Do not be angry, Aaron answered. You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, 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. So I told them, whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off. Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf. Exodus 32, verses 22 through 24. You've probably heard someone say or do something that made you shake your head and wonder, what was he thinking? On July 10, 2003, an israeli woman swallowed a full sized fork while trying to catch a fly that had flown into her mouth. Surgeons performed emergency surgery, successfully removing the fork and allowing the woman to make a full recovery. What the doctors could not do, however, was answer the question. What was that woman thinking? Some time ago, I read a news report about a man who was convicted of sending his ex girlfriend non mailable matter with intent to injure or kill. What was it he sent to her mailbox? A live tarantula. The man was sentenced to a 20 year prison term and a fine of $250,000. But the question remains, what was he thinking? YouTube is full of videos of people doing the craziest things you can imagine, all of which are posted for our wonder and amazement, and all of which leave us asking, what were they thinking? Seriously, is 15 minutes of notoriety worth the risk of life and limb? Why do people do such things as these? When I read the story of the golden calf in Exodus, I asked the same thing. The Lord had led the people out of bondage in Egypt. He held back the water of the Red Sea so they could cross on dry ground. He fed them quail and bread from heaven called Manna. He poured out fresh, clean water for them from a rock in the desert. But while Moses was up on the mountain talking with the Lord and getting his commandments, they asked Aaron to make a God for them that they could see. What were they thinking? Worse, when Aaron was confronted about what he had done, he offered up a very lame statement in an attempt to defend himself. I threw this gold into the fire, he said, and out came this calf. Really, Aaron? That's what you're going with? What were you thinking? In almost every case where we ask, what was that person thinking? The answer is that he wasn't thinking at all. And we're all guilty because each of us does and says things that God's people should not say and do things that we look at in hindsight, asking, what was I thinking? Proverbs 21 29, says the upright give thought to their ways. We'd all be better off and make a lot fewer mistakes if we would simply think before we say or do things. That would also free us of looking back and asking ourselves, what was I thinking?

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to [email protected]. Have a great day, and we hope you'll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve opens God's word to bring us another thought for the day.