Exodus 32:4 He(Aaron) 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.”.
The Lord delivered the Israelites with miraculous signs and wonders from the Egypt. They sang songs of praise when they saw the Pharaoh and his army drowning before their eyes yet, when Moses went on a fasting and prayer for 40 days and 40 nights they demanded an image, an idol that brought them out of Egypt. The golden calf was ‘Apis’, ‘the bull god of fertility’ of the Egyptians. Whenever an Apis bull died it was embalmed and mummified. At the time of crisis they resorted back to the old habits and demanded for visible images to consult, counsel and comfort them.
Visual long-term memory of the human brain is like a filing cabinet with massive storage capacity, capable of storing a large number of objects and details of images. Our brain can pull out images, thoughts, words and actions of the past to display it in our mind like a movie. Similarly, the golden calf would have brought back rotten memories of tyranny, repression, sensual and sexual sins of Egypt and hence they ate, drank, rebelled and indulged in revelry.
If there are memories of a bad childhood, an abusive relationship or a messy mistake in the filing cabinet of our brain, we must erase it out of our memory. If we don’t the ghastly images will manifest as disfigured idols in our relationships.
Three ways the past memories can affect our future prospects:
1. Insecurity: As long as the Israelites could see Moses in action they were able to sustain however, when Moses was away for over a month, insecurity gripped the hearts of the freed slaves. Insecurity made them run back to their comfort-teddy of the past. Injustice of the past can bring images of insecurity, anxiety and timidity and destroy the present. Faith in the Living Saviour is the antidote to erase the memories of past cruelty.
2. Uncertainty: The slaves in Egypt suffered from betrayal, autocracy and despotism. Pharaoh would wake up every morning with a new brutal strategy to oppress them. They saw their new born baby boys being thrown into the Nile and crocodiles devouring them. The images of their race being wiped out made them to resort to the fertility gods of Egypt. If images of an abusive relationship remain in our mind, we will carry uncertainty, indecision and doubt into our subsequent relationships. Forgiveness is the healing balm to heal memories of abuse.
3. Unreliability: The mentally torn slaves were over dependant on their deliverer Moses. Their stability was dependant on Moses and not on the Lord who saved them. Those who do not have the sound foundation of faith will be fallible, fickle and frail in their relationships. Shifting our trust from man to God is the only way to overcome instability and build solidity with God and with man.
The delivered slaves were freed from slavery but were never redeemed from insecurity, instability or indecision as they were physically free but mentally still under the bondage of the past. Erase bad memories and painful trauma with the blood of Jesus and by allowing His anointing oil to transform the “pain of the past to power of the present”.
Romans 12:12 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, I need your love to pull down every wrong image that is tarnishing the true image and likeness of Christ in me. Erase wrongdoings, abuse and trauma of my past and make me powerful and build your kingdom. Amen
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