by Harry BuererIn Exodus 32 we have the story of the people of Israel making and worshiping a calf made of gold. Several days previously, in Exodus 20, God had spoken to them from Mt. Sinai, giving them the ten “Words”, one of which was, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below…” (20:4)
After that God called Moses, along with Joshua, to come up on the mountain to him. Moses was on the mountain for a week before God summoned him, then for another forty days while God gave him further instructions.
The people didn’t know how long Moses was going to be away, but evidently they expected him back a lot sooner. In chapter 32 “the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain” (32:1). So they came to Aaron and said, “Make us ‘Elohim'” (a word for God, but it can also mean “gods”). So Aaron asks for their gold rings, and fashions them into a calf. Then the people said, “This is Elohim who brought you up out of Egypt.” Then Aaron declared that the next day would be a festival to the LORD. The next day the people offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings and had a celebration.
As you probably know, God and Moses were angry at this and many of the people were killed by the sword and by a plague as a consequence. It was clearly an evil, sinful thing that they did. But the text implies that they thought they were honoring God in so doing. They asked for a representation of the God who brought them out of Egypt, and Aaron called a festival to YHWH. Their sin was in not understanding or taking seriously God’s instruction from the mountain to not make such images.
It seems to me that one of the things this passage teaches is how easy it is for the whole congregation (“church” if you will) to fall into sin and not realize it. Is that what has happened to the church today? It seems to me that there are many parallels between Israel in this passage and Christianity today.
First of all, Israel expected Moses to return sooner, and when he didn’t, they started to lose hope. We who await the promised return of Jesus have been waiting for millenia. The impression was that it would be a lot sooner than this. Moses, like Jesus, expected the people to wait for his return, and remain faithful to God’s instructions for as long as it took.
On the mountain where God told Israel to not make any idols, he also told them to remember the Sabbath day (the seventh day) and keep it holy. The bulk of the Christian church has abandoned that command and established a different day, Sunday, that they honor and think of as the Lord’s day. They also ignore biblical festivals that God established and substitute their own calendar. Just as Israel thought they were worshiping God correctly, but were disregarding his clear commands, so the church today is not worshiping in the way that God commanded.
Israel had the voice of God speak to them from the mountain, and they vowed to obey him, but they either didn’t understand or disregarded his commands. In the same way the church has the scriptures of the Old and New Testament and the clear words of Jesus and others affirming God’s law and its importance in our lives. If we don’t understand it or choose to disregard it, we are as much at fault as the Israelites were in Moses’ day.
When Moses finally returned, he was very angry at the people, and they had to pay dire consequences. When Jesus returns, will he be angry at the way that the church has disregarded God’s commands? I pray that we may repent and return to God’s ways before that day comes.