What were they thinking? How could anyone encounter the living God one day and bow before an idol the next? The answer isn’t clear. It is possible the Israelites were simply slipping back into the practices of their Egyptian captors. The ancient Near East was brimming with idols, so idolatry was the default religious practice of the day. With their leader taking his sweet time on the mountain, the Israelites became restless and scared—and they turned back to what was most familiar. The early church