Great Rebellion
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Aaron at the right time. True, noble decision for the right in the hour
of Israel’s peril would have balanced their minds in the right direction.
Does God condemn Moses? No, no; the great goodness of God
pardons the rashness and zeal of Moses, because it was all on account
of his fidelity and his disappointment and grief at the sight of his
eyes in the evidence of Israel’s apostasy. The man who might have
saved the Hebrews in the hour of their peril is calm. He does not
show indignation because of the sins of the people, neither does he
reproach himself and manifest remorse under the sense of his wrongs;
but he seeks to justify his course in a grievous sin. He makes the
people accountable for his weakness in yielding to their request. He
was unwilling to bear the murmuring of Israel and to stand under
the pressure of their clamors and unreasonable wishes, as Moses had
done. He entered into the spirit and feelings of the people without
remonstrance, and then sought to make them responsible.
The congregation of Israel thought Aaron a much more pleasant
leader than Moses. He was not so unyielding. They thought that Moses
showed a very bad spirit, and their sympathies were with Aaron, whom
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Moses so severely censured. But God pardoned the indiscretion of
honest zeal in Moses, while He held Aaron accountable for his sinful
weakness and lack of integrity under a pressure of circumstances. In
order to save himself, Aaron sacrificed thousands of the Israelites. The
Hebrews felt the punishment of God for this act of apostasy, but in a
short time they were again full of discontent and rebellion.
The People Murmur
When the armies of Israel prospered, they took all the glory to
themselves; but when they were tested and proved by hunger or warfare
they charged all their hardships to Moses. The power of God which was
manifested in a remarkable manner in their deliverance from Egypt,
and seen from time to time all through their journeyings, should have
inspired them with faith and forever closed their mouths from one
expression of ingratitude. But the least apprehension of want, the least
fear of danger from any cause, overbalanced the benefits in their favor
and caused them to overlook the blessings received in their times of
greatest danger. The experience they passed through in the matter of
worshiping the golden calf should have made so deep an impression