Monday: Idolatry and Evil
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).
Image © Providence Collection at Goodsalt.com
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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We sometimes have this picture of the Hebrew nation as an isolated, ethnically pure nation who could proudly trace their ancestry back to Abraham. They had a background of interaction with Yahweh that gave them a sense of spiritual superiority over the nations around them. Perhaps we should reconsider.
The Exodus took place some 400 years after Abraham, representing 10 to 16 generations. During that time they had intermarried frequently with the nations around them. (Read who Jacob’s sons married to get some idea of the extent) And if modern marriages are anything to go by, such unions significantly influenced their religious beliefs and practices.
The religions in the eastern Mediterranean area frequently used bulls as symbols of divine power and fertility. Baal was often represented as riding a bull. The Minoan civilisation on Crete worshipped bulls and it is depicted in their art. In Egypt, bulls were used to represent several gods such as Apis and were thought to be reincarnations of Ptah and Osiris. There was a special temple in Memphis that kept a bull as a living god. Apparently, this cult was very popular and lasted for several centuries.
Given this background, we can understand why the Hebrews quickly reverted to calf worship. It was something they were quite familiar with. Granted they had seen a couple of miraculous events, but it underscores the idea that it takes a lot more than miracles to change beliefs and practices. These folk were still at the very bottom of the spiritual learning curve. They had much to learn and even more to unlearn.
The real miracle in this story is that God persisted with them. He had a mob of people who were glad to be out of bondage but who were still finding their feet about where to go, what to do and how to achieve it. Moses was out of the picture for 6 weeks and they had lost their sense of purpose. And it wasn’t the last time that would happen.
Now, three millennia later, we like to think we are spiritually superior to the Hebrews. I wonder if that pride is justified. Reflecting on our own spiritual progress, we must ask: where are we on the spiritual learning curve?
I thank God for being a persistent God, willing to work with us, in spite of our spiritual pride. My prayer:
Why are human beings prone to idolatry?
Human beings were created as worshiping beings (Genesis 1:27, Isaiah 43:6-7). Created in the image of God was a special design capable of fellowship with God. Humanity’s purpose and identity are explicit: to worship and glorify God. There is a deep, inherent longing in humanity to worship. If we fail to worship the true God, the longing will be shifted to something else (Romans 1:21-23). Human beings have a propensity to crave for visible, tangible, and controllable things (Exodus 32:1). In essence, idolatry boils down to worshiping self through objects. Idolatry is self-exaltation.
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised”.(Romans 1:25).
Idolatry sneaks into somebody’s life in a very subtle manner. It does not necessarily mean bowing down to statues, but giving ultimate love, trust, or loyalty other than God is idolatry. How can we guard our hearts from the “sneaky” idolatry?
1. We must be extremely careful how we handle those things that seem to give us a sense of security, identity, or joy, can quietly become an idol.
2. We should cultivate a personal loving relationship with God daily through prayer and meditation.
3. We must be rooted in the Word of God. “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”(Psalm 119:11)
4. We must learn to be content in all situations (Hebrews 13:5).
5. We must be mindful of cultural influences. Imitating certain cultures leads to idolatry (Judges 2:11–13, Romans 12:2).
6. Let us allow God to fill our hearts through true worship. Let us give God all the glory, honour, and adoration for who He is.
“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.” (Psalm 95:6)
"In essence, idolatry boils down to worshiping self through objects. Idolatry is self-exaltation." What a powerful statement. Idolatry summed up succinctly in a couple of sentences. Thanks so much bro Omwenga.
Well said and worth repeating:
In essence, it is self-focus that is also at the foundation of all false religions. The Bible teaches us that focusing away from self brings true happiness.
In ancient times, idol worship often meant bowing before carved images of wood, stone, or metal. Modern people in Christian nations are generally not prone to this because the Bible’s teaching against image worship has shaped their culture for centuries. Christianity’s influence, along with more rational and secular worldviews, has made literal idol worship seem outdated or foreign.
Yet, the principle of idolatry is still alive today. Instead of statues, modern idols take the form of money, fame, pleasure, power, or even self. These may not look like the idols of old, but they function the same way—taking God’s place in our hearts and leading us away from Him.
True worship is not about avoiding statues, but about keeping God at the center of our lives. Anything that claims our ultimate devotion—other than the Creator—is an idol in disguise.
The children of Israel, freshly delivered from slavery, appear to be struggling in separating themselves from the culture that had shaped them for 400 years (Exodus 12:40). It was easy to get them out of Egypt but getting Egypt out of them was an uphill task. Just because Moses delayed on Mount Sinai for 40 days (Exodus 24:18), they became restless and demanded a god they could see, touch, and follow (Exodus 32:1). Their desire was for spectacle, a dazzling idol that would comfort them with familiarity instead of God's holiness. Aaron demonstrates weak leadership and gives in to people’s demands, he gathers their gold and fashions a golden calf, just like the bovine deities which was an outright mockery of the living God and this could not go unpunished! (Exodus 32:2–5).
They refused to trust the unseen God of majesty and instead choose useless and helpless images disguising for the need of security! What a pity? (Deuteronomy 5:22–27). God’s anger burned hot against this rebellion, and God wanted to destroy Israel entirely and raise up a new nation through Moses (Exodus 32:9–10). Moses as a shepherd, intercedes and reminds God of His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to multiply their descendants exceedingly (Exodus 32:13; Genesis 22:17).
