Moses was up on Mount Sinai for
forty days and forty nights. There the Lord spoke to him and gave
him instructions on the building of the Tabernacle, the clothing of
the priests etc. God also gave him two stone tablets on which God
wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger, signaling the
signing of the covenant between Israel and God. But while Moses was
gone, the people of Israel fell back into their old ways of idol
worshipping. They approached Aaron who was left in charge of the
people:
"Look," they said, "make us some
gods who can lead us. This man, Moses, who brought us here from
Egypt, has disappeared. We don't know what has happened to him." So
Aaron said, "Tell your wives and sons and daughters to take off
their gold earrings, and then bring them to me." Then all the
people obeyed Aaron and brought him their gold earrings. Then Aaron
took the gold, melted it down, and molded and tooled it into the
shape of a calf. The people exclaimed, "O Israel, these are the
gods who brought you out of Egypt!" Exodus 32:1-4
I was so shocked when I read this,
so shocked in the Israelites, but particularly in Aaron. He was
left in charge with Moses gone and he fell under the group
pressure. But what is so shocking to me is that he didn't even try
and convince them otherwise. He didn't even try to come up for God
and reminded them how amazing He was. He immediately gave in to
their request without any further ado. And then he got into the
swing of things and took matters even further by building an altar
to this new god and suggesting that they had a feast in honor of
it! And this is now after he had seen the miraculous acts of God in
Egypt, after he had heard God's voice from heaven, and even after
he had seen God face to face and had a meal with Him along with
Moses. It is incredible! He turned his back on God at the first
test that came his way. How disappointing.
Now when Moses came down he was
beside himself with anger. He even threw the stone tables inscribed
by God, to pieces. He immediately demanded an explanation from
Aaron. And Aaron, without thinking clearly, made excuses and came
up with a ridiculous lie!
"You yourself know these people and
what a wicked bunch they are. They said to me, 'Make us some gods
to lead us, for something happened to this man Moses, who led us
out of Egypt.' So I told them, 'Bring me your gold earrings.' And
when they brought them to me, I threw them into the fire and out
came this calf!" Exodus 32:22-24
Incredible. He claims that the calf
just magically came out of the fire. He suddenly wanted to claim
innocence and forget that he actually molded the calf himself and
even built an altar to it! I laughed when I heard this, but we do
the same.
We tend to fall under pressure too.
When we are amongst unbelievers or even lukewarm believers, we are
scared to stand up for what is right. We are scared to tell them
what they are talking about is against God's standards or what they
are planning to do is not morally correct. We don't want to take a
stand for the truth. We are scared we won't be liked; we won't be
popular or scared that we will be laughed at. And when God
confronts us afterwards, we tend to be like Aaron and think of
ridiculous excuses of why we couldn't take a stand for Him.
Don't fall under pressure, if
something is not right, it is not right. If Aaron took a stand,
they would never have made the calf. They respected him too much.
How do I know that? They could have built the calf without his
consent, but they didn't, they asked his permission and asked him
to make it for them. Plus when Moses came, they listened
immediately, all two million of them.
People will respect you for taking
the correct stand even if they don't show it. Deep down people
inherently know what is right, and they will admire you for taking
a stand, even if you never see the admiration in their eyes. But
even more importantly, God will stand proud. He will be proud of
you and He will reward you accordingly.
Father it is so difficult to take a
stand in this evil world of ours, but thank you that You are right
next to us to give us the power and the strength to do it. Amen