“Bible animals: a golden calf”
Exodus 32:4
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
As a boy growing up in Vittoria, Sicily in the early 1940s, Arturo Di Modica enjoyed watching craftsmen weave baskets and carve wooden carts. When he told his father that, when he grew up, he too wanted to become an artist, his father refused, telling him it would be a waste of time. So at the ripe old age of eighteen, he packed his bags and ran away from home. At first, he moved to Florence, Italy, then later to New York City.
And while he was working a series of odd jobs, he was also learning how to forge metal and cast bronze. Eventually, he became so good at his craft, an English sculptor named Henry Moore nicknamed him “the young Michelangelo.”
Then came October 19, 1987--Black Monday. It’s the day the Stock Market crashed, losing $1.7 trillion all in one day. And that’s when Arturo Di Modica had an idea. Why not create a sculpture for the people of New York to thank them for accepting him and supporting him as a sculptor?
So that’s exactly what he did! Over the next two years, at a cost of $360,000, he created an eleven feet tall, sixteen feet long, seven thousand pound bull, and called it Charging Bull, a symbol, he said, of optimism, perseverance, and strength. Then on December 15th, in the middle of the Christmas rush, in the middle of the night, (seeing as how he didn’t have any permission), he loaded it onto the back of a flatbed truck. And with the help of a few friends, he dropped it off right smack in front of the New York Stock Exchange.
Later he said, “My point was to show people that if you want to do something in a moment when things are very bad, you can do it. You can do it by yourself. My point was that you must be strong.”
If you have a chance, you can even stop and see it next time you’re in downtown New York!
But that’s not the only famous bull in the world. The United Kingdom has one called the Bullring Bull, and so does Oxford, England, Barcelona, Spain, Smithtown, Long Island, and even Durham, North Carolina.
But of all the famous bull sculptures past, present, or yet to come, the most famous one of all is found in the words of Exodus chapter 32, our Bible animal for today.
I’ll start at verse 1: “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ‘Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So Aaron said to them, ‘Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” (Exodus 32:1-4).
Let’s step back for a moment to see what’s going on.
The book of Exodus chapter 32 takes us out to the wilderness to a place called Mt. Sinai. Just three months before, the Lord had overpowered Pharaoh and his people and as well as all the gods of Egypt with plagues--frogs and flies, lice and locusts, even complete and utter darkness. As He said in Exodus chapter 12: “I will execute judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord” (Exodus 12:12).
And if all that wasn’t enough, He made a way for them, on dry ground, through the Red Sea. And after all were finally safe on the other side, Moses and the people sang: “I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and rider He has thrown into the sea” (Exodus 15:1).
And in the days and weeks that followed, God began to lead them through the wilderness and to the Promised Land. When they were thirsty, He gave them water. When they were hungry, He gave them bread. When they needed direction and a sense of His presence, He gave them a cloud by day and fire by night. And He gave them the promise of a land that flowed with milk and honey.
They were a free, safe, well-fed, divinely led, and beloved people with hope and a future.
And now after some three months along the way, they came to Mt. Sinai, to the mountain of the Lord. As the Bible says, “Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder” (Exodus 19:18-19). Then it says, “The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up” (Exodus 19:20).
So how long was Moses on top of that mountain? Well, one day turned to two days, which turned to one week, which turned to two weeks, which turned to forty days, until finally, the Israelites began to feel completely lost and forgotten, helpless at the bottom of Mount Sinai.
As one commentator put it, “Moses being gone these forty days and forty nights created an atmosphere of frightened impatience in the people.”
Imagine the conversations between the people--”Where’s Moses? What’s he doing up there all this time? Maybe he died up there! Maybe he doesn’t care about us! If he did, he’d be down here leading us to the Promised Land!”
Even more, you have to realize just how important Moses was to the Israelites. It was through him that God redeemed Israel. Through Moses, God split the Red Sea and gave the people manna. He was the go-between, the intermediary between God and the people. He was the living link to the hidden presence. So no more Moses meant no more communication with God.
Imagine for a moment if our president suddenly left the country, never to be seen or heard from again. Even worse, there was no Fox News or CNN that could give us up to the minute updates on his status, health, and condition. And the rest of us would be left to wonder where he went and what on earth could possibly have happened to him?
So what did the people do? What would you do? They said in verse 1: “As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Exodus 21:1).
In other words, yes, he was a great guy when he was around, but we haven’t seen hide nor hair of him for, what is it now(?), forty days! And here we are, smack in the middle of who-knows-where, waiting on some very likely dead guy up on the top of some mountain. He is so yesterday’s news and it’s time to move on!
So you see, it’s not as if the people woke up one morning and said “Let’s make a golden calf and throw ourselves a party!” Instead, after spending one day after another and one week after another without a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night assuring them of God’s love and presence, they woke up and said, “Where’s Moses? And where’s God? Maybe it’s time we take all this into our own hands!”
Or let me put it this way--remember back when you were in grade school and your teacher, for some reason or another, had to leave the classroom for just a minute. And before she left, she told you all to “Be quiet and study!”
However, you might also remember that, just as soon as she left the room, paper wads and erasers started to fly across the room!
That’s exactly what happened to the people of Israel!
So they came to Aaron and said in verse 1, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us” (Exodus 32:1).
And what did Aaron do? We know what he should have done. Even he knows what he should have done. But rather than being a real leader like he should have been, he caved. He gave in and gave the people exactly what they wanted.
And after taking their many rings of gold, he melted them down and made a golden calf--a craft project, a tacky bit of bling, a grotesque caricature of the majestic God of the universe. And he said: “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:4).
Why a calf? For one thing, a golden calf was a sort of reminder of the “good old days” back when life was good in the land of Egypt, back when they had more than enough food to eat and water to drink. And for another, it was exactly like the Egyptian god Apis, the god of fertile fields, fertile herds, and fertile families, a symbol of power and strength, and Hathor, the goddess of love and joy and celebration.
Then what? The Bible says that, just as soon as Aaron built an altar in front of it, he made this proclamation: “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord!” (Exodus 32:5).
Now sometimes, when we read the Old Testament, it’s easy to look down on those people and say, “You silly Israelites! God just brought you out of Egypt and now you’re making a golden calf to bow down and worship? How could you be so stupid! Why would you ever want to worship something you’ve made with your own hands?!”
Now before you get too carried away, let me remind you that golden calves come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. For some, it’s power, control, wealth, success, and fame. For others, it’s self-indulgence. In fact, anything that consumes your time or energy or resources and hinder or limits your worship of God, anything you love, think about, or serve, and anything you raise up in the place of God is your golden calf.
If truth be known, we don’t have just one golden calf. We have a whole herd!
And no matter how pretty or shiny or beautiful your golden calf or calves might be, they’ll lead you down a path of misery and death.
That is, after all, what Paul once wrote to the Colossians: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2). And Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).
So what’s the solution to all of this? It’s found not in some shiny, golden calf. Instead, it’s found in the spotless Lamb of God!
For while the golden calf was manufactured in the hearts and minds and hands of a sinful Israel, Jesus, the sinless Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. And while the golden calf was dead on arrival, Jesus gave His life as a ransom for many. He, and not Aaron, would be the great High Priest. He, and not Moses, would be the one Mediator between God and man. He would offer up His holy life and His perfectly sacrificial death to pay for our sins, so that we might have redemption.
In the words of pastor and poet John Newton: “Lord, save us from our golden calves, our sin with grief we own; we would no more be Thine by halves, but live to Thee alone.”
Help us, dear Father, to be faithful to You, and to love, honor, and trust in You and You alone, for Jesus’ sake. Amen