The Golden Calf Meanwhile, at the camp, the people wondered why Moses was taking so long to come back. They became restless without their leader. But they should have remembered their agreement to obey God in all that Moses had told them. Regardless of all the miracles God had performed for Israel in their time of trouble, some of the people desired to cling to the habits of idol worship they had acquired in Egypt. Even while fire and smoke on Mount Sinai proclaimed God’s presence, these people complained that Moses’ absence showed God had forgotten them. The people gathered around Aaron and said, We need a leader to take us to a better place! The more rebellious ones declared, And we need a god we can see and who will do more for us! Within only a few days the complainers had created such confusion in the camps that thousands were stirred up to an angry pitch (Ex. 32:1). Aaron answered them, Take off the golden earrings you are wearing and bring them to me. So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt (Ex. 32:2-4). In the absence of their leader the people were quick to go back into worshipping the foreign gods that they had become used to in Egypt. Aaron, as the High Priest, did a very wrong thing here. He should have taken control of the situation and led the people in the worship of the One True God, instead of pleasing them by making an idol. The calf was made in the symbol of the earrings that the people wore in their ears. Both the earrings and the calf were referred to as gods. The calf was a religious symbol of the Moon God that was worshipped by the Egyptians. In the Middle East the Moon God was called Sin, which is where our word sin comes from. Aaron then ordered a large altar built in front of the tent in which the calf image stood. When it was finished, he sent out messengers to all the people to proclaim that the next day would be a feast day to God (Ex. 32:5). He was using pagan practices in an attempt to worship the One True God. Early next morning people started thronging toward the calf idol, bringing animals for burnt offerings and peace offerings. Afterwards they sat down to eat and drink and to indulge in revelry (Ex. 32:6). This was a pagan feast, despite the people thinking that they were worshipping God. The upturned horns of the golden calf represented the crescent moon, which can be seen. It was thus a visible symbol of a pagan god. On the other hand, the One True God is invisible and has never been seen by any man (Jn. 1:18; 1Tim. 6:16). He is represented by the conjunction at the New Moon, which is invisible. This practice of worshipping statues and other visible icons has been passed on down through the centuries and is still very common today. The pagan system set up by the people while Moses was away with God can be compared with the false religious systems today in the absence of Messiah. Moses had stayed up on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. This was to symbolise the forty Jubilees (2,000 years) that Christ was to be away, from his first coming to his second coming. Jesus also fasted forty days and forty nights in the desert (Mat. 4:1-2).
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:14:28 +0000
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