Three Thousand Were Killed, But Millions Were Saved

Aaron, the brother of Moses, and Hur were left in charge of God's people when Moses was called by God to go up to the top of Mount Sinai for forty days. Moses gave Aaron and Hur specific instructions to wait for his return and to give godly counsel to the people if disputes arose. (I guess their memories were poor.)

When Moses came back down from the mountain, he burned with anger when he saw the people dancing around the golden calf they had made. After destroying the idol, Moses turned to Aaron and demanded an answer as to why he would allow such a terrible sin to occur among the people of God. 

Aaron's excuse was embarrassing, to say the least. It was very childlike. He took absolutely no responsibility for the sin, and blamed it entirely on the people. He must have lost his mind entirely when he stated to Moses he simply threw the gold jewelry in the fire and out came a calf. Right.

"'Don't get so upset, my lord.' Aaron replied.

'You yourself know how evil these people are.

They said to me, 'Make us gods who will lead us.

We don't know what happened to his fellow Moses,

who brought us here from the land of Egypt.'

So I told them, 'Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.'

When they brought it to me,

I simply threw it into the fire---and out came this calf!'"

Exodus 32:22-24 (NLT)

Why was Aaron's life spared? The Bible says that Aaron's life was spared because of the prayers of his brother Moses.

"The Lord was so angry with Aaron

that He wanted to destroy him too.

But I prayed for Aaron,

and the Lord spared him."

Deuteronomy 9:20 (NLT)

God not only spared Aaron's life, but He also spared the lives of millions of others that day because of Moses' prayers. Yes, three thousand were killed, but millions were saved.