21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”

22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. 23 They said to me, ‘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.’ 24 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!” Exodus 32:22-24

That would be a funny story coming from a 6-year-old, but Aaron was at least 83! He really had no excuse but made something up on the fly.

In essence, he said, “they made me do it; I had no control over it.”

Aaron’s hand was caught in the cookie jar and he tried to blame it on the cookies tempting him!

Of course he had control over his actions; we all do (in a free society). We’re not forced to do anything we don’t want to. Aaron wasn’t forced to melt the Israelite’s gold and form it into a calf. If anything, he partnered with them to do it.

The application of this is fairly straight-forward: when you sin, don’t pass the buck and blame circumstances, people, or even the devil for your actions. Own it, ask forgiveness, and move on. Sometimes, though, we have a hard time at each of those actions.

But the Holy Spirit is still in us, drawing us closer as we walk each day. He wants us to walk closer but we often stray in little ways, and correct course soon after we realize we’re off.

Come close to God and He will come close to you. James 4:8