Moses Punishes the Wrongdoers

Taking hold of the idol, Moses threw it into the fire. Afterward he ground it to powder and scattered it on the stream that came down from the mountain. In this way he showed the utter worthlessness of the god they had been worshiping.BOE 155.6

The great leader summoned his guilty brother. Aaron tried to defend himself by relating the clamors of the people, stating that if he had not done as they asked he would have been put to death. “They said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.” He wanted Moses to believe that a miracle had taken place—that the gold changed to a calf by supernatural power. But his excuses made no difference. He was properly dealt with as the chief offender.BOE 156.1

It was Aaron, “the saint of the Lord” (Psalm 106:16), who had made the idol and announced the feast. He had failed to stop the idolaters in their heaven-defying plan. He was not stirred to action by the proclamation before the molten image, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.” He had been with Moses on the mountain and had seen the glory of the Lord there. He was the one who had changed that glory into the image of an ox. God had committed to him the government of the people in Moses’ absence, but he had permitted rebellion. “The Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him” (Deuteronomy 9:20). But in answer to Moses’ intercession, his life was spared; he repented for his great sin and was restored to the favor of God.BOE 156.2