by Shannon Tillman | Mar 12, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
A broken promise is heartbreaking. However, when freedom and slavery were involved, a broken promise turned into criminal acts. In the book of Jeremiah, God addressed the leaders of Israel for they had made a covenant to release those in forced labor but then decided to enslave them once again.
Jeremiah 34:8-11
The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.
Imagine being set free only to be recaptured by the one who promised you freedom. Picture the heartache of starting a new life only to be forced back into labor. Feel the emotions of looking at those who are supposed to enforce justice but instead seeing them as willing participants of injustice. Not only had they made a covenant to the people for freedom, they had made a vow before God which they broke.
Jeremiah 34:12-16
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free. Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.
The Lord had told the people hundreds of years before that indentured servants were required to serve no more than seven years. However, the people decided to enforce life-long labor despite the directive given by God. In other words, cultural opinions ruled. They did what they wanted instead of doing what was right. Although it seemed they had finally chosen to obey the Lord, it was only for a short time. They chose convenience for themselves over freedom for others. With unlawful force, the people enslaved the free, breaking their promise before God and man. Therefore, God declared punishment against these covenant breakers.
Jeremiah 34:18
Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.
In those days, a covenant was symbolized by an animal cut in two. The ones who agreed with the covenant would walk through the pieces. It was in essence communicating that if the person broke the covenant, then he would be subject to severe punishment, even death. God decided to allow the penalties of violating the covenant to fall on those who had made the promise but broke it.
Jeremiah 34:19-20
The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.
The people who were part of this covenant were leaders, court officials, and even priests! The leaders who were to guide others in righteous acts were leading them instead into deliberate crime. Court officials who were supposed to uphold the rules of the land were breaking the law. The priests who were called to obey God’s ways were rebelling against His commands.
Before we condemn the past and excuse ourselves because we do not own slaves, we need to evaluate the motives behind what we do. For example, some ministers hold people to personal bondage-wanting the congregants to fulfill the pastor’s plan, pastor’s agenda, pastor’s calendar. There is no release of the people to God’s plan, God’s agenda, God’s calendar. Or we see church leaders wanting to control decisions, wanting their way instead of God’s way. There are even unethical practices by church officials, wanting what is beneficial for their personal finances instead of choosing what is right.The unethical practices harm the home. The children of the leaders, officials, and priests witnessed their parents going back on their promise, backsliding into former ways, excusing their behavior with lofty words but shallow meaning. Think about how the priests would minister at the temple for the Jewish people while holding Jewish people in personal bondage. How confusing to watch parents do the right thing at work but walk in compromise at home! Part of the bondage may be that we are training up the next generation in unethical ways, keeping a course that dishonors God and people for years to come.
The message is clear not just to church leaders, but to everyone in the body of Christ. If in any way we are using people or their resources for our own advantage, we are keeping people in bondage. This is the exact opposite of our calling for the church is commissioned to set people free.
In grand terms, we are to be on the front lines fighting literal slavery. Human trafficking earns more money than any other industry in the world. We cannot ignore slavery. This is our watch in history and our fight to be won or lost.
On a micro-scale, we must ensure that we do what is right in the Lord’s eyes, which means we must be diligent in not compromising with culture. Motives need to be checked in all decisions to ensure that we are following God’s leading not our own agendas or opinions. We need to lead others not control them. We also must honor God with money and not create loopholes that benefit our pockets. When we walk in freedom, others will be led to freedom as well.
It is time for us to repent of any way that we are not honoring God in our treatment of others. Whether on a large or small scale, we are accountable before God to obey His decrees. Anything less than that is breaking covenant with the Lord and His command to us:
John 13:34-35
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Love fulfills the covenant with God and man. A lack of love violates His decree. May we choose love in all relationships, in all decisions, in all circumstances, in all financial matters. If and when we fall short, let us repent and then return to the command of love which sets us and others free.
by Shannon Tillman | Feb 26, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
It happened again. I was faced with the same pattern of dysfunction. Why does change not happen? Why do relationships seem to be the same? What keeps lives from being different? In the midst of the difficult situation, I asked the Lord why someone, especially a believing someone, would continue in obvious wrongdoing against others. The Lord brought me to Acts 16 for the answer.
