Text for the Week: Responding to Uncertainty

Scripture: Exodus 32:1-14

The people saw that Moses was taking a long time to come down from the mountain. They gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come on! Make us gods who can lead us. As for this man Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t have a clue what has happened to him.”

² Aaron said to them, “All right, take out the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³ So all the people took out the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He collected them and tied them up in a cloth. Then he made a metal image of a bull calf, and the people declared, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf. Then Aaron announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!” ⁶ They got up early the next day and offered up entirely burned offerings and brought well-being sacrifices. The people sat down to eat and drink and then got up to celebrate.

⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses: “Hurry up and go down! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, are ruining everything! ⁸ They’ve already abandoned the path that I commanded. They have made a metal bull calf for themselves. They’ve bowed down to it and offered sacrifices to it and declared, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” ⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “I’ve been watching these people, and I’ve seen how stubborn they are. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone! Let my fury burn and devour them. Then I’ll make a great nation out of you.”

¹¹ But Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, “Lord, why does your fury burn against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and amazing force? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He had an evil plan to take the people out and kill them in the mountains and so wipe them off the earth’? Calm down your fierce anger. Change your mind about doing terrible things to your own people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, whom you yourself promised, ‘I’ll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky. And I’ve promised to give your descendants this whole land to possess for all time.’” ¹⁴ Then the Lord changed his mind about the terrible things he said he would do to his people.

Questions

1. Why does the story of the golden café interrupt the description of the building of the Tabernacle?
2. What is the golden calf meant to represent and why is it a problem when the people are still worshiping God?
3. Why would Aaron specifically ask for earrings?

Helpful Information

Related texts: Acts 5:1-11

“this man Moses” is meant to slight Moses implying the people felt harmed or abandoned by him.

The calf was meant to be a means of divine mediation to replace Moses who, though communicating with God, was not communicating God’s message to the people.

Earrings seem to be a sign either of service or have religious significance.

For more background you can watch my video here

Reflection

Exodus 32 does not tell us how long Moses has been on the mountain at this point only that from the people’s perspective he has been delayed. Moses has spent a significant amount of time on the mountain interacting with God and now the people see themselves as abandoned. Moses had been the mediator between God and Israel and the people are looking for guidance. When I read this chapter I see a group of people who are afraid, they have left the relative safety of Egypt to begin a journey into the unknown and now the leader of that journey is missing. Israel has stepped out in faith to come with Moses to Sinai and now that he is missing they are uncertain of where they should go or what they should do. The step they take is, to a large degree, logical, the people approach Aaron and ask him to craft an idol. Idols in the ancient world were mediators, objects that could be used to send and receive messages from the deities. The space an idol occupied was a place the people could go to encounter the divine presence. Moses is on the mountaintop working as mediator receiving plans for the creation of a sacred space and the people are at the foot of the mountain creating a sacred space and mediator.

The people are at the foot of the mountain resolving their fear and uncertainty in a manner that makes sense to them. Our culture praises taking matters into our own hands, but this is one of those times doing so was not helpful. In their fear and uncertainty, the people forgot that they were camped at the foot of God’s mountain and that God had just spoken to them promising to be with them. In their fear and uncertainty, the people forgot that they were camped at the foot of God’s mountain and that God had just spoken to them promising to be with them. The people allowed uncertainty to steer them away from God. Exodus uses ambiguous language to describe the purpose of the idol (is it for God or gods) and the celebration (are the people dancing or engaged in ritualistic sexual acts) and I think this is at least in part to show where the people’s mindset will lead. The people of Israel are an example to us that acting from the wrong motives (fear, uncertainty, impatience, selfishness, etc.) will ultimately move us far from proper worship of God.

The people of Israel allowed their fear and uncertainty to gain a hold in their lives and the resources which could have been used to build the sanctuary God envisioned were used to build the object that would ultimately lead the people further astray. While God was showing Moses a plan for the riches Israel had gathered in Egypt, Israel was using those resources to move away from God. The people had been blessed with gifts when they left Egypt, providing them with wealth they otherwise would not have had, and rather than use that wealth to glorify God they used it to satisfy their fear and uncertainty and the end result is wasted resources. What I find particularly frustrating is that while the people are using these resources to build their idol, Moses is being instructed on how to build a structure that better honors God but serves the same purpose. The purpose of the statue Aaron created was to bring God’s presence to the people, which is the purpose of the Tabernacle God is describing to Moses. Why does God not approve the calf when it is meant for the same purpose of the Tabernacle? The calf is about control, by building the calf Israel is trying to direct their relationship with God instead of allowing God to determine and direct the covenant. The people are trying to use their resources to determine their own destiny rather than allowing God, who has set them apart in divine mercy and grace, to govern their journey. The sin of the golden calf is less about Israel “not following the rules of the covenant” (though that is part of it) and more about trying to be self-determining when they were supposed to be waiting on God for direction. In the end they are forced to consume the gold they wasted and it is literally lost in the sewer. The lesson for us is to cede control to God even when that is nerve-racking and difficult so that all our resources can be used to their fullest for God’s glory.