Everybody loves a party. Birthday, wedding, anniversary, they are all good occasions to celebrate. What about the “Great Exodus”? That should‘a been the greatest celebration of all time right? The Israelites escaping the Egyptian army and crossing through the Red Sea on dry ground to safety, saving millions of men, women and children! What an awesome event!
Three months after leaving Egypt (thanks to 10 miraculous plagues) they landed in the Sinai desert. Moses went up on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and other instructions. Gone for only 40 days, the people got restless. They demanded Aaron ‘make’ them a false god to worship in the meantime! They offered up gold to be melted, and Aaron fashioned a ‘golden calf’. They made offerings to it and worshiped it! Can you imagine? Moses returned, and full of anger, he broke the Ten Commandments. He melted down the golden calf and ground the gold into powder. He took the powder and sprinkled it over the water and made the people drink it!
Some celebration! No more music, dancing, drinking or celebrating: the party was indeed over. The taste of rebellion and acting foolish was bitter for years (kind of like enduring a bad president for four years). Even though the idol was gone, the idea wasn’t gone. Idol worship reappeared again when Solomon's Kingdom split into the Northern and Southern Kingdom.
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