Exodus 32 and Aaron makes a fatal error, something that has sadly happened all too often. He played to the crowd! Here was a man who had been involved in many amazing adventures with Moses and the Israelites deciding after just a few days to build the people a golden calf as a God. I'm reading here about an insecure man who despite his experience, needed to please men instead of God - is this only a weakness for insecure people? He is probably feeling a bit awkward standing around seeing everyone looking for a saviour and decides to become Mr Popular by making one. It then says after he saw how excited they were, he built an altar - he had started on the slippery slope and decided it was easier to take it further than to stop. When Moses comes back down, I can imagine the shame and embarrassment of Aaron. He first tries to blame the people, "you know how evil they are", then twists the truth, "they said to me, make us gods.." followed by the unbelievable but sad excuse that he just threw the gold in the fire and out came this calf. It would have been funny if it wasn't extremely serious and very sad. Aaron was fortunate to escape punishment since 3000 people were killed in judgement for what they had done.
For us, it is easy for 'successful' Christians to play to the crowd. To enjoy the praise of men rather than the praise of God. It might be something as simple as holding back from a harsh prophetic word or as serious as totally misrepresenting God but it all ends in the same way. The loss of authority and face and sometimes a lot of collateral damage in other people who are hurt on the way.
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