While Moses met with God and received the law for the people, he was away for a long time—40 days and nights (Exodus 24:18). The people of Israel grew tired of waiting and wondered why they couldn’t make an image of God that they could see for themselves. Aaron, the brother of Moses, had seen all the goodness and amazing power of God while he worked to bring the Israelites out of slavery. But Aaron did not stand up to this mob. Instead he became the artist who melted down all kinds of gold objects to make a sculpture of a golden calf.

Aaron pointed to the golden calf and proclaimed that this was the god who had brought them out of Egypt. Even with the Ten Commandments still fresh in the minds of the people, they held a festival to commemorate this image that could not see or hear.

The living God saw and heard what the people had done, and he told Moses that he was about to destroy them. But Moses stepped in between the faithful God and the faithless mob. Moses pleaded not on the basis of the people’s actions but on the character of God—his faithful character and his covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This work of Moses as a mediator pointed ultimately to the work of Jesus, who paid with his own life for our salvation and also intercedes with God for us. We still need Jesus as our mediator today—and he never fails.