Every time I read through Exodus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy, I can’t help but think, “How can Israel be so forgetful?” God had performed miracle after miracle, wonder after wonder. He had answered their prayers, provided for their needs, and proven that He was nothing but faithful to His people. Yet, Israel still grumbled, and complained, and longed to return to their bondage—again, and again, and again.
But whenever I think these thoughts, I’m reminded that we are no different than Israel. God has performed miracle after miracle, wonder after wonder in our lives. He has answered our prayers, provided for our needs, and proven Himself faithful to us. Yet, we still grumble, and complain, and long to return to the bondage of our old, sinful ways. There is one Old Testament story in particular that highlights our similarities to Israel well, and it has to do with the creation of a golden calf.
In Exodus 32, we find that Moses had left the assembly of Israel and trekked up Mount Sinai to receive the Law and instruction from the Lord. Evidently, the people thought that Moses was taking too long. Perhaps they thought he had fallen ill and died, or perhaps they imagined he had abandoned them in the wilderness. Whatever was going on in their minds, they decided to take matters into their own hands.
“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ‘Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’” Exodus 32:1, ESV
Now, Aaron was the older brother of Moses, and he was supposed to be a leader in the assembly in his brother’s absence. When the Israelites approached him with this idea, Aaron ought to have rebuked them of their unfaithful desires and reminded them of God’s omnipotence, sovereignty, and faithfulness. Unfortunately, this was not his reaction.
“So Aaron said to them, ‘Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” Exodus 32:2-4
When I first heard this story, I was taught that Israel had simply created a new god to worship and adore. However, many scholars believe that the creation of the golden calf was actually the people’s attempt at making a physical manifestation or representation of God. After all, they went on to build an altar and make burnt offerings and peace offerings as part of a “feast to the LORD.” (Exodus 32:5-6) While this act may have been well-intentioned by some, there is a reason God instilled the second commandment (Exodus 20:4-6). Despite Israel’s efforts, the golden image is nothing like the almighty God of the universe. Author and Bible teacher Jen Wilkin explains in her book, Ten Words to Live By—
“It is small, but God is immense. It is inanimate, but God is Spirit. It is location-bound, but God is everywhere fully present. It is created, but God is uncreated. It is new, but God is eternal. It is impotent, but God is omnipotent. It is destructible, but God is indestructible. It is of minor value, but God is of infinite value. It is blind and deaf and mute, but God sees, hears, and speaks.”[1]
Another major difference between the image and God is that God is not a calf nor an animal of any kind. Why did Aaron create this golden image of God as a calf? It’s important to consider the cultural context of the Israelites. They had just fled from Egyptian bondage and were entering into Canaanite territory. One of the major gods in Egypt was Apis and the supreme god of the Canaanites was El, both of which were bull gods.[2]So, it makes sense that Israel would imagine their God in a similar way. However, Aaron did not create a golden bull. He created a golden calf, “a nonthreatening, approachable version of the principal deities of the surrounding pagans.”[3]
And once again, I find myself thinking, “How could Israel do this?” Don’t they realize that they just created an idol, an image of the god they want rather than the God they have? Don’t they see how disrespectful and dishonoring this is to the truly supreme God of the universe? But I’m reminded that we are no different than Israel. There are certain aspects of God we’d sometimes like to ignore or forget, so we fashion a new image of Him that looks suspiciously similar to the gods and idols of the world. Jen Wilkin goes on to say,
“Any time we take the attributes of the gods the world around us worships and apply them to God to make him more palatable and less threatening, more accommodating and less thunderous, we produce a graven image. We whittle down his transcendence, we paint over his sovereignty, we chisel away his omnipotence until he is a pet-like version of the terrible pagan god we would never be so foolish to bow down to.”[4]
I see this happen all the time in Christian circles. People become hyper focused on one of God’s attributes, do their best to avoid one of His other attributes, or make Him look just like any other deity in the world. God is love, so surely He wouldn’t send people to hell. God created me just the way I am, so I don’t need to change anything about myself. God is generous and wants you to have your best life now. God expects you to do this, that, and the other before you can come to Him. God accepts all religions and modes of worship. We make these unbiblical comments, suggestions, and exceptions because they feel good or right to us, but before we know it, we have fashioned our own golden calf and bowed down to an image of idolatry rather than the true God.
God takes the sin of idolatry seriously. On the day of the golden calf incident, three thousand men died, and the rest of Israel was forced to drink the ashes of the image after it was destroyed and was hit by a plague, all as a result of their rebellion against the Lord (Exodus 32:20, 28, 35). And He takes our idolatry just as seriously. What can we do to avoid this grievous sin of creating idols and worshipping a false god? It’s actually quite simple. We must immerse and inundate ourselves with the truth about God in His Word.
“We know the truth about who God is by becoming acquainted with this revelation, by learning the Bible, and by measuring all teaching against his word.”[5]
The Bible is the Word of God, His revelation of Himself to His people. If we want to know who God really is, if we want to learn about His character and His actions, all we have to do is open the Scriptures and read. If we want to figure out if what our pastors, professors, or other people in our lives say about God is true, we just need to compare it to what the Bible has already professed and proclaimed.
Israel would have done well to remember who their God really was, to remember His omnipotence, sovereignty, and faithfulness. Let us not make their same mistakes. May we always remember our God, worship Him rightly, and be in the Scriptures as often as possible.
“We must cling to the rock of divine revelation like our lives depend upon it, because they do.”[6]
[1] Jen Wilkin, Ten Words to Live By: Delighting in and Doing What God Commands (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021), 38.
[2] Ibid., 39.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., 41.
[6] Ibid.
