A MATTER OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark

"Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "There is the sound of war in the camp." Moses replied: "It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear." When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. He said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?" "Do not be angry, my lord," Aaron answered. "You know how prone these people are to evil. 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.' 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!" Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies." Exodus 32:15-25

Have you ever been around someone who just couldn’t take responsibility for something when they did wrong? You know…the person who will blame everything and everyone except themselves. They will even bend and twist a story so it doesn’t appear that they were in error. Most often, they talk themselves right into being exposed for the wrongs they’ve committed.

Or maybe you have had an experience with someone who would implicate someone else in a heartbeat if it might deflect the attention away from them. These are the people who won’t hesitate to throw someone under the bus if it means they might be spared. Call it self preservation.

Well, in today’s scripture we see a person like this in the way of Aaron. As we have already studied, he was pre-selected by God to be the high priest of the tabernacle that would be built as soon as Moses returned from Mount Sinai with God’s instructions. Aaron was going to be God’s top spiritual leader.

But Aaron’s actions while Moses was with God were anything but indicative of one who would lead spiritually for God. You’ll remember that he didn’t even question the people when they asked him to make them an idol so they could have other gods go before them. They were ready to abandon God and Moses yet Aaron didn’t stop them. Instead, he participated.

You’ll recall Aaron told the Israelites to "take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." (Exodus 32:2) He then melted down the jewelry and fashioned it into the shape of a golden calf and built an altar for the people to worship the idol. Truly, Aaron was as much a part of the problem as the people of Israel. But you would have never known it by the words he said to Moses in today’s scripture.

We read where Moses has just left his meeting with God, equipped with the stone tablets that God wrote the Ten Commandments on with His finger. As he and Joshua descend, they hear "the noise of the people shouting" and Joshua tells Moses that "There is the sound of war in the camp." Moses replies by saying that it is more the sound of singing that he hears, not the sound of victory or defeat.

As he draws near to the camp, Moses’ "anger burned" as he observed the golden calf on the altar and the people dancing around it. In fact, Moses was so incensed that he "threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain." The people had completely violated God and angered Him to the point where He wanted to destroy them. Now, Moses, the one who had interceded and saved the people of Israel from complete destruction, had destroyed the commands that God had given…just as the people of Israel had shattered their sworn covenant with God through their actions.

We also read where Moses broke up the idol worship party the Israelites were having by taking "the calf they had made" and burning "it in the fire". He then "ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it." Not sure what that tasted like but it couldn’t have tasted good. Frankly, their actions had left a bad taste in God’s mouth as well.

With the covenant tablets smashed and the idol destroyed, Moses then turned to the next matter of business: confronting the one who was left to lead the people in his absence…his brother Aaron.
Surely Aaron knew he was in deep trouble. Moses sharply seeks a possible motive for Aaron’s actions. He asks him, ""What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?" Surely, someone had to have threatened Aaron to do it because Moses wouldn’t have thought Aaron would ever willingly participate in such an evil, sinful event. Or would he?

The spotlight was squarely on Aaron. He could have easily said, "The people were demanding me to make the idol. I was afraid of them…that they might harm me if I didn’t comply with their wishes. So I did what they told me to do. It was wrong. I should have just stood firm and denied their request, staying obedient to the covenant and God’s commands. None of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for me. I deserve the punishment and please spare the people." But as we know, he didn’t say this or anything like it. Instead of apology and repentance, Moses got excuses. Hear the reasons Aaron gave:

"Do not be angry, my lord…You know how prone these people are to evil." Aaron didn’t hesitate to throw the Israelites "under the bus." It was the people of Israel who were prone to be evil. Like Aaron wasn’t.

"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.'" Just because they asked Aaron didn’t mean that he had to do it.

"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!" It was magic. Aaron had nothing to do with making the calf. It just mysteriously emerged from the fire, fully crafted and suitable for idol worship. This was the most amazing lie of them all. Moses wasn’t buying it.

For scripture tells us that "Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies." Notice where the accountability was placed…firmly on the leader as it should have been. Aaron had "let them get out of control." In other words, Aaron could have conversely "kept the people under control" if he would have done what was right and led the people into obedience to God’s commands.

Question: How well do you handle situations that require you to take accountability for your actions? Do you make excuses or blame others instead of taking responsibility for your wrongs? Are you quick to throw other "under the bus" to try and save yourself?

Friends, I think we see a glimpse of ourselves in Aaron, just as we have seen a bit of ourselves in every other key figure in the Old Testament. In the end, we see them as just like us. Trying to live our lives for God yet struggling against the sin that rages within us. Hard as we try to succeed, we will also experience times when we fall and fail. And this is fine, as long as we take the credit for our failures, repent, and allow God to forgive and restore us. In the end, the Lord expects results, not excuses…compliance, not defiance. It’s a matter of accountability.

In Christ,

Mark

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