◄ Exodus 32:23 ►
They told me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!'
Study Bible
They told me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us.

The Israelites pressed Aaron to provide visible leadership while Moses remained on Mount Sinai. God had already led them by the pillar of cloud and fire, delivered them from Egypt, and entered into covenant with them. Their demand rejected His revealed presence and violated the commandment forbidding other gods and carved images. Aaron’s account also begins to expose his failure to resist the people’s rebellion.

Deu 9:16 And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God;…
Neh 9:18 Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf…
Psa 106:19-20 At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.…

As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt,

The people spoke of Moses with contempt despite his God-appointed role in their deliverance. Moses had been on the mountain forty days and forty nights receiving God’s law, even as the nation below prepared to break that law. Although Moses had led them out of Egypt, the Lord Himself was their Redeemer, guide, and King.

1Sa 12:6 Then Samuel said to the people, “The LORD is the One…
Jos 24:5-6 Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted…
Act 7:35 Moses, whom they had rejected with the words…

we do not know what has happened to him!’

Moses’ absence became an occasion for fear rather than faith. The people ignored God’s past faithfulness and sought immediate security in an idol fashioned by human hands. Their rebellion prepared the way for the golden calf and revealed how quickly unbelief can turn from God’s provision to false worship.

Act 7:40 They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us!’…
Exo 24:18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain…
Deu 9:9-10 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets…

Persons / Places / Events
1. Moses
The leader chosen by God to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. At this point in the account, he is on Mount Sinai receiving the Law from God.

2. Aaron
Moses' brother and the high priest, who is left in charge of the people while Moses is on the mountain. He succumbs to the people's demands and makes the golden calf.

3. The Israelites
The people of God who have been delivered from slavery in Egypt. They grow impatient waiting for Moses and demand a tangible god to lead them.

4. Mount Sinai
The mountain where Moses meets with God and receives the Ten Commandments. It is a place of divine revelation and covenant.

5. The Golden Calf
An idol made by Aaron at the request of the Israelites, representing a significant act of disobedience and idolatry against God.
Teaching Points
The Danger of Impatience
The Israelites' impatience led them to sin. We must learn to wait on God's timing and trust in His plans, even when they are not immediately clear.

Leadership and Responsibility
Aaron's failure to stand firm against the people's demands shows the importance of strong, godly leadership. Leaders must remain steadfast in their convictions and responsibilities.

The Temptation of Idolatry
Idolatry is not just about physical idols but anything that takes the place of God in our hearts. We must examine our lives for modern-day idols and remove them.

The Consequences of Disobedience
The Israelites' actions had severe consequences. Disobedience to God leads to spiritual and sometimes physical repercussions.

The Need for Repentance
When we fall into sin, like the Israelites, we must turn back to God in repentance, seeking His forgiveness and restoration.
Bible Study Questions
1. What does the Israelites' demand for a god reveal about their understanding of God's nature and their relationship with Him?

2. How can we apply the lesson of waiting on God's timing in our own lives, especially when we feel uncertain or impatient?

3. In what ways might we be tempted to create "golden calves" in our own lives today? How can we guard against this?

4. How does Aaron's response to the people's demands challenge us to consider our own leadership and influence over others?

5. Reflect on a time when you faced the consequences of disobedience. How did that experience shape your understanding of God's grace and the importance of repentance?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Deuteronomy 9:16
This verse recounts Moses' reaction to the Israelites' sin with the golden calf, emphasizing the gravity of their idolatry.

Acts 7:39-41
Stephen, in his speech before the Sanhedrin, references the Israelites' rejection of Moses and their turning to idolatry, highlighting the recurring theme of rebellion against God.

1 Corinthians 10:7
Paul warns the Corinthians against idolatry, using the example of the Israelites and the golden calf as a cautionary tale.
Sermons
The Return of Moses to the CampJ. Orr Exodus 32:15-25
Judgment and MercyJ. Urquhart Exodus 32:15-35
People
Aaron, Egyptians, Isaac, Israelites, Joshua, Levi, Levites, Moses
Places
Egypt, Sinai
Topics
Egypt, Fellow, Gods, Idea, Wot
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Exodus 32:23

     4648   goad
     5418   monotony
     8718   disobedience

Exodus 32:19-24

     4618   calf
     8822   self-justification

Exodus 32:21-24

     5072   Aaron, spokesman

Exodus 32:21-35

     4269   Sinai, Mount

Exodus 32:22-24

     5851   excuse

Library
The Golden Calf
'And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, 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. 2. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 3. And all the people brake off the golden …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Swift Decay of Love
'And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. 16. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. 17. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. 18. And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Hebrews and the Philistines --Damascus
THE ISRAELITES IN THE LAND OF CANAAN: THE JUDGES--THE PHILISTINES AND THE HEBREW KINGDOM--SAUL, DAVID, SOLOMON, THE DEFECTION OF THE TEN TRIBES--THE XXIst EGYPTIAN DYNASTY--SHESHONQ OR SHISHAK DAMASCUS. The Hebrews in the desert: their families, clans, and tribes--The Amorites and the Hebrews on the left bank of the Jordan--The conquest of Canaan and the native reaction against the Hebrews--The judges, Ehud, Deborah, Jerubbaal or Gideon and the Manassite supremacy; Abimelech, Jephihdh. The Philistines, …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 6

Threefold Repentance
'And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 3. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall he overthrown. 5. So the people of Ninoveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood
"That My covenant might be with Levi. My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared Me, and was afraid before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips; he walked with Me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity."--MAL. ii. 4-6. ISRAEL was meant by God to be a nation of priests. In the first making of the Covenant this was distinctly stipulated. "If ye will obey My voice, and keep My covenant, …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

