The Golden Calf

Moses Is Missing, So Make Us “a god”

Exodus 32:1-6: Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” Now when Aaron saw this he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast day to the Lord.” So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

In the minds of the people at the foot of Mount Sinai, Moses took too long to return to them from his meeting with God. They were impatient. Impatience leads to grumbling and grumbling often leads to seeking out other grumblers. That’s exactly what happened until enough of them got together to do something about how they felt. They gathered around Aaron and demanded some action. In fact, they even stipulated what that action would be.

They wanted to make for themselves “a god” that would lead them forward. This would indeed have been contrary to God’s Law (Commandment no. 1 out of the 10). However, if I understand the sequence of events correctly, the people had not yet received the tablets that God had given to Moses. So, their error was not in breaking that particular law so much as it was their forgetfulness of Who it was that had led them so far. In fact, they even erred in thinking at this point it was “this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt” rather than the Lord. And now this “man” is missing and they didn’t know what had “become of him.”

How many times have men and women pursued a ‘religion’ based on a man rather than on the God of the universe? Then when that man fails, disappears, or dies, they are left with nothing. Or, as in the case of the Israelites, they fall into sin, building their own god.

Now what is surprising is the reaction of Aaron, whom we think should have known better, given all that he had experienced at the side of Moses, his brother. And remember that Aaron was the “high priest”.  Sometimes, we need to question what our senior clergy do if we know it is not right before God.  Aaron had witnessed God’s mighty power to save through all the plagues that Egypt suffered and through the escape from Egypt including the crossing of the waters and the destruction of their pursuers. Yet, he blows it. Angry crowds have a way of causing even good men to blow it. Robert Jamieson suggests the word ‘about’ in verse 1 should really be thought of as ‘against’. They were arguing with Aaron and he had to act, perhaps even out of fear.  

One of the most memorable teachings of Bill Hybels that I picked up while listening to him and reading his books was that as leaders we need to “stay the course”. That does not mean that you bull-headedly never change your mind or ever realize that you have made an error. But it means that if you have made a decision based on facts, and a biblical principle, then you stick with that, no matter what winds blow at you. And that includes times when other members of your team are saying, “Come on, let’s be nice; let’s be ‘real Christian’ about this and let ‘them have their way’.  There will always be those that find conflict or disagreement difficult and they will appeal to your so-called ‘spiritual’ side to change your mind.  My position in some of these cases is that if God led you to a position in the first place and it’s based on solid biblical teaching, then stick with it. That does not mean you don’t show respect and care and even love for the other person, you do and that’s very important. But you do not condone their action and you do not give in on the biblical principle God has led you to uphold, at any cost.

Aaron was not willing to pay the cost. Nor was another man thousands of years later. Herod, was almost persuaded to believe Christ. God had somehow worked in him to determine that Christ was not guilty of breaking the Roman law and thus should be set free, but he chickened out because of the pressure of the crowd. The real test of a leader, especially a Christian one, is to be able to “stay the course” when the crowd starts to roar.

So well-meaning Aaron comes up with a solution to the demands of the people. He tells them to gather all their jewelry that the Egyptians had given them before they were led out of Egypt and freed from slavery by God. Interesting that it was on God’s instructions (Exodus 11:2) that Moses, His representative, directed them to acquire these items from the Egyptians. Interesting also that the text indicates the jewelry was also worn by ‘sons’. So maybe we need not be so quick to condemn those men (some in our churches) who have chosen to add some jewelry to their ears. With all this gold Aaron had melted down, he personally fashioned a golden calf.

What followed must have been (from a human perspective) a great disappointment to God. His chosen people worshipped this calf idol and made it the god of Israel, giving it credit for bringing them up from (or out) of the land of Egypt. If that is not a slur to the Lord, I don’t know what is. And yet many of us still do that today in the way we live – we give our brains, our creativity, even chance, or hard work credit for any good that has happened in our lives, forgetting that it is God Who allows it all to happen and in many cases, orchestrates it.

You would think that by now Aaron would have realized his mistake, but he did not. Instead, when he saw the celebration and the return to happiness of the people, he encouraged them by building an altar and proclaiming a holiday. But he called the holiday a “feast day to the Lord”. How mistaken could he have been. Perhaps no more so than how mistaken we often are when we mix the things of the world with our worship of God Almighty. And the next day, the people made their offerings and feasted. You can see the fallen ways of man in the closing two phrases of this passage: “. . .  and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.”

