Exodus 32:1-6:
1Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 5Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” 6So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
Here, Aaron was "filling in" for Moses while Moses went up onto the mountain to speak with God and to receive the two tablets of the testimony. Aaron, while he was Moses' spokesperson, he was not Moses. Here is the problem, Aaron gave the people what they wanted rather than what they needed. The people, who grew impatient waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain, asked Aaron to MAKE THEM A GOD! How ironic is it that they totally forgot that the LORD had just delivered them out of Egypt. Notice, in the above text they said that it was Moses "the man" that brought them out of Egypt.
The ultimate mistake by Aaron was a multi-level one: a. Rather than rebuke the people, explain to them that it was God and not Moses that brought them out of Egypt and b. tell them that there was but ONE God...c. he caved in to the demands of the people. He had them to bring their gold to him and he gave them what THEY wanted. Why would a so called man of God give the people anything other than what God says? Was he afraid of what the people would think? Did he fear harm from them? Did he fear God? Obviously, the answer to the last question is no, simply because as closely as Aaron was connected to Moses, he had to know how God frowned on idolatry. Yet he disregarded this to please the people. As a pastor of people, you cannot forsake the Word of God for the feelings of the people. The feelings/emotions cause people to run after every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14), to collect teachers to tickle their itching ears (2 Tim 4:3) and to exchange the truth for lies (Rom 1:25). If anyone has to stand up for God, it's the one that He's called to be his mouthpiece. There is no room for error as it pertains to delivering God's word God's way. A weak, spineless pastor gives the people what they want. A pastor with a heart after God's heart gives the people what they need in spite of their grumblings.
Aaron's weak excuse was in verse 22-24:
"Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. 23“For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24“I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” "
So the people were prone to evil, the people "said" to you to make them a god and your answer was "give me some gold" to throw into the fire. Aaron's lies were evident as the calf did not simply jump out of the fire...he fashioned it with his own hands and with a graving tool (verse 4). Fashioning that golden calf kindled the anger of God and Moses had to plead on behalf of the people to avert their destruction. God's plan was to destroy everything except for a very small remnant of people. God relented, but Moses ended up having most of the idolaters killed anyway. Aaron could have prevent that by simply instructing the people in the ways of God and telling them the truth.
Today, we live in a culture of "tolerance and acceptance" where God's word is continually watered down to fit the "needs" of the people and the need for God is continually diminished. As long as there are Aarons in pulpits across America, it will only get worse. God's Word has absolutely nothing to do with how we feel. We cannot preach a gospel to fit the people, rather we must preach such that the lives of the people are reprioritized and realigned to fit the gospel. Anything less is doing the parishioners a disservice.
Both Moses and Aaron had their shortcomings. Moses had anger issues. Aaron bent his his will to the will of the people. Both of them point to the inadequacy of man and the sufficiency of Christ. Christ came to fulfill what the priests, kings and prophets could not do. He did it all and fulfilled everything that God required of man. Christ is the standard for any preacher and He is the standard for ALL of those that name His name. Jesus preached the truth when He walked this earth and he set the standard for anyone proclaiming the Word of God to preach the truth. If the one that you sit under does not have a Christological, Christ/bible centered theology, their message will be to please you and not to push you. If anyone is reading this and you don't like it...I take that as a compliment. I'm not a palate tickler and I pray that God would keep it that way.
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