The Elders

40 days. How did it get so bad so quickly? The elders had just been on the mountain with God. They saw Him. They ate with Him! They ATE with GOD!!

I can’t help but think of Saul of Tarsus. He met Jesus in a blinding light on the road to Damascus—and he was never the same! Why weren’t these elders changed just as dramatically after meeting with God?

As my cousin pointed out, these elders had been slaves. They had a slave mentality. In fact, God had allowed Moses to be adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter so he wouldn’t grow up with a slave mentality—He knew a slave wouldn’t be able to lead slaves out of Egypt. So Moses grew up in the palace understanding royal protocol.   

Moses told the people that Aaron & Hur were in charge while he went back up the mountain to get instructions from God. He was gone 40 days. In less than 40 days, the people decided Moses wasn’t coming back and they asked Aaron to build them a god to lead them. They brought their gold jewelry and Aaron crafted a golden calf. And they worshiped it in the biggest, wildest, most debased party (sex orgy) there had ever been.  

How did they go from eating with God to a sex orgy in less than 40 days? 

Forty days is a symbol of testing. These people didn’t pass the test. But remember Jesus? He was tested for 40 days in the wilderness—but he passed the test because of his dependence on his Father. 

The elders’ meal with God was a covenant meal. Our covenant with God begins at salvation—when we choose to follow Jesus. I think this story is a warning to us. We can just as easily fall into depraved sin if we don’t meet with God consistently and trust Him. If you remember, the people had been afraid at their first meeting with God. They told Moses to meet with God and tell them what He said. So even though they ate a covenant meal with God…they weren’t meeting with God. And their first response when fear set in was to create another god and have a wild, perverted Mardi Gras. 

Are we meeting with God daily? If we’re not, we may just as easily choose a wild party over God.