Scripture - Exodus 32:23-24 "For they said to me, 'Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' "And I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.' So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire and this calf came out."
Observation - Aaron is feeling really convicted of what has taken place while Moses was on the mountain. You can see in his language that he is trying to shirk the responsibility of his actions and find a place to blame. He blames it on the people, on the conditions, on Moses and ultimately on the fire and the gold. He says I just put the gold in the flame and this calf came out. I don't know how that happened but it just came out. Aaron did have the strength to trust the man of God and wait til he returned to give instruction. The bible says that the people didn't know what had become of him. In other words they didn't have daily communication so therefore he must be going the wrong way, its time to do our own thing. The people needed to wait and keep plowing in the same direction without looking to the right or the left. Trust that God is speaking to the man of God and he will get you to the promised land.
Application - So often we are ready to move our own direction and do our own thing, because we don't understand what has become of the man of God. We don't know all the details, we don't understand the changes, we don't know all of the things God is laying on the man of God and so in essence we begin to toss our gold in the fire and see what will come out. We don't have the patience to even wait 40 days to see what will return. In this scripture Moses was coming back with some great instructions about the tabernacle and the 10 commandments, and the people couldn't wait. God was teaching Moses how to gain intimacy with God but they couldn't wait. Idolatry was produced when the people walked out from underneath the anointing of the man of God. What came out was a golden calf that represented idol worship.
Prayer - Father help us to wait on you and wait on the man you have placed at the helm. Your ways are above our ways and you thoughts above our thoughts. God we want to keep our lives free of golden calves.
