“And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.” – Exodus 32:24
During Moses’ time on Mount Sinai receiving the law of God, the Israelites had enticed Aaron to make them a new god, to which he obliged (Exod. 32:1-6). After Moses returns down from the mount, he questions Aaron as to how this graven image came about, and he tries to convince Moses that he cast a bunch of gold in the fire and randomly out came this calf. Moses certainly knew better than that because that molten calf bore the distinguishing marks of intelligent design. When we consider the amazing craftsmanship and intracity of design of God’s creation, it’s just as ludicrous to believe that all that we see around us, especially our human bodies, were just formed and created by random chance, as it’s foolish to think that a molten calf just randomly come out of the fire. This world bears the marks of intelligent design and manifests the glory of its Creator.
As we arrive in Exodus 32, Moses has been up in Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights as he received the law from God. The Israelites had not seen or heard from Moses in over five weeks so they entice Aaron to make them a new god (Exod. 32:1-6). After Moses intercedes for the Israelites and convinces God to not wipe them out for their idolatry (Exod. 32:7-19), he comes down and sees the sinful revelry that they are engaging in and worse, worshipping a molten calf. Moses questions Aaron as to how this graven image came about. Of course, Aaron first tries to deflect the blame and pin it only on the people – “Moses, you know how these folks are always set on mischief” (Exod. 32:22). They asked me to make them a god, so I went along with it. I rounded up some gold, I threw it in this fire and “there came out this calf”. Yeah, sure Aaron; nice try. This calf obviously had the distinctive marks that made it look like a calf; it had four legs, hooves, distinctive facial and bodily features, probably horns, all of which you could look at and clearly determine that this was a calf. Those distinctive features did not come about randomly in the middle of a fire and then it just pop out looking like a calf. It looked like calf because Aaron “fashioned it with a graven tool; he made it a molten calf” (Exod. 32:4). The reason it was fashioned like a calf was because of the craftsmanship and design of its creator; it obviously didn’t happen randomly in the middle of a fire.
Therefore, we are previously given the reason why this molten calf was fashioned like it was; because there was an intelligent designer that created and crafted the image. That is obvious to Moses and anyone looking reasonably that the situation that a calf just didn’t randomly create and fashion itself in the middle of a fire. However, that’s the idea that evolutionists, big-bangers, and the like would want us to accept and believe. They want us to accept that everything we see and know in this world was thrown into a big pile (into a big fire) and randomly out popped a carefully crafted, intricate, amazingly complex creation, just out of nothing (just popped out of the fire like Aaron tried to say). Any person with half a pinky of common sense should reject that, just like a golden calf randomly creating itself in the fire is foolish, instead of being fashioned by an intelligent designer.
The same evolutionist, atheist, secular humanist, big-banger, etc. that would scoff at the Christian’s belief in the intelligent design of the universe, would on the other hand extol the amazing artwork, skill, and design of famous sculptures such as “David” by Michelangelo or “The Thinker” by Rodin or even the Statue of Liberty. An atheist who would reject the ability of a sovereign God to intelligently design and create this world in six, twenty-four hour days, would look at that statue or sculpture and praise the skill of the artist. They would rave about what skill and vision and foresight the artist must have had to craft and fashion such a statue. If you tried to tell that atheist that this sculpture just happened by chance, they would call you an idiot; just like Moses did not buy that foolish explanation from Aaron that the calf just randomly formed itself out of the gold in the fire. They will readily accept intelligent design or artwork by sinful finite humans but reject intelligent design of this world and all creation by Almighty God. No wonder scripture calls those who say that there is no God fools!
There is not enough room here to detail the amazing intricacy and craftsmanship that displays intelligent design in the world around us and in our lives. The earth is just the right distance from the sun to where we don’t freeze to death or burn up; and it’s tilted at just the right angle as well. The moon is in just the right position to control our tides to where we don’t have total calamity in the seas wiping out our coastal cities. We have perfect symbiosis with nature that we need oxygen and the plants need carbon dioxide, so we breath out carbon dioxide for them and plants put out oxygen for us. Then our bodies are so amazingly complex, but yet all parts of our bodies work together perfectly. If we saw someone create a supercomputer with all these prompts to make the right decisions in any given situation (like IBM’s Watson or the like), we would praise the intelligent design of the computer programmer who engineered such an amazing machine. However, our minds, our brains created by God are infinitely more complex than a supercomputer, as it sends commands and prompts to our entire bodies in just milliseconds. To think that all of creation, but especially our bodies and our minds, just happened and were produced by chance is just ludicrous! They all bear the mark of intelligent design by a sovereign, fully omniscient God!
Those famous sculptures are impressive works of art. They manifest the skill and foresight and vision of the creator, and the artists receive due adoration for creating such beautiful and impressive works. Technology and computers are amazing creations and it takes a great mind to create such intricate programming. However, when we consider the amazing intracity of creation, the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the ecosystem, animals and birds, and how that all interacts with our bodies, how could anyone with half a brain say that it just all randomly popped out of the fire one day by chance? Nay. God forbid. Just as the artist deserves credit for his work and places his signature upon his artwork to denote that is was his work, the Great Intelligent Designer has placed his signature, his imprint, his seal upon all creation, and he should be praised for the amazing intelligent design that is displaying in his creation and all the world around us.
Originally published April 2018