Exodus 32: The Incidence of the Golden Calf

Today we are taking a look at Exodus 32. In this chapter, the Israelites are growing impatient. Moses has been on the mountain awaiting word from the Lord. Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.The Israelites feared that he would not return and demanded that Aaron make them "a god who shall go before us". Aaron told the Israelites' to bring their golden earrings and ornaments in order to stall for time, constructed a "golden calf" and he declared, "'This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!'" (Exodus 32:1–4)

Verse 1 states:

"Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, 'Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'"

Some believe that in the fashioning of the molded calf, no attempt was made to abandon worshipping the one true God. Rather, the molded calf was to serve as a sign of His presence. The choice of the use of a calf as an image to worship comes from Egyptian belief in the god Apis, represented by a bull. The god Apis and the god Baal are one and the same. Different nations called these shedim by different names, but they were representative of the same demon. Some say the golden calf was meant to represent God instead of Baal or Apis. To represent the One True God with an image of a demon god was considered one of the greatest apostasies of all Jewish history. Many scholars believe that this misrepresentation only signifies the Israelites' impatience and intent to worship Yahweh on their terms instead of His.

Aaron built an altar before the calf and proclaimed the next day to be a feast to YHWH (again to stall for time). "Early next day, the people offered up burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; they sat down to eat and drink, and then rose to dance." (Exodus 32:6)

YHWH told Moses what the Israelites were up to back in camp, that they had turned aside quickly from the way which God commanded them and he was going to destroy them and start a new people from Moses. Moses pleaded that they should be spared "And YHWH renounced the punishment planned for God’s people." (Exodus 32:11–14)

Moses went down from the mountain; upon seeing the calf, he became angry and threw down the two Tablets of Stone, breaking them. Moses burnt the golden calf in a fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on water, and forced the Israelites to drink it. When Moses asked him, Aaron admitted to collecting the gold and throwing it into the fire; he said it came out as a calf. (Exodus 32:21–24)

Exclusion of the Levites and Mass Execution

The Bible records that the tribe of Levi did not worship the golden calf. Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for YHWH, come here!” Then all the men of Levi rallied to him.

He said to them, "Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel: Each of you put sword on thigh, go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay sibling, neighbor, and kin." The men of Levi did as Moses had bidden, and some three thousand of the people fell that day. And Moses said, "Dedicate yourselves to YHWH this day—for each of you has been against blood relations—that [God] may bestow a blessing upon you today."

— Exodus 32:26–28

Exodus 32 relates that Moses then upbraided Aaron for having "brought great guilt" upon the people. The parallel account in Deut. 9:20 relates that but for Moses' supplication on behalf of Aaron the Lord would have destroyed Aaron. Stern punishment was, however, meted out to the calf-worshipers, 3,000 of whom were slain by the *Levites who had responded to Moses' call for volunteers. Henceforth the Levites were consecrated to the service of the Lord. Despite Moses' prayer for divine forgiveness, the Lord threatened that punishment would overtake the people on the day of His visitation. Soon afterward a plague broke out among the Israelites (see above). In addition, the Lord announced that He would no longer abide amid this "stiff-necked people." The Israelites mourned the departure of the Divine presence and stripped themselves of their ornaments (Ex. 33:1–6).

The Israelites had committed a great sin. Moses went back up on the mountain to make an appeal for the sin of the people. In verse 32, Moses stands in the gap:

"Yet now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray blot me out of Your book which You have written."

God replies: "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin." So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf that Aaron made.

The worship of bulls and calves continued to be an issue for the Israelites. They didn't want to sanctify themselves upon exit from Egypt. They reverted to calf/bull worship when Moses was delayed. Again in 1 Kings 12, we see a reintroduction to this type of worship by King Jeroboam. He set up one golden calf at Bethel and another at Dan.

The declarations of Aaron's people and Jeroboam are almost identical:

'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt' (Exod 32:4, 8);

'Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt' (1 Kings 12:28

These statements prove that the Israelites had seen these shedim as their rescuers instead of God.

Similarities in worship of the calf and Baal

In both instances of worship, you will find a bull set up with an altar as an idol. This is seen as a violation of the 1st commandment. In both instances, the people are offering sacrifices to these idol gods. There is music, there is dancing. In either scenario, the people are trading in true worship of the One True God for idol worship of a pagan deity in image form. Both idols were worshipped instead of God. Why was it so important for the Israelites to go along with the concept of a bull's image to represent God? The people had forgotten. They had been in Egypt for over 400 years. According to the Egyptians, the main god was represented by a bull. No matter what their intentions, this was deemed as a direct insult to God and an apostasy.

We can take a lesson from this. We should always be patient when waiting for God. He is not a bull. He is not to be represented by any such idol. We are made in His image and His likeness. When we see Jesus, we see Him. If we want to look at any as an example of God, we should set our eyes on Jesus. In Him, we find mercy, justice, forgiveness, compassion, and restoration. Through Jesus alone can we be forgiven of these grave sins and set back in right standing with God.

The next walk-through will be through Judges. You will begin to see a pattern of worship to the Baals throughout history's timeline. As Solomon said, "There is nothing new under the sun." Worship of these demons has been ongoing for thousands of years. God should have no competition for our love. As a nation, we should repent of these practices and tear down the altars of sacrifice. We need to return to YHWH!