Walking Between the Tablet and the Calf

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You may recall in Scripture, how the people, impatient that Moses had not returned from the Mount where he was receiving The Ten Commandments, did call upon Aaron to make a golden calf which they could worship and, although they did offend God very much, were only spared immediate destruction by the pleas of Moses himself ( Exodus 32). Moses was so angry with these people that he threw the tablets with God’s Laws at their calf. It is critical that we consider what the tablets and the calf actually represent.

Let us consider this incredible image: people worshiping a false god while waiting for guidance from the true God! Can a more absurd and ironic scene be imagined? What people would be so blatantly insolent as to reject God precisely while He was embracing them with His Word and Law? Who could do such a thing? Well, why don’t we begin by looking in the mirror?

What Each Represents

As much as we wish to pretend otherwise, we will spend most of our lives walking between that tablet and that calf. The tablet represents what God wants us to do, and the calf represents what we wish to do. The tablet requires discipline, dedication, determination, patience, fortitude, faith, trust, gratitude, humility, unselfishness and, above all, a pure and strong love of God.

We are weak, imperfect human beings, and we will fall constantly in our efforts to be good, but that is not the real point here. What really matters is whether or not we love God so much that we are willing to struggle back from our weakness, get up, and continue doing our best to move toward the Almighty rather than away from Him.

The tablet also represents the idea that what God wants us to do is beyond our own personal bias, assumptions, pretensions, and preferences. God does not check with us first before determining what He wants from us; His Will is not determined by our whims! Simply put, the tablet is our prescription for moral and eternal health, and we are expected to follow its indications to the letter.

By contrast, the calf represents precisely the opposite of what is represented by the tablet. It stands for selfishness, impatience, a lack of faith or discipline or dedication, distrust, arrogance, insolence, and ingratitude. Every time we have sinned in our lives, we have bowed to, worshiped, and embraced the calf and all that it represents.

The Appearance and Traits of Each Material

What can we imagine of the appearance of the tablets? Tradition has it that they were made of stone, specifically, sapphire, and were each about 18 inches wide by 18 inches long and 9 inches deep. Now sapphire may have a bluish glow, but can come in various colors. In its most natural form, sapphire has a pale and light color.

Sapphire is the second hardest substance on earth after diamond. While it tends to come in certain shapes, it is not normally altered or shaped beyond those basic forms. Sapphire is certainly attractive and beautiful, yet is beauty tends to come from within and how it reflects light. However that reflection is not of the observer but of the surrounding light which impacts the stone.

Are not God’s laws much like the material from which the tablets were made? They are strong and cannot be twisted and shaped to fit our desires and needs. Also, their beauty comes more from their meaning and how they reflect upon the surrounding environment in which they are applied.

We know from Scripture that the calf was made of gold, and so we can assume that it had a brilliant glow. It was appealing to the eye and pleasant in appearance.

Much like the material from which it was made, the calf was twisted and shaped into the form most pleasing and desired by the people. It did not so much reflect its own glow upon the environment as much as reflect back what the environment wanted it to represent. In a sense, gold is a god that can be shaped as one wishes, so it is really a god of self.

The Constant Gauntlet We Must Traverse

A gauntlet is defined as an ordeal one faces between two opposing forces, challenging the participant on either side. We run such a gauntlet on a daily basis between the calf and the tablet.

On one side, we face the convenience, adaptability, brightness, glow, perceived value, represented power, and self-reflection of the golden calf. It entices us to see ourselves in every action, and to go with what is convenient, popular, easily shaped, and practical in this world.

On the other side, however, we face the challenge of the tablets, beautiful in a more subtle way, which confront us with the fact that God’s Laws cannot be twisted and shaped as we wish like a golden calf can be. Unlike the golden calf, the tablets promise a value far beyond the superficiality and popularity of this world. Their material is certainly a gem of value, but mostly to those who look beyond the quick profit and promise of gold.

Ultimately, we must each ask ourselves which side we will favor. Do we allow ourselves to worship the calf made a that soft gold with so many false and temporary pretenses? Or, on the contrary, can we be a little more patient, trusting, dedicated, and insightful and invest in those tablets which cannot be reshaped and still remain valuable?

The daily choice is up to each of us.

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