Worshiping the Golden Calf

Moses received directions for the tabernacle over a span of forty days and nights, for Exodus 24:18 tells us that he was on Mount Sinai, also known as Mount Horeb, for that amount of time before coming back down to the Israelites in chapter 32. In today’s passage, the narrative returns to the Israelites at the base of the mountain just before Moses returned to them. This text tells us of the greatest failure of Israel recorded in the book of Exodus.

The Israelites, Exodus 32:1 tells us, “gathered themselves together to Aaron.” In Hebrew, the sense is that they came together against the brother of Moses, so there was some hostility when they appeared before him. This comes out in what they demanded of him—namely, to make for them gods to go before them, since Moses was not there and they did not know where he was (v. 1). To some degree, their distress at Moses’ absence is understandable, for the prophet had been instrumental in their liberation from Egyptian slavery. But their willingness to quickly abandon the law of God because Moses was away from them reveals a lack of faith. For many of them, at least, the conviction to follow the one true God did not come from their own hearts but was a commitment that did not transcend the absence of Moses.

What, exactly, were the people demanding? The request for multiple deities in verse 1 suggests that they were breaking the first commandment and asking for other gods besides Yahweh, their covenant Lord (Ex. 20:3). But Aaron presents the golden calf that he fashioned from their earrings as “the Lord,” as an image of Yahweh Himself (Ex. 32:4–5). This would mean that they were breaking the second commandment (Ex. 20:4–6). Perhaps they were asking for another god to lead them from Sinai to Canaan and Aaron was offering a compromise, as it were, giving in to their request for an image of the divine but associating it with Yahweh, since that was who they were to worship. Whatever the case may be, there was clearly a severe breaking of God’s law for worship, as the rest of the chapter will make clear.

Why an image of a golden calf? In the ancient Near East, the bull was often associated with pagan gods. In Egypt, it was often used to depict Apis, the creator god worshiped in the city of Memphis. Clearly, it was easier to take the Israelites out of Egypt than it was to take Egypt out of their hearts. They had not fully escaped the influence of Egypt’s religious worldview. Let us take care not to let the false world­views in our own culture shape us similarly.