And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, ‘Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.'”

~ Exodus 32:1

Moses had gone up to Mt. Sinai to meet with God. And he would be there for forty days and forty nights (Exodus 24:18).  At some point within this period, in less than six weeks, the Hebrew nation got tired of waiting on Moses (and God). So they decided to make their own gods (idols) to lead them.

This demonstrates the primary problem that the nation had at that time: Although God had led them out of bondage in Egypt, although He had made a way for them through the parting of the Red Sea and had miraculously taken care of them, they still didn’t have faith in Him. 

No matter how many times and how many ways God had demonstrated His power and His love, He was replaceable.  Even worse, He could be, and was, replaced by gods of their own making.  They could make/find gods that were just as good or even better than Jehovah. 

In fact, a close examination of their words (Exodus 32:1, above) shows that they had no personal relationship with God: they knew Moses and what had been accomplished through him.  But they did not relate their liberation from slavery in Egypt to God’s agency.  They did not mention God at all, because they didn’t know Him.

Ultimately, they had only tolerated Moses’ God: they had no faith in Him. Indeed, God Himself would identify this as the reason they were unfit to enter the promised land (Numbers 14:22-33).  For if they trusted Jehovah, if they believed in Him, then He would be irreplaceable: they would have waited on Him because they would have had no alternative,  no other gods to turn to.  

This mindset was also illustrated in Jesus’ ministry, when Jesus told some hard truths to  the crowds that followed Him (John 6).  Many of His followers “…went back, and walked no more with him.left Him” (John 6:66) because His teachings were hard (John 6:60). However, when Jesus asked the twelve disciples if they would also abandon Him, their response was as follows, 

“Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” ~ John 6:68-69

In other words, their faith in Jesus meant they could not turn away from Him: they could not replace Him with gods of their own making.  They couldn’t just turn away because His teachings were hard.

Indeed, those that can turn away from God, never had belonged to Him, and never had trusted in Him.  

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” ~ 1 John 2:19

We cannot trust in God partially; faith is all or nothing.  Moreover, our attitude towards God will eventually reveal itself when difficulties arise.  

What will you/I do when God seems far away?  What will we do when we feel abandoned/forsaken?  

Will we trust His Word? Will we wait on Him? Or will we seek other options?

What if we don’t like God’s plans for our lives? What if His teachings are hard to accept?  Will we find a better god to replace Him?

Faith is for the fallow times.  It’s easy to think we are exercising faith when things are going well.  But that’s an illusion.  The truth about our faith comes during the storms of life, when things are desperate and it looks like Jesus is asleep.  The truth about our faith is in the options we have in those storms.  Those who have the option to replace The Captain were never actually sailing on His ship.