2. 7a. Aaron's Gold Calf

Last week we learned about Moses on Mount Sinai. God gave Moses the 10 commandments. They were some of the rules that God wanted the people to follow.

The people went to Aaron (Moses’ brother) and said that Moses has been gone a long time! We don’t if he is coming back! Aaron told the people to bring him their golden earrings. The people took their earrings out of their ears and gave them to Aaron.

Aaron melted the earrings and used engraving tools to carve a gold calf. The people began to worship the gold calf! When Aaron saw the people worshipping the gold calf, he built an altar. Aaron told them, "Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord!" The people got up early the next morning and they offered sacrifices on Aaron's altar.

God told Moses to go back down because the people were worshipping a gold calf that Aaron made. They were sinning and they forgot that God had taken them out of Egypt! God was so angry at the people!

When Moses came down from the mountain and was close to the camp, Moses heard the singing and saw the gold calf and the people dancing! Moses was so angry at the people; he threw down the 10 commandments tablets and broke them!

Aaron told Moses that he asked for the people’s gold earrings. When he threw the earrings in the fire, the gold calf came out of it! But Moses knew the gold calf didn’t make itself.

Moses took the gold calf that Aaron had made, melted it down in the fire, and ground it into powder. He put it in the water and made the people drink it!

This gold calf visual is a donkey piñata! I used the pottery plaster from Hobby Lobby and then spray painted it gold. The gold beads are the long Christmas string beads. If possible, I would delete the beads and look for gold earrings. I even asked people from church if I could have any old earrings to keep for this lesson.

Update:

Amazon has a lot of options to purchase the donkey pinata!

Remove all the loose papers (as many as possible). When I made this, I used USG Pottery Plaster and I can't find the exact plaster online. This plaster seems to be a good substitution. Although, use what you can find that is affordable. Apply thick enough to cover the pinata, but not so thick that it will crack. The ears seem to be the part that will break off, so try to make sure they are plastered good.

I did not try to make the plaster smooth and perfect. Aaron's gold calf probably wasn't. But keep in mind that once you spray paint it, all the imperfections will show.

When the plaster is very dry and solid, I spray painted it gold. Just use what you can find affordable. Again, there are a lot of options. I have this leftover, so it might be Krylon Maxx gold. At the time, Wal Mart had the cheapest spray paint, and I looked for one that could be used on plaster.

A great application for this lesson is obeying God's Laws, so I created this one-page Flip Book to use as a discussion starter. As you read each page, talk about the different things that God wants from them to follow His rules. This includes the color and black & white. This would be great for several Bible lessons. (For some reason, I had issues with the PDF and the opening page you see about didn't save correctly. But the pages you need to print are fine.) Click here to download.