And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people collected together to Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us a god, who will go before us; for this Moses, the man that has brought us up out of the land of Egypt, -- we do not know what is become of him!
The people are camped at the foot of Sinai, and Moses has been out of sight on the mountain for forty days. In that gap they turn to Aaron and demand gods they can see — but why did the delay break them so fast, and what were they really asking for?
The delay had a purpose. One writer reads it as a test the people failed before it ended.
Moses was forty days in the mountain where God was showing him the pattern of the things for the tabernacle. This length of time was not needed for God. In a moment He could have made Moses see everything and understand everything. Why then forty days? In the wisdom of God it was the time needed to test the people. Would they obey, and wait patiently for the ordinances they had vowed to keep? They had no sense of the solemn responsibilities they had taken on. They did not even wait to hear them.
The test exposed what kind of walk they had.
Tested in this way, they showed very plainly that they walked by sight and not by faith. Moses had at least been a visible leader, though a rebellious and unbelieving spirit toward him had already shown itself. They did not have the faith that would have made the unseen Jehovah a reality to them.
At the very hour they wrote him off, Moses was working on their behalf.
Moses, hidden from the sight of the people, was still occupied with God for the people. At that very time Jehovah was giving him instructions. They were for building the beautiful tabernacle and for setting up the priesthood they needed. He was still serving them in a blessed way, although they could not see him.
Their request was not for a different God so much as for a God they could look at. Commentators trace the swap to a preference the human heart has never lost.
They grew weary of waiting for the absent one, and of hanging on an unseen but real arm. They imagined that a god formed by a graving tool was better than Jehovah; that a calf they could see was better than the invisible yet everywhere present God — a visible counterfeit rather than an invisible reality.
And they were willing to pay for it. The gold came off without an argument, which says something about how badly they wanted the relief.
At first they only wanted gods to go before them, to carry on what Moses had begun — to complete their rescue from Egypt by leading them into Canaan. This was their need — some present, visible prop they could throw themselves on, so as to be free from depending on what was invisible. Their desire was urgent, and they had to satisfy it at any cost. Without a murmur they bring their golden ornaments to Aaron. How deeply rooted this principle is in the human heart! What men pay for, they also claim the right to use for their own ends; and if it promises release from dependence on God, they will buy it at any price.
They credited their rescue to a man, and God gave that wording back to them.
In Egypt, God had always said, "My people, my people." But after they made the golden calf, He uses the word they had used — "your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt." For Israel had said, "This Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt." God takes them up in their own words. What happened? Moses interceded. He would not, so to speak, let God call them "your people," as if they belonged to Moses. He insisted they were God's people.
The same questions land on Christians whose Leader is out of sight.
Are the saints waiting patiently for Christ, dependent on Him and subject to Him who has gone on high? Do they not act as though they do not know what has become of Him? Instead of letting His word and Spirit lead them, have they not set up calves of gold, idols to go before them, rejoicing in the works of their own hands?
The principle stretches wider than a metal calf, and there is one safeguard.
Sometimes our hearts stop leaning on God Himself alone — in salvation, or in the needs of the road. Whenever that happens, we are, in principle, saying, "Up, make us gods." Our only safeguard is to be much in the presence of God. Moses knew that the molten calf was not Jehovah, and so he did not acknowledge it. But once we step outside the divine presence, gross errors and evils may trap us in ways we cannot count.
- Delay tests. God did not need the forty days. They tested whether the people would wait for what they had vowed to obey.
- Sight fails. Once their visible leader was gone, they had nothing to hold — they walked by sight, and the unseen God was never real to them.
- Absence serves. While they gave Moses up, he was on the mountain receiving the tabernacle and priesthood for their good.
- Craving buys. People pay any price for a visible prop that frees them from depending on God — the gold came off without a murmur.
- Words return. Israel gave a man the credit, so God handed their own phrase back — "your people, whom you brought up." Moses interceded and claimed them as God's.
And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden rings that are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring [them] to me.
Moses is still on the mountain, and the people have demanded a visible god. Aaron does not refuse them — he asks for the gold rings in the ears of their wives, sons and daughters.
Aaron's answer to the people's demand was not a rebuke but a shopping list. One writer weighs what Aaron felt against the mood around him.
Whatever Aaron felt inside, the mood of the camp was for a visible image of the deity, and so for a return to idolatry. Aaron fell under it. He was swept away with the current. By playing to the times he did what popular leaders do: he led in turn the people who had led him. Corrupted by the people, he corrupted them.
