Day 16: Aaron
Exodus 32
- Moses had gone up Mount Sinai and Aaron was the "go to guy" for the time being.
- the Israelites wanted him to make them gods to worship since they weren't sure if Moses was coming back. I don't understand how they could so quickly turn against God after all he had done for them. I guess it's like us continuing to sin after all the Christ has done for us - even when we know that it's wrong.
- Aaron made a golden calf out of the earrings from the people.
- the calf symbolized the gods that delivered the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians. They bowed before it and made sacrifices to the idol.
- the Lord knew this was going on and told Moses. He then wanted to destroy them and instead make Moses into a great nation.
- but Moses pleaded with the Lord to spare the lives of the Israelites.
- Moses came down and threw the two tablets of testimony down, breaking them in anger. He burned the calf, ground it into powder and made the Israelites drink it.
- Aaron's excuse was that they told him to make the gods...likely threatened him.
- the Levites rallied to Moses and Aaron as a show of their allegiance to the Lord and they killed about 3,000 of their fellow Israelites to show that they were set apart for God.
- then Moses went back up the mountain to plea with the Lord for forgiveness of their sins.
- those who sinned were blotted out of the book of life and the Lord struck them with a plague as a punishment for worshipping the golden calf Aaron made.
From a first glance, it appears that Aaron is a very weak leader and influenced by how the people think. It almost sounds like they asked him to make them an idol and he just agreed without argument. Either he thought the same way as them or maybe they threatened him. It is not really clear. After Moses returned, Aaron tried to deflect blame to the people. "They were the ones who asked me. They made me do it." But the bottom line was that he went with their sinful requests and that makes him no better. For me, Aaron is an example of how we shouldn't give in to pressure to do the wrong thing. We need to stand firm for what we know is right...even if it means suffering or death.
- Moses had gone up Mount Sinai and Aaron was the "go to guy" for the time being.
- the Israelites wanted him to make them gods to worship since they weren't sure if Moses was coming back. I don't understand how they could so quickly turn against God after all he had done for them. I guess it's like us continuing to sin after all the Christ has done for us - even when we know that it's wrong.
- Aaron made a golden calf out of the earrings from the people.
- the calf symbolized the gods that delivered the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians. They bowed before it and made sacrifices to the idol.
- the Lord knew this was going on and told Moses. He then wanted to destroy them and instead make Moses into a great nation.
- but Moses pleaded with the Lord to spare the lives of the Israelites.
- Moses came down and threw the two tablets of testimony down, breaking them in anger. He burned the calf, ground it into powder and made the Israelites drink it.
- Aaron's excuse was that they told him to make the gods...likely threatened him.
- the Levites rallied to Moses and Aaron as a show of their allegiance to the Lord and they killed about 3,000 of their fellow Israelites to show that they were set apart for God.
- then Moses went back up the mountain to plea with the Lord for forgiveness of their sins.
- those who sinned were blotted out of the book of life and the Lord struck them with a plague as a punishment for worshipping the golden calf Aaron made.
From a first glance, it appears that Aaron is a very weak leader and influenced by how the people think. It almost sounds like they asked him to make them an idol and he just agreed without argument. Either he thought the same way as them or maybe they threatened him. It is not really clear. After Moses returned, Aaron tried to deflect blame to the people. "They were the ones who asked me. They made me do it." But the bottom line was that he went with their sinful requests and that makes him no better. For me, Aaron is an example of how we shouldn't give in to pressure to do the wrong thing. We need to stand firm for what we know is right...even if it means suffering or death.
Labels: Bible Characters
posted by Matt at 4:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home