Have you ever done something you instantly regretted, like missing the pop fly in the championship game, failing to get the big fish in the net, blurting out something totally inappropriate, or otherwise completely flubbing something up? I bet you wished you could get a do-over. We’ve all been there and wished that. Sometimes I think I live in the land of FlubUp. I’m actually starting to get mail there.

Today’s reading is a reminder that God always offers do-overs to us:

Deuteronomy 10:1-5 (New Revised Standard Version)

10:1 At that time the LORD said to me (Moses), “Carve out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you shall put them in the ark.” 3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 

4 Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me. 5 So I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, as the LORD commanded me.

 So, Moses and the people of Israel get a do-over! They had already received the Ten Commandments, inscribed in stone by the very finger of God. But when Moses returned with the tablets the first time, he discovered that in his absence the people had turned back to their idols, and his brother had made a golden calf for them to worship. Talk about a flub up! In righteous anger, Moses smashed the first set of tablets, symbolizing the breaking of God’s law by his people. 

 Why did the people turn so quickly away from the God who had just brought them out of slavery in Egypt to a hunk of metal shaped like a farm animal? Because people are created for worship. And so in place of God, we will worship anything: fame, money, the easy high, flattery, the intrigue of an inappropriate relationship, possessions … all kinds of fake things.

 We are the same as our desert ancestors. When we worship all of those inappropriate things, we reject our God who has provided for our every need, if not our every want. The comparison trap of social media only serves to make us want these things even more. Every time you scroll, stop, and pinch out to see an image more clearly, you end up comparing yourself to that person or thing. Whether it’s a celebrity’s new nose, your neighbor’s idyllic vacation photos, a purse you can’t afford, or an unattainable lifestyle, you are in reality worshipping something completely unreal. We lose sight of the difference between needs and wants. We end up creating golden calves multiple times each day, and God is forgotten in our pursuits of these false idols.

 But God, in his mercy, gave the people a do-over. God is always about second chances. Even as you are reading this, God is making his way toward you, offering you a second (or third, or eightieth) chance to get right with him. That is what the cross is all about: delivering us from the slavery of sin and death and bringing us into the land of redemption and freedom. 

 The question is, who or what will you worship? Know this for sure; your golden calf may be shiny and attractive, but it brings you nothing but the hollowness and superficiality of fake gold. 

 Quit falling for it. Turn to the one true God in humility and repentance, and do it over. God will give you every second chance that you need. Thanks be to God!

Needs a Do-Over by Michelle Robertson