God does want us to eat, drink, and play but it’s how we get there and why we do so, that I believe is more important to Him. In fairness to Aaron, we may want to consider that in his mind, the people were not breaking off from their belief in Jehovah, but rather simply following a 400-year example that was modelled by the Egyptians. They constructed idols to represent the objects of their worship. So Aaron introduces a “feast day” as had been held by the Israelites in days past – even as late as the Passover Meal they had before escaping from Egypt.

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Three Feasts God Wants Us to Celebrate “unto Him” -- Exodus 23:14-17

“Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.”
 

I do not know about you, but I have often thought that we have too many holidays.  If you subscribe to an on-line ‘holidays’ software package in conjunction with your computer calendar, you will soon notice that just about every day of the year it seems is a ‘holiday’ somewhere. In North America in January, we have New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In February there’s Groundhog Day; Lincoln’s Birthday; Valentine’s Day; Family Day, Louis Riel Day, Islander Day (these last three in Canada); President’s Day; and Washington’s Birthday. Do I need to go on through the rest of the year? Yes, some are even religious holidays although we have done our best to change even that.

There are many references to feasts in the Bible, but here in this short passage, God is requiring that we celebrate three of them “unto Him” annually. Without going into great detail about each of these feasts, let us focus on what we believe to be God’s purpose in having us celebrate them “unto Him”.

The first one, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was intended for us to remember that it was God who brought them out of slavery from the land of Egypt and how miraculously He did it. For us today, it would mean celebrating and remembering how God brought us out of our sinful state and saved us through the miracle of His Son Jesus Christ coming to earth and dying in our place.

The second one, the Feast of the Harvest in which the Israelites were to present God their “first fruits” from the annual yield of their fields, was intended to keep reminding them that it is God that gives the harvest and arranges for it, not they themselves. For us today, it would mean celebrating “unto Him” and thanking Him for the fact that we can and are totally dependent on Him for all of our earthly needs and the products of our labor.

The third one, the Feast of the Ingathering (also known as the Feast of Booths) takes place after the last harvest of the year is gathered.  It was for the purpose of giving thanks to God for His provision of the right weather to allow the Israelites to process their crops, especially grapes and grain, before the yield would be useful for eating. In those days all the winepresses and threshing floors were outdoors and the Israelites needed favorable weather to carry these activities out.  Again, for us today, this would mean giving God thanks for how He is involved in our day-to-day lives, taking care of the details if you like.

In asking them to celebrate these three feasts, God makes two stipulations.  First (provided at the end of our passage) that “all the males” should gather together at these three events and that they should eat together at them (after all, that is what one does at feasts). And secondly, God tells the Israelites that no one (no male) is to appear before Him at this celebration “empty-handed”.  On this latter point, Matthew Henry writes,

“Some free-will offering or other they must bring, in token of their respect and gratitude to their great benefactor; and, as they were not allowed to come empty-handed, so we must not come to worship God empty-hearted; our souls must be filled with grace, with pious and devout affections, holy desires towards him, and dedications of ourselves to him, for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased.”

In our modern world, full of hustle and bustle, and never a spare moment, we have developed the ability to do more in less time.  We have fast-food, drive-thru bank services, stay in your automobile carwashes, texting (vs. writing or calling or even emailing) ‘sounds’ or ‘short-forms’ rather than full words, and I am sure you can think of many more shortcuts that you take. We seem to have done the same thing with the Feasts that God wanted us to observe. We now have one annual Thanksgiving Day (at which many do very little giving of thanks and some don’t even feast) to replace all three feasts God had prescribed we celebrate. And you we claim to love Him dearly.

I humbly suggest that as a minimum at our next Thanksgiving Day Feast, we try to consider what God wanted us to remember through the three feasts He describes in this Scripture passage. Let us at least take time to thank Him for delivering us from sin, His provisions for our daily needs, and His involvement in our lives.  And if you are really up to it, try establishing three different feasts for your family.

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This Day Will Be A Permanent Memorial -- Exodus 12:14

“Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.”
 

