While his big brother was up on a smoking, convulsing mountain with the Deliverer Aaron gave in to the people’s request for a god. Moshe was not at this time known for meekness. His response to the idolatry that the future high priest took the lead for has to be a joke not mentioned. Moses did not say what he thought of how the golden calf came to be.

And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?

Exodus 32:21

Sometimes the thing we need most can seem like a dream, such as when the Lord reversed the fortunes of the exiled Jewish people, or when the risen Saviour appeared in a room with the ‘”marks of slaughter”. What was the chief of longsufferers to do at Thomas’ search for evidence of life from the dead?

Aaron’s fabulous fib

And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.

Exodus 32:24

Both Yeshua and Moses had faces that were designed to smile at good things and, you guessed it, jokes. What else could Thomas’ unbelief be to the glorified Nazarene beside a joke? If Moses did not see a joke in Aaron’s answer then he becomes a joke for not ripping into Aaron for leading the people into the cardinal sin of Jewish experience.

Fact or fiction?

I find myself smiling when I read Aaron’s report. The consequences of this episode hang around like the firmament enveloping our planet. Idolatry and going after other gods are, in the human and Jewish experience, like the night that makes daylight palpable and precious.

Just the facts please

2) And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 3) And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4) And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 32:2-4