Yesterday morning I felt a little like Moses and Joshua in Exodus 32. I had been in the presence of God (in worship) and I had just descended the mountain (spiritual high of that worship), when I walked outside into the parking lot and I heard what sounded like war in the camp (no really, it did sound like a fight off in the distance). I had no idea what was going on but it was a very strange sound to hear at 11:15 on a Sunday morning.
We debated what it could have been for several minutes until we realized it was not a fight, it was just a group of people worshipping their god. You see, there is a baseball/softball complex just a couple of streets behind our church building and the “noise of war” turned out to be a group of people who had forsaken Jehovah to bow down to their “golden calf.”
But I feel ashamed to tell you of one significant difference between Moses and me. Remember that “Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it” (Exodus 32:19-20). Immediately thereafter he confronted Aaron and punished the people. But me? I simply shook my head, fumed to myself as I thought of the parents who not only allowed this to happen but openly encouraged it, and then got in our van and drove home to eat lunch.
Folks, we’ve got a lot of work to do. The mission field is the world, yes, but there is so much we need to do in our own backyards. There is so much we need to do in the Bible belt. Was there much I could have done in the moment that would have bore any fruit? Probably not. I could have driven over there and publically berated them for skipping church to play ball but it would have done little to no good. Changing hearts requires more than a moment of guilt.
But their hearts are not the only ones we have to change. We’ve got to change our own. Why didn’t I go into a fit of uncontrollable rage? Because it didn’t surprise me. And I think most of us are in the same boat. In the 21stcentury nothing shocks us anymore. That doesn’t mean we agree with it, enjoy it, or accept it. It’s just that we’ve become so accustomed to seeing or hearing about sin that nothing impacts us the way it really should. A lot of that is our fault. Maybe if we (maybe if I) spent more time in the presence of God where there is no sin then I would be more shocked, even uncomfortable, when I was in the presence of sin.
Let me conclude this with a few pleas:
- Young people, don’t buy into the myth that a commitment to sports (or anything else) is license to ignore God. It’s not.
- Parents, don’t give into the pressure to help your children develop so much athletically/socially/etc. that they fail in their relationship with God. I fear many parents and children are so busy that they “won’t have time” to get to heaven.
- Preachers, don’t give up the fight. Sure it is frustrating to look out and see empty pews throughout the year knowing that sometimes even your own brethren are counted among the number “worshipping at the feet of the golden calf” but don’t give up. You are making a difference among some whether you know it or not.
- Christians, don’t let up in your attempts to shine your light to the lost world around you. Sure, you may sometimes feel like nothing more than a match in a world of darkness, but even in immense darkness the smallest flame gives off enormous light.
“For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8).
-Andy Brewer