Nearly one week ago I went to the doctor for occasional numbness in my left foot.  While the numbness is still a bit of a mystery, I should have known enough to know that the doctor gave very little attention to my foot.  He knew that the problem didn’t lie with my foot, but with nerves, muscles, and tendons in my knee, leg and hip.

In Exodus 32, on many different levels and in many different ways, the “foot is numb”.  The most obvious is that the people worshiped the golden calf.  In fact, this one is so obvious that it isn’t just numbness, but infection and gangrene has so disfigured the foot that it is obvious to everyone that there is a more serious problem.

But, there is another symptom that is much less obvious…at least in my life it’s less obvious.  It is Aaron’s response to Moses when confronted with his involvement in making the golden calf.  He says, “So they gave it [their gold] to me, and I threw it in the fire, and out came this calf.” (v. 24).  The actual account in v. 4 says “And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graven tool and made a golden calf.”

It is the ever so deceptive sin of self-justification. It wasn’t that Aaron was foggy on the details or was just giving a quick summary.  He recounted word for word what the people said to him as they asked him to make the calf (v. 1 and 23).  In other words, he was specific with their sin, but glossed over his.

But, the self-justification was simply a symptom of a deeper sin – the sin of misplaced worship.  Isaiah shows us what it looks like when we truly encounter the Living God – “And I said: ‘woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!’” (6:5)

In other words, our idols never truly provide what we are ultimately longing for – acceptance and love.  Why wouldn’t Aaron simply confess what he did?  Ultimately, he wanted to be seen to be better than he really was.  Why?  Because when we are exposed for who we really are, we could experience rejection and isolation.

Isaiah, on the other hand, saw the Lord and was O.K. with standing exposed.  He didn’t only see holiness, but he also found what we all long for – to be totally known, yet fully loved.  There was no more hiding…no more pretense…no more self-justification.  He saw a God who didn’t gloss over sin, or ignore it, but burned in His Holiness, yet forgave with overwhelming mercy – which ultimately is the picture of Christ in the gospel.

The golden calf didn’t deliver.  Misplaced worship never does.  Our idols will always leave us deceived – deceived into thinking that cars, grades, ministry success, houses, money, popularity, sex, etc… will make us more loved and accepted.  And so, we bow to worship them, all the while needing a vision of the Living God.

• How have you recently justified yourself by covering your sin?
• What idol(s) have you been thinking would provide you with the love and acceptance that you have been longing for?
• How can you give yourself to finding your greatest longings met in Christ?