Exodus 32: 21-29, “And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.”
Aaron was the leader in this sin against the Lord. Even though the people grew tired of waiting while Moses communicated with the Lord on the mountain and the people asked Aaron to make gods for them, he was responsible for leading this rebellion against the Lord’s rule. However, Aaron, like every other sinner alive today, wanted to avoid responsibility for his actions and blamed the people. He even tried to persuade Moses that the golden calf just appeared when he put the gold in the smelter. The people were also naked as part of their sinful worship of this golden calf. Moses set out to restore order but didn’t do it in his own name, he called for people who were on the Lord’s side to help him deal with this sin. The tribe of Levi was set apart from the rest of Israel to act as priests and Tabernacle servants so they performed their role in this matter. When Israel worshipped to golden calf they had usurped their role, apart from Aaron, so they were restored to the proper role before the Lord. The penalty for breaking the Lord’s Law in those days was death so the Levites executed the leading offenders in this sin. These people had chosen to reject the Lord and they suffered the consequences of the choice that they had, knowingly, made.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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