Ray Stone
The story is from Exodus 32, the account of Aaron’s great sin of making the golden calf at Mt. Sinai. It’s a familiar account, and unfortunately includes an oft-repeated tendency to credit other things–fate, blind luck, your own skill and abilities, etc.—for good fortune or success really attributable to blessings from God.
Aaron was Moses’ older brother; he had been designated by God to be Moses’ spokesman to the Israelites (Exo. 4:14-16). Moses apparently had a speech defect, perhaps a stutter—“I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue”, he said (Exo. 4:10); so Aaron was to take on the role of Moses’ “mouth” (Exo. 4:16). You might wonder why, as the older brother, Aaron wasn’t God’s choice to lead Israel—but God knew, as Aaron would demonstrate later, the man’s character flaws that offset any leadership abilities.
Let’s get into the context of our account. The Israelites had just escaped from Egyptian bondage; had witnessed the series of ten plagues intended to convince Pharaoh to “Let My people go” (Exo. 5:1). They had experienced the escape through the Red Sea; had seen the Egyptian army destroyed when it tried to follow them through the sea (Exo. 14:26-30). They had complained of their limited resources; in response God had graciously provided for them the miraculous manna, quail, and water from a rock. Now they had arrived at Mt. Sinai, where God would reveal to them His Law, the Ten Commandments and all the detail that went with them that would make up the bulk of the Pentateuch. His promise: “If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession…and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation” (Exo. 19:5-6). A simple proposition!—with the promise of great blessings to follow.
The Israelite masses showed wisdom in this first direct encounter with God upon His spectacular descent upon Mt. Sinai,
All the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: And when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exo. 20:18-19).
This is Godly fear! And God approved of such an attitude. Later He said in reference to this, “I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee; they have well said all that they have spoken” (Deut. 5:28).
So Moses was delegated to ascend the mountain to receive God’s instruction. And here is the very first thing God told him, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from Heaven. Ye shall not make other gods with Me; gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you” (Exo. 20:22-23). This became the first of the 10 commandments. Egypt was an idolatrous nation, and the Israelites had been immersed in it for generations. God well knew their weaknesses, and gave them a direct warning about it in the very beginning: “Don’t make other gods, of silver or gold.” But ironically, even as Moses was at the top of the mount receiving this instruction from God, Aaron and the people were at the bottom doing the desires of Satan!
“Patience is a virtue” was first said by Cato the Elder in the Middle Ages, and has been recognized through the ages as the wisdom it expresses. Notable authors and philosophers have repeated this often, from Geoffrey Chaucer (Canterbury Tales) to Benjamin Franklin, and is set forth in principle dozens of times in the Bible—dozens of times, because it runs so contrarily to man’s nature.
Nowhere was it more needed than at the base of Mt. Sinai. Moses was in the mount for 40 days and 40 nights (Exo. 24:18)—about 6 weeks!—and the peoples’ patience wore thin.
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him (Exo. 32:1).
You can imagine their thoughts: “Perhaps he was killed by a wild animal, or starved to death, or fell in a ravine,” etc.—“He’s not coming back.”
Several mistakes could be noted here, but it boils down to this: The people were walking by sight, not by faith (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7). Look at their words: “Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt”—no, in fact it wasn’t Moses, but God that had delivered them (Exo. 14:30). But Moses was the one they could see; and when he wasn’t there any more, out of sight for whatever reason—“we know not what has become of him”—they felt lost, abandoned. God was their real Leader, but that wasn’t good enough. They required a visual, physical presence, “walking by sight”—and so Satan had a field day with them, as he always does with materially-minded people. Moses was gone, so they turned to Aaron: “Make us gods, which shall go before us”, gods that we can see and touch. Something concrete—or in this case, gold!
And Aaron, who certainly knew better, showed his lack of leadership skills by caving in to their pressure. He took the peoples’ gold jewelry, melted it down, and “fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it a molten calf” (Exo. 32:4). He apparently took a hands-on approach to making the idol. Keep these words in mind, as they present quite a contrast to Aaron’s excuses he would give later.
