Moses
confronted Aaron point blank and asked him, “What did these people do to you
that you brought such a great sin upon them?” This tells us that while he held
Aaron accountable, he also knew what he was up against. He knew it wasn’t easy
for him to deal with the people. For he himself had seen how unruly they could
be. However, what Aaron did was serious and making the golden calf was a
great sin. Moses was holding him responsible since he was a leader. He was
deemed to be the one that had led the people into sin.
Without
a doubt, a leader has greater accountability. Aaron was the leader and Moses
had left him in charge. He wanted him to take full responsibility for what he
had done. Aaron was given the opportunity but instead of seizing the chance and
confessed his wrong, he began to make excuses. So, he said to Moses, “Do not
let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they
are prone to evil. For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us
who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land
of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ I said to them, ‘Whoever
has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So, they gave it to me,
and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
Can
we identify how erroneous his excuse to Moses was? What he did was flawed on
three counts. First. he was suggesting that Moses should back off. He was
almost suggesting that Moses shouldn’t be angry, as if his anger was the
problem. He was trying to make it seem as if Moses was the one who was
having a problem. People who are confronted with their sin would often try to
refract their wrong this way. Secondly, he blamed the people for what he had
done. He was in effect saying, it was the people who demanded that he did it.
Haven’t we heard this before? People, when confronted, would often blame it on
the devil saying “the devil made me do it.” But in this case, Aaron blamed it
on the people. He was actually saying to Moses that the people made him do it.
Thirdly, he began to lie, making it sound as if the golden calf was a miracle.
He said that the people gave him the gold and he threw it into the fire and out
came the golden calf.
Aaron
certainly knew how to spin a yarn. Like it or not, he was accountable and he
tried to lie about it. He was literally minimizing his sin and downplaying its
seriousness. He was not prepared to own up. So he gave those excuses to evade
the real issue. Isn’t that what we are also prone to do when confronted with
our wrong? We may fool others but nothing escapes God’s sight. He knew exactly.
If we compare what God told Moses and Aaron’s account, Moses could see how Aaron
tried to extricate himself out of the blame. Whether we care to admit it
or not, sin always begins in one’s own heart. No one can make us do it if we
refuse to bend our moral. The first letter of John in verses 8 and 9 tell us
this, “If we claim to be without sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He
is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness.” Hence, whenever we have committed a sin, the only way is to
come clean, admit, repent and confess our wrong. Only when we are prepared to
do this, then can we find the peace of mind to progress with the Lord again.
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