Acts 16:16a
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.
This slave girl had an evil spirit that predicted events in the future. Why would the owners tolerate a demon in their lives, in their home, in their workplace?
Acts 16:16b
She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.
The presence of a demon profited the slave owners! Evil was permitted as long as there was a benefit. Sadly, this is true in us as well. Often, we do not confront obvious sin, which is evil and demonic, in our lives because there is a gain for us:
Sin of approval (people-pleasing, enabling, compromise, living for others not God) profits us for people to like us.
Sin of gossip profits us to create connections with some and exclude others.
Sin of addiction (which can include spending, social media, and video games) profits us to escape pain.
Sin of anger profits us to silence the opposition.
Sin of choosing what is comfortable (instead of what God is calling us to do) profits us to avoid accountability and possible failure.
Sin of control profits us to get our way.
Sin of….we could list more, but the point is made.
If our sin profits us in some way, we allow it to the harm of ourselves and others. We can know what we are doing is wrong (just as the owners knew the source of their slave’s ability was via an evil spirit) and still continue in our evil behavior. We may even excuse our actions because of the benefits that come from it, refusing to acknowledge that the transgression is demonic in nature and the enemy has control of us in that area. A toleration of sin is a toleration of demonic influence around us. We think we are benefiting from our actions in some way but in truth the enemy is gaining the most advantage from the sin.
We need to quit allowing the enemy’s control in our lives by making the changes required of us. The time has come to confront the evil and cast it out: No more delays!
Acts 16:18b
“In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
May we and others be set free when we choose to no longer profit from our sin.
by Shannon Tillman | Jan 29, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
Once I knew a determined six-year-old who wanted to slide a three-month-old baby down a slide. Despite being told “no”, the conversation continued as she tried to figure out a way to persuade me otherwise:
“May I slide the baby down the slide?”
“No, we will not be sliding a baby down the slide.”
“What if I caught the baby at the bottom?”
“No, not even if you caught her.”
“What if I slid down with her?”
“No, we still cannot put a baby on the slide.”
“What if you slid down the slide with the baby?”
The questions continued until I told her that there was no realm of possibility that would create a situation where I would allow this baby to go down the slide.
She then yelled, “Well, I think it is a good idea!”
This story came to mind as I was thinking back on the blog post from last week which focused on the healing of the blind man in John 9. As I reviewed the passage, I was struck by how many questions this man had to face from multiple groups for a variety of reasons. A day of what should have been a celebration became a time of interrogation. Yet, he stayed steady in his response, no matter how many questions he heard. The first question stemmed from judgments formed by religious tradition.
John 9:1-2
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
At this time in Jewish history, physical ailments were considered to be the result of sin. With this false religious belief in mind, the disciples wanted to know who was the cause of the blindness, the parents or the baby in the womb. This man was blind, but not deaf, so he would have heard the prejudice, the judgment, the condemnation which were all given in the name of “religion”. This question could have stopped him from obeying the directions from Jesus, which would have stopped his miracle.
John 9:3, 6-7
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him… After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
The miracle of sight was quickly eclipsed by skeptical neighbors.
John 9:8-12
His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.
The neighbors did not believe his testimony. They wanted to know how it happened and who made it happen instead of the fact that the miracle did happen! They questioned him in unbelief in an attempt to undermine his experience. They were not fully listening to his story for he had already said the “Man” sent him to the pool to wash while he was still blind. How would he know where the “Man” is or what He looked like? The formerly blind man just kept with his story in a sense saying: “I was blind, but now I see. Your skepticism does not negate my experience.” He would need to stand on the truth he did know as he was brought before the religious leaders.
