The Bible says, ‘When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him”’ (Exodus 32:1 NIV).Why did they make a golden calf? Because they wanted a god they could see. It’s so much harder to relate to an invisible God, and Moses, God’s representative, stayed on Mount Sinai so long that they felt helpless and abandoned. So they did what we do when we’re scared – resort to things that are familiar. Change, stepping out in faith and uncertainty in our lives can be draining. We pray for God to strengthen us and help us through but we can end up longing for things that we know and we can start to doubt God’s goodness. Mark D. Roberts writes: ‘How often do we find ourselves in a situation like the Israelites? We hear God’s call to something new, and boldly step out in faith. But when we don’t sense His presence and our prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling, we feel abandoned, scared, and helpless. We grasp for the familiar.’ But, however we’re feeling and however unsettled everything seems, the goodness of God is unchanging. The Bible says, ‘The LORD is good…He cares for those who trust in him.’ In Psalm 100, we’re told: ‘For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations’ (v.5 NIV). Whatever we’re facing and feeling, however much doubt is creeping in and we’re longing for the familiar, He’s good, loving and faithful. Always.
