Remember the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32?
They make a calf with their gold jewelry and then they bow down and worship it. They even give it credit for getting them out Egypt.
We too have our "golden calves" . Like I think "finding a soulmate" is the primary golden calf that young people are tempted to bow down to and worship. I don't say that in an accusatory tone. I honestly believe that the desire to get married is a godly desire. It's something God has hardwired into the human soul. But here's the problem. If we seek a spouse more than we seek God we've got a relationship idol or golden calf relationship.
An idol is anything that is more important to us than God at the moment of decision. And if we aren't careful, we can fall into the same trap the Israelites fell into. Remember what happened? They got tired of waiting. Isn't that the hardest part? Lots of young people don't want to wait to know the will of God when it comes to a dating relationship. They quicklyrush into a relationship. Then they find themselves rushing into getting physically and finally they have to rush into marraige because "too much has happened." They simply don't know how to wait.
In Exodus 32:23, the Israelites say to Aaron, "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." The Israelites couldn't wait forty days! They had a "waiting problem" which is a spiritual problem. I'm not sure exactly what day the Israelites quited and starting making an idol for themselves. But if they had just held on a few days longer they would have avoided the plague (Exodus 32:35). If only they could have seen what was happening on the mountain. God and Moses were planning their future! The Israelites felt abandoned, but the reality is that during that "holding pattern" God was making plans for Israel.
In this economic crunch, I have people who have sent out resumes with no response, and one of them said something profound when I asked how he was doing the other day. "I've walked with God long enough to know that when it seems like nothing is happening God is up to something!" If only the Israelites had had that perspective!
Here is the great danger we face when we're waiting. We'll be tempted to revert to old patterns and head back to Egypt--the place of bondage. We'll be tempted to think that God has forgotten us. We'll be tempted to settle for second best. That's what an idol is. It's anything less than God's best. And it will eventually end you in a mess.
A dating relationship that isn't God-ordained is a "golden calf" relationship. And here's what happens. A person starts sacrificing to the god of relationship when they should sacrifice the relationship to God. They make compromises they shouldn't make. All because they can't see God planning their future. All because they lose faith that the God who has brought them this far will get them all the way to promise land. So they settle for a manufactured idol.
Don't try to manufacture a relationship! Don't just work out a relationship according to what is right in your own eyes. Don't just be led by "feel-good" emotions. Because those feelings won't want to wait on God. Waiting is spiritual. It allows God the freedom to work in your life.
There is a subtle difference between looking for a relationship and letting a relationship find you. When you are looking for a relationship, you will let your feelings do the leading but when you let the relationship find you, you let God do the leading.
Here's a promise. Whether it's forty days or forty months or forty years, if you learn to wait on God and hold out for God's best, God will always make it worth the wait.