How those who Use Food Intemperately and those who Use it Sparingly are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 20.) Differently to be admonished are the gluttonous and the abstinent. For superfluity of speech, levity of conduct, and lechery accompany the former; but the latter often the sin of impatience, and often that of pride. For were it not the case that immoderate loquacity carries away the gluttonous, that rich man who is said to have fared sumptuously every day would not burn more sorely than elsewhere in his tongue, saying, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Letter xix (A. D. 1127) to Suger, Abbot of S. Denis
To Suger, Abbot of S. Denis He praises Suger, who had unexpectedly renounced the pride and luxury of the world to give himself to the modest habits of the religious life. He blames severely the clerk who devotes himself rather to the service of princes than that of God. 1. A piece of good news has reached our district; it cannot fail to do great good to whomsoever it shall have come. For who that fear God, hearing what great things He has done for your soul, do not rejoice and wonder at the great …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Seasons of Covenanting.
The duty is never unsuitable. Men have frequently, improperly esteemed the exercise as one that should be had recourse to, only on some great emergency. But as it is sinful to defer religious exercises till affliction, presenting the prospect of death, constrain to attempt them, so it is wrong to imagine, that the pressure of calamity principally should constrain to make solemn vows. The exercise of personal Covenanting should be practised habitually. The patriot is a patriot still; and the covenanter …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Letter xxii (Circa A. D. 1129) to Simon, Abbot of S. Nicholas
To Simon, Abbot of S. Nicholas Bernard consoles him under the persecution of which he is the object. The most pious endeavours do not always have the desired success. What line of conduct ought to be followed towards his inferiors by a prelate who is desirous of stricter discipline. 1. I have learned with much pain by your letter the persecution that you are enduring for the sake of righteousness, and although the consolation given you by Christ in the promise of His kingdom may suffice amply for …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Ninth Sunday after Trinity Carnal Security and Its vices.
Text: 1 Corinthians 10, 6-13. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. 10 Neither murmur ye, as …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

The Prophet Micah.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Micah signifies: "Who is like Jehovah;" and by this name, the prophet is consecrated to the incomparable God, just as Hosea was to the helping God, and Nahum to the comforting God. He prophesied, according to the inscription, under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We are not, however, entitled, on this account, to dissever his prophecies, and to assign particular discourses to the reign of each of these kings. On the contrary, the entire collection forms only one whole. At …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Instruction for the Ignorant:
BEING A SALVE TO CURE THAT GREAT WANT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHICH SO MUCH REIGNS BOTH IN YOUNG AND OLD. PREPARED AND PRESENTED TO THEM IN A PLAIN AND EASY DIALOGUE, FITTED TO THE CAPACITY OF THE WEAKEST. 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'--Hosea 4:6 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This little catechism is upon a plan perfectly new and unique. It was first published as a pocket volume in 1675, and has been republished in every collection of the author's works; and recently in a separate tract. …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

How those are to be Admonished who Decline the Office of Preaching Out of Too Great Humility, and those who Seize on it with Precipitate Haste.
(Admonition 26.) Differently to be admonished are those who, though able to preach worthily, are afraid by reason of excessive humility, and those whom imperfection or age forbids to preach, and yet precipitancy impells. For those who, though able to preach with profit, still shrink back through excessive humility are to be admonished to gather from consideration of a lesser matter how faulty they are in a greater one. For, if they were to hide from their indigent neighbours money which they possessed …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Purity and Peace in the Present Lord
PHILIPPIANS iv. 1-9 Euodia and Syntyche--Conditions to unanimity--Great uses of small occasions--Connexion to the paragraphs--The fortress and the sentinel--A golden chain of truths--Joy in the Lord--Yieldingness--Prayer in everything--Activities of a heart at rest Ver. 1. +So, my brethren beloved and longed for+, missed indeed, at this long distance from you, +my joy and crown+ of victory (stephanos), +thus+, as having such certainties and such aims, with such a Saviour, and looking for such …
Handley C. G. Moule—Philippian Studies

How those that are at Variance and those that are at Peace are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 23.) Differently to be admonished are those that are at variance and those that are at peace. For those that are at variance are to be admonished to know most certainly that, in whatever virtues they may abound, they can by no means become spiritual if they neglect becoming united to their neighbours by concord. For it is written, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (Gal. v. 22). He then that has no care to keep peace refuses to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Hence Paul …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Moses the Type of Christ.
"The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken."--Deut. xviii. 15. The history of Moses is valuable to Christians, not only as giving us a pattern of fidelity towards God, of great firmness, and great meekness, but also as affording us a type or figure of our Saviour Christ. No prophet arose in Israel like Moses, till Christ came, when the promise in the text was fulfilled--"The Lord thy God," says Moses, "shall …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

Solomon's Temple Spiritualized
or, Gospel Light Fetched out of the Temple at Jerusalem, to Let us More Easily into the Glory of New Testament Truths. 'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out hereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11 London: Printed for, and sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgate, …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The True Manner of Keeping Holy the Lord's Day.
Now the sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in two things--First, In resting from all servile and common business pertaining to our natural life; Secondly, In consecrating that rest wholly to the service of God, and the use of those holy means which belong to our spiritual life. For the First. 1. The servile and common works from which we are to cease are, generally, all civil works, from the least to the greatest (Exod. xxxi. 12, 13, 15, &c.) More particularly-- First, From all the works of our …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist …
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible

Exodus
The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt--opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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