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"They glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful . . . . . and changed the glory of
the incorruptible God into an image . . . . ." (Rom. 1: 21-23).
Exod. 32: 1 shews the same connection:--
"Up, make us gods, which shall go before us, for as this Moses, the man that brought
us up our of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him."
"As for this Moses"--It does not sound very respectful; the people fail in their
attitude both to God and man.
The idol that was made by Aaron from the golden earrings of the women was in the
form of a calf. Memphis, which was near to Goshen, and On, which was in the midst of
Goshen, were both famous for the worship of the Sacred Bull. At the death of the Bull,
whose name was Apis, it was called Osiris, Apis or Serapis, and a new calf, born of a cow
that could have no more young, became the new god. There is a mixture here of the false
and the true:--
"These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. 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" (Exod. 32: 4, 5).
Here is confusion--"gods" and "the Lord", and Aaron in his answer to Moses
manifests that he is a temporizer:--
"And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought
so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot;
thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us
gods . . . . . and there came out this calf" (Exod. 32: 21-24).
We are warned in Scripture to judge not lest we be judged. With all humility and full
consciousness of our own weakness and liability to err, we feel that nothing can be put
forward to justify Aarons' action. Three thousand men lost their lives, the whole of the
people were shamed, the precious tables of stone written by the finger of God shattered,
and the initial term of the covenant broken, all largely because one man did not stand
firm for God and His revealed will. What a blessed contrast it is to turn to Gal. 2: and
see there the magnificent stand of the apostle for the truth of the gospel, and his
subjection to the popular voice "no, not for an hour".
The statement that the people "rose up to play", that they were "dancing" round the
golden calf, and that Aaron had made them "naked unto their shame among their
enemies", reveals the lascivious character of their worship. Many have found a difficulty
in understanding verse 20: "And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in
the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of
Israel drink of it." The modern chemist would probably use tartaric acid in
accomplishing this, but the ancient Egyptians used natron. The resulting powder has a
nauseous taste, and the action would be symbolical of the bitter result of their folly.