Goat Demons

Goat Demons - Dan QT 4.21.2010 – Lev 17:7

So I’ve been on this journey again through the Old Testament. It’s been fun. I’ve an accountability partner and everything! As usual, I burned through Genesis, and Exodus went quickly as well, I love the Moses story. But the truth is anyone who has spent a great deal of time with the Hebrew Scriptures will tell you that it’s easy to get bogged down in certain places. I just read several chapters about mildew, menstruation, and leprosy, all God’s word, all important and loaded with insight but also all potential places of lethargy. As is always the case when we keep on keeping on in God’s word something will come alive. When I hit chapters 16 and 17 that experience occurred.

I’ve always loved chapter 16 with the fascinating story of the Day of Atonement. Every year the nation of Israel would symbolically lay their sins on a goat and release it into the desert (it’s the scapegoat.) There are all sorts of great connections that can be made between this goat and Jesus. Read it. It’s good stuff.

But what I had not made a connection with before was this story and Lev 17:7

They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.'

Lev 17:7

There are many Hebrew words translated as goat but the same word is used for the goat(s) used in the Day of Atonement mentioned in chapter 16 and the goat idol (sometimes translated as demon or goat demon.) here in 17:7.

Is there a connection? Maybe, maybe not, but this command comes in the midst of God trying to direct his people to stay focused on what he has asked them to do. Apparently the people were taking goats out into the wilderness and sacrificing them willy-nilly rather than doing things the way God had commanded.

Really it wasn’t a new thing. People are always quick to jump on the cheap substitute. Back in Exodus after Moses had been up the mountain for a bit the people worshiped the Golden Calf – not because he was a different God in their eyes but because he was an easier representation of the One True God. Go check it out (EX 32) and you’ll see that they have a festival to the LORD (all caps in the NIV) which is the way the translators choose to transliterate the divine name YHWH as opposed to Lord (capital “L” lowercase “ord.” which is the way they translate the word Adonai (master, sir, etc) In order to fully dig into this we’d have to discuss Hebrew plurals and the connection between calves and the word God a bit as well and I won’t take the time to do that here. The point is the people celebrated this statue as the God (gods) who brought them out of Egypt and they celebrated that statue as YHWH. There was no mistaking what God made their exodus possible, they weren’t in their minds looking for a new God, just an easier way to imagine/serve/worship the God they felt that they already knew.

Maybe our Israelite friends from Leviticus 17 were falling into the same trap? The one true religion involves goats so why not make it a little easier? Why not just use the goats here and there and everywhere and call it cool? It's got something to do with goats right?

God calls that prostitution. Idolatry. It’s true when it’s a calf, a goat, and what about Jesus?

In what ways do we worship our own set of goat idols?

When we define holiness only by the things we avoid simply because God would have us avoid certain things I think we are worshiping a goat idol. It might look religious; it might sound godly, but is it or is it a reduction of biblical holiness?

When we define course language as our own particular list of curse words are we worshiping the one true God or are we reducing his command to something easier and more manageable, maybe even less important?

We do this in a million ways. We recreate Jesus in our own image, we reduce him, because doing the things that he did and calls us to do scares us a little too much. It's easier to serve a reduced representation of Jesus. A Jesus fish on my car, a cross on my neck, a spiritual tattoo.

If I can avoid taking God’s name in vain by simply not saying G_D D_mn it then I might feel good about myself but am I worshiping the One True God or some reduced image of him. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think we should run around shouting GD here GD there here a GD there a GD but isn’t God’s name far bigger than that word? Aren’t we taking his name in vain anytime we misrepresent him? Christian is a big name, dare we carry it?

Do we reduce it?

Stupid Golden Calf.

Freakin’ Goat Idols.

Dang cheap substitutes.

I don’t want to serve an Imaginary Jesus even if he looks a lot like the real Jesus.

Lord, LORD, help us to know the difference.