The Golden Calf, Made out of Toilet Paper?

            All around the globe we are seeing the effects of the global pandemic.  I first want to lay a foundation here that as a believer Psalm 91 is very true.  When we abide in God, he takes care of us.  There is no reason for us to be in fear.  We are not like the unbelievers.  We have the security and hope in the truth of Christ Jesus.  I do not believe for one second that God brought this as judgement.  God gives good gifts to his children.
           
            It’s sad to see what people put their trust in, when they don’t have the foundation and stability of Christ Jesus.  In America, at this moment, there are a lot of people putting their faith in toilet paper.  I don’t get it.  Their rushing to the store and hoarding enough toilet paper to last them years. My own family was almost accosted by a grocery worker who had probably been working too hard.  When we tried to grab a pack.  It made for a really funny story, but it was kind of sad when  I thought about it too hard.  Have we all come down to this?  Has toilet paper become the symbol of American security and comfort?
           
         I couldn’t help but think about the story of the golden calf in the Bible.  The children of Israel had just been released from years of slavery in Egypt.  They saw amazing things to get them to this point.  They witnessed the plagues in Egypt and while the Egyptian households had been ravaged by those plagues they were safe.  They personally walked through the Red Sea as it parted, and witnessed the Egyptian army drown as they stepped their feet onto the river banks.  The hand of the Lord was with them.  Moses went up the mountain to hear from God, and they got bored.  They started thinking about all the ‘what if’s’ around them.  They started thinking ‘what if God had left them?’, ‘What if all the things they had witnessed had been  mere coincidence’?  All these ‘what if’s’ seemed to circle around in their minds.  So what did they do?  They built a golden calf to worship.  (Exodus 32)  This story has never made logical sense to me.  They think God waits too long, people get fearful and bored, so they worship something they made. 
            
       In the times of crisis you find out very quickly where you and those around you put their trust.  What does God say about all of this? In Matthew 4:24-27 Jesus talks about how a wise person builds their house upon a rock because when the storms arise that house will able to stand.  However the foolish build their house on sand.  Their houses are not able to stand when the storms come.  It seems to me that there are many in the world today building their homes on toilet paper.  It seems that there are many building their own golden calves out of 2-ply and think their fine because they have acquired a substantial hoard. 
            
       The Bible tells us that ‘storms will come’.  It tells us that even though those storms come, we still can stand tall and be a light to the community and world around us.  It tells us that we don’t have to live in fear.  It tells us that ‘God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear, but of Love, Power and a sound mind.’
           
      I get the desire to have some good toilet paper in your house, but it can’t be your god.  At the end of all this, will we just go back to complacency or will we allow the spiritual slumber that our nation has been in to be shaken off?  Will we trust the reports of people who are making money off of fear, or will we trust the report of the Lord. 

           

       Here is what the Bible says, “2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV) “ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

           

            May God shine brightly in this hour.  May his people stop fighting over their tower of toilet paper and begin to pray.  May people use wisdom, but know that  God is on their side.