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Patriarchs and Prophets
exhibition of the degradation of Israel. His anger was hot. 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, thus signifying that as they
had broken their covenant with God, so God had broken His covenant
with them.
Entering the camp, Moses passed through the crowds of revelers,
and seizing upon the idol, cast it into the fire. He afterward ground it
to powder, and having strewed it upon the stream that descended from
the mount, he made the people drink of it. Thus was shown the utter
worthlessness of the god which they had been worshiping.
The great leader summoned his guilty brother and sternly de-
manded, “What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so
great a sin upon them?” Aaron endeavored to shield himself by relat-
ing the clamors of the people; that if he had not complied with their
wishes, he would have been put to death. “Let not the anger of my
lord wax hot,” he said; “thou knowest the people, that they are set on
mischief. For 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 had
been cast into the fire, and by supernatural power changed to a calf.
But his excuses and prevarications were of no avail. He was justly
dealt with as the chief offender.
The fact that Aaron had been blessed and honored so far above
the people was what made his sin so heinous. It was Aaron “the saint
of the Lord” (
Psalm 106:16
), that had made the idol and announced
the feast. It was he who had been appointed as spokesman for Moses,
and concerning whom God Himself had testified, “I know that he
can speak well” (
Exodus 4:14
), that had failed to check the idolaters
in their heaven-daring purpose. He by whom God had wrought in
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bringing judgments both upon the Egyptians and upon their gods, had
heard unmoved the proclamation before the molten image, “These be
thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” It
was he who had been with Moses on the mount, and had there beheld
the glory of the Lord, who had seen that in the manifestation of that
glory there was nothing of which an image could be made—it was he