Several years ago, one of my friends came home from a
hectic day at work only to find that her nephew's head was half shaved. To protect the innocent, let's just call him
Buzz. Since Buzz lived with her, she
knew when he received haircuts and knew this was an unauthorized cut. The boy resembled Mr. McGoo. As she questioned him about his head, his
responses went from denial of knowing what happened to an outright lie. The story he decided to go with was that he
was reaching into the closet and the clippers jumped out and hit him on the
head shaving him in the process. You
have to understand, he was around 13 years old.
He didn't think through basic facts like the clippers needing electricity to work or how they got out of the box. I told her what I knew to be the absolute
truth - a girl was involved. Indeed,
that was the case.
If you think Buzz's lie was good, think about Aaron's
lie. Buzz was only 13, impressionable and still maturing. Aaron was consecrated as Israel's first high
priest. This was after the Lord used he
and Moses to deliver the children of Israel.
He knew better. Yet not long
after the consecration, Aaron participated in a heinous sin.
Exodus 32:1-4(NKJV)
1Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the
mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make
us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
2And
Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the
ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them
to me.” 3So all the people broke off the golden
earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to
Aaron. 4And he received the gold
from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded
calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you
out of the land of Egypt!”
When Moses came down off the mountain after calming the
Lord's anger, he confronted Aaron.
Aaron's lie was about as creative as Buzz's lie. He went into denying, lying and playing the
blame game.
Exodus 32:21-24(NKJV)
21And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you
have brought so great a sin upon them?” 22So Aaron said, “Do not let the
anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set
on evil. 23For they said to me, ‘Make us gods
that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us
out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them
break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it
into the fire, and this calf came out.”
Moses saw the burning bush; but believing a fire that can
spontaneously produce a golden calf aka false god....umm not so much. I don't think there is ever a good lie - a
more creative one yes, but lying is never good.
Aaron's lie was neither good nor creative. He just didn't want to be in trouble with
Moses.
We shouldn't be critical of Aaron since many of us have behaved
similarly. I've heard many creative
excuses as to why some people can't attend bible study, Sunday school, give in
the offering, sing in the choir, etc. We
have plenty of justifications for why we don't read more, pray more, study
more, serve more, etc. We give answers
that are full of everything but faith when we explain why we don't obey the
great commission to go be witnesses, to work miracles in the lives of those
around us or to make Jesus known wherever we find ourselves. These excuses we give are usually denials
that have advanced to well dressed lies.
When we deny ourselves to follow God, nothing comes before Him, His
commands or His leading. Anything
offered as a reason for disobedience to His will is a denial of His sovereignty
and leadership in our lives. In order to
continue in disobedience, we must believe that our reasoning trumps His
commands leaving us lying to ourselves and others.
Let the clippers jump out of the closet and snip the
cords of excuses, denials and lies. Repent
and be refreshed. His forgiveness is
waiting for you.
