Exo 32:4 | TNotes | STEP | 32:4 the shape of a calf: The idol might actually have been an image of a bull, like the images of the Egyptian god Amon-Re that the people had known in Egypt. The bull represented power, domination, and fertility. The writer would then be using the term calf as a way of expressing contempt for the idol. Alternatively, Aaron might have made a calf, feeling that this sin was not as serious as if the idol were a full-sized bull. • these are the gods who brought you out: The people attributed to the idol what they had just said that Moses had done (32:1 ). Idolatry expresses the belief that the divine realm and the visible world are continuous with one another. This worldview sees it as possible to lay hold of divine power through ritual manipulation of the god by means of the idol. God had been insisting that the very opposite is true: God is not contained in or restrained by his creation, and his blessings cannot be procured by manipulating creation, either ritually or otherwise. The blessings of God are for those who surrender their own efforts to make themselves secure and come to him using the ways and means that he has decreed.

‏ Exodus 32:4

32:4 ^a the shape of a calf: The idol might actually have been an image of a bull, like the images of the Egyptian god Amon-Re that the people had known in Egypt. The bull represented power, domination, and fertility. The writer would then be using the term calf as a way of expressing contempt for the idol. Alternatively, Aaron might have made a calf, feeling that this sin was not as serious as if the idol were a full-sized bull.

• these are the gods who brought you out: The people attributed to the idol what they had just said that Moses had done (32:1 ^b). Idolatry expresses the belief that the divine realm and the visible world are continuous with one another. This worldview sees it as possible to lay hold of divine power through ritual manipulation of the god by means of the idol. God had been insisting that the very opposite is true: God is not contained in or restrained by his creation, and his blessings cannot be procured by manipulating creation, either ritually or otherwise. The blessings of God are for those who surrender their own efforts to make themselves secure and come to him using the ways and means that he has decreed.