出エジプト記32:1-14 Exodus 32:1-14

The Israelites, together with Moses, departed from Egypt, where they had been forced to work as slaves. They travelled to the land of Canaan, which God had promised to give them. On the way, they stayed at the foot of a mountain called Mount Sinai. On this mountain, Moses heard God’s teachings. These were various teachings about how the Israelites should live when they came to live in the land of Canaan. These were also detailed teachings on how to build the tabernacle, a place for worshipping God. Among the various teachings, the ten most important teachings were engraved by God on stone tablets and given to Moses. These are the Ten Commandments. You are familiar with the Ten Commandments because you always read them together during Sunday worship service.

Moses spent many days on Mount Sinai listening to God’s teachings. The Israelites who were waiting at the foot of the mountain became increasingly anxious when Moses did not come down from the mountain. Aaron, Moses’ elder brother, was the one who had been leading the people in Moses’ absence. So the people came to Aaron and said, “Up, make us gods 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.” What a surprise! How could Moses have abandoned the people of Israel and gone away? And the Lord God, who saved the people from the Egyptian army with the miracle of the Red Sea and fed them with the amazing food called manna, would never abandon the people of Israel. How terrible to say, “Make us gods who shall go before us.” This is contrary to the second commandment of the Ten Commandments, “You shall not make for yourself an idol.” When you think about it, not only the Israelites but all of us humans are prone to the sin of making visible idols and worshipping them as gods, instead of believing in the invisible God.

Aaron, the leader, had to rebuke the people to stop this. However, he was defeated by the people in the opposite direction. Perhaps Aaron thought that if he did not do what the people wanted, they would start to riot and kill him. Aaron said to the people, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” And when the people brought many gold earrings, he melted them in a fire and made an image of a calf. Then the people said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” And they offered sacrifices to the image of the calf, which was made of gold, and worshipped it. Not only that, they enjoyed eating, drinking and dancing in front of the image of the calf

God is holy and invisible to human eyes. Therefore, we must not worship God in a visible form. Only by listening to God’s Word can we know what God is like. Those who committed the great sin of making idols and worshipping them, died in God’s judgement after this. However, Moses prayed to God to forgive the people. So the whole Israelite people did not perish, but were forgiven their sins and were able to continue their journey.