Moses broke the tablets of the law (v. 19) symbolizing the fact that Israel had broken its covenant with Yahweh. He then proceeded to destroy the golden calf, the symbol of the illicit covenant into which they had entered (cf. 2 Kings 23:15). By treating the calf image as he did (v. 20) Moses was dishonoring as well as destroying it.
". . . the biblical description of the destruction of the Golden Calf constitutes an Israelite development of an early literary pattern that was employed in Canaan to describe the total annihilation of a detested enemy."516
Moses probably ordered the people to drink the polluted water for the following reason.
". . . to set forth in a visible manner both the sin and its consequences. The sin was poured as it were into their bowels along with the water, as a symbolical sign that they would have to bear it and atone for it, just as a woman who was suspected of adultery was obliged to drink the curse-water (Num. 5:24)."517
"In this manner the thing they had worshiped [sic] would become a product of their own waste, the very epitome of worthlessness and impurity."518
Some writers have suggested that this water with the gold dust suspended in it would have been red and is a type of the blood of Christ.519This view lacks support in the text. The writer said nothing about Moses offering it to the Lord to make atonement for the sins of the Israelites. The people drank it; they did not offer it to God (v. 20).
Verse 24 suggests Aaron may have formed the calf by casting it in a mold, but verse 4 gives the impression that he carved it out of a shapeless mass.520The best solution seems to be that Aaron made this calf like similar Egyptian idols. He probably built a wooden frame and then overlaid it with gold that he shaped.
Aaron tried to shift the blame for his actions to the people (cf. Gen. 3:12-13).
"A woman of society and fashion will say, I admit that I am not what I might be, but then look at my set; it is the furnace that did it.' A man will doubt God, question the Bible and truth, and excuse himself by saying, It is not I, it is the drift of modern tendency; it is the furnace that did it.' There came out this calf.'"521