Another writer names what moved him:
Aaron was sadly willing — he feared the people.
Why a calf? One writer points back to what the people had grown used to in Egypt.
They wanted a visible something to represent the invisible before their eyes. They had been familiar with the worship of bulls and calves in the corrupt idolatry of Egypt. Aaron weakly gave in.
The gold came off their ears. Another writer says ears were made for something else:
There is a serious lesson here. Our idols, whatever they are, take their character from what decorates or pampers the flesh — the golden earrings. Ears are given for hearing. But Israel was not hearing the first commandment God had given them: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3).
Asking for gold may have been Aaron's way of stalling. It did not work.
"Bring your gold earrings to me," he said. He seemed to hope the sacrifice would not meet with approval. But "all the people" (Ex. 32:3) answered the call. Gifts are never lacking when idolatry is in view, and Aaron was left to follow his course to its bitter end.
They handed over the gold without complaining. One writer explains why people pay so readily for such a thing:
Their desire was urgent, and they would satisfy it at any cost. Without a murmur they bring their golden ornaments to Aaron. How deeply rooted this principle is in the human heart! What people pay for, they also feel entitled to use for their own ends. If it promises release from depending on God, they will buy it at any price.
Where did the gold come from? Israel carried Egypt's wealth out with them. One writer says God had already claimed it for the tabernacle, His tent of worship.
Why did God sanction the very thing that later contributed to the solemn sin of chapter 32? Chapter 25 throws a good deal of light on this question. God had set apart the wealth Israel carried away from Egypt for His own service in the tabernacle. It had a rightful use, and God's claim was on the wealth that came out with them. The abuse of it comes out plainly in chapter 32, where the golden calf came before the dancing.
The gold came off wives, sons and daughters, so whole households went into the idol. One writer sets that scene beside everything these same people had already seen God do.
What a picture! A whole assembly — the entire nation of Israel sunk in a moment into absurd and degrading idolatry! All with one accord bowed before a god made from the earrings that a little while before hung from the ears of their wives and daughters. And this in the face of all they had seen of the mighty acts of the Lord.
Aaron gave way to keep the people happy. One writer follows that habit into the church's later history.
Have not the greatest corruptions in the church come from good men trying to bless a popular feeling? They little realised what they were really approving. Image worship itself was simply "the calf that came out" of the honour paid to the memory of saints. Good men tried to turn that honour to good account — but in God's sight it is idolatry. Doing what is convenient in the things of God soon turns to discomfort and weakness. Aaron had listened to the people's cry instead of being angered by it, and by listening he made them "naked to their shame among their enemies."
- Gold demanded — Aaron feared the people and would not resist them. The crowd carried him, and the man they led ended up leading them further down.
- Gold surrendered — they paid without a murmur. What people buy, they feel entitled to use their own way, and they will pay any price to stop depending on God.
- Gold misplaced — ears made for hearing God's Word wore heathen gold. Our idols take their shape from whatever pampers the flesh.
- Gold misused — the wealth carried out of Egypt was God's, marked for His tabernacle. Chapter 32 shows that wealth turned against its owner.
- Gold's result — households stripped bare. A nation bowed to its own jewellery, and its leader left it exposed and ashamed.
Then all the people broke off the golden rings that were in their ears, and brought [them] to Aaron.
Aaron asks Israel for the gold hanging in their ears, and every person hands it over. Why were people just rescued from Egypt so quick to pay for an idol?
Aaron asked for something costly. One writer thinks that was the point: he hoped the cost would stop them.
"Bring your gold earrings to me," he said. He seemed to hope the cost would put them off, but "all the people" (Ex. 32:3) answered the call. There never seems to be a shortage of gifts when idolatry is in view, and Aaron was left to pursue his course to its bitter end.
Nobody needed persuading twice. Paying for a thing changes how a person treats it.
Their desire was urgent, and they would satisfy it at any cost. Without a murmur they bring their golden ornaments to Aaron. How deeply rooted this principle is in the human heart! What men pay for, they also have a claim on, to use for their own ends. If it promises relief from depending on God, they will buy it at any cost.
The gold came off their ears. That detail matters, because ears were made for something else.
The ears of the people should have been listening to the Word of God. Instead they wore gold rings like the ears of the heathen. That gold went to make the golden calf, which they greeted as though it were a god.
