"1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, 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.
2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord.
6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play."Exodus 32:1-6
The story of the golden calf is one that many of us Christians have heard over and over again. In short, when the Israelites were in the wilderness on their journey to the promise land they made a stop along the way where God revealed to them His precious laws. The people had all agreed to follow God and worship Him only. After this, Moses was called by God upon the mountain to spend 40 days and night with Him that God may reveal to Him more: His ten commandments. Meanwhile, the Israelites were waiting for Moses to come back and stayed with their other leader, Moses' brother Aaron.
In the verses above we read that the Israelites were getting tired of waiting and asked to be made gods to worship that they can follow and Aaron yielded to their demands by making a golden calf to worship and idolize.
I believe there are two lessons for us to be learned here. One relating to the Israelites and one relating to Aaron. I discussed the Israelite lesson in another blog post and will discus the Aaron part in this one.
When I read this passage today the first thought that came into my mind was: how can Aaron be so quick to let them do this! How can he build them an altar and the golden calf when he is supposed to be the one protecting God's law and leading the people in the right way while Moses is gone? And then God convicted my heart: you, Nahisha, have you never done the same? Under pressure of stating plainly others wrongdoing have you shrunk from your right doing?
A prolific Christian author, Ellen White, explains this very well:
"We repeat the sin of Aaron, pacifying, when the eyesight should be clear to discern evil and state it plainly, even if it places us in an unpleasant position, because our motives may be misapprehended. We must not suffer wrong upon a brother or any soul with whom we are connected. This neglect to stand up firmly for truth was the sin of Aaron, Had he spoken of the truth plainly, that golden calf would never have been made" The SDA Bible Commentary vol 1, p.1109
I was definitely rebuked there. Many times we let things go that others speak about or do because of fear of their reaction. But our duty is to warn them if they are heading in the wrong direction! We often laugh or make light of things when in fact, often they are serious and can lead to serious consequences. Just as Aaron we failed in guiding others in the right direction and because of that many were lead astray.
By God's grace let's learn from brothers and sisters of the past and do good. Although it may be the difficult way it's the best way. Just as parents seem mean towards their children when not allowing them to do bad or do what they want or by warning them of their actions we will also seem mean or judgemental but we must remember it is ultimately for good and God is aware of that. So let's find courage in that God will be with us at every step if we ask.
A prayer to pray: Dear God, thank you for opening my eyes to my own failures and thank you even more for providing a way out. You are a mighty God and can help me if I ask. So God, I'd like to ask You to help me to have more courage and teach others what is right from what is wrong. Thank you for the light you shared with me and help me to share it with others. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
May God bless you mightily!
Much love and smiles,
Nahisha :)
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