Daily Lesson for Monday 8th of September 2025
Read Exodus 32:6. Where did their idolatry quickly lead them? (See also Psalms 115:4-8; Psalms 135:15-18; Isaiah 44:9-10.)
The golden calf resembled the Egyptian bull god, called Apis, or cow god, called Hathor. This was a blatant transgression of the first and second commandments (Exodus 20:3-6).
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This violation could not go unpunished because it openly broke their relationship with the living Lord. Instead of worshiping their Creator, the Israelites worshiped their own creation, which could not see, hear, smell, speak, care, love, or lead.
The Creation order was reversed: instead of understanding that they had been created in God’s image, they now made a god, not even in their own image—which would have been bad enough—but in the image of an animal. This was the god whom they wanted to serve? Thus, they had greatly sinned against the Lord (Isaiah 31:7, Isaiah 42:17).
In what ways does the golden calf apostasy reflect what is written in Romans 1:22-27?
Idolatry denies the theological understanding that God is God and man is man. Idolatry erases the gap between God and man (Ecclesiastes 5:2) and breaks the connection with Him. Whether it is blatant and open or something concealed in the heart, idolatry quickly ruptures our relationship with the Lord and leads in a downward moral spiral. No wonder the text talks about what they did the next day: after offering sacrifices to the idol, they then began to party, in what Ellen G. White depicted as “an imitation of the idolatrous feasts of Egypt.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 320.
Humans are geniuses at fabricating their own idols. They create their own gods, which is bad enough, but then they go and serve those gods. The Creator is replaced with things that, sooner or later, lead to moral degeneration.
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What are ways today that humans worship the creation instead of the Creator? |
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