Our Responsibility Before God

 

When we come to Exodus 32, we find one of the darkest moments in the history of Israel. Moses had gone up into the mountain to receive the law of God, and while he was away, the people became restless and impatient. They gathered themselves together unto Aaron and demanded, “Up, make us gods, which shall go before us.” Aaron then took their gold, fashioned a molten calf, built an altar before it, proclaimed a feast, and allowed the people to plunge into idolatry and wickedness.

There are several questions we must ask when we consider this passage. Who was responsible for what happened? Who abused the authority God had given him? Why did the people fall so quickly into idolatry? And perhaps most importantly, what does this teach us about our own responsibility before God?

The answer is not as simple as blaming Aaron alone. Aaron was certainly guilty, but the people were guilty as well. The tragedy of Exodus 32 is that sinful rulers and sinful people worked together to produce rebellion against God.

Aaron Had Been Given Authority and Responsibility

Aaron was not merely the brother of Moses. He had been appointed by God to occupy a position of spiritual authority and responsibility.

When Moses objected that he was not an eloquent speaker, God appointed Aaron to serve as his spokesman. Moses would receive the Word of God, and Aaron would speak that word before the people. Aaron therefore had the responsibility of faithfully representing what God had spoken through Moses.

He also held the priestly office. As priest, Aaron was to represent the people before God and represent the things of God before the people. The names of the tribes of Israel were carried upon his priestly garments as he ministered before the Lord.

Furthermore, when Moses went up into the mountain, Aaron and Hur were left with responsibility among the people. Moses specifically told the elders that if anyone had a matter requiring judgment, they could bring it to them.

Aaron therefore stood in a position of tremendous trust.

That makes his failure all the more serious. God had given him authority, but that authority was not unlimited. He was responsible to exercise it according to the Word of God.

All Human Authority Is Limited

We must understand a fundamental principle: there is only one absolute Sovereign, and that is God.

Every legitimate human authority is delegated authority. Whether we speak of authority in the family, the church, or civil government, no man possesses unlimited power. Authority must always operate within the boundaries God has established.

Scripture repeatedly teaches that rulers are accountable to God. Moses told the judges of Israel to judge righteously because “the judgment is God’s.” Jehoshaphat later told the judges of Judah that they judged not for man but for the Lord. David declared that “he that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.”

A ruler therefore does not have the right to simply do whatever seems convenient or popular.

Aaron had been given authority, but God had never authorized him to manufacture an idol. God had never given him authority to build an altar before that idol. God had never authorized him to proclaim a religious feast of his own invention.

He stepped outside the boundaries of the authority God had given him.

And whenever someone exercises authority that God has not granted, that authority has been usurped.

The Connection Between Idolatry and Tyranny

This is where we begin to see the connection between idolatry and tyranny.

We commonly think of a tyrant only as a cruel and oppressive ruler. Certainly, tyranny may be cruel. But tyranny is more fundamentally the exercise of power without rightful authority.

A man may claim to be acting for the good of others. He may even be popular. But popularity does not create authority where none exists.

Aaron’s problem was not merely that he made a bad decision. He assumed authority God had never given him. He manufactured a form of worship contrary to the command of God and then used his office to promote it.

That is a serious warning to anyone who holds responsibility.

Authority is never a license to invent our own standard of right and wrong. A father must answer to God for how he governs his family. A pastor must answer to God for how he leads the church. A magistrate must answer to God for how he administers justice.

The question is not merely whether people approve of what we do. The greater question is whether God has authorized it.

Israel’s Impatience Became Rebellion

Another striking feature of Exodus 32 is how quickly Israel turned away.

Moses was gone only forty days and forty nights. The people had witnessed the plagues of Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, heard the law of God, and entered into covenant with the Lord. Yet within a remarkably short period of time, they were demanding another god.

God Himself said, “They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.”

Their impatience became the doorway to rebellion.

Had they waited a little longer, Moses would have returned. But they became dissatisfied with God’s timetable. They wanted action immediately.

We should recognize ourselves in that temptation.

How many bad decisions have been made because we refused to wait upon the Lord? How many times have we acted hastily, only later to say, “If only I had waited a little longer”?

Patience is part of faith. Sometimes obedience means remaining where God has placed us until He directs otherwise. When we refuse to wait, we are often tempted to manufacture our own solution.

Israel manufactured a god.

Aaron Feared the People More Than God

When the people demanded an idol, Aaron should have refused.

He had stood before Pharaoh. He had witnessed the power of God. He had seen Egypt judged. He had watched the Red Sea open and had experienced the deliverance of the Lord.