Before we begin deliberations on this passage, let me state that a friend of mine provided me with an interesting verse about the question we raised concerning the possibility of non-Israelites escaping Egypt in the Exodus. Deuteronomy 29:11 says that there were “alien” people within their camps.  Albeit we cannot say for certain whether they came from Egypt or joined them along the way in the wilderness, Exodus 12:19 which we will study shortly, also uses that word implying that there were ‘aliens’ among the Hebrews from the start.  All this gives us more data for our reflection.  Finally, some think the word “rabble” in Numbers 11:24 that we will come to later or the reference to a “mixed multitude” later in this chapter that we are studying here (Exodus 12) is a reference to non-Israelites.  However, it is also possible it is simply a reference to the different types of people from within the Hebrew ranks.  The point being, we do not know.

Now let us return to Exodus 12:14.  God wanted this day, this Passover feast and night, to be a memorial to all His children.  He wanted it celebrated as a “feast”.  It was to be a permanent celebration.  And it was to be celebrated by all the generations that came after those that left Egypt during the Exodus.

I started thinking about my celebration of the Passover and Easter.  First of all, I consider myself as a Christian to be a “spiritual son” of Abraham (see Galatians 3:7).  Secondly, I was born in Greece and even after coming to Canada as a child, we continued celebrating the major tradition of Greeks having fresh lamb at Easter time.  It seems, however, that over the years, for one reason or another, Christians seem to have moved away from the celebration of the Passover or Easter meal celebration.  It may be that Christmas has become a bigger holiday in North America and taken over.  It may also be that more Christians are failing to recognize their spiritual roots with Abraham, Moses, and the Jews.  Sadly to say, it may also be as one brother told me recently after I had taught on our connection with Israel, that some of us still have some anti-Semitic tendencies.  Perhaps it is time to rethink how we ourselves celebrate Easter.

I note two very strong verbs in this verse.  First, this day “will be” a memorial.  Secondly, “you shall celebrate it”.  No doubt, many can argue that this is all meant for the Jews, and not for us today.  Today we have our Communion Supper and we celebrate that regularly – some annually, some monthly, some weekly because Jesus said “when-so-ever you do it, do it in remembrance of Me.”  He did not give us a command as to when to do it.  We have the freedom to choose the frequency.  And perhaps they that argue that what is talked about here in Exodus 12 is only meant for the Jews, are right.

But let us take a little different perspective.  It may be perfectly all right for us today to neglect this feast celebration God commanded of the Hebrews exiting Egypt three thousand years ago.  But would it be wrong to actually celebrate?  I believe not.  Let me explain.

First, the God of Moses and Aaron is the same God to whom you and I belong.  And our God does not change.  If He wanted that for His children then, but may not demand it of us now – is that a reason for us to neglect following it?  I think not.  You see, God had a purpose for demanding it of His children.  That purpose may well have to do with the idea that we are mere mortals who tend to forget, tend to stray, from remembering what God has done and is doing for us.  We need these celebrations to help remember our history, or in our case, the history of our “spiritual ancestors”.

Secondly, I believe we are indeed part of the “generations” of those very people, albeit “spiritual generations”.  We were grafted into those Jewish roots, the roots of the Children of Israel. (Romans 11:17-21)

Thirdly, I cannot help but believe that when we celebrate the Passover, or Easter in our case, appropriately “with a feast” and with thanksgiving, we make God glad.  This is no different than when a son who has gone to the big city to get educated and become someone in his own mind, returns to his parents’ village and sees his mom and dad stomping on grapes to make wine.  He takes his shoes off, rolls up his pants, washes his feet, and joins in.  His parents are ecstatic.  It is human nature to have your children, even though they have learned new ways to do things, join you in your ways.  And I believe God has a bit of that desire too, if we have it.  After all, we were created in His image.

As an aside, you may wish to take some time to learn about the symbolism in the way the Jewish Passover Meal is celebrated.  You can simply Google that on the Internet.  It is well worth it.

There is a phrase worth noting in this verse.  It is “to the Lord.”  Our celebration of this event is to be feast “to the Lord.”  It is for His honor, not for ours.  Can we really neglect it?  And you will note that it was important enough to God to make it an “ordinance” --  a decree, rule, order, law, edict, dictum, etc.  Get the picture? 

So how do you celebrate Easter?   I know for one, I’ll be doing it a little different come next year.  Maybe I can even talk my daughter or son-in-law into doing at least a leg of lamb on the barbecue.  And as I eat it a little of it with family and friends, I will remember my spiritual ancestors and how they ate on their last night in Egypt.

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Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

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