How do you wrap your head around the idea that a few million people who personally witnessed the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, not to mention the Shekinah Glory, nevertheless returned to worshiping an inanimate object?
It's hard for us moderns to comprehend the plausibility of idol worship. Ancients didn't actually believe that their gods were inanimate. They created idols as a place for a particular god to inhabit here on earth (typically in order to provide blessing for life, family crops, etc). The Israelites had essentially become Egyptian over time—culturally as well as theologically. So, they believed in the god "who brought them out of Egypt" (Ex 32:4) but many of them worshipped him/her according to their Egyptian presuppositions. That seems to me to be very plausible and realistic.
It also fits the text. They claimed the golden calf was the god that delivered them. It makes sense that their religious beliefs were vague. They didn't have a text to follow, didn't even have the law yet, and their collective beliefs were informed by something akin to lore.
How do you wrap your head around the idea that a few million people who personally witnessed the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, not to mention the Shekinah Glory, nevertheless returned to worshiping an inanimate object?
It's hard for us moderns to comprehend the plausibility of idol worship. Ancients didn't actually believe that their gods were inanimate. They created idols as a place for a particular god to inhabit here on earth (typically in order to provide blessing for life, family crops, etc). The Israelites had essentially become Egyptian over time—culturally as well as theologically. So, they believed in the god "who brought them out of Egypt" (Ex 32:4) but many of them worshipped him/her according to their Egyptian presuppositions. That seems to me to be very plausible and realistic.
It also fits the text. They claimed the golden calf was the god that delivered them. It makes sense that their religious beliefs were vague. They didn't have a text to follow, didn't even have the law yet, and their collective beliefs were informed by something akin to lore.