Another writer notes where that gold came from, then turns the earrings into a test for our own idols.
Aaron weakly gave in to their foolish shouting. He told them to break off the golden earrings that were common among them, taken from the Egyptians. There is a serious lesson here. Our idols, whatever they are, take their character from what decorates or pampers the flesh — the golden earrings. God gave ears for hearing. But Israel was not hearing the first commandment He had given them: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3).
That gold had a history. One writer asks why God ever let Israel carry Egypt's wealth away, given what it became.
But why did God allow something that later fed the solemn sin of chapter 32? Chapter 25 throws much light on this question. God set apart the wealth that Israel took out of Egypt for His service in the tabernacle. It had a lawful use. God's claim was on the wealth that came out of the land with them. The misuse of it comes out clearly in chapter 32, where the golden calf came before the dancing.
This craving was not unique to Israel. One writer traces it through every age.
The human heart loves what it can see; it loves what meets and pleases the senses. Only faith can "endure as seeing him who is invisible." So in every age men have been quick to set up and lean on human imitations of divine realities.
The giving was not the end of it. Three things came together here: the people's wish, their gold, and Aaron's hand.
The desire of the people, the surrender of their gold, the act of Aaron had together ended in corruption. What a frightening lesson! When God's people tamper with the things of God, they corrupt those things and themselves. They throw aside their proper glory and become taken up with what lowers them. Their glory was that the LORD was their God; but they wanted to make gods for themselves.
- Desire — the craving came first: a heart that loves what it can see, when only faith can hold to the One it cannot see.
- Payment — desire opened the purse. Nobody grumbled at the cost, because what a man pays for, he feels entitled to use for himself.
- Material — the gold came out of Egypt, already set apart by God for the tabernacle. An idol is built from a gift meant for Him.
- Location — it came off ears made for hearing God's word, and what decorates the flesh gave the idol its shape.
- Outcome — desire, payment, and Aaron's hand ended in corruption. Israel's glory was that the LORD was its God, and it traded that for something lower.
And he took [them] out of their hand, and fashioned it with a chisel and made of it a molten calf and they said, This is thy god, Israel, who has brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!
Israel had been out of Egypt only a few months. Moses was still on the mountain, so the people asked Aaron for something they could see. He gave them a calf of melted gold. The words spoken over it give that image the credit for the rescue from Egypt. Commentators keep asking one question: was this a rejection of God, or a way of picturing Him?
The gold came from ornaments brought out of Egypt. One writer draws a lesson from where the people wore them.
Aaron did not have the energy of faith his brother Moses had, to boldly stand against them. He weakly gave in to their foolish demands. He told them to break off the golden earrings, which were clearly common among them, taken from the Egyptians. There is a serious lesson here. Our idols, whatever they are, take their character from what decorates or pampers the flesh — the golden earrings. Ears are given for hearing, but Israel was not hearing the first commandment God had given them, "You shall have no other gods before me."
Not everyone reads the offence the same way. The verse reads "These are your gods." One reference work explains how the calf was made, and argues the words should be singular.
The calf was cast as a molten image first, and then fashioned with a graving tool. It was probably meant as a representation of God. That would place the sin under the second commandment, not the first. Aaron said, "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (as it should read); and "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD."
On either reading, the intention behind the image does not soften what happened to them.
Let us not suppose that either Aaron or Israel intended to abandon Jehovah. It is no unworthy stretch of imagination to picture their indignation at such a charge. In Israel's mind the calf stood for the God no one can see, and Aaron said in plain words that it stood for Jehovah. As people say of all images, it was "a help to devotion," "a symbol of the unseen" — and in this sense, the God who had brought them out of Egypt! But none the less had they really returned in spirit to paganism.
An image does something to the worshipper, not only to the truth.
The people are plainly taught that in making any image and bowing down to it, they in reality lowered and corrupted themselves. So when they made the golden calf, the Lord said to Moses: "Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves." It could not be otherwise. The worshipper must be lower than the object of his worship. So in worshipping a calf, they put themselves below the level of the beasts that perish.
Moses left Aaron in charge while he was away. Aaron later defended himself: he only gave the people what they wanted.
How subtle is sin! When Moses challenged him, Aaron excused himself: he was only humouring the people. Think what evil a good man may cause by acting unfaithfully in an emergency. Aaron was left in charge of the people, to meet any difficulty that might arise. But the leader goes along with what the people want, and leads them into idolatry without meaning to. In vain was Aaron's proclamation, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." The calf, and not Jehovah, had the homage of their hearts.
