Focus: Beware Of Man-made Gods!

Text: Ex.32:1

"Up, make us GODS."

Israel was too much in a hurry to wait for Moses to return from the place of God's presence. So they said to Aaron, "Up, make us gods to go before us." Stephen repeated the same in his Post-Pentecost preaching: "make us GODS to go before us." When Aaron succeeded in making the gods, Israel said, "These be thy GODS, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Then Yahweh saw it and said to Moses, "They have MADE them a molten calf, and have WORSHIPPED it, and have SACRIFICED thereunto, and said, These be thy GODS, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt… They have made them GODS of GOLD."

Why did they persuade Aaron to fashion gods for them, if not because they knew that they were themselves incapable of being gods. Man knows he's no God, and cannot do without one. A German philosopher once said, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary for us to invent him."

God is a fundamental necessity. No one can survive a second without God. Paul says, "For in him we live, and move, and have our being." Man is not God and can never be. How do I know that? The Scripture says, "And God made MAN" not, 'God made God.' If God made man, it means man is not God. And if God made God, it means that the God-made is less than his maker-God. The God-made is second fiddle to the maker-God. The psalmist says God made man a little lower than the angels. The word 'angels' here is 'Elohim' in the Hebrew, which is a name for God. So God made man to be a little lower than Himself, and it is no wonder that Eugene Peterson in the Message Bible translates that man "narrowly missed being God." So God and man are not in competition with each other. God and man are not in any way a match.

God knows all things; man does not. God sees all things; man does not. God is everywhere; man is not. God can do all things; man cannot. God is infinite; man is finite. In fact, God made man to represent Him, not to replace Him.

When Israel asked Aaron to make gods for them, they were admitting to their own need of God and the fact that they were incapable of taking His place or playing His role. God brought them out of Egypt, and only Him could take them to the land of Canaan. Only God can finish what God Himself started.

The problem is that man keeps looking for God in the wrong places and in the things that God Himself made for man's own uses. Israel resorted to fabricating gods of gold, molding gold into the shape of an animal. Like Paul would say, they served idols "which by nature are no gods" (Gal.4:8).

Why look for God in things? Is it not a senseless thing, making your own maker and creating your own creator? God who made us cannot be made. Man-made gods are fake and false. They can't satisfy.

The bottom line is that man is nothing more than man, and God is nothing less than God. So let's humble ourselves under God. Let's not go ahead of God. Let's not be in a hurry. Let all the Aarons beware. Don't allow the people to pressure you into fabricating gods for them - gods of anointing oil, handkerchiefs, and prayer cloths.

A lot of our ministers are being pressured into making gods out of all kinds of things. Man-made gods are everywhere now, even in the churches. God is God, and He is enough for us. He brought us out, and He is able to take us home.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter