Exodus 32:21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
A Google search on the weakness of Aaron yields this nugget: “His major failures were caused by his inability to stand alone. His yielding to public pressure…” We certainly see this tendency as he talks about how he came to have the gold for the idol. When the Israelites ask him to make them an idol, he offers no resistance, no words of wisdom about why that’s a bad idea. He throws himself into the task at hand.
Exodus 32:22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.
But as I was talking with a friend yesterday, she wondered what the Israelites, fickle as they were, would have done if Aaron hadn’t been there, if it had just been the Israelites hanging out by themselves while Moses was up the mountain for 40 days. Given how they acted *with* Aaron, their behavior could have been so much worse without him. Did the golden calf incident save them from a worse fate?
Exodus 32:23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’
Lord, You tell us in Romans 8:28 that You can use all things for our good and Your glory. Help me to make wise decisions. Help me to lean on trusted advisors. And when I do mess up, which is bound to happen again and again, help me to learn, to draw closer to You, and to move forward. Amen.
Exodus 32:24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
Have a blessed day.