Exodus 32:19-24 "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf."
Moses had come down from mount Sinai to the sound of a great tumult. He heard it for what it was, the sound of great revelry. To Joshua’s ears, it sounded like a great conflict (Exodus 32:17). Surely, when God’s people are rejoicing in their idols, it is the sound a great conflict.
Moses was so angry about the unfaithfulness of the children of Israel that he threw down the tables and they broke. He returned the image of the calf to the fire until it lost its form, ground it up, cast it on their drinking water and made them drink it. In this, Moses made them see that their god they had made had no power to save them because it could not save itself. Further, they lost any legitimate value the gold might have had.
Moses then inquired of Aaron how he let this happen. There is no indication that Aaron tried to withstand the people at all. These scriptures make it clear that we are never to just go along with the majority in anything that denies the very majesty of God. Serving God is no place to “go along to get along.”
Finally, making and worshipping idols is a choice we make. It is not something that “just happened,” as Aaron tried to make it appear with the golden calf. Aaron tried to claim that he just put the gold in the fire and this calf miraculously came out. The scripture plainly tells us that Aaron “fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf (Exodus 32:4).”
Dear ones, we cannot lie to God about our idols. He knows the minute we begin to worship them. May we find instruction in the words of this old hymn by William Cowper. “The dearest idol I have known, Whater’er that idol be, Help me to tear it from thy throne, And worship only Thee.”