this world. Since our Lord has ascended again to the right hand of His Father, He set us into the last age of this world. It will finally draw to a close when our Lord Jesus returns again, openly and plainly, to judge the living and the death. After this final judgement, God will create a new heaven and a new earth, where He will dwell in the midst of His people, being their salvation, their protection, and even their very sustenance.
To be brief, there will be no secret rapture; this concept is foreign to the holy Bible and was invented only in 1830s and was never taught by anyone before this time. The Holy Scriptures are plain in teaching that suffering is something that comes for the faith and that Jesus will come openly and plainly when He comes again. Any teaching that claims that there will be an escape from suffering or persecution because God takes us out of the world or that Jesus will come back in His local, physical presence to gather Christians out of the world before a great time of suffering is absolutely unbiblical.
This is all to say something that we have been discussing all along: in these last days there will be many false ideas and, unfortunately, many who peddle them. And since these last days began in the time of Christ, we have certainly seen many great heresies, false teaching of every sort. Some of denied that Jesus is God. Others denied the Holy Trinity. Still others claim that Jesus is not a man. The list is practically endless. In order to combat these false teachings, the Christian Church condensed the foundational biblical doctrines into the Creeds, in order to give you the faithful some short thing to memorize in order to help ward off and combat these false opinions. The Creeds are serious business; many Christians have given their lives to defend them and the teaching that they contain. May God grant us the strength of spirit and character to do the same should the need arise.
Idols go with all this. And certainly they are plenteous in this present time. What makes an idol an idol? After all, false gods, idols, are not simply limited to the likes of fake deities with names like Zeus, Thor, Horus, or Shiva. Idolatry is when we fear, love, and trust in something or someone more than Almighty God.[2] In other words, your god is whatever you look towards to protect you or care for you. It is whatever keeps your affections and occupies your time. It what your rely on in good times and bad, that you never expect to fail you. And when push comes to shove, idols make themselves known when we run to them for protection, safety, or help.
In other words, idols are not limited to false gods with names and religions, idols can be made of anything or anyone. Indeed, all of God’s good gifts to us can be misused in this way and each of us is prone, sinners that we are, to make idols. A really simple litmus test here is to think about those things that would make you miss church; after all, church is where we gather to hear the Lord’s Word and to receive His precious gifts of life and everlasting salvation. Anything that would have you skip church is, by simply definition, an idol that has been put ahead of the true and living God. And yet so many of us are perfectly willing to give up eternity to sleep in, watch TikToks, make a buck, travel, relax at the lake, watch the kids play sports, and so on and so forth. The list here is as large as human sin is.
And as bad as it is that idols, like that golden calf so long ago, would leave us outside of salvation, that they would fail to provide in our time of need, that they above all want us to rot with them in eternal damnation, it is far worse that the try to pass off God’s generosity and goodness in this world as their own. Idols love taking the credit for those things that God provides. Do you have money and property? There are dozens of idols, and the demons behind them,[3] who will gladly take the credit for your success in order to lead you away from the true and eternal treasures of heaven. Do you have good health and physical well-being? The idols who indulge vanity, narcissism, and selfishness are lurking right around the corner to tempt you away from the truly healthful body to come in the Resurrection. Do you have a loving family? A caring and devoted spouse? Then the demons behind the false gods will lead you into losing the greatest family of all, the eternal family that is in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Idols are not always easy to see, they are seductive, they like to flash things that appear valuable, fun, and easy. But these are candy coating on a poison pill. They cannot give life or salvation, indeed, all they can do is rob us of it. Anything, and I do mean anything, that comes between you and God, that tempts you to put it ahead of God, is potentially your ruin and should be immediately put in its proper, subordinate place.
But all is not doom and loss, for these is a God who is real, who does genuinely care for you and seek your good. And this God, unlike idols that make demands and lead astray, comes to serve you with everlasting salvation. This God even gave up His Son so that you would have everlasting life in the forgiveness of sins. This God loves you and seeks only what is good for you. Even though the life-giving medicine of His holy Word is sometimes hard to swallow, it is always for your good. He has promised this. And lest we think this promise empty, He proves His concern and power by fulfilling His promises in history, especially the promise of a Messiah, a Savior, by giving us His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who shed His blood and earned for us righteousness everlasting.
In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Exodus 20:1-6
[2] Martin Luther, Small Catechism, 1st Commandment Explanation
[3] Deuteronomy 32:17
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