The appeal that Moses made was in honor of God before the watching nations—lest they claim that God delivered His people only to annihilate them in the wilderness (Exodus 32:12). Moses pleads for mercy (Psalm 106:23), and the Lord relented (Exodus 32:14). Israel was spared, not because they were deserving, but because of God’s faithfulness to His promises and through the power of an intercessory leader Moses! (Deuteronomy 7:9)
Thank you for this comment
Whenever God is not the first, we become idolaters. Whenever the self comes first, we become idolaters. To worship God in truth means to deny oneself—and that's a fight every second. God may place love in the heart, but to keep this love takes choice. That's why love does not look for its own interests.
I have always been under the impression that when the Israelites made and worshiped the golden calf they were abandoning the God of Israel, who had just spoken to them on Sinai, and were now worshiping one of the gods of Egypt, or something similar to it. I now wonder if they were doing something different, something that was just as bad, if not worse. They were remaking God into their own idea of what a god should be. I am not sure that when Aaron said, this is the god who brought you out of Egypt, that they actually thought this was a different god than the one they had just heard. They had a hard time believing in a god that they could not see. They needed a representation of God. Moses had been that representation, but he was gone. Aaron may have justified his action in his own mind by saying, "it's a representation of the true God. We will still be worshiping the true God." But God knows that all our representations of Him fall infinitely short of Him. (I have seen someone else make the comments that our representations always fail, but I can't remember who it was and cannot give proper credit.) We start to make God conform to our idea of what God is like, and we start to relate to Him after our own ideas. It is easy for us to do now, even if we are not explicitly making a golden calf.
It is disturbing to see so many pastors and Christians who seem to have the same weakness as Aaron had when this opportunity came to him. Think of all the lives that were changed that day. Father grant me courage to lovingly speak up for You.
What a thought-provoking question from today's lesson! Do we realize how easily humans can transform almost anything into an object of worship? It's striking to think about it! Often, it's the good things or even the right things that humanity quickly converts into items of worship.
Consider the examples: gold earrings became a gold calf god; our children become idols; and what about our academic titles or public image over our relationship with God? We prioritize brains over God.
As it says,
Even good things can become objects of worship.
This may seem awkward, but anything can! Nothing is immune. Remember the Pharisees? Not even the Sabbath! (Matthew 12).
We need to re-evaluate if our worship leads to us to go to God and trust Him, or is it superficial?
Ignorance in the moment has surely and sorely troubled Israel throughout it’s history. “As for THIS Moses… we don’t know what has happened to him.” (Exo 32:1). So they asked for gods to be made to go before them, replacing Moses (Num 14:2-4).
The healed blind-from-birth man, in his argument with the Jews, said to them: “… you do not want to become His (Jesus) disciples too, do you?” (Jn 9:27)
This time loyalty to Moses was firm and unbreakable, kinda written in stone.
Their answer: “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for THIS man, we do not know where He is from.” (Jn 9:28,29). So they rejected Messiah, even got rid of Him and held on to Moses.
Moses himself had said of Christ who was coming: “The Lord your God will raise up a prophet from among your countrymen like you, and I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them ALL that I command Him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which He shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.” (Dt 18:18,19; Acts 3:22,23; 7:37).
Are we at all interested in the Sabbath rest that comes through Christ or only in the rest that came by Moses? (Jn 1:17) Christ’s rest is the entering into God’s rest, the prototype from creation. It is the fulfillment of the shadow/type physical rest of Moses (Heb 3:3-7; Matt 11:28-30).
Zechariah 4:6 - ”So he (the angel) said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.”
I inquired from AI to place this verse in its historical context and found that Zerubbabel was the Jewish leader appointed by the Persian king Cyrus the Great to lead the first group of exiled Jews, 40,000, from Babylonian captivity back to Jerusalem. He became the governor of Juday, still under Persian rule, and oversaw the rebuilding of their temple at Jerusalem.
Zecheriah chapter 4 - the angel explaines the symbolism of the golden lampstand and the two olive trees; oil representing the vitally important presence of the Holy Spirit, because - ‘nothing happens’ by ‘might, nor by power, but by His Spirit’, says the Lord!
Why do I use this example to comment on today’s lesson? Both, Moses and Zerubbabel, by God appointed leaders, called to spearhead an exodus of the people of God from captivity to experience a new 'beginning' in their relationship with God. Both events highlight the limitations humanity will always experience unless their efforts are designed, undergirded, and maintained by the Holy Spirit of God.
Humans have always been skilled at creating idols—replacing the Creator with things that ultimately lead to moral decline. In our modern era, these idols take new forms.
-Consumerism elevates wealth and possessions as the highest good, fostering greed, exploitation, and environmental harm.
-Fame and celebrity culture teaches us to value performance over character, leading to shallow living and a loss of authenticity.
-Technology, though useful, becomes an idol when it shapes our identity and connections, leaving us more isolated and less compassionate.
-Power, whether political or economic, corrupts when treated as absolute, justifying injustice and eroding moral principles.
Each of these reflects the truth of the warning: when we replace God with human-made idols, we inherit their flaws. They demand much but give little, leaving us spiritually impoverished. True meaning and integrity are found only when God is at the center of our lives.