Why God Let the Israelites Worship the Golden Calf

by Autumn Dickson

The infamous golden calf incident; that is one of the stories we read about this week. Moses is gone a long time speaking with the Lord. The people grow impatient and tell Aaron to build them a god. He took their earrings (the ones the Lord told them they could take out of Egypt), melted them down, and formed them into the calf.

Here is one of the details I noted this week that I didn’t recognize before.

Exodus 32:7 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

I have a feeling that the Lord knew when and why the people were making the golden calf. While He worked with Moses, He knew far ahead of time that they were going to make an idol for themselves. What I’m trying to imply is the fact that He could have purposefully sent Moses down earlier to prevent the entire debacle. It never needed to happen…or did it? I suppose that depends on how you define “need.”

The word “need” has more nuance than we think sometimes. I need the Savior in order to live with my Heavenly Father again; that is a defined, definite, unaltering need without any leeway. I also use that word in this way: I needed my parents to teach me and love me into a testimony of the Savior. Perhaps I could have found the Savior without them, but so much of what I have was given to me by my parents. I was given so much from them that I feel comfortable using the word “need.” There is a spectrum of the word “need.”

We need the Savior, and the Savior is also wise enough to understand that we need supports to help us find Him.

Did the Israelites need to go through this incident of worshipping a golden calf after being freed from Egypt? Perhaps they didn’t need it to the extent that they needed a Savior, but I’m comfortable with utilizing that word to describe their situation. They needed to have this experience outwardly so that they could be taught in a powerful way. They needed this experience so they could flesh it out of their hearts.

So the Lord could have prevented the sin altogether by simply sending Moses down. I’m sure the Lord would have had plenty of time to teach Moses at other opportunities, and they would have been able to surpass this debacle altogether.

But is that what Israel needed?

There are some principles here that we can apply to our own lives.

The first principle is the idea that the Lord is more concerned with us learning powerful lessons than being perfect.

I have noticed a trend among parents that they would do absolutely anything to prevent harm from coming to their child. The sentiment is great. Of course we don’t want our children to get hurt. However, sometimes the most powerful thing for our children is for them to face real consequences rather than constant protection.

Last summer, my son would often run off and jump on his dirt bike without a helmet or shoes. Despite the fact that I got onto him again and again and again and again, I couldn’t perfectly keep him protected. Even when I sent him out with shoes and a helmet, he would often leave them behind throughout the day and do what he wanted.

I could have taken the dirt bike away completely, and I did for periods of time. But it wasn’t working. He wasn’t learning.

At the same time, I felt inspired to pray that he would make mistakes and learn powerful lessons without killing himself or getting seriously injured. To be honest, I didn’t make the connection between my prayer and his bad safety habits ahead of time. This is why I know it was an inspired prayer.

One day I sent Warner outside to play with his sister before school. I told him explicitly to stay in the yard because I didn’t want to have to run off and find him and have him be late for school. Unfortunately, the dirt bikes are kept in a shed in the backyard. He jumped on one and put his sister on the back, and they left the yard and rode off.

Thirty seconds later, they were hit by a car. The car was moving very slowly, and she threw on her brakes and essentially tapped them over.

No broken bones. I don’t even think there was any real blood. There were some skinned knees and bruises, but they were totally fine.

Warner was also petrified. The cops came and checked everything out to make sure they were okay. I don’t know if he thought he was going to jail. I don’t know if he was feeling the gravity of what could have happened (as much as a five year old can feel). I do know that he wore his shoes and helmet willingly the rest of the summer. I still had to remind him occasionally, but he didn’t fight me on it like he had before.

The lesson he learned from living the consequences was far more powerful than any words I could have shared, and he started to voluntarily use his agency more wisely than he had previously. That’s the true goal. It’s not about perfection or complete and total safety; it’s about us learning how to use our agency wisely and on purpose so that we can live happy lives.

I’m grateful for the lesson my son learned that day. I’m grateful that the lesson wasn’t so severe as to permanently injure him or his sister.

Israel learned a hard lesson when Moses came back down from the mountain. They learned it very clearly. Would they have learned it in the same way if Moses had simply told them the Ten Commandments? The Lord could have prevented the entire problem, but He was wise enough to know that allowing the incident and imperfection to teach wisdom.

I’m grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ which means that we can make these mistakes in a controlled environment where nothing has to permanently injure our spirit. Even when we make the mistake of creating idols out of the very things the Lord has given us, He doesn’t cast us aside. He purposefully allows us to make those mistakes so we can learn those powerful lessons, and then He pays for those mistakes. He is selfless in its truest sense. He just wants us to be happy, and I’m so grateful He paid for me to have these experiences.

Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.

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