An Ominous Sound

He’d been away a long time

They longed for his return

They waited and they waited

And in them impatience burned

He had been their shoulder

Their counselor and their friend

He had been their guide

Without him all this would end

He had gone up the Mount

At the insistence of their God

Not likely to return they thought

And spread this news abroad

No word was heard from him

For more than forty days

And the people decided

To do something about the delay

Since he had been gone

It appeared that God had gone too

So they communicated to Aaron

What they thought he should do

Make us a golden calf they said

So that we may have a God

For there is certainly none

Since Moses went abroad

Well Aaron in his weakness

Acceded to their demand

And as we all surely know

This was against God’s plan

Of course God was always aware

Of all that they were doing

And this he told to Moses

And insist that he be going

God was mighty angry

And thought to destroy them all

But because of his promise to Abraham

He wouldn’t make that call

  

And so Moses left the Mount

And later with Joshua connected

Who had journeyed part of the way

Since at the top he was not expected

Moses would hear from God

This was at God’s request

So while Joshua stopped midway

Moses went all the rest

While on their way to the camp

They heard a peculiar sound

To Joshua it was the noise of war

Moses felt he was wrong

It was not the sound of victory

Or the cry of the vanquished

Rather is was the noise of something

That neither of them would wish

It was the sound of idol worship

The sound of revelry

The people were eating and drinking

And playing immorally

They professed to worship the Lord

By means of the golden calf

God had given his word to them

But they chose a different path

This was the sound of rebellion

And many of the people died

It is God’s word we must obey

And not that which men decide

Stewart Russell © May 2018