Aaron's Golden Calf: Lessons in Leadership and Idolatry

Show Notes

Episode 463: 
In this episode, we dove into a deep and intense discussion on Exodus chapter 32, covering the infamous story of the golden calf, where the Israelites, led by Aaron, create and worship a false idol while Moses is receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. We read through verses 1-29 and unpacked the various elements of the story, including Aaron's role in creating the golden calf and his weak leadership and the people's quick turn to idolatry and the consequences that followed.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to The Bible Guys. My name is Chris Zarba and this is Wesley Woods. Back again. Yes, and if you have not listened to the first two podcasts of this week, I encourage you to go back and listen because these have actually been pretty great. Yeah, they've been packed full of good stuff. Yeah. Not saying that Jeff is greater. These are greater than Jeff's because, after all, you can't fill his shoes even though you have a size fourteen and he probably has a size what ten. It's so funny. We covered that on Monday, so we won't go there. But anyway, we're doing we're doing a bang up job together. We are the Bible Guys today, and we are going to launch into a segment that Desiree has written for us and I like these. This is called a summer draft list, and here's outreads. She says, We're now in the full swing of summer, so let's do a draft list of your favorite summer activities. Do rock paper scissors to see who gets the first pick and go into you have five activities each, so for those who are watching and not listening, you can actually see the results. But we're gonna do rock paper sisters. We go one, two, three, Shoot, oh I beat you. So I did rock. He did scissors for the listeners, and so I'll go first. Okay, all right. So I would have to say, uh, Number one activity for me is being on the water on a boat. Now I don't I don't have a boat, but I see you need friends with a boat. I have two friends that invite us on boats and uh. And we actually have not yet said yes to a friend in a couple of years, but this other friend, we're on the boat with them. Uh and I just absolutely think it's one of the best things ever. Yeah. And so Lake Saint Clair that kind of thing, right, Yeah, that's that's for those who don't live in Detroit. That's our big body of water. Yeah. For me, it's going to be very similar. I put vacation, so we take these long road trips. My wife has family in Georgia and Florida, so we will literally do a long drive, like, spend the night in like Tennessee, keep driving the next day, visit family all along the way. I have family in Tennessee too, so yeah, those are always fun. So you guys stop in Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. Yeah, so normally we do the Nashville is like our spend the Night spot. If we're hitting Tennessee on the way down, we'll spend the night in Nashville and then cut through Atlanta and then head on down to like the Tampa area. Wow. If we're bypassing it and just doing spend the Night spot, we'll do the Florida. Let's say we leave from Tampa, we'll spend the night in Chattanooga or Knoxville. That's our spend the Night spot, and then we keep going to Michigan. Yeah. No, we got our spots all all right. So I'm gonna say number two and enjoy landscaping a lot. Okay, so in the summer that gives me the opportunity to go out and do it. Although right now it's looking pretty rough, so I get a lot of work to do. But yeah, when I do have it done, I love, love love it. Yeah. My wife is really into landscaping. I like the way it looks. I just I think I have like trauma from a kid being forced to work in the yard when I was young. So yeah, I'm not a big So we actually have a lawn guy that does our lawn. I don't even mow the lawn. Wow. Yeah, wow, Yeah, I'm not a big landscaping. I like the way it looks and then I you know, I'll help my wife plant flowers, but not big into that. So what's your second one? My second one is kind of like the first one in a sense. I put many road trips. So this is something my daughter and I have been doing ever since she was like three. We will literally hop in the car on a Saturday and just drive. We have no destination. We'll figure it out as we go. So we're on six ninety six and it's like, okay, do we go north towards like Birch Run or do we go south towards Ohio? I don't know, and we will literally make it up as we go. So we've been doing that a long time. Wow, that sounds like good. Just a little many like Saturday trips will do. Yeah. Yeah, I've done it a few times. But I love those kinds. You just end up where you end up. Yeah, we end up where we end up eat there and yeah, right, okay, number three, I'm gonna choose putt putt. Yeah. Yeah, So you can't do that in the winter obviously, and you know when the bad weather happens in the spring or the you know, but usually you know, spring, summer. But I think we're gonna do pup up. My parents are in town. That'll be this weekend, and I think we're