Exodus 32:5 goes on, Aaron “built an altar before it, and made proclamation, and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Jehovah.” Some have made the argument that Aaron intended this simply as a representation of Jehovah God, rather than an idolatrous god at all; but Stephen, in his thumbnail history of Israel, said by inspiration “They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands” (Acts 7:41). Moses later designated it like this in Exodus 32:31: “They made them gods of gold.” Here’s God’s own description of it: “They have corrupted themselves…they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed unto it, and said, These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (Exo. 32:7-8). The Bible is clear. The golden calf to them was an idolatrous god, plain and simple.
Moses returned from the mount, at God’s direction, in such anger that he “cast the two tablets (of stone, containing the 10 commandments) out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mount” (Exo. 32:19). He confronted Aaron face-to-face—and made it clear whom he considered most guilty: “What did this people unto thee, that thou has brought a great sin upon them?” (Exo. 32:21). “What did they ever do to you, to deserve being turned back to idols?” The people were at fault, and Moses would get around to that; but the first responsibility lay with the one leading them! And Aaron began to cast around in his mind for excuses.
First, he said “Thou knowest the people, that they are set on evil.” “It’s their fault!” (Exo. 32:22)—as though they were the ones in charge, not him. This sorry attempt would be emulated generations later by King Saul, in the aftermath of his battle against the Amalekites. 1 Samuel 15 records God’s instructions to Saul to destroy everything, but he “spared Agag [the Amalekite king], and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good” (1 Sam. 15: 9). When Samuel challenged him upon his return, he immediately took Aaron’s path: “The people spared them”, v. 15; “the people took of the spoil”, v. 21. But in his later confession, he revealed just why he—and Aaron before him—resorted to this: “Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of Jehovah, and thy words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice” (1 Sam. 15:24). These are not the words of a leader.
As if that weren’t bad enough, Aaron then made the preposterous statement, v. 24 “I cast the gold into the fire, and there came out this calf!” (cf. the Bible’s description in Exo. 32:4). “It’s the fire’s fault!”—as though there were some malevolent spirit in the fire itself. But there was no excuse, of course—not for Aaron, nor for the people who urged him on. Exodus 32:35 says, perhaps grammatically incorrect but factually true, “And Jehovah smote the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.” There was plenty of blame to go around!
The people repented, and God forgave them, but He never forgot—and made sure they didn’t either: He reminded them over and over, through Moses, at the border of the Promised Land (Deut. 9:12-21), through David, recounting God’s longsuffering toward them (Psa. 106:19), through Nehemiah, at their return from Babylonian captivity (Neh. 9:16-17), through Stephen (Acts 7:41), through Paul, using it as a negative example to Christians (1 Cor. 10:7).
So. What do we learn from Aaron?
1) Right and wrong are not decided by a majority vote! Our measure of right and wrong is God’s word; the only proof we need or can accept is “book/chapter/verse” from the Bible. Crowds don’t make a thing right. God said, Exodus 23:2 “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil”, even while Aaron was doing that very thing! We need this lesson, as shown by how many times it’s repeated in Scripture. Matthew 7:12-14 comes to mind, as well as Elijah’s experience at the low point in his life (1 Kings 19:10), and Paul’s use of it to encourage Christians in the minority (Rom. 11:2-4).
2) Leadership is not a popularity contest. “Giving people what they want” to win their favor can be a major mistake. There may well be times when the people don’t like where you’re leading them; they don’t want to go there. If you’re standing on 1 Corinthians 11:1 (“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”), lead them anyway. They may disagree, contradict, murmur, say hurtful things, hurl insults, even threaten rebellion. Lead them anyway. That’s the price of leadership; that’s what a leader does. And that’s why Aaron wasn’t God’s first choice for a leader. Placed temporarily in that position by Moses’ absence, he proved himself more concerned with their good will than with God’s truth. Instead of Aaron leading the people, he let the people lead him.
Leaders—Learn from Aaron!
