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OPENING PRAYER:

Father of peace, God of truth and love, I praise you because you are faithful to all of your promises.

READ: Exodus 32:1-24

The Golden Calf

32 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods[a] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,[b] Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. 16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”

18 Moses replied:

“It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.”

19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20 And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”

22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. 23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ 24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

Footnotes:

[a] Exodus 32:1 Or a god; also in verses 23 and 31

[b] Exodus 32:4 Or This is your god; also in verse 8

Exodus 32:1-24

REFLECT:

‘Whom have I in heaven but you?’ (Psalm 73:25). Thank God that you belong to him.

‘What were they thinking?’ might be our first thought about the golden calf. Was six weeks really so long (24:18)? Had they learned nothing of God’s holy exclusivity (20:3,4)? And what’s so attractive about a shiny baby cow (v 4)? But let’s dig a little deeper.

The people wanted physical gods ‘who will go before us’ (v 1). They were longing for reassurance and to be led during a time when God was silent. Haven’t we, too, turned to something or someone in place of God in times of crisis? And what of leadership? Faced with perhaps a couple of million people (see Numbers 1:46), Aaron caved (vs 2–4). He knew it was wrong and tried to dilute some of the harm by dedicating a festival to the Lord (v 5). He was clearly afraid of the people (vs 21–23), and his weak explanation to Moses would be comical if it wasn’t so tragic (v 24). Who of us can say we haven’t feared other people’s opinions when challenged to stand for what God says is right and true?

Moses knew that the one to truly fear was God, not man (vs 9,10). If a husband’s jealousy is to be feared (see Proverbs 6:34), it’s nothing compared to God’s. Moses pleaded for his people and God heard his prayer (vs 11–14).

APPLY:

Whatever idol you may be trusting in more than God, repent, lay it down before him and put your trust in God.

CLOSING PRAYER:

Gracious Lord, I know your strength is made perfect in my weakness. Release your empowering strength in my life so that I will stand strong and faithful for you.

WORSHIP:

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