Exodus 32:5, commentary and pictures

When Aaron saw how gladly the golden calf was received, he built an altar before it and proclaimed a public religious feast to the LORD for the morrow, heralded through the camp.
He thereby joined the worship of an idol to the name and worship of Jehovah, giving it his sanction and making apostasy look like devotion to God.
He did this after first objecting but then cowardly yielding from fear for his life and fear of displeasing the people, choosing to please them at the sacrifice of principle.
The religious name did not make the act faithful, for only weeks after pledging obedience and hearing the Ten Commandments from Sinai, the people broke the first and second commandments by substituting the calf for Jehovah.
The daring insult brought God's anger and required judgment, yet those who repented and took their stand for loyalty were preserved while the stubbornly persistent were cut off, leaving the history as a perpetual warning against joining idolatry to God's worship today.

Setting at Sinai

Moses was absent on the mount receiving the sacred oracles, the law and special instructions from God, including the tables of stone written with the finger of God, remaining forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking while the cloud of the Presence was still before the camp. This building of an altar before the calf and proclaiming a feast took place in sight of the mount, at its very foot, where the children were corrupting themselves even as Moses was with God writing down His law to commit to His covenant people. It came soon after the people had heard God speak the Ten Commandments, and shortly after they had seen a wonderful display of God's power on the mount.

The people became discontented and unbelieving because Moses delayed coming down, and their unbelief began to reveal itself in a marked manner. In place of Moses they demanded some image to represent God and to go before them, visible gods to lead them, even gods to lead them back to Egypt. As guardian left in charge, Aaron should have kept them faithful to God, but he yielded to their pressure for gods.

The demand for the calf came at the suggestion of those who had practiced this form of idolatry in Egypt, where the ox or calf was regarded as a symbol of deity. The worship inaugurated before the calf was modeled on Egyptian worship of Apis and Osiris, professing to worship God through an image whose real object of adoration was the sun-god, not Jehovah, so that God could not accept the service. That calf worship represented Egyptian sun-worship, whose chief festival day was the first day of the week, set in opposition to the Sabbath God had made known to them.

The image was both forbidden and needless, for God had given no manner of similitude of Himself and had prohibited any material representation of Himself, making the act a turning back in heart to the idolatry of Egypt and a representing of the glory of the invisible God by the similitude of an ox. It was needless because the mighty miracles in Egypt and at the Red Sea were designed to establish faith in Him as the invisible, all-powerful Helper of Israel, the only true God. The desire for a visible manifestation of His presence had already been granted in the pillar of cloud and of fire that guided them and in the revealing of His glory upon Mount Sinai, with the cloud of the Presence still before them. Israel was waiting right at the foot of the mount needing a proclamation to confirm them in faith, yet unable to bear the test, revealing a foolishness that God must bear with.

Aaron's Yielding Leadership

Aaron had been left in charge as guardian of the people while Moses was in the mount receiving the sacred oracles and the tables of stone written with the finger of God, and though he had before brought them along step by step, he failed to keep them faithful, to carry them through the crisis of severe temptation to idolatry, and to hold the congregation back from wrongdoing, instead uniting with them in their plans and betraying his sacred trust. This took place in sight of the mount where the people had shortly before seen a wonderful display of God's power, yet with their leading men proclaiming that the calf-gods had brought them up out of Egypt they were led into idolatry. His building the altar and proclaiming a feast was the first beginning of wrong, a failure to stand firmly against the propositions of the people from a desire to please them even at the sacrifice of principle.

Though chosen to aid Moses, he did not bear the burden of the work as Moses did, for Moses felt his own weakness under the great work committed to him and had God ever as his counselor, while Aaron lacked that dependence and weight. He first argued against the plan for a visible god but gave up when the people seemed determined to carry it out. He had much ability yet was morally weak and indecisive, and when placed where he must think and act for himself he dared not express any settled opinion but was changed by every current, waited to hear what others thought and accepted it as true, allowed another to be conscience for him and think for him, and spoke after he had spoken, saying what he said and acting as he acted.

He cowardly yielded from fear for his own safety and life amid the people's clamors instead of standing nobly for God's honor and trusting his life to the God who had worked wonders for Israel, and from fear of displeasing and offending them and desire to please them even at the sacrifice of principle he joined in making the idol. He yielded to the guidance of people he knew were in error, losing courage and trust in God in direct opposition to God's commands, and by his desire to please the people he sacrificed God's honor and greatly dishonored God in grievous sin. Afraid of offending them, he failed to stop the rebellion when it began.

