137. Metallic Idols
• 1 min. read • grade level: 9
Most of the large idols worshiped by the ancients were first made of wood and then covered with plates of metal. We find illustrations of this in Isaiah 30:2222Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. (Isaiah 30:22), and 40:19. See also Nahum 1:1414And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile. (Nahum 1:14); Habakkuk 2:1818What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? (Habakkuk 2:18). A wooden image (or one of stone; see Hab. 2:1919Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. (Habakkuk 2:19)) was first prepared, and the gold was then cast into a flat sheet which the goldsmith hammered and spread out into plating which was fastened on the wooden form. Thus the goldsmith first melted the gold, and then used “a graving tool” to fashion it to the shape of the image. Aaron’s molten calf seems to have been made in this manner. “This is evident from the way in which it was destroyed: the image was first of burnt, and then beaten or crushed to pieces, and pounded or ground to powder (Deut. 9:2121And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount. (Deuteronomy 9:21)); that is, the wooden center was first burnt into charcoal, and then the golden covering beaten or rubbed to pieces; verse 20, compared with Deuteronomy 9:2121And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount. (Deuteronomy 9:21)” (Keil).