Not many of us are really interested in reading the account of building the Tabernacle during the wilderness wanderings.  We know that Moses received the details of its construction directly from God.  But do we realize how important that place of worship really was……or is?  Why should it be significant to us? After, all God now doesn’t dwell within a building or tent.  He is within us.  However, perhaps this structure has meaning for us that we have overlooked.

The Torah ( the first five books of Moses) tell the story of the golden calf in conjunction with the instructions for building the tabernacle.  One was God’s way the other was man’s way of worship.

Aaron, was the crowd pleaser.  He, as yet didn’t realize that he would become the High Priest over Israel.  If only he had waited for Moses to return, he would have learned that God  had chosen him to represent the people before the Lord.  Now he listened to the people pressing for a godly image.  They chose the calf, reminiscent of Egyptian deities. 

This golden calf was a poor substitute for the glory of the Tabernacle.  The Torah tells about the work of making the golden calf in contrast with the work of the Tabernacle.

In Exodus 32, we read that Aaron made this idol with a graving tool. Then he  built an altar for idol. It was to be a way of worship.  The Tabernacle on the other  hand was to be a resting place of God’s divine, invisible presence. Instead the people made a visible, idolatrous representation of God.  All things that Israel desired God had already planned to give them. 

The Tabernacle represents God’s way of  spirituality while the golden calf represents man’s way of doing spirituality.  They were each attempting to create a medium whereby man could worship God and celebrate their relationship with Him.  Their method on accomplishing that end were in direct conflict with each other.

So here we are constructing our own forms of worship.  Some through meditations, incantations, reaching for the “higher power” or by denying the realities of life.  Man is searching for Nirvana, or worshipping the creation itself instead of the Creator!  That’s our Gold Calf.  “I shall have no other God’s before me”.  As one Jewish rabbi said……”there really are no other Gods”.  Only in man’s imagination can we create a replacement for true worship of the only One who really loves us and has planned our life ahead of what we can imagine.  Patience, then is a virtue.  Don’t plan ahead of what God has in store for us.  Don’t build a “golden calf” to satisfy our desires or replace our worship of the only One who can satisfy our spiritual hunger. Our trust then is always in Him.  Have no other “god’s” before Him.