Seeing with what satisfaction the golden god was received and that the idol pleased the people, after permitting the insult of calling the molten calf the gods that brought Israel from Egypt, he built and ordered an altar before it and confidently announced a feast to the LORD for the morrow. The proclamation was heralded by trumpeters from company to company through the camp. By attaching the Lord's name to their idolatry he gave it decisive sanction and made the people think their sinful course was acceptable, so that his assurance and influence served a wrong cause rather than defending God's honor and law.

At the very first permission to go contrary to God's commands in the least particular he permitted a spirit of hilarity, reveling, and commonness to come into the camp, lost his power of command and weakened his authority, and showed the same defective administration he had shown with his children in his home. That permission let the spirit of reveling and commonness in, and the spirit of idolatry came in as a result, setting in motion a current that could not be stayed until stern and decisive measures were taken. His yielding to them let wrong begin and led into idolatry, showing how a leader's desire to please people at the expense of principle can bring grave consequences.

A timely, firm, decisive stand could have checked the evil, for if he had unswervingly maintained his own allegiance to God, pointed the people to the perils of Sinai, reminded them of their solemn covenant to obey God's law, and plainly and timely rebuked sin, the apostasy would have been stopped. His failure was especially serious because Israel looked up to him as a good leader, and a clear, decisive protest could have stopped the idolatrous worship and spared the people disgrace. Instead his calm compliance in carrying out their plan and his assurance emboldened Israel to go to greater lengths in sin than had before entered their minds, failing to stand for the right irrespective of consequences when he could have prevented the apostasy.

Idol Joined to Jehovah

When Aaron saw the calf he built an altar before it and announced that the next day would be a feast to the LORD, turning its worship into a public religious feast and publicly proclaiming whom Israel would serve. The altar was set up directly in front of the golden calf while Moses was still on the mount receiving special instructions from God and the people below were corrupting themselves. The proclamation joined the calf's worship to the Lord's name, and the Israelites mixed worship of the Lord with apostasy and rebellion, turning sacred services into part of their idolatrous celebration.

He joined the worship of an idol to the name and worship of Jehovah, presenting idolatrous worship as worship of the Lord. By attaching the LORD's name to worship centered on an idol he gave it decisive sanction and a false appearance of devotion. That assurance made the people think their sinful course was acceptable and encouraged them in apostasy, while his influence served a wrong cause rather than defending God's honor and law. He yielded to the people's demand instead of standing for God's honor, and his desire to please them led him to dishonor God rather than firmly resist.

He raised the altar and announced a day to consecrate the graven image as an object of worship, declaring that the image represented the gods who had brought Israel out of Egypt. In this way he presented the idol as God and stirred up enthusiasm for a false god, submitting while the people credited the calf with bringing them up out of Egypt. The people's doubt and demand for something visible and dependable led to this idolatry, despite their recent experience of God's presence and deliverance from Egypt and the wonders He had worked for Israel.

The feast's religious label did not make the worship faithful. Only a few weeks after pledging obedience and hearing God speak the Ten Commandments, the people broke their covenant and substituted a golden calf for Jehovah. In direct violation of God's recent commands against idolatry they offered sacrifices to an idol and celebrated, breaking the first and second commandments just after hearing God's law proclaimed from Sinai amid sublime demonstrations of divine power. They replaced God's plans with their own ideas as if human wisdom were better than God's, and their failure showed they did not understand their own sinfulness or their inability to obey God's law without Christ, bringing them to recognize their need for pardon and the Saviour promised in the Abrahamic covenant.

Under pretense of holding a feast to the Lord, the next day the people offered sacrifices to the idol. Then they gave themselves to eating and drinking, dancing, gluttony, and licentious, shameful heathen revelry. The celebration that began with offerings and feasting before the calf ended in shameful heathen rites.

Judgment with Mercy

The altar and feast before the calf were a daring insult and blasphemy to Jehovah and a great offense to God, committed just after Israel had heard His law proclaimed from Sinai amid sublime demonstrations of divine power, breaking the commandments just forbidden and kindling His anger and displeasure. Satan excited the doubt, apostasy, and rebellion to carry forward against the law the same work of overthrow he had begun in heaven. By this insult he planned to cause Israel's ruin, to lead God to divorce them and devote them to destruction, and thus to secure the extinction of the seed of Abraham, the seed of promise that was to preserve the knowledge of the living God and through whom He was to come, the true Seed that was to conquer Satan. He was defeated, for sinful as they were Israel was not destroyed.

