When We Reject God

There are times when we're in the wilderness our lives become distracted by other gods that inhabit our world. When we lose focus on God, our attention can drift towards fulfilling our personal desires and needs. As we mentioned earlier, the wilderness isn't empty, it's teeming with other entities that are vying for our worship. This is how Satan operates. When we're in emotionally and physically vulnerable places in life, it leaves the opportunity for Satan to tempt us away from God. We see this in Jesus' life when he fasts in the wilderness for 40 days. Satan offers him various ways to satisfy his hunger and gain the kingdom without the cross. However, Jesus rejects these temptations because he is focused on the mission of the Father.

Sometimes, these distractions call us back to the life we had before we knew Christ. Being a Christian isn't easy, especially in today's world. There's a constant temptation to give up and return to what we know. Is it easier to go along with the flow at work or school rather than speak up for Christ? Sure, it is. When we do that enough, we fall into the temptation of slipping away from church and our relationship with Christ. This is especially true when we find ourselves in vulnerable situations, and our focus is on circumstances rather than Christ.

We see a great example of this in Exodus 32. Moses has been up on Mt. Sinai for almost 40 days. They see and hear the thunder, lightning, and clouds on the mountain. They presume that Moses is dead, and God has left them. Instead of seeking after God, they go back to what they knew from Egypt. They go to Aaron and tell him to make a god for them. Aaron gives them instructions to turn over their gold, and he fashions a golden calf - the Egyptian god, Apis, who was the god of agriculture and fertility. He was a popular god to worship for the Egyptians, and this carried over to the Israelites.

What's ironic about the worship of the Egyptian gods by the Israelites is that they witnessed the defeat of the Egyptian gods through the plagues. Yahweh's judgment on Egypt through the plagues was also a judgment of their demonic gods. Yahweh crushed them even when they tried to display their power through the second plague of the frogs. God's destruction of the frogs showed his power over the Egyptian goddess, Heqet, who was often depicted as a woman with a frog's head.

Fear and distraction led the Israelites to break the first two commandments just days after they declared they would follow Yahweh and enter a covenant with him to be his people. Today, we'll look at why we reject God and the consequences of doing so.

1. Rejecting God is our default position. (vs. 1-6)

Forty days after making their covenant with Yahweh in Exodus 24:3, “Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do,” they declared that they would follow the commandments of God and his decrees. It literally took them forty days to renege on what they had promised - “You shall have no other gods before you.” They came against Aaron. The English translation says that the people “gathered themselves together” to Aaron. This does not capture what is happening. The people had their minds set on violence and evil against Aaron. Aaron was scared for his life, so he gave in to their demands that they have a new god to go before them and lead them to Canaan to conquer the land.

‌The arrogance against God and his ways is a disrespectful rejection. They assign all the good that has happened to them to the gods of Egypt that have been crushed. Not only do they assign miraculous works to the Egyptian gods, but they also disavow Yahweh’s ownership of them. When Aaron fashions the idol, he makes it into a calf representing Apis, the fertility god. In response, the people “sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” This was an act of worship. Unholy sacrifices are offered on an unholy altar at an unprescribed time. The people were gluttonous and giving in to sexual desires as they “worshipped” this false and demonic god.

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

2. We deserve God’s wrath. (vs. 7-10)

Romans 1:18 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

3. By grace, we are reconciled. (vs. 11-14)

Romans 5:15 ESV

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.