Self-Image & Image of God

Ok I had an online BS with Bennett. And I thought he shared so well. Share this with you guys.

Ok this is like a chat, so the flow is not of essay. Just keep in mind and get the point yeah?

-

You remember when Moses went up to mount sinai to get the 10 commandments..the children of israel couldnt wait and ended up building a golden calf, called it God and worship it.

so you know what is their sin?

or where did they go wrong?

if you read the verse carefully, you realise they call the calf God and say this is the God that led us out of Egypt

they sincerely wanna worship God but they dunno who he is and use this calf as a symbol

and then God have not even give them the 10 commandment

so how have they sin?

ever think about it?

It's like you sincerely wanna do something for God out of worship only to know that is not God

i mean do you think they were trying to worship God but dunno how

it's like you are a young Christian and you wanna worship God and dunno how, so you take your bible out and bow down and worship it

or you are a young worship leader and you think doing certain thing means worship but actually it isnt?

our image of God and ourselves is impt

the thing is the Israelites did try to worship God, but they have reduced God's glory from magnificent to that of a man made golden calf

why?

because when they were in slavery, they probably has seen the gods of egypt in the form of calf or maybe golden calf is a symbol of freedom in their slavery days or something

so they make the grave mistake of reducing God's glory

and are they to be blame since they are not taught?

ok the answer lies in few chapters before it

God ask the Israelites once to draw near to the mountain and worship him where he will reveal himself to them.. they were afraid and ask Moses to go on their behalf.. that is where they lost it

that was the point where God is griefed

that is when God could changed their entire mindset of who he is and erase their slavery mentality

when he encounter them personally

but they rejected and rather have moses be their priest

so when moses is not around

they fall back to their understanding of who God is

which is man made

which is finite

which is carnal

which is sin

which though out of the best intention

when we read the chapter we always think God is angry because they worship someone else

that they are ungrateful

actually their problem is closer

it is their lack of divine personal knowledge of who God is

i mean grace or not that is the OT days

but the truth remains

that our image of God and ourselves is impt

the golden calf could mean many things

you get what I mean?