Neither Aaron nor the people set out to abandon God. So how does God weigh what they did?
At the very outset we are taught a solemn and searching truth — that God does not measure things by the intention of human agents, but by His own glory. Before God there is no such thing as innocence of intention, when a man takes it on himself to decide how God should be honoured, or how God's work should be carried forward. In such cases the means used are quite as important as the end intended.
The timing matters. The people had already broken with God before the law itself arrived.
But it was all over with the covenant of the law. The people had broken the first and basic link — that of having no other gods. The tables of the covenant never even came into the camp on the simple ground of law. The people had made a complete separation between themselves and God.
- Delay. With Moses out of sight, the people wanted something visible. The leader who should have held the line gave way "in an emergency."
- Gold. The idol came from what had decorated them — ears made for hearing paid for an image instead.
- Image. Nobody meant to abandon God; the calf was "a symbol of the unseen." Commentators differ on whether this broke the first commandment or the second.
- Exchange. Crediting the calf with the rescue from Egypt put the worshippers "below the level of the beasts that perish."
- Ruin. God measures by His own glory, not by our intentions. The covenant was finished before the tablets ever entered the camp.
And Aaron saw [it], and built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, To-morrow is a feast to Jehovah!
The scene is a religious one: an altar, a proclamation, a named day of worship — all of it set up in front of a metal calf. Does God's name, spoken over something He never asked for, make that thing acceptable?
Aaron does not destroy the calf when he sees it. He builds it an altar, sets a day for a feast, and puts the Lord's name on it.
Besides this, Aaron built an altar before the idol, then announced that the next day they would have a feast "to the Lord"! (v. 5). Can we dare to think we can sanctify an idol by attaching the Lord's name to it? This is gross wickedness.
The Lord's name is still in use here. Notice what the devil does with that.
When Israel made the golden calf, the devil did not take away the name of Jehovah. They still said, "Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah." So the name of God is not thrown out. Instead, something comes in that hides the truth. All Satan's aim is to blot out the Mediator. As long as Satan can block that, he will allow the name, and call it Christianity. But his aim is to keep our souls at a distance from God.
(Older translations print "Jehovah" where the ESV has "the LORD.")
God had told Israel to make no images. Aaron built this altar to honour that same God.
Aaron's proclamation shows the strange blindness that follows disobedience to the plain letter of God's Word. He said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to Jehovah." And to make their sin holy — the golden calf! (Deut. 9:21) — he built an altar to God's glory in front of it. This mixture is still popular: plain disobedience to God's Word, then a human effort to make it holy. Call the sin holy, and people will hold the abomination in religious awe. They dedicated the image to God, who had commanded them to make no image and to bow down to no image.
Watch how the celebration was actually kept.
Calling the festival by Jehovah's name did not touch its real nature. A demon may be dressed in clothes of light, but its true nature still shows. They kept the feast in true pagan style. The camp rang with loud songs sung back and forth, and was wild with sensual dancing. In this way Israel grafted idolatry onto the worship of Jehovah, and so brought the wrath of God down on their camp.
Aaron later told Moses he was only managing the crowd. His intention did not change the result.
How subtle is sin! When Moses challenged him, Aaron excused himself: he was only humouring the people. What a lot of evil a good man may cause by acting unfaithfully in an emergency! Moses had left Aaron in charge of the people, to meet any difficulty that might arise. But the leader gives in to what the people want, and leads them into idolatry without meaning to. He had no idolatrous aim in what he did, and neither did the people. Aaron's proclamation, "Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah," was useless. The calf, and not Jehovah, had the homage of their hearts (see Acts 7:41). On this rests the solemn warning to us: "Do not be idolaters as some of them were" (1 Cor. 10:7).
The craving behind the calf is common to people everywhere.
The human spirit always tends to materialize what is spiritual. It must have a visible form, an object that can be at least revered, if not worshiped. This was Aaron's problem. In their thoughts, Aaron and the people lowered the Lord to the level of the gods of Egypt, saying, "Here is your God."
Hands are not the only tool that shapes an idol.
The root of all idolatry is self-will; it is making a god of our own. It starts with self and makes a god — not always out of silver, and not always with our hands. There is a tool more cunning and skilful than the hands, and that is the intellect of man. Wherever self takes the place of God's will, you will find the human mind busy making a god to please itself. And it does this in the name of the Lord, in the name of the true God.
