019 The Golden Calf - A Bible Story for Children

Exodus 32-34

For forty days and forty nights Moses remained on top of Mount Sinai. When the Israelites saw that he was gone for so long, they became restless. "Where is Moses?" they asked Aaron. Aaron tried to calm the people, but the longer Moses was gone, the more impatient and afraid they became.

"We cannot be sure that Moses will ever come back," they said. "Perhaps this God that Moses was going to see is not the true God. Make us another god."

Aaron had no answer for the Israelites, so he had to do what they asked. He went among the people and collected their gold jewelry. This he melted down, and from it made a golden calf. When the Israelites saw the calf, they shouted, "This is our god that brought us out of Egypt!"

Then Aaron built an altar in front of the calf, and said, "Tomorrow we will have a great feast for the Lord."

The Israelites woke up early the next day and brought their offerings to the altar. Afterward, they sat down to eat and drink wine, and soon they were singing and dancing wildly.

When the Lord saw this, he was very angry. "Go down at once," he ordered Moses. "Your people have already broken my commandments. They have made a golden calf and are praying to it, saying, "This is our god who brought us out of Egypt!" I have watched these people and have seen that they are stubborn. Now I want to be alone so that I may destroy them. Then I will make a better nation from your children."

But Moses pleaded with the Lord. "If you destroy the children if Israel now, what will the Egyptians think? Pharaoh will say, 'Look, their God led them out of Egypt so he could destroy them in the desert.' Please, Lord, remember your promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and do not destroy the people of Israel."

The Lord was moved by Moses' words and decided not to destroy the Israelites. Then Moses left him, carrying the two stones on which God had written the Ten Commandments.

As he hurried down the mountainside, Moses could hear the laughter and the singing grow louder. He came near the camp and smelled the smoke from the offerings and saw the people dancing wildly. Finally, in the center of their dance, he saw the idol of the golden calf.

Moses was so furious that he raised the stones that God had given him high above his head and smashed them to the ground. They broke into pieces. "How could you let the people do such a thing?" Moses asked Aaron.

"Do not be angry with me," Aaron answered. "You know how these people are. When you were away so long, they asked me to make a new god, and I had to do it."

Moses grabbed the golden calf and threw it into the fire, where it melted. He ground the metal into powder, mixed it with water, and made the people drink it.

Then Moses stood at the gate of the camp. "Let all who are on the Lord's side come to me," he called. To those who joined him, he said, "The God of Israel commands you to kill everyone who prayed to the golden calf, whether they are relatives or friends or neighbors." At the end of the day three thousand people lay dead.

Sadly, Moses spoke to the Israelites. "You have done a terrible thing, praying to a golden calf. Perhaps, though, if I go to the Lord and ask him, he will forgive you."

So Moses spoke with the Lord, and asked him to forgive the Israelites, and God agreed. Then the Lord told Moses to cut two stones like the ones he had smashed and to be ready the next morning to go up to Mount Sinai. Moses woke up early and took the two stones to the mountain. And the Lord came down in a cloud and stood with Moses, who bowed to the ground. "If I have pleased you, Lord," he said, "forgive my people, and make us your people."

"I will make a promise," said the Lord, "and lead your people to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a land flowing with milk and honey. If your people will keep my commandments, I will perform miracles for them that have never been seen before. I will drive out the people who live in this land, and everyone will see these things and be amazed."

Moses stayed with the Lord forty more days and wrote the Ten Commandments on the two stones he had brought. Then he returned to the Israelites, carrying the stones, and his face shone with the glory of God.

Category: Children's Bible Stories