John 9:13-17
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
The religious leaders argued amongst themselves. The healing of this blind man was being used as a pawn in the opinion game. He would have realized that he was in the middle, no one was concerned about his sight, they were only concerned to bolster their side of the debate. He could have sidelined the argument, mumbling something like “I don’t know.” Instead, this man, full of courage, stepped out in a bold statement of faith: “He is a prophet”. But his bold declaration is swept away by the determination of the religious group to hold onto their opinions.
John 9:18-23
They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
The parents testified to the fact that he was truly the formerly blind man, but they refused to take a side in the debate about Jesus. These parents had lived with the stigma of judgment all of their son’s life. Others blamed them or their son for some sin leading to his blindness. They barely had religious standing at this point. Now, they were on the brink of losing it all. They choose to stay sidelined in the fight which in turn brought their son back into the interrogation room.
John 9:24-26
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
The man was subjected to more questions, but suddenly the interrogation changed. The one questioned became the one with questions.
John 9:27
He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
The man showed an increase of faith which had grown throughout the day. He went from “some Man healed me”, to “that Man is a prophet”, to “that Man is who I want to follow as His disciple”. The questions meant to attack his faith, instead caused him to build his case for Jesus!
John 9:28-34
Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
The formerly blind man, judged his entire life as stricken by God, presented a clear case as of why Jesus is from God to the very religious leaders who judged him. What a turnaround! The message was clear and the religious leaders did not like it, so they went back to their false traditional beliefs and threw him out. The formerly blind man with perfect vision was about to have one last question to give him perfect spiritual insight.
John 9:35
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
After a day of questions that attacked his experience, attacked his miracle; he was finally asked the question that led to eternal life.
John 9:36-38
“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
The one who was questioned all day, asked the most important question in life: “Who is He so I may believe?” Who is this Jesus? This is not like the questions he had experienced of people who wanted to have opinions about Jesus. He asked the question to make a firm decision about Jesus. It was a question with an answer, “Lord, I believe”. You are more than a Man. You are more than a Prophet. You are more than a Teacher who I want to disciple me. You are Lord, and there is no question about that.
by Shannon Tillman | Jan 22, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
I have a sister who can throw the best parties. She will ensure the food, the games, the decorations, and even the clothing all point to the theme. She takes a simple gathering to a whole new level of fun! Parties are meant to celebrate people, holidays, and special occasions. Yet, in the scripture, there is a miracle left uncelebrated due to religious tradition.
John 9:1-3, 6-7
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him… After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
A man born blind came home with sight. I believe this is a reason for a party! However, instead of a celebration, he received questions.
John 9:8-12
His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.
After the man was interrogated by his neighbors, he was taken by his neighbors to the religious leaders. The Pharisees were not planning on throwing out celebratory confetti but pointed accusations.
John 9:13-17
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
His first day with sight and he was thrust into a debate amongst the religious leaders! He was not allowed to marvel at the sky, flowers, the faces of people, or even the sight of the synagogue. Instead, he was used as a pawn of the Pharisees in attempts to justify their opinions against Jesus.
Even the parents of this formerly blind man were afraid to openly celebrate the miracle that had taken place.
John 9:18-23
They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
Out of fear of being forced out of the synagogue, his parents held back. They probably wanted to jump for joy, but instead they had to divert questions to stay within the religious community. However, their formerly blind son boldly spoke to the Pharisees, no matter the cost.
John 9: 32-34
Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
A man was born blind. Jesus healed the man. Neighbors questioned the healing. Pharisees mocked the Healer. A man declaring the miracle of sight was thrown out by religious leaders. What a confusing day: instead of a celebration, it turned into chaos.
John 9:35
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
Jesus searched for the man discarded by the religious leaders. The Pharisees had questioned the man’s beliefs and denied the power of his miracle. Jesus also asks a question but to bolster his faith because of this miracle. The man so desperately needed to know what to believe about what he had experienced.
