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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Tim Maas
I would say that Aaron chose a calf for the idol that he made (Exodus 32:4) due to its established association in the people's minds (from their time in Egypt, where the Egyptians worshipped such symbols) as representing strength (such as God had displayed in delivering them from Egypt) and fertility, and also as being familiar to the people due to the Egyptians' sacrifice of bovines as offerings to their gods. The people had also not yet received the full version of the Law that Moses passed on to them from God after he finally returned to the people following his communion with God, which went into detail on the unacceptability of such idols.
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