Moses Looks on as Israel Worships the Golden Calfby CBPepper
106:20Psalms 106:20
Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
Psalm 106:20 belongs to the history and record of Israel's wilderness experience and its idolatry at Horeb, also called Sinai. It means they exchanged God's glory, the glory of the invisible God, for the likeness of a grass-eating ox by making a calf, a golden and molten calf, and worshiping the molten image, replacing God's glory with a material image. Their glory was the God who had revealed Himself to them as a tender Father and an all-powerful King.
This happened at Horeb only a few days after they solemnly covenanted to obey God and heard with trembling terror before the mountain the command to have no other gods. God's glory still hovered above Sinai in sight of the congregation, and the cloud of God's presence was still before them. In representing God by a calf they followed the Egyptian practice of treating an ox or calf as a divine symbol, though God had given no likeness of Himself and had forbidden such representations.
In turning away to ask for other gods and rejecting God they dishonored Him and showed the greatest and deep ingratitude, offering a daring insult to Him. The verse also implicates Aaron, who changed God's glory into the likeness of an ox by making the idol and endorsing its worship even though he had seen the Lord's glory on the mountain and knew it could not be represented by an image. His honored position and witness to God's power made the sin especially grievous.
The verse is to be studied as part of that history in order to more fully appreciate God's goodness, mercy and love, showing the necessity of appreciating them. That history with its warning about idolatry provides warning lessons for God's people in the last days and should be studied regularly.
Psalm 106:20 belongs to the history and record of Israel's wilderness experience and its idolatry at Horeb, also called Sinai. It means they exchanged God's glory, the glory of the invisible God, for the likeness of a grass-eating ox by making a calf, a golden and molten calf, and worshiping the molten image, replacing God's glory with a material image. Their glory was the God who had revealed Himself to them as a tender Father and an all-powerful King.
This happened at Horeb only a few days after they solemnly covenanted to obey God and heard with trembling terror before the mountain the command to have no other gods. God's glory still hovered above Sinai in sight of the congregation, and the cloud of God's presence was still before them. In representing God by a calf they followed the Egyptian practice of treating an ox or calf as a divine symbol, though God had given no likeness of Himself and had forbidden such representations.
In turning away to ask for other gods and rejecting God they dishonored Him and showed the greatest and deep ingratitude, offering a daring insult to Him. The verse also implicates Aaron, who changed God's glory into the likeness of an ox by making the idol and endorsing its worship even though he had seen the Lord's glory on the mountain and knew it could not be represented by an image. His honored position and witness to God's power made the sin especially grievous.
The verse is to be studied as part of that history in order to more fully appreciate God's goodness, mercy and love, showing the necessity of appreciating them. That history with its warning about idolatry provides warning lessons for God's people in the last days and should be studied regularly.