- Name kept. At Sinai the devil did not erase God's name. He left it in place and slipped an object in front of it. The name stays; the truth is hidden.
- Name misused. An altar and a proclamation cannot make an idol holy; calling the sin holy only wins it religious awe.
- Name exposed. The songs and wild dancing showed what the feast really was, and grafting idolatry onto worship brought God's anger on the camp.
- Name excused. Aaron meant no idolatry and still caused it. A good man was unfaithful in an emergency and led a nation astray.
- Name today. Self-will still makes gods. The tool now is the mind, not our hands. And it still works in the name of the true God: "Do not be idolaters as some of them were."
And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered up burnt-offerings, and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to sport.
Israel had just promised to obey God, and days later they were bowing to a golden calf. Verse 6 shows what that worship looked like — offerings at dawn, then eating, drinking and play, all carried out under God's own name.
Aaron had announced a feast to the Lord for the next day. The offerings of verse 6 came under that name. The name changed nothing about where the people's hearts went.
How subtle sin is! When Moses challenged him, Aaron excused himself by saying he was only humouring the people... Aaron was left in charge of the people, to handle any difficulty that might come up. But the leader falls in with what the people want, and leads them into idolatry without meaning to. He himself had no idolatrous aim in what he did, and idolatry was not the people's intention either... Aaron's proclamation, "Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah," was worthless. The calf, and not Jehovah, had the homage of their hearts.
The verse names two real offerings, and yet the day ends in eating, drinking and play. That ending shows what they imagined their God to be.
They keep up the mockery. They offer both burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar, then sit down to eat and drink and rise up to play. They were handing themselves over to the lust of self-indulgence. At the same time they whitewashed the whole thing with a religious appearance! What hollow vanity! And how insulting to the God who had delivered them from Egypt! They show what idea of God they hold. They think of Him as one who, as a lowly calf, only serves their selfish desires. They give God no place of authority, but a place of subjection to men!
The same thing lies behind all idol worship:
Their worship was a deification — as all heathen worship is — of their own lusts and passions... There is a craving in man's heart for what will satisfy. He cannot find satisfaction in God. He cannot trust God's love and care. So lust and care devour him. He worships himself, in a way that becomes more and more brutalizing and degrading.
The verse ends with a word that sounds harmless. Commentators trace an order in it: appetite first, then excitement, then the outcome.
"Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.'" First came a yielding to the desires of the flesh. Then came pleasurable excitement. That pointed to the result you see in the scripture quoted — the judgment.
Both parts of the law they had just accepted were violated in a single day — the part about God, and the part about each other.
They rose up early, killed the burnt offerings, and fed on the peace offerings. They sat down to eat and drink, and rose up for orgies of play... Now they were dancing around the golden calf, giving themselves up to unrestrained immorality. They had already broken both tables of the law. They had dishonoured God and worshipped the golden image of a calf. And in their sinful lusts they had dishonoured one another.
The setting makes the offence worse. They feasted at the foot of the mountain where God had spoken. Their calf copied the gods of the land He had just judged.
"Ungodly" indeed was that man. Within forty days of hearing the voice of God out of the mountain, he could turn from the God who had shown Himself by delivering them from Egypt's bitter slavery with a mighty arm. He gave the glory of his Redeemer to the likeness of an ox that eats grass! And of this the whole people together were guilty. Under the shadow of Mount Sinai they "sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." It was in honour of a carved image that Jehovah had plainly forbidden. And it was in clear memory of those gods of Egypt whom He had judged before their very eyes.
The apostle quotes this line as a warning to believers. That is why writers refuse to treat "play" as an innocent word.
Those who tremble at God's word must be shocked at this. So must the pure in heart, who see Him by faith. They see the sinful liberties people so often take under the excuse of "play." So it is play. But remember: "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." The apostle quotes this scripture as a warning to us.
- Name. Aaron put the Lord's name on the feast, but the calf had their hearts. A name does not change what people really worship.
- Appetite. Underneath the offerings lay the lust of self-indulgence, whitewashed with a religious appearance.
- Self. Idol worship ends as worship of one's own lusts and passions. Man cannot trust God, so he worships himself.
- Slide. The order runs: gratification of the flesh, then pleasurable excitement, then judgment. Both parts of the law fell in one day.
- Us. The apostle quotes this verse as a warning. "Play" is the excuse believers must watch.