The Bad Decisions Surrounding Aaron & the Golden Calf

[mythociate]

You remember the story---Moses was up getting the Commandments from God, the impatient people made themselves a Golden Calf to serve as god, Moses got angry & (among other actions) broke the stone tablets that held the commandments.

The first thing I noticed here was that there (apparently) wasn't even a moment's indecision on high priest Aaron's part---the people were like 'Hey! Moses is gone & we don't know when he'll be back; make some gods for us to follow,' and Aaron (in the very next verse) was all 'Okie-Doke! Gimme your golden earrings to make into something to worship!' ... no 'But the God who leads you exists without any representation before you!' no 'Be patient, brothers & sisters!'

Makes me think of a recent decision from an Oklahoma judge O.K.-ing same-sex marriage ... not because Our Father needs him to, but because 'the people don't know any peace but what the government writes in their records.'

But the punishments God commanded on the Hebrews foretell the punishment in store for the 'lascivious' people of today (is 'lascivious' the right word there? I don't even care what it means  )---along with the broken commandment-tablets, Moses ALSO made them drink the water that he poured the melted calf into AND -licensed a band of Levites to go through & randomly massacre Israel.

Now--since the judge's decision doesn't exactly pull our worship away from God--I don't think there'll be such violence. But I think the problem is that we can't agree on the answer to "Whom do you serve?" (the RIGHT agreement being 'we don't know.')