Freedom is Choosing the Right God

This is a revised reprint from Tandem Vincitur, June 1995

In his book, Gods, Graves and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology, C.W. Ceram describes the ancient Egyptian cult of animal worship. He reported the people maintained cemeteries for their pets, whom they considered to be deities. One ancient city even had a cemetery for pet crocodiles.

What I found most interesting was his account of the Apis bull. This bull had a white triangle marking on his forehead, and this distinguished it as sacred. People worshipped the bull and it was tended and pampered by the priests. Upon death, the bull was given a lavish funeral, complete with embalming. Then, another bull with the same markings would take his place. The Apis bull was said to be the servant of the god Ptah, whom the Egyptians honored as the creator of the world.

After reading this, I reflected upon the significance of this animal, his relationship to the god and the corresponding golden calf of the Israelites. Having lived in Egypt some four hundred plus years, the Israelites were familiar with the god Ptah – the creator, and his servant bull.

You may recall, in the biblical account of the exodus of Israel from Egypt, the people were not even as far away as the Red Sea when they turned away from God in their hearts. Did they not just recently witness such mighty miracles as the world had never seen? Did they forget how God dealt with the Egyptians? Did they forget, they were protected from harm – even when every Egyptian family lost their firstborn son? Did they think the reason the people handed their wealth to them as they left was because they were naturally attractive and likeable people? Wasn’t that a miracle – an extraordinary display of God’s generosity and love for His people? Regardless and however, they forgot the God who loved them and led them at the first sign of hardship.

As they approached the Red Sea, their reasoning focused solely upon empirical data – and it looked like they were trapped. The sea was on one side and the armies of Egypt were closing in on the other. God had led them out – He already had a plan – and that was probably the hard part: waiting on God’s plan. This is something we have difficulty with in our personal walk with God and it is a problem with people in communities, societies and nations. Nobody wants to wait upon God because we all have a better vision how the world should be and we want it that way right now.

Despite their doubt, their fears and their demands to return to slavery, God delivered them with a mighty miracle. He parted the sea, allowing Israel to walk through on dry ground and then returned to sea to its original position – on top of and drowning the entire army of Egypt. God took a powerful nation and destroyed it with plagues – and He destroyed their military in a moment because they defied the true God. Would that be enough to convince the people of Israel?

Three months later, the people witnessed the majesty of God at Mount Sinai – the lightning and thunder, the thick cloud, the smoke, the rumbling and the voice. They heard Him describe how He carried them to this place on eagles’ wings. God gave them the Ten Commandments and they heard His admonition to fully obey all these words and the warning of destruction if they refused. The people were afraid to hear His voice but they affirmed they would follow all the words of the LORD. Then Moses went up the mountain to receive further instruction from the LORD for forty days.

Sometime near the end of the forty days, the people – tired of waiting, reasoned that Moses was dead. Well, actually they said they did not know what had happened to him. The truth is, they were not willing to wait for the LORD. They thought they knew what needed to be done: to get on the road to the Promised Land – and they just needed someone or something to lead them. If they incorporated a god of their own choosing, the people would be in control of their own destiny. Moses, the servant of the Lord was missing and they cast a statue of the calf, the servant of the Egyptian creator god, to replace him.

The Bible says Aaron took the people’s gold and had an idol cast in the image of a calf. Then he said, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the LORD” – the same word used for Jehovah God. As I thought about this, it seemed they had not absolutely rejected God; they just wanted to add something to Him. They were incorporating some of the favorable aspects of the pagan idolatry they had participated in while in the foreign land. The Israelites were comfortable with the religious symbols of Egypt. Now, they were molding their image of God into something that made them feel comfortable.

If the desire of Israel was to serve God, they wanted to do so on their terms. They wanted as little pain as possible and they wanted a god they could measure. With the golden calf as their image of God, they were able to make their own way to the hope they were promised and still claim they were lead by revelation. They would not have to wait and trust – for they had a representative whom they could see; it never rebuked nor corrected – god was their positive affirmation.

Another Scripture, writing of another time, puts it this way, “Even while these people were serving the LORD, they were serving their idols.” [2Ki 17:41 NIV] They were no different than many professing Christians today – who mix pagan, new age ideology and idolatry with their Christian faith. I can picture the Israelites “church leaders” rationalizing that people who are weak, or young, in the faith need something to lift them up and bolster them – something to make their faith tangible – to give them self-esteem, or a purpose. They need the calf.

Professing Christians chase after multiple gods. Encouraged by church leaders who rely upon an empirical foundation, rather than on the laws of God and the laws of His grace. In the political realm, many Christians have allied with government programs and bureaucratic agencies to fulfill what they believe is their Christian commission. In this, they have relegated Christian and biblical charity to the state, while they organize self-esteem programs, which is idolatry – placing man equal to or higher than God.

We have made our government to be god, now, even calling it our savior and even mistaking it for our creator. Nonetheless, our welfare and entitlement systems have failed. So too, have our institutions of education, higher learning, law, justice and administration. We too, are worshipping the Apis bull – and we have a god who cannot hear us and cannot help us. We are like the Israelites of old: we would rather create our own god – or append our Christian religion – rather than obey the laws God has given us. And just like the Israelites, crying to return to their slavery, we have taken a nation founded upon freedom and liberty obtained through obedience to God, and we are becoming indentured to our multitude of regulations, expanding crime, political correctness, national debt and personal credit card debt.

God said that He alone is God and there is no other (Isa 45:5). “Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” (Isa 45:22). It is time to return the true God to His rightful position of authority and once again to honor His law in our land. Jesus Christ promised that if we live in obedience to Him then we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. (Joh 8:31-32).

“Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.” (William Penn).