probably all going to go and do metro golf. Yeah. Now, your dad isn't super competitive busy he is? Yeah, he is? Or do you think I get there's gonna be a sermon out of this one, right, So for me for my number three, I put festivals. I remember being a kid in Heart Plaza in Detroit used to have a lot of free festivals and it would be like the Jazz Festival and the this festival, and we would go down there and just like spend the whole like Saturday or Sunday. It was really fun. Yeah that's interesting, Yeah, because my number four is going to be those parking lot carnivals. Oh yeah, yeah, I love parking lot carnivals. Yeah. We have elephant ears. Elephant ears. We have fond memories. So my family and my kids are grown adults and and here they are in their twenties and we'll be driving in a car and if they see a parking lot festival, they go, and then we have to go. And so yeah, because we just went every time we saw them as a kid, and you know they as kids, they love them. Yeah, no, it's cool. Yeah for me. Number four is beach. So I'm not a big beach person, so I mean, we can go or not go. It's not a big deal to me. So but it is fun to go to the beach, put your feet in the water and all that stuff. So yeah, that's great. And I'm gonna say number five is grilling, Okay, Yeah, grill is just something you don't get to do other than you know, for the most part summer. Yeah, and I think it's just you know, there's nothing like a grail, buddy. Yeah. And my last one is sports. So all that outdoor sports stuff you do, like Fourth of July all the yeah, the volleyball with and then no one can actually play volleyball, but it's just fun being with family, like all those sports holiday type things. That's great. Yeah, that's great. Awesome. Well, hey, there you go. Summer draft list. Yeah, so let's go ahead and dive into Exodus chapter thirty two. We're covering the instructions that God is giving to Moses on the mountain. Yeah, and what we're about to see is that Moses has been up there a long time. Now. We covered the chaos ensues. Yes, well we basically, you know, we're only doing milestones of the Old Testament, like main highlights, so we're not going to you know, do everything, but we're skipping over. You know, there's more instructions on the top of the mountain, money for the tabernacles, for the wash basin. You know, she talks about craftsman. He actually gives very explicit instructions about keeping the Sabbath. And then finally there's something that happens on the ground. And this is where Exodus chapter thirty two picks up. And we're going to read all of it, right, Yeah, one through twenty nine, one through twenty nine. So this is Exodus chapter thirty two versus one through twenty nine, and it says when the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come down the mountain, they gathered around aarin. Come on, they said, make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses. Now did Moses just lead them out of the land of Egypt? But they're talking like, he's this, what happened to this fellow Moses? It brought us here? Yeah? Well, you know, and by the way, he could have been gone a year. Yeah, like we don't know, we don't know how long it took. But just that phrase just sounds funny to me. Well for them to say, fellow, he would have had it been pretty distant. Yeah, it has been gone a long time. Yeah, And it says who brought us here from the land of Egypt. Verse two says, so Aaron said, take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters and bring them to me. All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Erin. Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, oh, Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced tomorrow will be the festival to the Lord. The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry. Verse seven. The Lord told Moses, quick, go down the mountain. Your people, whom you brought from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned away from the way I've commanded them to live. They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Verse nine. Then the Lord said, I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Now leave me alone, so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation. But Moses tried to pacify the Lord his god, O Lord, He said, why are you so angry with your own people, who brought you from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand, whom you yes, let me reread that, Oh Lord, he said, why are you so angry with your own people, whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power, in such a great strong hand Verse twelve. Why let the Egyptians say their God rescue them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth. Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people. Verse thirteen. