The People Make a Golden Calf to Worship
March 7, 2021
Commentary
Even though the Israelites had witnessed the invisible God’s mighty power, they still wanted visible gods they could see and shape in their own way (vv. 1–10). Not long after they had promised to follow the LORD as His covenant people, they asked Aaron to make them an image to worship. Aaron agreed and collected their gold earrings, melting them down and shaping the gold into a calf (vv. 1–4). Coming out of Egypt, where bull idols represented strength and life, this seemed natural to them. They wanted a god they could touch—a god that seemed familiar and easy to control. But this was a great sin against the LORD, who had rescued them from slavery.
Aaron built an altar in front of the golden calf and announced a festival to the LORD. The people offered sacrifices, ate and drank, and acted wildly, celebrating like their pagan neighbors (vv. 5–6). In their impatience and desire for comfort, they forgot the holiness of the God Who had delivered them. We are often like them—tempted to make God fit our ideas, to shape Him into someone easy to ignore.
Meanwhile, God told Moses to go down quickly because the people had corrupted themselves (v. 7). They had turned away from His commands, bowing before the idol and crediting it with bringing them out of Egypt (v. 8). God called them a stubborn and rebellious people, full of pride and disobedience. His anger burned so fiercely that He spoke of destroying them and beginning again through Moses (vv. 9–10). God reminded Moses that His law had clearly forbidden the making of any carved image or likeness of anything in heaven, on earth, or under the sea (EXO 20:4).
Application
Even if I do not make idols, I am often guilty of trying to make God fit my image, molding him to fit my expectations, desires, and circumstances. When I do this I end up worshiping myself rather than the God who created me. When I am tempted to do this I need to change my thinking in order to worship the powerful God who delivered me from the bondage of sin?
Exodus 32:1–10 (NET)
1 When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get up, make us gods that will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!”
2 So Aaron said to them, “Break off the gold earrings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people broke off the gold earrings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 He accepted the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow will be a feast to the Lord.” 6 So they got up early on the next day and offered up burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.
7 The Lord spoke to Moses, “Go quickly, descend, because your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly. 8 They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them—they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”
9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people. Look what a stiff-necked people they are! 10 So now, leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.”
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