Scripture Daily

Context No. 4169 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 32:1-5: in context

1When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.” 2Aaron said to them, “Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 5When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”

While Moses is up on the mountain with God, the people below grow impatient. As for this Moses, they say, we do not know what has become of him; and they demand that Aaron make them gods to go before them. Aaron gives in, collects their gold, and fashions a golden calf, and the people bow to it as the god who brought them out of Egypt.

It is a stunning betrayal, and it began with impatience. What stands out is how the idolatry started. The people had not stopped believing in a god who delivered them; they simply grew tired of waiting for Moses and for the God who seemed slow, and they wanted a god they could see and control now. Their impatience with God's timing led them to make their own god. When God, or his working, seems delayed, when we grow tired of waiting on him, we are tempted to take matters into our own hands, to fashion something we can see and control, an idol of our own making, rather than continuing to wait in faith. Impatience with God's timing is a doorway to idolatry.

When God or his working seems delayed, do I keep waiting on him in faith, or, like the impatient people at the mountain, do I take matters into my own hands and fashion my own substitute gods to fill the gap?

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