Golden Calves

The golden calf which the Israelites made is well known. Perhaps less well known is the reason the Israelites did what they did (because they thought Moses was not coming back), what they intended to do (make an image which would represent God to them the way Moses had), and the lessons for us today. This blog post focuses on the latter – the real lesson for us today. We will first examine the context for Israel’s action, then conclude with a focus on what we can learn from this incident.

Both Exodus 32 and 1 Kings 12 both contain some of the most blatant violations of God’s Law that Israel ever engaged in. The first of the Ten Commandments reads: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2–3 ESV)

The second commandment reads: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God.” (Exodus 20:4–5 ESV)

Israel officially agreed to the Covenant with God in Exodus 24, and Moses went up on to the mountain. Less than a month and a half after making a promise to God, they break it. Exodus 32 is very clear that Aaron made a golden calf, and that Aaron then told the people that they were making an image of the gods (plural) that had brought them out of Egypt.

A few things are notable about this incident. First, many commentators and scholars have speculated that since there is only one calf, Aaron may have been using the plural form of “gods” in a divine or royal sense, which was not unknown even in his day. It is certainly possible that this is the case, because of his declaration that the following day would be a feast day to Yahweh, the Lord.

This is where things get interesting. Most of the time, when people think of idolatry, they think either of the literal crafted images, or they think of the things that preachers often mention sports, hobbies, or basically anything that can keep us from attending Sunday morning services. The truth, though, is worse than that. It is about creating one’s own god because we subconsciously doubt that our God is coming back.

We usually do not literally craft images and bow down to them today. But like the Israelites, we often mischaracterize God. For example, you may have seen or heard a statement like: “Well, MY God would never condemn someone to Hell for <insert one’s choice of sins here>.” As God commanded Israel, so He commands us today to focus our attention on Him and not try to make other things more important.

This extends far beyond the typical illustrations which are often provided in our sermons today. If we call ourselves by the name Christian, and claim to worship God, our image MUST conform to His image.  We must cast down and grind into dust every golden calf we can find in our lives, and answer the call in the affirmative when the question is asked, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”