Moses Blames Aaron For Making The Golden Calf
May 6, 2022
Commentary
Moses tries to get God to change his mind (v. 11). While, still on the mountain, Moses heard that his people had sinned, but he did not seek to justify their actions. However, he pleaded with God for mercy and to not destroy the people (vv. 12-13). He reminded God of his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that someday they would have as many descendants as the stars in the sky. Because of Moses prayer, God changed His previously announced plans of destroying all the people (v. 14). Moses goes back down the mountain carrying the two flat stones containing the written laws on both sides (vv. 15-16).
Soon Joshua hears the noisy shouts of the people and thinks there must be a battle going on (v. 17). Moses tells him it doesn’t sound like shouting because they have won a battle but instead they are singing wildly (v, 18). Upon returning to the camp and viewing the obvious idolatry and drunkenness Moses did three things:
1. He smashed the tablets of the law (v. 19) – He was angry, so he threw the stones down and smashed them. This symbolized the people’s breaking of the covenant.
2. He burned the idol, reduced it to powder and spread it on their water supply (mountain stream) (v. 20) – By making the people drink the water it showed the people they had to bear the consequences of their sin.
3. He asked Aaron to give an account of what had happened (vv. 21-24) – It is interesting to note that Aaron blamed the people and then lied claiming the idol “just happened.”
Application
My prayers need to be more for mercy than for judgment. Moses prayed to spare the people and God’s answer shows how He responds to the individuals’ needs, attitudes and actions.
Exodus 32:11– 24 (NET)
11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘For evil he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger, and relent of this evil against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about I will give to your descendants, and they will inherit it forever.’” 14 Then the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people.
15 Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. The tablets were written on both sides—they were written on the front and on the back. 16 Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “It is the sound of war in the camp!” 18 Moses said, “It is not the sound of those who shout for victory, nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome, but the sound of singing I hear.”
19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. 20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought on them so great a sin?” 22 Aaron said, “Do not let your anger burn hot, my lord; you know these people, that they tend to evil. 23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this fellow Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.”
Illustration: After Lee’s Surrender the Question Was What to Do With The Rebels
After Lee’s surrender, Lincoln spoke to a large crowd from the balcony of the White House. At the end of his speech, Senator Harlan asked, “What shall we do with the rebels?” The vindictive crowd shouted back, “Hang them!” Tad, then 11 yrs old, turned to his father and said, “No, no, Papa. Not hang them. Hang on to them!” “That’s it!” replied Lincoln. (Encyclopedia of Illustrations #7592).