Moses and Aaron
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proposition deserved; had he cited them to the terrors of Sinai, where
God had spoken His law in such glory and majesty; had he reminded
them of their solemn covenant with God to obey all that He should
command them; had he told them that he would not, at the sacrifice
of his life, yield to their entreaties, he would have had influence with
the people to prevent a terrible apostasy. But when, in the absence
of Moses, his influence was required to be used in the right direction,
when he should have stood as firm and unyielding as did Moses, to
prevent the people from pursuing a course of sin, his influence was
exerted on the wrong side. He was powerless to make his influence
felt in vindication of God’s honor in keeping His holy law. But on
the wrong side he swayed a powerful influence. He directed, and the
people obeyed.
When Aaron took the first step in the wrong direction, the spirit
which had actuated the people imbued him, and he took the lead and
directed as a general, and the people were singularly obedient. Here
Aaron gave decided sanction to the most aggravated sins, because it
was less difficult than to stand in vindication of the right. When he
swerved from his integrity in giving sanction to the people in their sins
he seemed inspired with a decision, earnestness, and zeal new to him.
His timidity seemed suddenly to disappear. With a zeal that he had
never manifested in standing in defense of the honor of God against
wrong he seized the instruments to work out the gold into the image of
a calf. He ordered an altar to be built, and, with assurance worthy of
a better cause, he proclaimed to the people that on the morrow there
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would be a feast to the Lord. The trumpeters took the word from
the mouth of Aaron and sounded the proclamation from company to
company of the armies of Israel.
Aaron’s calm assurance in a wrong course gave him greater influ-
ence with the people than Moses could have had in leading them in
a right course and in subduing their rebellion. What terrible spiritual
blindness had come upon Aaron that he should put light for darkness
and darkness for light! What presumption in him to proclaim a feast
to the Lord over their idolatrous worship of a golden image! Here is
seen the power that Satan has over minds that are not fully controlled
by the Spirit of God. Satan had set up his banner in the midst of Israel,
and it was exalted as the banner of God.