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever. So the Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on his people Verse fifteen. Then Moses turned and went down the mountain. He held in his hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. These tablets were God's work. The words on them were written by God himself. When Joshua heard the boisterous noise of the people shouting below. Shouting below them, he exclaimed to Moses, it sounds like war in the camp. But Moses replied, no, it's not a shout of victory nor the wailing of defeat. I hear the sound of a celebration. When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and he burned with anger. He threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashing them. At the foot of the mountain, he took the calf they had made and burned it. Then he grounded into powder, threw it into the water, and forced the people to drink it. He was ticked, if you think you verse twenty one. Finally, he turned to Aaron and demanded, what did these people do make to make you bring such terrible sin upon us? Verse twenty two. Don't you get so upset? My lord? Aaron replied, you yourself know how evil these people are, so Aaron's kind of pushing the blame a little bit. They said to me, make us gods who will lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt. Verse twenty four. So I told them, whoever has gold jewelry, take it off. When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire, and out came this calf, which I think is hilarious. It's hilarious. Verse twenty five. Moses saw that Aaron had had let the people get completely out of control, much to the amusement of their enemies. So he stood at the entrance of the camp and shouted, all of you who are on the Lord's side, come here and join me, and all the Levites gathered around him. Verse twenty seven. Moses told them, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Each of you, take your swords and go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other. Kill everyone, even your brother's friends and neighbors. The Levites obeyed Moses' command, and about three thousand people die that day. Then Moses said to the told the Levites, today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the Lord, for you obade him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Today you have earned a blessing. And yuck, there's a lot that happened there. Yeah, there's there's a bunch of yuck with sin, isn't there? Yeah? And so uh wow on that whole story, and it represents so many things. And yet it's interesting because even though symbolically we can apply it to today. Oh, today we have we have many things that we place, you know, in God's place, whatever is reserved for God. We can worship, money, we can worship you know, even our own children or a relationship or our job or whatever it is. Uh. And those are the false gods, you know, that we have in our lives. So it's transferable and it's definitely symbolic and it happens for a reason. But if you were to really truly try to imagine yourself as a part of this story, yeah, yuck. Yeah, it is unbelievably just painful. And uh. You know it's interesting about Aaron is it's the one verse that really stands out, isn't it. So it says at the very beginning, number one, it was Aaron's idea, right, and he admitted to that. He says, Oh, it's because the people I said, bring me all your ear rings and golds, and he said, and I threw it in the fire. And how came this calf and yeah, and yet the Bible, the inerrancy of the Bible, Yeah, the truth of the Bible tells us exactly what he did. Aaron took the gold and melted it down and molded it into the shape of a cat. Yeah, so it didn't just poof, just like fly out of the fire. So I guess what Aaron is trying to do is to say that there's some validity to this false god. Like, what is he trying to do here? He's trying to say, you know, hey, there's some supernatural things. Don't blame me that is happening here. I don't know. To me, this reminds me of just making a reference to today, trying to play both sides of the fence. Oh for sure, you know there are people I can think of. Maybe there's someone listening and on your job. Maybe there are things that are being presented to you that aren't illegal, but they just kind of skirt up against unethical or immoral. And you're wondering, well, everyone else is doing it, should I do it too? And you've got to make a decision what side of the fence are you going to be on? Right? Are you going to be like Aaron, and go ahead and capitulate, and you know, make the false God or are you going to stick to what you know God said to do? So? Well, I'll tell you when you meet a person. I had a staff member I worked at my previous church who he was known to be talking out of both sides of his mouth. And he would say one thing to one person, and then if you went to another person who has had a different opposing opinion, he would he would play it to that opinion. Yeah, And he would literally say two things. And you go back and forth, and you know, guess what people talk. Yeah, and you're gonna get You're gonna get in trouble for that. You're gonna be known for you. He told me this, well, he told me that. Yeah. And I'm telling you there's almost nothing worse than getting tagged the person who talks out of both