Leaders have to be careful not to fall into the “Golden Calf” syndrome.  This syndrome is when we think we have lost something of great value and we look for cheap imitations to replace it.

The Golden Calf syndrome is when appearing successful is more important than being true to who God created us to be. The Golden Calf syndrome is when fear of losing control replaces following the blueprint.  

When we give into the Golden Calf syndrome, we not only lose our focus and fire for the Lord; those who follow us are a part of the collateral damage. We see this so well in Exodus chapter 32.

 The number one danger of the Golden Calf is that:

•  IT TRIES TO REPLACE SOMETHING THAT IT CAN NEVER REPLACE.

 In Verse 1 we see that in the absence of their spiritual leader, the people begin to seek a substitute.  They appreciated Moses but they needed something they could see to lead them to the next phase. They needed a new God that would guide them into the promise land. 

They realized from crossing the Rea Sea and the other military victories that they needed divine intervention. However, they chose to replace the eternal with the temporal. 

Leaders we do that as well. It happens when we look for the short cuts and the quick hits instead of the proven principles. It happens in our homes when we allow the blessings to be more appreciated than the giver of the blessings.    

The next danger of the Golden Calf is that: 

• IN THE LONG RUN THE IMITATION  WILL COST MORE TO BE IN YOUR LIFE THAN THE ORIGNAL

To make the Golden calf the people had to give up the golden items that God had provided for them.  The gold earrings and other gold items did not cost the people anything since God had restructured a portion of the wealth from the Egyptians to them. So what God had given them freely, they had to pay as the cost for the Golden Calf.

 When leaders take the resources that they have been given stewardship over and create a Golden Calf, they create a beast that you will always have to feed. The leadership at Enron is one example of this. 

Another danger of the Golden Calf is that: 

•  IT ALWAYS REQUIRES THAT YOU SACRIFCE MORE THAN YOU INTENDED. IT IS NEVER SATIFIED.

 Not only did Aaron have to make the new god, now he has to arrange a festival and burnt offerings. The request from the people was for Aaron to make a god for them. Now the false god requires more from them.   

The Golden Calf will seem like a smart move, it will say to you “let’s not do all of that quality stuff so we can get the product out faster”. Then in a couple of months we are correcting returns and doing rework because we gave in to the Golden Calf. 

Instead of checking with our spouse before we made that BIG decision, we allowed the Golden Calf of convenience to lead us.  Now we have to make more adjustments than we intended just to keep the Golden Calf going.