John 9:36-37
“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
I love this moment. Jesus is saying “you are seeing the Son of Man, you are seeing the Messiah.” Can you imagine that on your first day of sight you are able to see God in the flesh? Amazing! Jesus then goes further by reminding the former blind man of his voice. Hours earlier he had heard this same voice telling him to go and wash his blind eyes in the pool of Siloam. The voice is now connected to the Son of Man, the one who spoke earlier and was speaking at that moment.
John 9:38
Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
It was a small celebration, not the community party as expected. But Jesus Himself showed up for this man. The miracle of physical sight led to the miracle of spiritual sight. The day started with a random Man putting mud on his blind eyes. His discussion with the Pharisees led to him thinking that Jesus was a prophet. However, the day ended with the healed man acknowledging Jesus as Lord!
Others may not appreciate your spiritual journey. There may be those who question you. Others may try to talk you out of your beliefs. You may experience the silence of so-called “supporters” and the rejection by those you thought were “religious”. I want you to know that Jesus celebrates you. All the heartaches may be leading you to a deeper relationship and understanding of Him. Even if only Jesus shows up at your party, the celebration is perfect!
by Shannon Tillman | Jan 15, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
The kingdom had already been shaken by an attempted coup. Lives were lost. Women were assaulted. A king was shamed. Yet, the lesson was not learned. For David, the greatest king of Israel, whose son Absalom was killed in battle after his false attempt to take the throne, had to once again deal with another son’s treacherous revolt.
1 Kings 1:5-6
Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, “I will be king.” So he got chariots and horses ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him. (His father had never rebuked him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?” He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom.)
The question never asked was “why”. Why are you behaving this way? This would have helped uncover motivation. It may have changed the man’s heart. However, David did not directly challenge his son. This is the exact pattern we see with Adonijah’s older brother Absalom.
2 Samuel 15:1-4
In the course of time, Absalom provided himself with a chariot and horses and with fifty men to run ahead of him. He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, “What town are you from?” He would answer, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.” Then Absalom would say to him, “Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you.” And Absalom would add, “If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that they receive justice.”
Absalom was publicly setting himself up as the leader of the land, but David never confronted his actions. This took place for over four years until Absalom declared himself as king and ran David and his officers out of Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 15:13-14
A messenger came and told David, “The hearts of the people of Israel are with Absalom.” Then David said to all his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, “Come! We must flee, or none of us will escape from Absalom. We must leave immediately, or he will move quickly to overtake us and bring ruin on us and put the city to the sword.”
David knew that Absalom’s heart would be for murder. He knew what Absalom was capable of, yet had chosen not to confront him sooner. Over the course of time, Absalom manipulated the peoples’ hearts away from David and onto himself. The tragic ending was that Absalom was killed in battle against his father’s troops.
Adonijah followed in his brother Absalom’s footsteps. Sadly, David followed his previous pattern of parenthood: there was no confrontation until the crisis of the attempted coup takes place. It could have cost more lives in the kingdom. This time David acted by setting Solomon on the throne. Adonijah was spared for the time being. But not long after, Adonijah did die after David’s death as he once again attempted to gain rights to the throne. King Solomon had him killed for his treachery.
Let’s return to the unasked question:
1 Kings 1:6
His father had never rebuked him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?”
What outcomes could have changed if David has asked Adonijah this question? What lives may have been spared including his own son’s life? What changes may have been made? What destiny could Adonijah have fulfilled even though he was not called to be king? How many others were hurt along the way?
We will never know the answers to these questions. However, we can look into our lives and those we know and ask the question of why we behave as we do. Maybe for ourselves, it can reveal hidden motivations, secret sins, unresolved trauma, ignored pain, or other depths of our soul. This opens the door for healing and change. It can set us up on a better path and help us with future decisions and relationship dynamics.
Resolving our own issues, may not be as difficult as confronting those around us. Too often we see the problem, but do not say anything to the person. We may gossip about it with others and even analyze the dynamic amongst the group, but never directly address the person who is doing the damage.