Rebellion against God's authority required judgment, yet God still gave freedom to repent. Moses called for everyone to come and take position on his side in loyalty and truth and to come out on the Lord's side and stand right with the Lord, and those who yielded were preserved alive while those who stubbornly persisted and ranged themselves on Satan's side were cut off. Three thousand men who refused perished for disloyalty. The humbled and repentant people were mercifully pardoned, and prompt punishment protected Israel and others from greater ruin, showing how the Lord thus tests His people.

Aaron's course in uniting with the people in the crisis of severe temptation to idolatry deserved death, and he certainly would have been slain had Moses not interceded in his behalf. After the transgression Moses pleaded with God on behalf of the people. The history of this sin, faithfully exposed, stands as a perpetual testimony to the guilt and punishment of idolatry and to the justice and long-suffering mercy of God, an example for later generations to learn from and avoid. God allowed the hidden designs of Aaron and the leading men to develop into open wrongdoing for wise and holy purposes, because exposing the evil could prevent still greater evils.

The verse exposes two parties in the world, those serving apostasy and those serving God and keeping distinct from apostasy, and presses the question which side each person is on.

Warning for Today

The golden-calf experience stands as a warning example for God's people today, part of a devising to introduce the same evils followed by the same results that laid many Israelites in their graves, a devising still at work today with the same deadly result. While Moses was away in the mount the people broke their vow to keep all the commandments given from Sinai, made a calf, called it the gods that brought them out of Egypt, and proclaimed a feast to the LORD before it, taking a great step into idolatry in sight of the mount where God's power had shortly before been displayed. When Moses called for everyone to take position on his side in loyalty and truth, those who yielded were given a chance to redeem themselves, while three thousand men who refused perished for disloyalty. The same test will come in our day, so young and old must be Bible students, pray, and obey God's Word to keep hold on God and have strength of character under every temptation, with the sin faithfully exposed for later generations to learn from and avoid.

The people should have remembered its consequences and learned to obey, but they failed to take the lesson to heart and were again overcome by temptation. Aaron's building an altar before the calf and proclaiming a feast to the LORD proves that no dependence can be placed on any man whatever his experience unless his experience harmonizes with the Word of the living God.

The same idolatrous influence is cherished in families and churches today, worship turned from God to a visible idol while still claiming a feast to the LORD, in small as well as large matters. It appears in pride of apparel, fashions of dress, speech, deportment, outward adorning, self-gratification and worship of self. Such idolatry was a great offense to God, and still separates from God, steals away love and trust and confidence in Him, mars religious experience, and develops a selfishness God cannot look upon. God's distinct and separate people must therefore search themselves, put away idols, practice self-denial and economy, relieve the needy and suffering, and show modest apparel and good works in harmony with faith and the Word.

Aaron serves as an example of an unfaithful leader in the apostasy, building an altar before the calf and proclaiming a feast to the Lord while the people were turning to idolatry, joining the people's false worship to the Lord's name. He built up what God had forbidden, used his influence in opposition to divine instruction, and led people to trust in human authority rather than God, encouraging others in a wrong course by acting against God's warnings. His failure was especially serious because Israel looked up to him as a good leader, and a clear, decisive protest could have stopped the idolatrous worship and spared the people disgrace. To act the part of Aaron is to help on the work of apostasy rather than faithfully heeding spiritual counsel, to betray the interests of God's cause, to prove not to be trusted, to spoil one's record and make the cause the sport of sinners. It is to do the enemy's work by making of none effect God's word and destroying confidence in His messages of reproof and warning, and to sneer at and scorn messages of heavenly origin sent to prepare His people to stand in the last days. Men called by God must not do as Aaron did but must build up the cause in right lines and must not give fearful or compromising counsel when God's people need strengthening.

The history warns guardians of youth and all in charge not to heed wrong inclinations and permit contempt for the counsel of God, but to trust God, walk tremblingly for fear of offending Him, and watch for souls as those who must give an account. It warns against siding with and accommodating men who oppose the work of God and who resist light and evidence without repenting of their course.