(Exodus 32:15-35) God’s word has so many lessons for so many aspects of our lives. Today as I read about the wickedness the Isrealites turned to while Moses was up on the mountain, there was a definite contrast between the leadership of Moses and the leasership of Aaron. We can see a call for a Godly type of leadership as we are here on Earth.
While Moses went up the mountain Aaron was left in charge. Moses was a gone for a long time, and the people began questioning if he was every going to come back. They began looking for something new to put their faith in, and they turned to Aaron for the answer. Aaron gaving into the Isrealites request for an idol to be created. He could have stood his ground as a faithful leader and sought to restore the people’s faith in God, however he chose to go with just giving the people what they wanted rather than what they needed.
It would seem however though that the only problem was not with the leadership of Aaron, but also with where the people were putting their faith. It reminded me of something that has always been mentioned to me about how there is a time where a child really piggy-backs on their parents faith. There is a point where the child must begin to take hold of that faith for themselves. Here the Isrealites seemed to be riding on the faith of Moses, and really didn’t have much faith of their own. If Aaron was acting as the leader God had called him to be, he should have understood this state of the people and went the route of helping them develop their own direct faith in God.
Moses, as the great leader he was, took it upon himself to be blamed for the failures of the people. He went back to God to seek forgiveness for the people, but at the same time told God that if He didn’t fogive them then he (Moses) wasn’t worthy to be going to heaven either. While Moses was the kind of true leader that takes responsibility for himself and those he’s leading, he did put a little too much blame on himself. Aaron on the other hand tried to play the blame game. First it was the people’s fault, then somehow it was the fire’s fault for somehow magically creating the calf they were worshiping. Aaron did not have the integrity to stand and say “I failed, I was wrong”. God calls us to be leaders of integrity, and expects nothing short of that.
