If we marvel at technology, how much more should we marvel at one another?
We marvel at technology. In grade school our family got an IBM PS2 Model 30 desktop computer with MS-DOS. It had a built-in 3.5 inch floppy drive that could hold 720KB of data! Originally it didn't have a modem, but then we got a 300 baud modem. You could download an entire MB of data within a day, so long as nobody called and disrupted the transfer. Then we got a 2400 baud modem, and then a 9600 baud modem.
That PC was awesome! It had a video display that could show sixteen colors! One day, while messing around at a computer geek club meeting, I discovered it could actually display 256 colors at one time! What would I ever do with so many colors?
Today's computers have virtually infinite storage, infinite color, infinite speed, and infinite connectivity. Did you know that your computer is a wasted resource? Most PCs sit idle most of the day using less than one percent of their capacity. This is why some guy invented the cloud. The cloud will exploit all that untapped capacity. Why let it go to waste? If we have this capacity, why wouldn't we use it to the max?
If we marvel at technology, how much more should we marvel at one another? Do you realize that God created each of us in his image? This means we have this God-given capacity to reflect the glory of God. We reflect God not only to one another and to our world, but back to God through worship. We can know God's mind. We can hear his voice. We can feel his presence. We can experience his emotions (his joy, his displeasure, and his anger). We can imitate his character. We can think, speak, act, imagine, create, worship, plan, and aspire to great things. We can love. What infinite capacity we have!
God created us to reflect his image.
We live in an image conscious culture. We're just overly conscious of reflecting the wrong image. God created us to reflect
his image, not some lesser image, or a rival image. We also spend a lot of time debating morality. What if we spent as much energy reflecting God's image as we do grieving the countless ways his image has been perverted?
What does it mean that we were created in God's image? Does God's holy character radiate in our lives? Is the wisdom of God's sovereign will proven true by our obedience? Is God's will evident by the outcome of our way of life? If we believe that all the world is filled with darkness, and ourselves to be as stars shining in a dark universe, then what about our lives is different, distinct, counter-counter-culture, and other-worldly?
It's pretty sad. In
Genesis 2 God created us in his image. But in
Exodus 32 Israel exchanged God's image for images made to look like sinful man, idols, and other created things.
Exodus 32:2 describes how the Israelites took their gold rings, melted them down, and began to fashion a golden calf. But God wouldn't have anything of it!
In Exodus 32:7-10 (NIV) the Lord spoke to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' 'I have seen these people,' the Lord said to Moses, 'and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.' "
At this point, a clearer picture of sin emerges.
First, sin is denying the works of God. God had brought them out of Egypt, and spared them. But it was as if God had done nothing, or God didn't even exist. As far as they were concerned, God was dead, and it was reflected in the way they carried on with their lives.
Second, sin is denying the words of God. Remember how the ten commandments were etched in stone in order to signify their permanence? The Israelites quickly turned aside from all that God had commanded them, as if nothing God promised or warned mattered to them. They believed that they could live any way they wanted, with impunity toward God.
Third, sin is denying worship to God. Don't forget why God led them out of Egypt in the first place. In
Exodus 4:22 (NIV) God says,
"Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, 'Let my son go, so he may worship me.' But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son." In
Exodus 20:5 (NIV) God says,
"...I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God..."
Some advice is in order here. When God sets his affection on something, never put yourself between God and whatever he loves. It cost Pharaoh his son's life! It also cost God his Son's life too. John 3:16 (NIV) tells us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in hm shall not perish but have eternal life."
The Lord uses this interesting phrase in
Exodus 32:7 (NIV) to describe what is happening. God tells Moses that the people have become corrupt. This is the same phrase Peter says in
Acts 2:40 (NIV) when he pleads with the Jews,
"Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."
Worship preserves us. God's words preserve us. God's works preserve us. If we're not growing in worship, what are we doing? If we're celebrating God's mighty works, what are we doing? If we're not heeding God's words, what are we doing? If we're not testing and approving God's good will, what are we doing? We're becoming corrupted.
We strive to reflect God's image in our lives.
If we're not setting our affections on God's image, and on ourselves becoming a reflection of God's image, we're distorting and corrupting that image.
God was so angry about their corruption that he was about to destroy them all. But in
Exodus 32 God and Moses confer, and Moses pled with God to spare Israel. But when Moses saw the golden calf for himself, he threw the ten commandments from his hands and shattered them at the food of the mountain. Then he destroyed their golden calf, and ground it to powder, and threw it into the sea. Then, in
Exodus 32:26 (NIV) Moses issued an ultimatum to the people by saying,
"Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!"
The part of
Exodus 32 that is uncomfortable is when Moses commands the sons of Levi.
Exodus 32:27-28 (NIV) says,
"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says; 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died." 3000 people died in one day because they disobeyed God. By contrast,
Acts 2:40-41 tells us that 3000 people were baptized in one day in obedience to God after Peter called Israel to repentance, to baptism, to receive the Spirit of God, and to save themselves from a corrupt generation.
We always suppose it is a trivial thing that we worship God, heed his will, or celebrate his works. We also suppose it is a trivial thing to be corrupt, or even to corrupt others. But our God is a jealous God. We were created for his pleasure and glory-- and not for any other purpose. In Exodus 32:35 (NIV) it says, "And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made."
God renews his promises to us, even when we are unfaithful.
Nevertheless, in
Exodus 33:11 Moses continued to intercede for Israel, speaking to God face to face, like a friend to a friend. As Moses prayed, God caused his goodness to pass in front of Moses. See
Exodus 33:22. In
Exodus 34 God replaced the stone tablets that Moses shattered, and renewed his covenant with Israel.
In
Exodus 34:6-8 (NIV) as the Lord passed in front of Moses, Moses was given an even more profound glimpse of God's character.
"The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." In
Exodus 34:29-35 we're told how Moses' face shown with the glory of God.
In Moses, God was revealing his purpose for all of creation, that we might reflect the full image of God. In Christ, God has this very same purpose.
Colossians 1:15 (NIV) says,
"He (Jesus)
is the image of the invisible God." Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) says Jesus is,
"...the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."
More than that, 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV) instructs us that as Christians, whatever we do, "...do it all for the glory of God." Romans 3:23 reminds us how we all fall short of the glory of God. But Philippians 3:20-21 (NIV) says, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."
2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV) says,
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. "
We have this capacity to reflect God's image, or to corrupt it. God said to Pharoah,
"Let my people go so that they may serve and worship me." Moses dedicated himself to God's cause. And Joshua said,
"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!" How about you?