When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it. (Exodus 32:1-20)
What Won’t We Do for God? Will We Wait faithfully?
Exodus 32:1-20
If the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22 is the epitome of faithfulness, the children of Israel at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Exodus 32 is the epitome of faithlessness. Moses was delayed in his interaction with God, and it took longer than expected for him to come down from the mountain. This delay caused the Israelites to panic. Rather than wait for Moses to return with instructions from the LORD, trusting that the One who delivered them from Egypt, defeated Pharaoh and the Egyptian army, and provided for them in the wilderness would take care of them, they instead returned to what they knew and pressured Aaron to make an idol fashioned in the style of the Egyptian gods. These Hebrew slaves had been delivered from Egypt, but it would take a long time to get Egypt out of their hearts. They wanted a god who they could see, touch, and manipulate; that desire turned their hearts against their true Savior and led to this debacle of faithlessness at the bottom of Mt. Sinai. A measure of patient, faithful waiting was required of God’s people, and they showed, through this terrible, sinful incident, that they were not ready to live like God’s people. They would do anything for God, except wait faithfully when things got uncertain and scary at the base of the mountain. Unfortunately, this faithless failure of idolatry would be repeated time and again throughout the Old Testament story.
This “golden calf” episode was so terrible that it became synonymous with the idolatrous tendencies God’s people have struggled with ever since. In church life we often characterize conflicts over worship order, styles of music, carpet color and other issues as “golden calf” fiascos. When we allow anything to take the place of honor and devotion that should belong to God alone, we are guilty of following a golden calf imitation of the One true God. When my ideas of how things should be done take precedence over seeking God’s face in a struggle, I am worshiping a golden calf instead of the Savior of the world. When the fulfillment of God’s promise is delayed or God answers a prayer with a “no” and we fail to wait faithfully for His direction, we are repeating the terrible sin that is described in this sad story. As we read ourselves into this story we find ourselves asking: have we allowed anything to take God’s place in our lives? Are we willing to serve God with all that we are unless He fails to do things according to our expectations? Will we do anything for God, except wait faithfully? I pray that we might learn from this sad story and trust that the God who delivered us yesterday will be with us today and is faithful to fulfill His promises tomorrow.