Exodus 31:l2-32:5
Once again the Sabbath is mentioned, as though God delighted to remind the people of His desire for their rest and blessing. Of course we know as we have mentioned previously, that they could never obtain the blessings of God’s rest through any works of their own. God had purposed blessing for them through Christ and they will receive it in a coming day on the ground of sovereign grace. This, however, did not relieve them of their responsibility, for they had entered into a solemn covenant to keep God’s holy law and to obtain rest in that way. God must remind them of this, as He does here, and then He gave Moses the two tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written with the finger of God. Moses then turned to go down from the mountain where he had been for forty days. What a different scene awaited him in the camp below!
Many days had passed by since Moses went up into the mountain and the children of Israel became restless and impatient. Many of them had never really walked by faith, and so when the test came we find where their hearts really were. They soon forgot the Lord and even attributed their deliverance out of Egypt to Moses instead of to the Lord. Then they turned to idolatry, worshiping the works of their own hands. What a sad picture, and yet it is just what man is in himself.
His history has always been one of departure from God, for the natural man has no faith, and loves his own way. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6.
Aaron is soon led away by the crowd, and, being a leader, he joins the crowd as a leader, even suggesting what they should do to carry out their wicked plans. What a warning this is to any who take the place of leaders, whether young or old! A man may lead the people of God in the right way for a long time, but if he gets away from the Lord in his soul his influence may be felt just as much, or even more, in the wrong direction. We see this with Peter when he took all the others hack to their fishing again after he had denied the Lord. He apparently forgot that Jesus had called him to become a fisher of men, and then, since he was a recognized leader, the others quickly followed him. May the Lord help us to look to Him, and not to any man, except to imitate his faith. Let all who take the place of leaders be sure to wait on the Lord before taking a step, and then be faithful at all costs.
Aaron tried to put on a good front for all this wickedness, and he said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” He did not say that it was a feast to the golden calf which he had made, but to the Lord. What deception! What a salve to the conscience! And yet we find those today who bow down to images and then tell us it is not to the image they are bowing, but to the Lord. Let us he very sure about it that, although they are deceiving themselves, they are not deceiving the Lord. He has forbidden both the making of images and the worship of them, and we know that He is just as much displeased with the idolatry of our day as with the worshiping of Israel’s golden calf. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24.
ML 04/30/1950