This Memorial Day weekend I stayed home, remembering those who had died not only fighting for our country, but also those who died fighting for the lives of those infected with Covid-19.
The virus is still raging through our country, killing nearly 100,000 people as of this date. Our president urged the country to “open up” and many states complied by opening beaches, resorts, hotels, water parks and campgrounds. After months of stay-at-home orders, throngs of people flocked to every beach, shore, park and restaurant that was open.
When I saw the videos on the news of the masses celebrating their “freedom” I was appalled. I saw very few keeping a safe distance or wearing a mask. It was as if they threw off all common knowledge and forgot there was a plague.
What were they thinking?
It reminded me of Moses on the mountaintop getting the 10 Commandments, which would provide the people with safe and holy ways to conduct their lives, but the people were down in the camp partying like there was no tomorrow. After years of captivity, they convinced Aaron, their top priest, to build a golden calf to worship.
I always wondered about his part of the Moses’ story. After all the miracles God had done to set them free, how could they throw off their shared experience and ignore everything they had witnessed, forget God, and worship an idol?
How could Aaron, who had been there from the beginning of God’s plan to free the people through Moses allow himself to revert to paganism?
“Live for the moment for tomorrow we die.” “Eat, drink, and be merry because life is short.” “If they should die, let them get on with it and decrease the surplus population.”
Today I witnessed the same reckless abandon in the face of death as in Moses’ time. We have learned nothing.
According to the CDC, we will see a spike in infections (and deaths) within 3 weeks, which will be the week of June 14th. All these people who partied like there was no pandemic could be asymptomatic and go home to shop, visit elderly parents or grandparents, or mingle with the rest of us. If what they say is a scientific certainty, this next wave of infection will be explosive and devastating. I hope I am wrong.
Exodus 32: 1-6
“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, 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.”
2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He 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.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”
As you see, Aaron and the Hebrew people, mixed Egyptian paganism with their new-found understanding of Jehovah God. While they are worshipping a golden calf, they are also “sacrificing burnt offerings and presenting fellowship offerings” to God.
Today there are churches across our nation that are defying public health warnings by having face-to-face worship services. This, too, was encouraged by our president. As if God will look at their burnt offerings and fellowship offerings as a sign of true worship.
A woman interviewed at one of the beaches, with a group of friends, said, “Why should I worry. I’m covered by God’s grace.”
Exodus 32: 19, 31-35
19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.
31So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
33 The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.34 Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
35 And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.