T he biggest party in Scripture shouldn't have happened. It wasn't like they didn't know better; but people haven't changed much in 3500 years. We know the story: Moses has just led the Israelites out of Egypt with a major miracle at the Red Sea. They have moved out into the desert, and have arrived at the base of a mountain (after a few miracles along the way). In Exodus 19, Moses gathers the people together, and God tells Moses to start seriously teaching the people. The people reply: “We will do everything the Lord has said.” Moses comes down with the Ten Commandments, and finishes with this: “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold." Moses makes two more trips up and down the mountain, and each time the people make the same answer. Then Moses set out with Joshua, went up on the mountain of God, and he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Fast forward to Exodus 32: When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods." Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. And then..Moses came down from the mountain, and was not happy. And Aaron had an answer: So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
The problem with parties is that they can end badly. Three thousand people died by the swords of the Levites, and there was a plague. And Moses had forty more years in the desert with thousands of crabby #7's who never seemed to figure out that what God offers is better than the world's best attempt
We can have good times with good people, who encourage and strengthen each other, people we can trust to have good values and tastes; people who are kind to each other, funny in ways that don't have sharp edges. We can teach our kids to choose well who they hang out with. We can keep our mind clear and mouth under control. And we have the best banquet--beyond our wildest imaging--waiting for us at the end.
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