Years ago, when I served as a children’s minister, a family in the ministry had children who were labeled “out of control”. They were discussed by Bible study teachers to staff. A certain member made fun of this family (which was ironic for their children were discussed as well as “out of control” by others. So easy to look at others and miss ourselves). The “ministers” gave their opinions as to why the family acted in such and such way. Being newer on staff I simply asked, “Has anyone ever talked to the parents?” Silence was quickly followed by excuses. It was easy to talk about the problem, but not actually take the initiative to confront the situation in order to give this family an opportunity for change.
I did talk to the mother. She listened and appreciated the conversation, though sadly, changes were not made. Years later, I spoke to the mother again for she called me in crisis with her teenager. I think the trust was there from the previous, difficult but honest, conversation. I shared the same things I had spoken years earlier. I do not know if changes were made. I do not know if the outcome is different.
Maybe Adonijah would not have changed even if questioned by David. But he was never given the opportunity. Often, we excuse ourselves out of the conversation instead of pressing into the difficult confrontation. If we see blatant sin in the lives of others, we are not called to just watch them, gossip about them, or give our opinions as to why they are acting in that way. Instead, what is seen needs to be addressed. They can choose change or not. We are called to do our part in addressing what is wrong and encouraging what is right. Just maybe a life can be completely changed, fully restored, amazingly transformed. But we will never know until we ask the question:
1 Kings 1:6b
… “Why do you behave as you do?”
by Shannon Tillman | Jan 8, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
When my grandmother progressed further into dementia, I noticed that she would change details of her life story to make herself sound better. It was almost as if she could not face mistakes from her past so she would twist the story with a new ending to feel better about previous choices.
It is not only dementia that causes these “changing stories”. Sometimes, we can look at situations and rewrite them to justify ourselves to not face the full weight of wrongs we have committed. Aaron experienced this first hand in dealing with the golden calf.
Exodus 32:1-4
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from 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. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
Aaron made an idol. He used a tool to create it. However, when Moses came down from the mountain, Aaron had a different story.
Exodus 32:21-24
He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
“Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘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.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
The calf somehow became magical when Aaron told the story. The little cow formed itself in the fire and jumped out when it was done. The fact that Aaron had fashioned it with a tool was conveniently left out in the retelling to Moses.
How often do we leave out parts of our story to make ourselves look better? When we are caught in sin, why do we justify ourselves and try to not make ourselves sound “so bad”? The truth is, we do not see our sin from God’s perspective. Aaron had no idea how the Lord felt about what He had done. Moses knew, for God had told him earlier on the mountain:
Exodus 32:9-10
“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.”
Only the intercession of Moses kept Aaron and the nation from being destroyed. Aaron did not understand the seriousness of his crime, of his sin. The same is true with us. Often, we like Aaron, compare ourselves to the people as we read earlier in verse 22:
Exodus 32:22
“Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.
The people are prone to evil, but Aaron did not say how he was prone to sin as well. The people wanted an idol; Aaron wanted to please the people. Both sins were worthy of destruction. Aaron thought he had just left out the detail of a fashioning tool. In truth, he left out the fact that he had sinned against a holy God. Aaron looked at the people and thought he had done better than them. He did not look at the God who had the right to punish him for his sins.
Exodus 32:35
And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
The Lord knew it was the calf Aaron had made. There was no magical cow jumping out of the fire. Instead, it was pieces of gold fashioned into an idol. The attempts to change the story between Aaron and Moses could not be rewritten between Aaron and the Lord.
It is time to stop excusing sin, or making ourselves feel better by twisting the story to justify ourselves. When we do wrong, we need to confess the sin to the Lord as well as to those we have harmed by what we have done. The Lord already knows the truth about the details we attempt to leave out or rewrite. But God can help us to write new stories with better endings when we choose to learn from what we have done instead of minimizing it. Aaron never made another idol for the people. Instead, he was chosen by God to be the High Priest for the nation. That is a much better story ending, with no need for a rewrite.
