Golden Calf:
As if Moses didn't have enough on his plate, scampering up Mount Sinai to fetch the Ten Commandments from the Lord.
When he finally makes it back down, Aaron and the rest of Israel have made themselves an idol to worship instead of God.
Moses is, frankly, shocked - and promptly drops the precious tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments are written.
He then has to go back up the mountain to get another copy [Exodus 32].
Judaism was distinctive among ancient religions for its prohibition on idolatry.
As creator, God cannot adequately be represented in physical form and will not tolerate the idols of other "gods".
One of the Hebrew words for idol also means "dung-pellets"!
Idolatry is whenever we honour and revere something instead of God, it can be power, pleasure, family, a cause, a nation, money etc.
It is deifying what is not God.
In the movie Dogma, Loki and Bartleby visit God's vengeance upon those responsible for "Mooby the Golden Calf", striking a blow against the twin evils of personal immorality and corporate greed.
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