It's their fault

And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?" So Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, 'Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' And I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.' So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out." – Exodus 32.21-24

I can’t imagine how Aaron must have felt when Moses came down the mountain. He was caught with his hand in the biscuit barrel. He could not have been any more guilty of going against everything he was supposed to do as leader.

Moses left him in charge. All they had to do was to wait on God, and Moses, to give them their marching orders.

And yet, due to their impatience, the failed. As we now know they made their own god.

So when Moses came down Aaron had to give account.

‘It’s the people’s fault. They begged me to make a god for them. They were set on doing evil, and sure enough they did it!’

Okay, blaming the people was bad enough. But look what he said next.

‘I asked for their gold, they gave it to me, and when I threw it in the fire a golden calf came out!’

We know that was lie, not just because it is crazy, but because we are told later that Aaron crafted the calf.

Notice how quickly things digressed? Aaron failed to lead the people. He then laid the blame on them. Then we told a crazy lie to cover his sin.

What a mess.

But it is no more a mess than we cause in our own lives when we don’t own up to our sin and error. Once we refuse to admit our fault it just gets worse and worse and worse. When our pride keeps us from confession and repentance it only leads to retreating further in to our lies and deception to cover it up.

How different are our deceptions than Aaron’s gold calf story?