sides of their mouth, unless you're Erin's worse. So let me read this Life Application Study Bible note about Aaron. It says this effective teamwork happens when all team members use their special skills identify or no excuse me. Ideally, each member's strengths will contribute something important to the team effort, and this way members make up another's weakness. Aaron made a good team with Moses. He provided Moses with one skill Moses lacked, effective public speaking. But while aarin was necessary to Moses, he needed Moses as well. Without a guide, Aaron had little direction on his own. There was never any doubt as to who God's chosen leader and trained leader was. The pliability that made Aaron a good follower also made him a week leader. Isn't that interesting? His major failures were caused by his inability to stand alone. His yielding to the public pressure of making an idol was a good example of this weakness. Most of us have more of the follower than the leader. In us even be good followers if we are following a good leader. But no leader is perfect, and no human deserves our complete and unquestionable allegiance. Only God deserves our complete loyalty and obedience. We need an effective team member, team members and using good skills and abilities that God has given us. So anyway it goes on, it talks about this strengths and weaknesses of Aaron we just talked about as weaknesses, but you know his strengths are. He was the first high priest of God in Israel. He was an effective communicator. He was God's main mouthpiece for Moses. The lessons he learned in life were God gives individual and special abilities which he weaves together for use for his use. And then the other lesson was the very skills that make us a good team player sometimes also make us a poor leader. It's really interesting, isn't it. How Aaron is such a great compliment to Moses, and yet it's very clear that that person who's a great number two should never be a number one. Yeah. Right, And by the way, that's okay, right, because some people are erans. God makes moseses and God makes errans, and there's nothing wrong with that, right. So I think that that's a really great sermon right there in the middle of everything. Now, Chris, to make this practical for the listeners, what would you say to the person who is struggling in that position where it would just be easier to go along with the crowd, it would be easier to just yield with I don't want to be the outcast. I don't want to be the outsider. I mean, if I don't go with the crowd, you know, maybe they'll talk about me, or they won't be friends with me anymore. What would you say to that person who's struggling in that area and that could have been what Aaron was dealing with. Yeah, a little bit. Well, you know, it's interesting, but it connects the dots for me to so many different things. And the main thing that I want to say that has come to my mind is this is that think about how much you love God. So in the New Testament, we aren't obeying God because we absolutely have to, right because because we're given grace have to, meaning that God isn't going to smite us. God isn't going to punish us. Right, There's not going to be three thousand people dying by the sword because of our sin. And that's not the way God works anymore. So in other words, we don't obey God because we have to. It is much more effective to be to a bay God because we want to. And so we are supposed to be motivated out of grace, out of gratitude that Jesus has done things for us. So I would just say, I would say to the person who wants to go with the crowd, remember this that God's response to sin only changes in his response to us. But his response to sin is still he hates sin. He is just as angry in his heart. There's still a consequence. And if you want to sin, if you want to love God, if you want to gain his favor, if you want to receive the blessings that are already in store for you, that are in reserve for you, then then then understand that God hates sin just as much as he does. Right here. You know what, the only difference is, the only difference is God's reaction to sin changes drastically, right. God's reaction to sin changes because of Jesus. Right. So is it if not for Jesus, God would still react to sin this way because God still hates it. Okay, curveball right here? Yeah, what about the person who says, Okay, I hear everything you're saying, Chris, but I just want to just take my big toe and just dip it lightly on the other side. I'm not diving in. I'm staying on this side. I'm just gonna just dip my foot in just a little bit, just to get a little taste. