Exodus 32
I would be lying if I said I couldn’t relate. All the Israelites that had been saved from bondage in Egypt, endured months of hard travel, boring food and uncertainty about where they were going, had on this night decided to rave like party animals. They asked Aaron what was taking Moses so long on top of the mountain and they were getting a bit anxious.
So Aaron thought it was best to play into all their foolishness. They asked him to make new gods for them to follow. He knew that was wrong and tricked them into bringing all their gold to him instead. So they did. Then he just threw it all in a fire. And a golden calf ‘came out of it’. Then the crowd grew out of control. Guess who saw this….yea, God. He was pretty stinking upset. He basically tells Moses how these people no longer need to exist.
Moses pleads to God to let them be and that he will handle this. So, he heads back down the mountain to alert them of their insane behavior. Mind you, he is also carrying two stone tablets with commandments written on them from God himself. Ten to be exact. Moses gets to the bottom and now HE is pretty stinking upset. He throws the tablets smashing to the ground. After getting the ‘facts’ from Aaron, Moses gathers those who believe in God and sends to rest to kill their friends and families. He certainly thinned the herd but the next day God told Moses how he will take care of the rest who had sinned against him via a plague.
Like I said at the beginning, I can relate, to some of their actions. It was a long road. We have all been there. Then we start to look for a good steak instead of all the bologna and hotdogs we had been eating. We are looking for a place to call home instead of all the traveling and renting we had been doing. Then we get a little anxious and loose and decide to party a little hard one night and make all these silly demands. I mean, what is one night going to hurt, right? Wrong!
When we are at our weakest, pushed to our limits, we let our guard down and become fools. Sometimes we may forget why we are all here. Sometimes we forget the purpose of our existence. Often this is when we are given a test. Sometimes it is as simple as a pass or fail. Thank God that today when we FAIL those tests we don’t get the plague put on us the next day. Maybe, though, that is how we need to live our lives and remind ourselves of our purpose.
Takeaways –
Impatience leads to substitutes – The people didn’t stop believing in God, they just wanted a version of God they could see and control.
Aaron is a cautionary tale – He had authority, he had access to God, and he folded under social pressure in about five minutes. The “it just came out of the fire” excuse may almost be funny, but the consequences were deadly.
Moses is a picture of intercession – He stepped between God’s wrath and guilty people, willing to sacrifice himself.
God holds individuals accountable – His answer to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out” established a clear principle. Personal responsibility, not collective punishment by proxy.