If we can remember one of the great movies of our childhood, The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston as Moses, and visualize the idolatrous orgy that occurred at the base of Mt. Sinai while Moses was receiving the Law from God up on the mountain then we can have a mental picture of how the Lord views idolatry. It is so easy for us to say on this side of Sinai that we would never do such a thing but, in truth, we do it every day. I hope to share a little of what the Lord has shown me about the insidious idols of my [& likely our] heart/s in the next few blog posts. But as we jump in let's go all the way back out into the Sinai wilderness because when we consider it fully it will literally take our breaths away.
Imagine a nation who had just witnessed firsthand the delivery from over four centuries of slavery by the mighty hand of God who in the process plundered the Egyptian nation, decimated their military and displayed his power and splendor for all to see. For the first time in 420 years Israel was free. God was their governor, protector and provider. Before long they would be in the land that had been promised them so long before. It almost feels like the end of a great novel ... we can almost hear the movie building up to its crescendo as the Red Sea collapses on Pharaoh's chariots ... the people of God have survived ... the covenant promises will all come true ... the promised seed has been preserved. God in His glory actually dwells with His people! And in so doing, He leads His people to the base of Mt. Sinai. Here He would reinforce His covenant and reveal the covenantal obligations that His people must keep. Of all the nations on earth, only Israel is given the Law because only Israel is God's treasured possession. This Law expresses not only His authority but also His love and mercy.
Then the unthinkable happens! Moses is up on the mountain receiving the Law from the very hand of God, and the people get impatient [sound familiar yet?]. They gather around Aaron and say, "Come make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him" [Exodus 32:1]. Let this sink in for a moment or two. These people had just experienced the most unbelievable display of divine power in history. God had sent plaques on Egypt that not only proved His power but also mocked the power of Pharaoh's gods and literally brought Egypt to its knees. The clear message of the plaques was not only that these were God's people and He could lead them wherever He wanted, but also more fundamentally that there is one God and His name is I AM. God had once and for all demonstrated that the gods of the Egyptians were no gods at all.
How could the Israelites possibly consider, even for a moment, worshiping anything other than this majestic Lord? In their impatience, they press Aaron to provide something concrete and visible for them to worship. What they say next about these man-made gods is difficult to fit into our post-modern brains. They want gods "to go before" them. This phrase is not so much about the gods' location in respect to the children of Israel, but more an idiom denoting rule. To "go before" is to lead, guide, direct and protect. Essentially the Israelites were asking Aaron to make idols to rule them in a way that God had covenantally promised to do and had actually done as He rescued them from Egypt.
It is important to realize that Israel was asking for something more than a ceremonial idol. They were asking for something that would replace the Almighty as the one who would provide them with identity, security, well-being and purpose. Understanding this makes this request all the more heinous and grievous. They were asking Aaron to provide something that would take the place in their lives that only God was meant to occupy. It is so outrageous that it is almost impossible to fathom. But there are still more shocking things to come.
Aaron, who had been handpicked by God and who was a first-hand witness to the glory of God that accompanied Moses' challenge of Pharaoh, does what the Israelites request without hesitation, protest or warning. Immediately he begins collecting the gold needed to construct the god replacement that the people demanded. What mental and theological machinations must have gone through Aaron's mind that he would be comfortable and willing to participate in such an abomination? I can't even imagine. The issue here was not just his willingness to be an accomplice to such an outrageous idolatry, but also a direct desecration of his God-appointed office of leadership. Not surprisingly, Aaron had no trouble collecting enough gold to make the calf. God had provided plenty of gold when He allowed the Israelites to plunder Egypt as they were making their escape. Think about it, the very provision that God had given them for their journey was now being used to construct the thing that would function as His replacement. And still it gets even worse.
Aaron collected the gold, melted it down and then used his tools to form it into something that looked like a calf. And just when we think that we've been shocked as much as we possibly could be, something happened that shocks us even more. After Aaron finished his idolatrous craft, the people began to chant and it is the content of their chant that blows our mind all the more. As they dance around the calf they say, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." Not only are they placing their future identity and security in the hands of the idol; they are also creating a revisionist history that attributes to this lifeless beast the glories of their recent redemption. Consider fully what is happening here. Moses' absence runs longer than the people expected, so they replace God with a thing and call it both the lord of their future and the redeemer of their past. Instead of celebrating what only God by His love, mercy and power could have done, they give credit to the creation of their own hands.
One would think that when Aaron heard the chant he would have been shocked into the realization of just what it is that he has done. Not so much. Rather than being horrified at the scene, he declared the next day to be a holy day, a festival of sacrifice and celebration to the new "Lord." Early the next morning the people made sacrifices to their newly minted "Lord," and then went on to have a wild orgy! Now Moses finally comes back on to the scene and when he surveys it all, he naturally concludes that Aaron must have had his life threatened to have participated in such a horrendous act. But he would be wrong. Moses basically says, "Aaron, what in the world did these people do to you that you would lead them into such horrific sin?" Aaron then tries to deflect the blame saying, "You know how evil these people are? They thought you were gone, and they wanted gods to go before them, so I collected their gold jewelry. Then Moses the most amazing thing happened. I just threw the gold into the fire, and lo and behold, out came this calf!" It's hard to imagine Aaron actually trying to connive his way out this but he did [how like us]. Not only did Aaron take the lead role in Israel's treason but then he totally denied complicity in it.
So what does all this have to do with us ... stay tuned. We are sadly a lot more like Aaron and the children of Israel than we have ever given ourselves credit for:(
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