The month, Tammuz is the tenth month in the Jewish civil calendar and the fourth month of the religious calendar.
Historically, this month is full of tragedies, just to mention a few.
9 Tammuz: Jerusalem walls breached by Nebuchadnezzar II
17 Tammuz: There are five national tragedies mourned on this day.
- The golden calf was offered by the Jewish people 40 days after the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai.
- Smashing of the first Tablets by Moses.
- The walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Roman army.
- The Roman general Apostomus burned the Torah and placed an idol in the Second Temple.
A reminder
The Israelites came from Egypt, where they were accustomed to the gods of Egypt. It would have made sense for them to relate to an image of a god rather than an invisible God.
El or Elohim in Hebrew is spelled with an Aleph as the first letter. God is the Alpha at the beginning. The pictograph for the Hebrew letter Aleph is an ox. According to Canaanites, the chief god El is sometimes called a bull or an ox and represents the strength of El. Strong as an ox.
It is unlikely that Aaron intended the calf to represent another deity. He proclaimed a festival in honor of YHVH [God] when he finished making it, according to Exodus 32:5. And the people’s first declaration, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt”, Exodus 32:4, seems to imply that they took it as a depiction of YHVH.
Because Moses was no longer present in the camp, they wanted someone or something else as the mediator between them and YHVH.
According to Exodus 32:24, Aaron later made another statement, when he threw the gold into a fire and “out came this calf”. This would imply that the calf was manufactured, with supernatural assistance, which to the Israelites could only have been YHVH.
The calf became the thing they worshipped and no longer God.
One God
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one [the only God]! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and with all your soul and with all your strength [your entire being]. Deuteronomy 6:4-5
The problem with this story is that the Israelites “fractured” the One God. The God of ALL things, could not be anything else to them but the “strong God”, the ox or bull. They placed a paradigm or a box around the One God (in which all things exist) to only manifest in their midst as the strong one. Not the one who can provide, heal, deliver, restore, you name it. If YHWH appeared to them as the God of healing, they would not recognize Him and not receive His fullness.
Could it be possible, that we place God in the boxes of our own perceptions? The way we think He should come and how we think He should respond to us because that’s how we can handle, Him.
As we continue to explore this realm, stay open and engage a new part of YHVH you have not encountered before.