Yet the man who had faced Pharaoh could not withstand the pressure of his own people.

Instead of remaining faithful to his office, he surrendered to popular demand.

There is a great danger when leaders begin asking first, “What do the people want?” rather than, “What has God commanded?”

A man of God must never become merely a politician who studies the desires of the people and then adjusts the truth accordingly. If the people demand what God forbids, the leader’s responsibility is not to accommodate them. His responsibility is to remain faithful.

Aaron knew better, yet he yielded.

That should humble every one of us. A man may have stood strong yesterday and fall today. Past faithfulness does not make us immune to present temptation.

That is why Scripture warns, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

The People Were Not Innocent

While Aaron was clearly guilty, we must not make the mistake of treating the people as helpless victims.

Exodus 32:35 says something remarkable: “The Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.”

Aaron physically fashioned the calf. How, then, did the people make it?

They demanded it.

They gathered themselves together. They told Aaron what they wanted. They donated the gold. They accepted the idol. They worshipped before it. They brought sacrifices. They participated in the wickedness that followed.

The calf was Aaron’s by construction, but it was theirs by demand, support, and worship.

This is a sobering lesson in responsibility.

We cannot always blame corrupt leadership while ignoring the desires of corrupt people. Sometimes rulers give people exactly what they want.

The people of Israel asked for the idol, and Aaron gave it to them.

A Majority Cannot Make Sin Righteous

Another important truth appears in this chapter: numbers do not determine righteousness.

The people gathered themselves together. They had a collective demand. They represented the majority.

But the majority was wrong.

There is such a thing as the tyranny of the majority. Many people acting together can violate God’s law just as surely as one ruler can.

We must never believe that something becomes righteous merely because enough people approve of it.

God’s truth is not decided by vote.

We do not vote on whether adultery is wrong. We do not vote on whether idolatry is acceptable. We do not vote on whether Christ is Lord. We do not vote on whether God’s Word should be obeyed.

Where God has spoken, the matter is settled.

Any time we imagine that human approval can ratify or overturn the command of God, we have elevated ourselves into a position of sovereignty that belongs to God alone.

False Worship Leads to Moral Corruption

The golden calf did not remain merely a religious error.

The people “sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.” Their false worship quickly became moral disorder and unrestrained behavior.

That should not surprise us.

What we believe about God will eventually affect how we live.

When God is displaced from His rightful position, moral restraint begins to disappear. Idolatry never remains isolated in the sanctuary. It spreads into conduct, relationships, families, and communities.

A false view of God eventually produces a false view of man, sin, righteousness, authority, and morality.

That is why we must guard worship carefully.

Aaron Refused to Take Responsibility

When Moses finally confronted Aaron, Aaron immediately began making excuses.

He blamed the people. He said they were set on mischief. Then he gave the ridiculous explanation that he had thrown the gold into the fire and “there came out this calf.”

But Aaron had deliberately fashioned it with a tool.

He did not want to admit what he had done.

This is another characteristic of sin: we want the freedom to make sinful choices without accepting responsibility for their consequences.

Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. Aaron blamed the people.

We do the same thing.

But God holds each of us responsible for our own actions.

The people could not excuse themselves by blaming Aaron, and Aaron could not excuse himself by blaming the people.

God judged both.

We Must Follow God, Not the Crowd

The great lesson of Exodus 32 is that God’s people must remain faithful to God even when the crowd demands something else.

We are not called to follow the majority. We are called to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is especially important in the church. Christ is the Head of the church. His Word governs His people. We have no authority to alter His commandments because something else has become fashionable, popular, or culturally acceptable.

Aaron attempted to mix the worship of the true God with religious practices the people had known in Egypt. He took elements of pagan worship and tried to connect them with the name of the Lord.

That kind of mixture is always dangerous.

God does not ask us to improve Christianity by blending it with every idea the world offers. He calls us to preserve the purity of the faith and to worship Him according to His Word.

Exodus 32 therefore gives us a warning we desperately need. Leaders must not abuse or exceed the authority God has given them. People must not demand what God has forbidden. Majorities cannot turn unrighteousness into righteousness. And none of us can escape responsibility by pointing to someone else.

We must ask ourselves: Are we willing to wait upon God? Are we willing to obey when obedience is unpopular? Are we willing to refuse the golden calf even when everyone around us wants one?

May God give us the grace to reject idolatry, resist tyranny, accept personal responsibility, and remain faithful to His Word.

Our loyalty must never belong first to a leader, a movement, a majority, or a culture.

It belongs to the Lord.