Why worship a calf? (Deuteronomy 9:16)
Why worship a calf? (Deuteronomy 9:16)--"When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you."
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Asked June 15 2018
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Jack Gutknecht
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Robert Ross
The question seems to place some emphasis on the Idol being a "calf", and I wonder if that (the calf ) is really relevant.
It must be noted that ANY idol, regardless of its form would be equally detestable to God. Remember that these people had had the comforting presence of Moses until this point. Now he is gone (up the mountain) and they doubt he is going to return, so they resort to that which they had always and only known in Egypt: Idol worship.
Moses was on his way back with the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God on tablets of stone and the very first commandment is: "You shall have no other Gods before Me." Exodus 20: 3 followed by the 2nd Commandment: "You shall not make unto yourself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth".
They had not yet been taught this, so to them, the making of an Idol was normal.
Of the nature of the image itself, Aaron offers a rather lame excuse. Exodus 32: 24
" ...so they gave the gold to me and I cast into the fire and out came this calf"!!!