Today’s reading is from the “golden calf” incident recorded in the Book of Exodus. You know the story: Moses comes down from the mountain top carrying the 10 Commandments carved into stone tablets. He comes upon the scene of people dancing wildly around a statue of a golden calf. Today’s psalm has about as good a summary as you might want:
Our fathers made a calf in Horeb
and adored a molten image;
They exchanged their glory
for the image of a grass-eating bullock
They forgot the God who had saved them (Ps 106)
The Israelites forgot God’s miraculous works and sought their own desires. Despite God’s patience and provision, they tested Him and suffered the consequences of their actions. In Deuteronomy 6, the people are at the Jordan River about to cross into the promised land. Moses reminds them: “take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
St. Paul admonishes the Corinthians to learn from Israel’s example: “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea…And do not become idolaters, as some of them did…Let us not indulge in immorality as some of them did…Do not grumble as some of them did. These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us.” (1 Cor 10:1,7-8,10-11)
St. Paul reminds them how easy it is for us to forget God’s faithfulness, even in the face of clear evidence of His love and care. We must be vigilant and not become overconfident in our faith, lest we, too, fall into the trap of forgetting God’s faithfulness and grace.
Perhaps Step 1 of vigilance is to name the “golden calf” in your life – that part of your life in which you are most likely to not think of the “God who saves.” The theme of “forgetting the God who saves” is a recurring one in the Bible. The first reading and psalm serves as a poignant reminder of human frailty and our tendency to lose sight of God’s saving acts, even in the face of miraculous intervention. Both the Old and New Testaments urge us to remember God’s faithfulness, learn from the past, and remain steadfast in our devotion to Him, whether in times of abundance or difficulty. By doing so, we can cultivate a deep and enduring relationship with the God who lovingly saves and sustains us.
Image credit: Nicolas Poussin: Adoration of the Golden Calf, c. 1634 | Public Domain