What sort of pagan revelry did the Israelites indulge in (Exodus 32:6)?

This chapter records the breaking of the covenant by Israel 's sin, rebellion against Jehovah, and idolatry. Here we find man's heart fully uncovered, that wicked heart of unbelief. What manifestations of God's power they had seen! Their eyes beheld the dreadful judgments which fell upon the land of Egypt and wiped out the Egyptian hosts. They were guided by the visible sign of Jehovah's presence. He had given them manna, yea, they were eating that bread the very day on which they rebelled. The smitten rock had yielded water. God had entered into covenant with them. And now when Moses delayed, they requested of Aaron, "Up, make us gods." God was not mentioned at all by the rebellious mass. It seemed Moses and not God was the object of their faith. The heathen had gone that way and "changed the glory of the Uncoorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts and creeping things" (Rom. 1:23). The favored nation shows that their heart is as corrupt as the heart of the Gentiles, who know not God. They plunged into the degradation of idolatry. The unseen One, the One who had honored Abraham's faith, who spake to the fathers, was rejected by them, and they preferred a golden calf fashioned with a graving tool. And Aaron plays the leading part in this awful scene of degradation and wickedness. He announces a feast unto the Lord, after he had made the golden calf from the golden ear-rings (copied, no doubt, after the Egyptian idol Apis; see Ps. 106:19-20). Then the people "rose up to play"; wild dances, licentious and filled with the abominations of the heathen, the flesh let loose, is what followed. The people were naked (verse 25).

Calling the festival by Jehovah's name did not touch its real nature. The foot will show itself, despite the garments of light which clothe the demon. It was kept in true pagan style; the camp rang with loud antiphonal songs, and was wild with voluptuous dancing. Israel thus practically grafted idolatry upon the worship of Jehovah, and in so doing brought down upon their camp the wrath of God.

Men still have their excuses for breaking God's laws, and for rejoicing in profanities, which are called "holy" feasts, but god's words respecting the mixture of paganism with His worship, and His utterance against Israel's iniquity, are not to be forgotten; "They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto." (Ex. 32:8.) God did not in any way say, "They have worshipped Me when they bowed to the image; they have sacrificed to Me when they built their altar, and offered their burnt offerings and peace offerings there." No Israel had witnesses against them; the mount burning with fire, towering over them towards heaven, witnessed against them. God who is a consuming fire, recognized them no longer as His people. (See ver. 7.)

The sin in its intensity stretched itself out beneath their feet! There stood the altar before the idol, and thousands of Israelites, "broken loose, for Aaron had let them loose," (Ex. 32:25, R.V.) their outer garments cast off, dancing before it a revolting Egyptian dance.

Moses was forty days in the mount where God was showing him the pattern of the things for the tabernacle. (Heb. 8:5.) This length of time was not needed for God. In a moment of time he could have made Moses see all and understand all. Why then forty days? In the wisdom of God it was the necessary time to test the people whether in obedience they would in patience wait for the ordinances they had vowed to observe. So far were they from recognising the solemn responsibilities which they had undertaken, they did not even wait to hear them. They had sung the praises of Jehovah who had triumphed gloriously over their enemies; now they forget him, it was the man Moses who had brought them out of Egypt, and as they wot not what had become of him, they ignored him also. Impatient at his delay, they come to Aaron, that he might make gods for them. They compel him to make a calf. This was the god that brought them out of Egypt. What a perverse people! The God whom they had vowed to obey, His mercies, His power, all forgotten! Still stranger is the action of Aaron. He and Hur were left to adjudicate upon any question that might arise while Moses and his minister, Joshua, went up into the mount (Ex. 24:14); though only Moses, not Joshua, "went into the midst of the cloud." Aaron makes a calf, builds an altar before it, and proclaims a feast for the morrow to Jehovah! God had said, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" [in my presence]. But this was the thing they did; a calf, and a feast to Jehovah! They brought the calf, their god, into the presence of Jehovah; then they offered burnt-offering and peace-offering, sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play; that is, to dance, as they had seen done in Egypt.

The people made a feast to Jehovah, even attaching His name to the worship of the idol. They rose up early, slew the burnt offerings, and fed upon the peace offerings. They sat down to eat and drink, and rose up for orgies of play. Yet God had said of them to Moses, “This nation shall be My nation; they shall have no other gods before Me.” Now they were dancing around the golden calf, and giving themselves up to licentious indulgence. They had already broken both tables of the law. They not only had dishonoured God and worshipped the golden image of a calf, but in their sinful lusts they had dishonoured one another. Gross apostasy had already set in. The nation had openly abandoned their trust.

The real character of what ensued is indicated in verse 6. "The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." This is quoted in 1 Corinthians 10:7 as a proof that they were idolaters, and a later verse in our chapter (verse 5) indicates how such idolatry at once degenerates into licentiousness and obscenity.

While the anger of God was hot against Israel, they rejoiced in their calf of gold, danced and sang, and kept "holy festival" before their "holy" altar.

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. But they continue the mockery by offering both burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar, then sitting down to eat and to drink and rising up to play. They were simply giving themselves over to the lust of self-indulgence while whitewashing this whole thing with a religious appearance! What hollow vanity! and how insulting to the God who had delivered them from Egypt! They betray themselves as to what conception of God they have. They think of Him as one who, as a lowly calf, takes the place of merely serving their selfish desires. God is given no place of authority, but one of subjection to men!

The effect is seen in the manner of their new worship, consecrated though they would have it with Jehovah's name. "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to sport" — after the heathen manner. They were "broken loose," as was said of them directly afterward. "Inasmuch as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things that are not seemly." (Rom. 1.) Broken loose from God, as men they degrade themselves. In Aaron's fall with them, both the ruin of man and the unrepenting grace of God are manifest. God is marking him out for the high-priesthood in Israel, while he is making the golden calf below!

The being brought to the land was their special testing, and more momentous than their former trial at Sinai. There it was the corruption of the flesh. They feasted in honour of their idol and then rose up to play. They imitate the idolatrous revelry of the Egyptians even in this less guilty and more honest than Aaron. The people boldly said, "These be thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt," but Aaron sought to join Jehovah's name to their idol. When he saw it, he built an altar before it and proclaimed, "Tomorrow is a feast unto Jehovah."