Exodus 32:1-14

32:1 After the people saw that Moses was overdue coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Stand up, make us gods who will go before us. We do not know what has become of this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, of him.” ² So Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³ So all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ And he took 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!” ⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow should be a feast to the LORD.” ⁶ And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. ⁷ And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have ruined themselves. ⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'” ⁹ And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and see, it is a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” ¹¹ But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, He brought them out with a wrong motive, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the land? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they should inherit it forever.'” ¹⁴ And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

these are your gods

All around the world today, many who claim Christ as their Savior are following a vile practice. They set up statues and icons, venerating these images along with the invisible God of the Bible. They have been deceived into believing that it is OK to pray to such images, because God allows the persons behind the image to intercede with him on their behalf. These images (they are told) are simply additional means of honoring God.

That is precisely what was taking place in the desert while Moses was atop Mount Sinai. Notice that Aaron had fashioned only one golden calf, but the Israelites said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” The calf was not designed to replace the LORD, but to serve as a visible addition. This is why Aaron went on to proclaim a feast to the LORD. Aaron did not want to be a pagan priest; he simply wanted to give the people what they wanted: a supplement to bolster their faith. But it was all wrong. God called it apostasy, and it still is. Scripture proclaims that “God is one, and the mediator between God and humanity is also one: the human Christ Jesus.”[1] There are no substitutes for that mediator – not even his mother.

Moses had a very interesting role in this passage. He interceded with God on behalf of these apostate Israelites. His actions that day prefigured the actions that Christ would take for all of us, whose sins have placed an enmity between ourselves and our God. They also teach that it is OK to have others pray for us, as long those human intercessors never seek the place in our hearts reserved for God alone.

LORD, we determine to not have any other gods. We reserve our reverence and thanks to the LORD who rescued us from our sins through the atoning blood of Christ.

[1] 1 Timothy 2:5.