It didn’t take long for hearts to go astray. “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, ‘Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, ‘Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took these from them, formed them in a mold, and cast an image of a calf, and they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ (Exodus 32:1-4).

This led to God’s declaration that he would destroy the people of israel and make a new nation from the descendants of Moses (32: 7-10), with Moses then pleading with God to change his mind and not do what he had just said (32:11-13) – and then “the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned” (32:14). Wait, what? The Lord changed his mind? [Calvinists, cover your ears.] Moses would go on to break the tablets of stone in disgust (32:19), to destroy the golden calf (32:20), and to command the Levites to slaughter three thousand of the people (32:26-28)

It had been forty days since the Israelites had seen Moses (24:18): that probably seemed like a long time, and they may well have thought that Moses could have been killed by a wild animal or fallen on the mountain and died. Still, I want to think that the memory of God freeing them from slavery and bringing them across the Red Sea would still be a fresh enough memory for them not to choose an idol of gold as a substitute. But alas, sometimes my remembrance of God’s actions has been just as poor.

Aaron’s excuse wins the prize for lameness. He told his brother, “They said to me, ‘Make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’  So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off’; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” (32:23-24). But alas, some of my excuses have been just as ridiculous.

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Help us, O Lord! We are not patient at any delay, and we make lame excuses for our behavior. Teach us to trust that you will work your good will, in accordance with your schedule; teach us to be faithful to what we have learned, rather than insisting on getting on our way.

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