Introduction: Chances are either you, me, or someone we know has tried to excuse something that whoever it was, did. Excuses vary, but more often than not, the reply is something along the lines of “I don’t know how this happened!” One of the clearest cases of “I-don’t-know-itis” took place at the foot of Mt Sinai: Moses was on the mountain top with God; Aaron was left to supervise the people, but some of the people had something very different in mind. Let’s see:

Text: Exodus 32:21-24, KJV: 21 And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? 22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. 23 For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 24 And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.

The history: In the broad context, Israel had left many years of being slaves in Egypt; now, under the leadership of Moses and Aaron, Israel was now at Mount Sinai (31:18). Exodus 19-30 gives more details of the journey but at least for a while, Israel was camping while Moses was on the top of the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments.

Something to remember was that these Ten Commandments had already been given, by the LORD Himself (!) in Exodus 20! But now, the people of Israel are about to commit one of the worst sins possible.

They were about to have Aaron, of all people, make an idol for them to worship! And not just any idol, Aaron was about to make a calf or ox for them. Some of the commentators note that the calf or ox was a copy of the Egyptian “Apis” bull-god, a picture of strength. The strange, and sad, thing is that making an idol of any kind was a direct violation of Commandments 1 and 2!

Even worse, Aaron was going right along with all of this. He had told the Israelites, in so many words, “give me your gold and I’ll give you a god”. Again, some of the commentators believe this was a test—who would gladly and willingly give up something made of gold?—but in this case, they gladly exchanged the gold they could feel for a god they could see. And feel.

Still worse, Aaron had made things much worse by proclaiming a “feast to the LORD” when; really, he had no authority to do so. That didn’t stop the people from bringing various offerings and then beginning to eat, to drink, and to “play”. I don’t think any board games were in view here but they were ready for anything and do anything. So it began.

Then, on the mountain, the LORD told Moses to get back down to the camp because, as He told Moses, the people had made an idol, they were worshiping that idol, and the LORD was about to destroy all of them! Moses interceded or pled the case and then went back down to the camp.

And when he got there, Moses saw the calf—it must have been fairly good sized for someone from even a short distance to know what it was—and the dancing, and, probably, Aaron.

I don’t think Aaron was ready for the question Moses asked: “What did they do to you, that YOU brought such a great sin on them?”

Well? What was Aaron going to say?

The humor:

Aaron first tried to shift some of the blame onto the people. This, of course, was true because they had approached him and insisted he make a god for them! Then he said, “I told them to “break off” their gold (probably referring to removing the earrings, nose rings, and the like) and bring them to me.” Was he hoping they wouldn’t?

And here comes one of the most incredible, most gaslight-worthy, most humorous verses in the Bible: “I threw the gold into the fire and out came this calf!”

Sure, Aaron. I remember some junior high science lessons where we found that liquid will either evaporate or take the shape of its mold or holder. If there was no container, the hot liquid would most likely become a blob of some kind. I remember trying an experiment like this, pouring some water (not much, I promise) on a hard-packed piece of dirt near our house. Sure enough, the water flowed for maybe a foot or so, branched into a few “feelers” heading off the main path; but after a while it all evaporated. For liquid gold to be thrown into anything except a mold would result in just a blob of gold metal.

Now do we see how humorous, how off-the-wall this sounds? I mean, Aaron flat out lied to Moses by saying in so many words, “I don’t know how this thing got here! Don’t ask me, it just happened!” Aaron had no excuse, even though he tried to make one, and Moses did not believe one single word of what his own brother was telling him.

To be sure, God did forgive Aaron, but there were 3000 Israelites who paid with their lives for this idol worship. Just a short time before, the whole nation had said, “We’ll do everything the LORD says we need to do” and in just weeks, this happened.

Some people may think they can give the LORD an “I don’t know how it happened” kind of response when they come face to face with the consequences of their sins. But just as Moses didn’t buy what Aaron had to say, no one should be surprised when the LORD doesn’t accept that kind of answer either. Forgiveness is always available, but lying isn’t one way to get it.

Just ask Aaron!

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)