"So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights." Exodus 24:18 NKJV
"Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, 'Come, make us Gods that shall go before us; 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 32:1
So the people took the gold from their earrings....and Aaron molded a golden calf.
"Then they said, 'This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt'." Exodus 32:4b
"So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD. Then they rose early the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Exodus 32: 5,6
Moses and Joshua....when they were descending the mountain thought at first that they heard the sounds of war....but then realized that it was the sound of singing and dancing.
"So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made." Exodus 32:35
Do you remember Charles Colson...Nixon's snarling hatchet man? He went from arrogance to humility....was born again....and wrote that wonderful best-seller Born Again. It was a period of fifteen or so years....(late 60s to early to mid-80s)....where the glory of God descended upon us and many were saved....born again....of whom I was one of them....the lowest of the low. The glory began to decrease about the mid-80s....and we became impatient....as slowly the Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical....which became the Karl Rove evangelical....and is now the Donald Trump evangelical. We demanded and then made our own golden calf....and had a party....and it has been one plague after another since then.
