“When the people saw how long it was taking Moses
to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they
said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this
fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.” 2 So Aaron said,
“Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and
bring them to me.” 3 All the people took the gold rings from their ears and
brought them to Aaron. 4 Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded
it into the shape of a calf. When the people
saw it, they exclaimed, “O
Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” 5 Aaron saw how excited the people were,
so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be
a festival to the Lord!” 6 The people
got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings.
After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in
pagan revelry. 7 The Lord told Moses,
“Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of
Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 How quickly they have turned away from the
way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and
they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your
gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 9 Then the Lord
said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. 10 Now leave
me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them.
Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.” 11 But Moses tried to pacify
the Lord his God. “O Lord!” he said. “Why are you so angry with your own people
whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong
hand? 12 Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil
intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face
of the earth’? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible
disaster you have threatened against your people! 13 Remember your servants
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.[a] You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying,
‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will
give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they
will possess it forever.’” 14 So the
Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on
his people.”
The people of God, got their eyes
off of HIM, and placed them on what they “saw” in front of their eyes. They
spoke of Moses as they never had known him, or seen what God did thru him, (“this
fellow Moses”). Aaron was peer pressured,
and because he himself perhaps didn’t have a strong bond with God like Moses
did, he fixed his eyes too into what his eyes were seeing (the people’s
exciting reaction) and then yielded into that pressure. Watch out!!! Lord, help
us!!!
Then even Moses though he hadn’t seen
anything yet, as God rush him to go down back to His people because of what God
had seen they were doing, Moses starts to reason with God. It’s impressive to
realize how Moses tried to appease God
about not destroying His own people when He saw they were worshiping a golden
calf. God said: “now leave Me alone so My fierce anger can blaze against them and I will destroy them” (Exodus 32:10)
Moses knew that GOD could do
anything; he knew GOD had NO limitations, and He REALLY could make a way to
make the people pay for their wrongdoings. Therefore he tried his best to stop
God’s anger from taking over. He reminded God about His great love from his
forefathers, Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, and not only that, but reminded Him
that the Egyptians would make fun of Him. Moses asked God, “why let the Egyptians
say their God rescued them with the evil intentions of slaughtering them in the
mountain and wiping them from the face of the earth? Turn away from your fierce
anger. Don’t you mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against
your people?” Moses knew the Egyptians would use it to discourage God’s people
by saying that after all He just wanted to destroy them anyway, not saving them
which was what He really did.
But then it’s funny to see that Moses,
who tried to appease God first, was the one who tried to be appeased now, by
Aaron. Because when Moses finally came down, and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger. He threw the stone tablets
to the ground, smashing them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf they
had made and burned it, ground it into power, threw in into the water and then forced
the people to drink it. Then Aaron tried to appease Moses. Then Moses
saw that Aaron and let the people get completely out of control…..so he stood
at the entrance to the camp and shouted…. (Exodus 32:25-28. Seems that after
all, Moses realized it was time to stand up instead of sending Aaron, and
speak, and so he did.
And then Moses tried to appease God, again. This time, Moses returned to the
Lord, asked the Lord that if He do not want to forgive the people to erase his
name from the records, but God assured Moses that He will
erase the name of everyone who has sinned against Him, only those who had
sinned; Moses was not going to pay for the sins of others. So, God sent
a great plague upon the people because they’ve worshiped the calf.
Choose today, to separate
yourself from whatever detours your attention from the Master. Exodus 34:12-17 explains how like a snowball
effect when we do not separate from things, people or places that defile the
Lord’s commands we let those same things, people or places to roll in and not
only us but the generations coming after us will be negatively impact because of
our sins.
I pray you commit your way to the
Lord, from today and on, and if you already committed your ways to HIM, I pray
He strengthen you to follow Him and a deeper way, for you to realize that HE
has chosen you, with a purpose. Our life span is limited, but we serve a
LIMITLESS God, BELIEVE and you will receive!
I’m praying in JESUS name and for
HIS glory, AMEN!!!
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