Exodus 32:5-75And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord. 6And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. 7And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: (Exodus 32:5‑7)
WHILE MOSES was with God upon the mount, Israel, including Aaron, had fallen into idolatry and made the golden calf. “And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To-morrow is a feast to the LORD.” Aaron here tried to cover up the shame of their idolatry by connecting the Lord’s name with it. He tried to put on a good front. He would have said the golden calf was but a symbol of the Lord. He did not say it was a feast to the golden calf which he had made, but a feast to the Lord. What a deception this was! What a salve to the conscience! Yet how many today bow down to images and tell us it is not the image they are worshiping, but the Lord. For this is what characterizes apostate Christendom; men have set up their idols and call it the worship of the Lord. Thus many are deceived and accept that which is really an abomination and hateful to God. But God is not deceived. He is as much and more displeased with the idolatry of our day as Israel’s worshiping the golden calf.
“And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.”
There was plenty of energy for this feast to the golden calf, and this is always true with false religion. The people got up early in the morning and prepared their sacrifices. They gave willingly too, and did not seem to mind it at all. Oh that there was more spiritual energy displayed on behalf of the truth! What honor to God and how much greater the blessings He would bestow on souls.
Here at the foot of the mount Satan appears to have full sway. It is like the scene at the foot of the mount of transfiguration where the Lord took Peter and James and John. What a wonderful sight that was — the Lord in His glory. But what a different scene below, where we see the child possessed by the demon — the power of Satan — and the crowd gathered around. At Sinai, while Moses (type of Christ) was on high, Satan seized the opportunity to display his wicked power and man became his willing slave. So it is now. While Christ is gone and is on high, Satan has seized the opportunity to subject the world to his evil power; “the whole world lies in the wicked one.” 1 John 5:1919And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. (1 John 5:19). J. N. D. Trans.
But God knows all that is going on. Even while He communed with Moses on the top of the mount, He knew what was happening below. He had already arranged everything according to His purposes of glory and blessing, before Israel had even sinned. He will not be frustrated in those purposes, all centering in Christ, His beloved Son. Satan may appear to triumph, but it will not be for long. When Christ comes in judgment it will be to crush Satan under His feet, it will mean the cleansing of the world by His power, then blessing will flow out not only to redeemed Israel, but to all the nations of the earth. And we, God’s children now by faith in His dear Son, have brighter hopes and deeper joys bore us, for before that time He is coming to take us home to heaven where we shall dwell with Him forever.
ML-01/17/1971