God's right there yah dummy!

Yes, that's what I would have said to Aaron after reading Exodus 32:1-5.

1 When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”
2 So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”
3 All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
5 Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!”

Observations:

1. Everything started when the Israelites wanted events to happen in their timing, not God's timing.
2. The Israelites forgot everything they had just seen, heard and experienced. They had made a covenant with the Lord and had heard His voice and had seen His glory! And still, they grew weary of waiting and decided to find the "next big high".
3. The Israelites went straight for leadership. Aaron was clearly cornered into showing results and instead of being faithful, he took the most comfortable way out: replicate the gods of Egypt.
4. The most cringe-inducing part for me is when Aaron gets caught up in the excitement and decides to capitalize on his new-found popularity by building an altar. How many times have I seen leaders in the Church, young and old, get caught up in some emotional response, forget to seek God's voice and just plug ahead with some program or project. It's embarrassing to be left at the end with the debris of poor decisions.
5. Although Aaron built the altar, Exodus 32 goes on to say the people was struck with a plague because "they worshipped the calf that Aaron had made". When it comes down to it, we are each responsible for our own spiritual health. Even when leaders make poor decisions, we are to constantly seek God's guidance and truth.

Action steps for me:

• I need to be constantly in God's Word and listening for His voice. Otherwise, I'm toast.
• As a leader, I need to be discerning about what I say and do. I don't want to end up being an Aaron.