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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Exodus 32:2:
Exodus 32:1-5
Excerpted from: The Commandments (Part Three)Now, these people in the beginning were not really asking for another god. What we see here is a chain of events that got away from them, and from Aaron especially. I think it is well documented that these people did not like Moses. They did not like him as their leader. They were jealous of him and indeed, were raising all kinds of trouble against him.
Moses went up into the mount to talk with God and he was gone for a good while so that these people were becoming impatient about standing where they were doing nothing. Now remember this because this happens to you. What happens to you, brethren, whenever you are involved in a trial and this trial begins to go on much longer than you think? And that your leadership seemingly has gone way off somewhere and has left you alone to your own devices. What do you begin to do?
Well, these people did what came naturally. Motivated by their impatience, they decided that they needed a new leader and that any leader that could make them a new god was a man who was going to be worth following. So they went to the one that they picked as being the most likely prospect, Aaron, and they struck gold the very first time apparently.
Now Aaron's problem appears to be that rather than take a strong stand and say, No, God is on His throne, Moses is up there with Him, Moses will be back and things will remain as they are," it looked as though Aaron decided that he was going to mollify them and put them off and so he told them to give up something that was very precious to them, both from a vanity standpoint as well as a monetary standpoint, their jewelry. It did not work because these people were in a sacrificial mood and so they sacrificed their gold. And now Aaron's hand was forced. And so he made them a representation of what was the most common god in Egypt, a bull.
Can you see the sin here? The sin is that in their efforts to get a leadership driven by their or motivated by their impatience, they came up with a god that defined, that changed the nature of God completely, from that of Creator to something that was created. From that which they could not control to an animal, a god that they could carry around and control their destiny with. No longer were they going to be under the thumb of that God who always did inexplicable things and was beyond the realm of their thinking. Now they had something they could control. Why, they could carry it around with them if need be.
What is so interesting is that they were going to use this god to worship the God who had brought them out of Egypt! At least that was Aaron's intent. Because Aaron said, "Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord," not to the bull, not to Apis. That was the bull's name, Apis. But tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. They were going to use the thing in the worship of God.
Exodus 32:1-6
Excerpted from: Numbers: The Book of JudgmentThe second thing was idolatry and this is the only one of the five that was not taken from Numbers. It is taken from Exodus 32:1-6. We all know that idolatry is putting something before the true God and serving it. Now, what is so interesting about that case there, that event recorded in Exodus 32, is the reason they gave for doing what they did. It is so interesting to you and me. "We know not what has happened to this Moses." Can you think of the New Testament parallel to that? I will tell you what it is, "My lord delays His coming." So what did the people do? They sat down to eat and then they rose up to play. In neither case was it a good thing.
You see, again their reasoning reflects a lack of faith. They had an "out of sight, out of mind" approach that justified to them the reason for serving a god that was inferior even to themselves! I mean they were worshipping a stupid, dumb piece of gold and wood. They did not even make an idol of a human being, did not even make an idol or a god of a living leader. You think there would be more excuse or more justification for something like that. And then to have Aaron say, "Well, I just threw the gold into the fire and this is what came out."
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