Another principle related to idols is that here there is mixture in worship. This principle can be applied to today’s Christians. Many Christians worship a calf, but they think that they are worshipping the Lord Jesus or the true God. Actually what they are worshipping is their enjoyment. Much of today’s Christian worship is a matter of sitting down to eat and drink and rising up to sport, sing, and dance around a certain kind of enjoyment, around a golden calf. Some of the Brethren teachers pointed this out in a very thorough way. They said that the worship of the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai was a mixture, for a calf was worshipped as if it were God with the proper offerings and in the proper way. The offerings were right and the way was right, but the object of worship was wrong. This is what we mean by mixture.
However, we should not mainly consider the way others worship. We need to inquire about our own worship. Is our worship pure, or is it a mixture? Mixture in worship is related to enjoyment that comes out of self-beautification.
As we have seen, idolatry involves five principles: self-beautification, Satan’s usurping God’s gifts and making them a waste, the worship of the things we enjoy, pretending to worship the true God, and mixture in worship.
Aaron was not a Balaam; he was a true high priest, a yokefellow with Moses. He was one who took the lead among God’s people. But even such a person could make an idol. We should not think that Aaron was able to do such a thing, but that we are not. Any leader in the church is capable of doing this. For this reason, I am always in fear and trembling lest I make some kind of idol. We all need to be careful concerning this matter, especially those who are capable, gifted, and talented.
Exodus 32:4 says that Aaron took the gold and “fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it into a molten calf.” It was not easy to take a pile of gold and fashion it into a calf. Aaron used a graving tool to accomplish this. We have seen that the basic principle of an idol is self-beautification. If an idol is not beautified, who would worship it? The point here is that it takes skill to fashion gold into a calf. Some may have the gold, but not have the skill to fashion it into a calf. But every maker of idols, like Aaron, is skillful, capable, gifted, and talented. Who knows how many skillful idol-makers there are among Christians today? These craftsmen are knowledgeable, cultured, capable, and skillful. Whereas others are not able to make idols because they do not have the skill, these ones have the ability to fashion gold into idols. They know how to make beautiful idols. Sometimes I ask myself, “What are you doing here? Are you making an idol? Are you beautifying your own work for others to worship?” I am fearful lest I make some kind of idol.
It is important for us to see that the golden calf was made by Aaron, God’s high priest. Furthermore, he made this calf in the name of Jehovah, and he took the lead to worship the idol in the way of presenting offerings to God and worshipping God. When Moses came down and asked Aaron what he had done, Aaron told a lie. Aaron said that he took the gold and threw it into the fire, and a calf came out. Aaron seemed to be telling Moses, “Don’t condemn me, Moses. I simply cast the gold into the fire, and a calf came out.” The idol, of course, was made by Aaron. He was the typical idol-maker.
I hope that our eyes will be opened to see the idolatrous situation among many of today’s Christians. Do you think that none of the famous leaders among Christians are makers of idols? I wish that no one of today’s Christian leaders was an idol-maker. If this were the situation, I would truly thank God and worship Him for it. I would be able to praise the Lord that no Christian worker is a maker of idols. However, the Lord knows that today there are many Aarons, many skillful Christian leaders who are making idols. These Aarons are not false prophets nor even genuine Gentile prophets like Balaam. They are genuine priests appointed by God. Nevertheless, they make idols in the name of the very God whom they serve, and they teach others to worship these idols with offerings that should be offered to God and in the way of worshipping God. This is mixture, and it is very subtle.
If you were to argue with one of today’s Aarons concerning this matter, he would probably say, “We are not worshipping an idol. We are worshipping the Lord. We are feasting with Him, and we are offering His burnt offerings and peace offerings. How can you say that we are worshipping an idol?” Yes, everything may be the same as if it were actually God who is being worshipped. But God is not really the object of worship. Instead, there is a golden calf as the replacement of the true God. Originally it was the gold of self-beautification. But now the gold has changed in form and has been fashioned into a calf.
Because there was an idol among the children of Israel, they broke the law unconsciously and unintentionally. Aaron might have said that they did not have any intention of breaking the law. Although none of them had this intention, the law was broken nonetheless. When Moses saw the idolatrous situation among the people, his anger burned within him. Unable to control himself, “he flung the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain” (v. 19). Moses was the mediator used by God in the giving of the law. When he flung the tablets from his hands and broke them, the entire law was demolished, destroyed. In a message to come we shall see how Moses dealt with the idolaters.
One important matter in this message is that God did not give the law to the children of Israel with the expectation that they would be able to keep it. God’s intention in giving the law was that His people would realize that they were not able to keep the law. They could do nothing except break the law. By worshipping the golden calf, they broke the law of God.