Acts 7:39-41 “To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,”
Idolatry is in the heart of each of us by nature, Colossians 3:5. None of us is exempt. Adam’s fall was due to idolatry. He saw that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, and therefore partook, along with Eve his wife, even though God forbad it. Like so many today, the Tree of Life (Christ) is not sufficient. They want/desire something more, and therein is their idolatry.
Such was the case of the children of Israel, in spite of all that their LORD God had accomplished for their deliverance from Egypt. Once Moses was removed from their presence to receive from God the ten commandments which would govern them as a nation, they quickly turned from him, as God’s Mediator, and demanded of Aaron another god. Exodus 32:1 reads, “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron.” The original meaning is that they mobbed Aaron in a violent way. Acts 7:40,41- “Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.”
Here we see illustrated the nature of idolatry:
1.) The turning of the heart back to former religion. When in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, their minds went back to the prosperity of Egypt, thinking they would be better worshipping as did the Egyptians in their idolatry than to be isolated and shut up to the LORD God and His mercies in Christ alone. The image of the golden calf was straight out of Egyptian false worship where the bull was worshipped as an idol.
2.) Preferring the works of the flesh to the grace of God in Christ Jesus. An unbelieving heart and will would rather rejoice in works, no matter how much it demands. Aaron told them to sacrifice their gold to form their idol, and they willing did so. This was gold plundered from the Egyptians when brought out of Egypt, and reserved for the gold of the tabernacle. Yet, they took that gold, as if it was theirs to give, and gave it up to false worship. Like so many today, they prefer the ornaments of false religion, than the free grace of God in Christ Jesus.
3.) The mixing of works and grace. This is perhaps the most insidious nature of idolatry and false worship. Aaron bowed to the pressure of their demands, making the golden calf, and then surrounded it with everything similar to what God required, even building an altar and offering sacrifices and calling it a feast unto the LORD (Jehovah God). What goes on in ‘christendom’ today is the fruit of golden calf worship, and false worshippers love to have it so. ‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,’ Galatians 5:9. We may ask, ‘How could Aaron be the LORD’S, as His High Priest, and do such an abomination before the LORD? The answer is within the heart of any one of us. It’s not us keeping ourselves, but the LORD keeping His own. Just as with Peter, who denied the LORD, yet the LORD said to him, “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren,” Luke 22:32. As egregious as this act, yet Aaron was a chosen son of God, by God’s grace, and one for whom the LORD Jesus would shed His blood, and therefore, in time, the LORD did grant Him repentance, not leaving him to go the way he would go. Such is the hope of any eternally chosen, blood bought, Spirit sought sinner. But God…Ephesians 2:4.
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