And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.
The verse speaks of the Lord's anger against Aaron for his part in the golden-calf sin, an anger so intense that Aaron faced destruction and stood in danger of death. That wrath was kindled because of his sin in the worship of the calf, which was a work of human hands.
Although entrusted with guarding the people and with their government in Moses' absence, Aaron yielded to their demands and led them into idolatry. He made the idol himself and announced its feast, failed to check the idolaters in their heaven-daring purpose, heard unmoved the proclamation that the calf had brought Israel up out of Egypt, sanctioned the rebellion, and so brought that great sin upon the people.
His guilt was especially heinous in light of how blessed and honored he was above the people. As the saint of the Lord set apart to God, as Moses' appointed spokesman of whom God testified that he could speak well, as one by whom God had wrought judgments upon the Egyptians and their gods, as one entrusted with charge in Moses' absence and granted close access to God, and as one who had been with Moses on the mount and beheld the glory of the Lord in which there was nothing of which an image could be made, he changed that glory into the similitude of an ox.
Moses' breaking of the tables of stone was not reproved, for it represented that Israel had already broken the covenant, while Aaron was held guilty for bringing the great sin of calf-worship upon them.
At that same time Moses made earnest and special intercession for Aaron also, and in answer to that intercession Aaron's life was spared and saved. Aaron did not persist in rebellion but repented in penitence, humility, and humiliation for his great sin, and though he had joined the idolaters he took his stand with Moses and was restored to the favor of God.
The verse also belongs to a wider pattern in which for Israel's rebellion the Lord several times purposed to destroy them, but Moses interceded for them so earnestly that God graciously spared them. Moses reminded the people of this sparing mercy and of all the great acts their eyes had seen the Lord do to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, to charge them to keep all the commandments that day so that they would be strong and go in and possess the land they were going to possess.
The verse speaks of the Lord's anger against Aaron for his part in the golden-calf sin, an anger so intense that Aaron faced destruction and stood in danger of death. That wrath was kindled because of his sin in the worship of the calf, which was a work of human hands.
Although entrusted with guarding the people and with their government in Moses' absence, Aaron yielded to their demands and led them into idolatry. He made the idol himself and announced its feast, failed to check the idolaters in their heaven-daring purpose, heard unmoved the proclamation that the calf had brought Israel up out of Egypt, sanctioned the rebellion, and so brought that great sin upon the people.
His guilt was especially heinous in light of how blessed and honored he was above the people. As the saint of the Lord set apart to God, as Moses' appointed spokesman of whom God testified that he could speak well, as one by whom God had wrought judgments upon the Egyptians and their gods, as one entrusted with charge in Moses' absence and granted close access to God, and as one who had been with Moses on the mount and beheld the glory of the Lord in which there was nothing of which an image could be made, he changed that glory into the similitude of an ox.
Moses' breaking of the tables of stone was not reproved, for it represented that Israel had already broken the covenant, while Aaron was held guilty for bringing the great sin of calf-worship upon them.
At that same time Moses made earnest and special intercession for Aaron also, and in answer to that intercession Aaron's life was spared and saved. Aaron did not persist in rebellion but repented in penitence, humility, and humiliation for his great sin, and though he had joined the idolaters he took his stand with Moses and was restored to the favor of God.
The verse also belongs to a wider pattern in which for Israel's rebellion the Lord several times purposed to destroy them, but Moses interceded for them so earnestly that God graciously spared them. Moses reminded the people of this sparing mercy and of all the great acts their eyes had seen the Lord do to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, to charge them to keep all the commandments that day so that they would be strong and go in and possess the land they were going to possess.