Exodus 31-32

(March 13, 2014)
It is incomprehensible to me that Aaron would have built the golden calf.  What was he thinking?  He had seen the miracles of Moses (and had been part of many of them himself).  I must think that Aaron was confronted with a hostile Israelite group (you can take the Israelite out of Egypt, but it takes longer to get the Egypt out of the Israelite), who demanded the religion of their captivity.  Aaron lacked Moses’s resolve to lead the people to righteousness – instead giving in to the pressure (which might have been substantial – perhaps even life-threatening).  We can see that somewhat in the fact that Aaron was not among the 3,000 killed by the Levites – if he had been the instigator, the craftsman, and so forth willingly you would think that he also would have been killed.