32 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of 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 that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

• Moses was apparently not acting as quickly as these people had judged, or perhaps time had nothing to do with it, other than an excuse to sin. Which would have been familiar to them, it was their cultural surroundings for 400 years, no doubt they’d been infected by heathen beliefs and pagan practices.

• And so the people sought control of their fleshly desires by giving away their control to sinful passions, proceeding to intimidate Aaron into compliance (“You’re going to do what we tell you to do because Moses isn’t around anymore to say otherwise”).

• They put all of us bad kids in the same class and we used to love it when the teacher was out sick and a replacement was in the class for the hour, it was too easy.

2 And Aaron said unto them, “now hold on a minute, you mean to tell me that we aught to forget the fact that God through Moses led us out away from Egyptian bondage (i.e. 400 years of hard labour, starvation, phycological and physical oppression and abuse, and murder), after having defeated (i.e. utterly destroyed) Egyptian gods and Egyptian threat, leading us thus far safely through wilderness passage,… that now we aught to somehow return to Egyptian gods so that these “gods” may lead us, and not only that but take credit for our deliverance? No, I’d rather die here and now. Matter fact you fools need to repent before you are all destroyed along with these Egyptian gods, you’ve obviously been contaminated by the “stupids.” Again, repent!

But Aaron wasn’t that kind of man was he? No, instead he says…

"Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me."

• Aaron facilitated their sin and therein participated to the corruption. He gave the drunk a bottle of whiskey and the murderer his next victim. Why? Was he a coward, fearful in his heart, refusing to stand firm against the people?

• “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:” These people had just been delivered away from death and given a path to life.

3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

• “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. For sin is lawlessness and the wages of sin is death, you’re working, and the pay check is a death sentence.”

4 And Aaron received them at their hand (the hand of fellowship), and fashioned the gold with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

• The equivalent offence seen in the Pharisees calling Jesus the Devil, and we Christians thanking the Devil for our salvation.

5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord.

• Apparently facilitating the sin by participating in it was not enough, so he adds strange fire before it. Question, do you think Aaron had the approval of God to build an altar before the golden calf? No.

6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”

• Seems like the people became scoffers, walking after their own lusts saying, “where is the promise of his coming? Moses is not coming back, he would have returned already by now.”

• The people were “ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Be patient, learn self-control, Just as Moses was going to return, so will Christ.

• “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”

Nehemiah 9:16-18

16 “But they (i.e. the Hebrew people during the age of Moses), our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.

• We were at one time corrupt and filled with blasphemies, but the blood of our Lord the Christ saved us. May we never give credit to anyone other than He, and may we eagerly anticipate His return no matter how long it takes for us here on earth. And the first step towards that goal is to believe in Jesus, enough so that we repent of our sins and allow ourselves to be immersed into Christ, remaining faithful till the end.

INVITATION

SM