Israel Worships a Golden Calf
193
As Moses interceded for Israel, the Lord listened to his pleadings
and granted his unselfish prayer. God had proved his love for that
ungrateful people, and nobly had Moses endured the trial. The pros-
perity of God’s people was dearer to him than becoming the father of a
mighty nation. God was pleased with his faithfulness and integrity, and
committed to him the great charge of leading Israel to the Promised
Land.
As Moses and Joshua came down from the mount and drew near
the encampment, they beheld the people shouting and dancing around
their idol—a scene of heathen riot, an imitation of the idolatrous feasts
of Egypt. How unlike the solemn and reverent worship of God! Moses
was overwhelmed. He had just come from the presence of God’s glory,
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and he was unprepared for that dreadful exhibition of the degradation
of Israel. To show his abhorrence of their crime, he threw down the
tables of stone, and they were broken in the sight of all the people,
signifying that as they had broken their covenant with God, so God
had broken His covenant with them.
Moses Punishes the Wrongdoers
Seizing the idol, Moses cast it into the fire. He afterward ground
it to powder and strewed it upon the stream that descended from the
mount. Thus was shown the utter worthlessness of the god which they
had been worshiping.
The great leader summoned his guilty brother. Aaron endeavored
to shield himself by relating the clamors of the people, that if he had
not complied with their wishes he would have been put to death. “They
said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this
Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot
not what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath
any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into
the fire, and there came out this calf.” He would lead Moses to believe
that a miracle had been wrought, that the gold by supernatural power
changed to a calf. But his excuses were of no avail. He was justly
dealt with as the chief offender.
It was Aaron, “the saint of the Lord” (
Psalm 106:16
), that had made
the idol and announced the feast. He had failed to check the idolaters
in their heaven-daring purpose. He heard unmoved the proclamation