“What happens when what’s right seems wrong and what’s wrong seems right?”

I was twelve years old when I wrote that question in my journal. Confused by the turmoil around me, I found it difficult discerning the difference between right and wrong. Part of the problem was the environment I was in. My mom (who is a different woman now than she was back then) would take me to pool halls and bars with her boyfriend. And believe it or not, they often let me drink wine coolers.

Nothing really made sense in my world and although people were doing things that seemed ‘right’, I knew something was wrong. Yet, I didn’t do anything; instead I succumbed to the ‘wrongness’ and immersed by self in confusion.

Looking back it is easy to think that I was young and impressionable and didn’t know what I was doing. So I’m not too hard on myself about the fact that I slipped into a world of doing wrong things that seemed ‘right’.

The same can’t be said for Aaron, Moses’ brother.

Aaron knew that it was wrong to worship false gods – idols. He knew that Moses was up on the mountain talking to God. He knew the truth. And he knew God’s instructions not to follow the crowd in doing wrong (Exodus 23:2).

In spite of all that he knew, how did he respond the first time ‘wrong’ came knocking?

“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down 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.’

Aaron answered them, ‘Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. They they said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, ‘Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.”

Not only did Aaron not stand up for what was right and say, “No way hosay!” But he actually made them a calf shaped idol, and then – of his own volition – made an altar and called a festival. Holy Toledo!

Then, when confronted by Moses he didn’t take any ownership at all. Instead, he created a little story about throwing all the gold in the fire and out popping a calf. Yeah right, Aaron! We know you actually shaped that calf and so does God.

The people made a good argument to Aaron that swayed him towards doing the wrong thing. Then, when he realized what he had done, he blamed he actions on miraculous events.

Hmm . . .

Look around.

Think about our world. Think about religion. Think about the media.

Look around again.

Is the world begging you to make a ‘golden calf’? Is the world talking you into sin? Are they making a good argument against our God?

Funny thing about this is it often isn’t as overt as what Aaron experienced. It is simply replacing the God of the universe with a ‘golden calf’ and those things come in all shapes and sizes . . . money, success, reputation, fitness, acceptance, tolerance, etc. It is saying you need to rely on a ‘golden calf’ in order to have security. It is saying, “You don’t need God.”

God wanted the Israelites to wait patiently in faith, knowing that the God who brought them out of Egypt was worthy of their worship. He wanted them to wait even when they didn’t have all the answers, but they couldn’t.

How ready are you and I to wait?

If God says wait at the bottom of the mountain, will you become impatient? Will I?

The world will.

After all, our world has no patience for waiting.

Think about Abraham and Sarah and what we know comes for the Israelites . . . and in those moments that doing wrong somehow seems right, in those moments when you tend to rely on the ‘golden calves’ of this world, remember that God’s promises are worth waiting for and that no ‘golden calf’ can do what the God of the Universe can.