The LORD gave this message to Micah of Moresheth during the years when Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah. The visions he saw concerned both Samaria and Jerusalem. Attention! Let all the people of the world listen! Let the earth and everything in it hear. The Sovereign LORD is making accusations against you; the Lord speaks from his holy Temple. Look! The LORD is coming! He leaves his throne in heaven and tramples the heights of the earth. The mountains melt beneath his feet and flow into the valleys like wax in a fire, like water pouring down a hill. And why is this happening? Because of the rebellion of Israel— yes, the sins of the whole nation. Who is to blame for Israel’s rebellion? Samaria, its capital city! Where is the center of idolatry in Judah? In Jerusalem, its capital! [Micah 1.1-5]
Idolatry has remained at the center of Israel and Judah's rebellion against God up until the time of Micah's prophecy. Interestingly enough, even many of the "good kings" in the history of these nations still left blemishes of idolatry in their respective domains. Jotham's story supports this claim:
Jotham did what was pleasing in the LORD’s sight. He did everything his father, Uzziah, had done, except that Jotham did not sin by entering the Temple of the LORD. But the people continued in their corrupt ways. [2 Chronicles 27.2]
Jotham was content to please God himself, but did not use his authority as King to lead his people into the worship of God alone. And, for that reason, idolatry remained a "spot" on Jotham's record (let alone the people's record).
In fact, idolatry remains a spot on humanity's record to this day even though few truly understand and recognize its concealed existence. How could idolatry survive all these millennia?
Let's consider idolatry's early record in Israel's history to see just how it works:
When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.” [Exodus 32.1]
With only casual study of this event, it is obvious that the idols Israel rebelled with early on were objects of their own manufacture. They were manmade. They were the result of man's ingenuity. But, they were artificial.
So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.” All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” [Exodus 32.2-4]
What happens next however defies reason:
Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the LORD!” [Exodus 32.5]
Wait! What? They just made for themselves a gold calf idol then declared a festival to the LORD?
Watch carefully now what happens when Aaron is confronted by Moses for this undeniable act of idolatry:
Finally, he turned to Aaron and demanded, “What did these people do to you to make you bring such terrible sin upon them?” “Don’t get so upset, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know how evil these people are. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.’ When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!” [Exodus 32.21-24]
Aaron made it sound as if a miracle, something only God could do, produced the idol, when in fact, it was only manmade. This God-like miracle lie was Aaron's attempt to justify and validate the existence of the gold calf. It must be remembered that Aaron was the High Priest, identified as such in Exodus 29.
In his position as High Priest, Aaron's justification and validation of the gold calf idol is absolutely no different than today's religious leaders' justification and validation of the idols of debt, insurance, medicine and technology by declaring, "God gave them!" when, in fact they are merely manmade. They are the result of human ingenuity. They are artificial.
Debt is artificial wealth. Insurance is artificial protection. Medicine is artificial health. And, technology has so advanced now to the point of being outwardly promoted for its artificial intelligence! Many allege these are "gifts from God" but in reality they are just as phony as the gold calf that actually cost the foolish and impatient Israelite people their riches - their gold that God had indeed blessed them with. The gold calf amounted to nothing more than a tax on Israel's impatient faithlessness mirrored today in the respective costly interest payments, premiums, prescriptions, and price tags of debt, insurance, medicine and technology!
Justify and validate debt, insurance, medicine and technology if you will, but know this, Jesus posed the following warning question for a very good reason!
Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” [Luke 18.6-8]
Israel's impatience with Moses and our impatience with our circumstances should be contrasted to the widow's persistent patience with the unjust judge to give her what she needed. Faith is not impatiently turning to (paying for) man's ingenious solutions and then crediting "God" for those solutions in effort to justify or validate turning to them. Exodus 32 PROVES it does not work that way!
Even our most beloved "faith chapter," Hebrews 11, speaks of those who refused to turn from God in order to be set free. Can we not see that turning to anything or anyone other than God for that which God has repeatedly declared He would provide, is gross idolatry? Can we not see that refusing to turn from God in order to be set free is what faith looks like even if it ends in death (because we hope in a better life after the resurrection)?
People of God, we must wake up! We must methodically and categorically reject the costly idols born of our impatience and lack of faith today! We must change our testimony, repent and stop believing the lie that debt, insurance, medicine and technology are "gifts from God" when indeed they are purely the expensive fabrications of man! They are all costly taxes upon our impatience with, and faithlessness to God.
Father in heaven, forgive us for our unmitigated idolatry with our own inventions: debt, insurance, medicine and technology. Help us to see that these are all artificial substitutes for that help which You promised genuine believers - those who believe in Christ. Help us to understand that impatience and faithlessness drive us to turn to these costly idols, and that only proud lies justify or validate their use. May you be pleased with us as we turn only to You - even if it kills us. So be it.
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