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So the you know it's Jeff talks about this a lot with the window. The window example, he uses about like a rock hitting the window. Yeah right, well, I mean, you know, it's it's it's found in so many things we've already read, even a Lot in Neighbraham, where it says, you know, a Lot chose the side that Sodom and Gomora we're on, and then Lot would pitch his tent, but he would actually have the opening of his tent gazing toward the beauty of Sodomy Gomora. And then it says before too long, Lot was a prominent member of Sodom Gomorrah, which means if you dip your toe right, and it's like, well, I'm not getting too close to Sodom and Gomora, you know, I'm just I'm just getting near the region. And now I'm gazing toward it. Now I'm lusting after it. Before you know, you turn, you know, you blink your eyes, and all of a sudden you're you're in the thick of it. So which I would say carrying yeah right exactly, which means, which means dipping your toe in sin may seem thrilling, and you may seem think to yourself, well, I'm strong enough, I have control of this it's not an addiction, it's not a habit. Uh. And yet before we know it, we realize we are not strong and so and so you know, there's no sense in dipping our toe in sin because the examples giving the scripture over and over are we're gonna, we're gonna, you know, do more than that, because pretty soon dipping your toe isn't gonna be good enough. Do you ever wade into water and it's cold, but then eventually it becomes warm? Yeah, and it's like, man, it felt like ten minutes ago this was freezing. Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, dipping my toe and oh that's exhilarating. But before too long, it doesn't feel exhiliarated anymore. Now I wan to dip my whole leg in it. Now I want to dip my up to my waist. Right, but at least I'm not over my head. Right before you know it, we're over our heads, yep. And so that's what dipping our toe and sid means. So that's why Jesus says, run the other way. Right. So we talked about Joseph already too. So what did Joseph do? He left Potiphar's wife left his jacket in her hands, turns around and runs. Yeah, because he's like, no, no, no, no, I'm not even gonna I'm not even gonna flirt with this idea. Yeah. So essentially you're saying, don't even get close. No, don't, don't even get close to the line, don't even Yeah. And so so Moses builds this false god, Moses, excuse me, Aaron builds this false god. Moses comes down the mountain and Moses has this unbelievable wrath. Yeah, he's angry. And because he's the one that talked God out of his wrath, which, by the way, there's another sermon in there altogether, which says that God can be persuaded. Yeah, verse fourteen. So the Lord changed his mind on behalf of Moses. Right. So therefore we know that the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails, much, says James. Right. So our prayer can change things, our communion with God. We can move on someone else's behalf, and God can change his mind. That's what That's what Jesus teaches. Jesus says, Hey, because of his persistence, he keeps knocking. I'm gonna get up and I'm going to give him the loaf of bread, right, even though I say go away five times, because of his persistence and so therefore that is how the Kingdom of God works. Jesus tells us this. And so you know, don't be afraid to continue to go to God, pray for things that haven't happened yet, you know, intervene on someone else's behalf or on your own behalf, because God can change his mind. And then and then and then Moses has wrath and and uh, you know, good gosh. I mean forcing them to drink water with gold dust. Yeah, I mean this was he grounded into powder, threw it in the water, then made them drink it. This was like deliberate, like at this point, now, I'm assuming because there's a million people that you know that even if the calf were huge, which I'm assuming it was, right, you know that that the delusion, the delusion of the dissolve even though technically gold wouldn't dissolve in water, it would just dissipate more, dissipate more. Yeah. Yeah, so I just think, Wow, what an unbelievable word picture. Right, this is maybe this is where parents get washing your mouth out with soap. Yeah, I guess so, right, But but yeah, so you know, it just goes to show you the ultimate lesson, the ultimate sermon in here is we violate this time and time again in our lives. Whenever we decide to place anything else in the space that is reserved for God. That is a false idol. Right when God says, lower your pride and go apologize and we say, nope, I'm not going to handle my conflict first. Yeah, and then what we're doing there is we're placing ourselves right, or maybe the wisdom of our father right, or generational sin, whatever it is, and we're placing that in the place of God. Whatever takes place of the advice of God, the words of God, the nature of God, you know, the worship that is reserved for the worship of God. It is a false sight in our lives. And it could be anything. And Jesus says, the main competitive competitor is money, right. You know, that's why there's two thousand verses about money more than any other topic in the Bible, because God knows that's our chief competitor for our affection. So anyway, yeah, there's a bunch of stuff in there, right, So it looks like our time. We're at our maximum time here, so hopefully we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,