FRIDAY 03 December 2021 “GO DOWN” Exodus 32:7, 8

Click To Download and Print Document or PDF

Good Friday morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,

Three weeks from today is Christmas Eve, 2021! I wonder what our world looks like from God’s perspective this December, as we approach another Christmas? I know where I live, sadly, my part of the world appears more violent, more morally corrupt, much less “Peace on earth good will to men”, than previous Christmas seasons that I can remember. I wonder what you see where you live?

In recent days we’ve been with Moses up Mount Sinai. He’s been up there for 40 days and nights in the cloud of God’s Presence. God and Moses have been having a conversation, a very long conversation. God has been explaining to Moses how the 1 million people camped at the base of the mountain are both very ordinary people and also a unique people. From God’s perspective, they were a miraculous people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jacob’s 12 sons. They were a Covenant people, for God had promised they would come into existence when there was only Abraham and Sarah who were very old and without children. And they were a delivered people, now free from generations of Egyptian slavery from which God had powerfully rescued them. God had told them He wanted them to be His holy people, and they had promised God they would obey His commands and seek to live as His holy people.

But alas, yesterday I showed you that God said to Moses: “GO DOWN because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘these are your gods O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” (Ex. 32:7,8) Of course Moses had no idea what God was talking about. Moses had been in the cloud of God’s Presence, experiencing the majesty and holiness of God for more than a month. But in his absence the people grew impatient and did as God had explained. They turned away from their promises to God and made a golden calf idol, as they had seen many times in Egypt, and they had a festival, declaring this calf to be their god!

Those two words that God spoke to Moses, “GO DOWN”, have been percolating in my mind over the past 24 hours, and something has struck me deeply. Moses was experiencing a unique human experience. He was with God, in God’s Presence, up on the mountain, hearing God’s perspective of what was happening down below among the people. Moses was then given instructions to leave that mountain top cloud and “GO DOWN” into the mess of the sinful people. Moses was to “Go Down” from God’s Presence, as God’s Ambassador, and Moses would carry the stone tablets on which God had written the 10 Commandments, by His own hand!

Now consider this with me… a few months before, on this very same mountain, Moses had his first encounter with God at a burning bush. And on that occasion God explained that HE had “COME DOWN” from heaven in response to the painful mess of humanity in Egypt. Remember? The voice at the burning bush had said “I am the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I have seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have COME DOWN to rescue them…” (Exodus 3:7,8) And, you’ll remember, God did rescue these 1 million people through a series of 10 miraculous plagues.

Three weeks from today is Christmas and have you considered THAT was another occasion when God saw things had reached such a perilous condition on earth that He said to God the Son Jesus… “GO DOWN” to earth and do something about it! Paul writes it this way in Galatians 4:4 “When the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” Dr. Luke records that God sent the angel Gabriel to announce this big decision to Mary, a young virgin girl in Nazareth. You know the narrative don’t you? “God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel said to her “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The LORD is with you!… Do not be afraid Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give Him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The LORD God will give Him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, His kingdom will never end…” (Luke 1:26-33)

Perhaps you remember Joseph, Mary’s fiancé, also had an angelic visitation to explain what God was planning here. Matthew records “… an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.“ (Matt. 1:21,22) My friends, do you see the similarity between why God told Moses to “GO DOWN” from the mountain to the rebellious people, and why God told Jesus, God the Son to “GO DOWN” to planet earth and an entire rebellious humanity who had turned away from God?

About 30 years later, Jesus said to His closest friends and followers, on the night before He went to the cross to accomplish His humanity rescuing mission: “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” (John 16:28) Jesus, the Son of God, had come, at the direction of Almighty God. He had proclaimed God’s truth, demonstrated God’s power, and was now preparing to give His life as a ransom for those sinful people who would trust in God’s sin deliverance plan.

And an hour or two later, Jesus spoke to His heavenly Father, Almighty God, saying these words: “Father, the time has come. Glorify Me, Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. For You granted Me authority over all people, that I might give eternal life to all those You have given Me. Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. And now Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.“ (John 17:1-4) As you know my friends, Jesus died on that cross, paying the full sin condemnation price for any and all who would trust God’s provision for His deliverance from our sin. Jesus rose from the dead and appeared many times to many people, proving His resurrection.

Then 40 days later, as Jesus ascended back to heaven, in full view of many of His friends and disciples, suddenly two angels appeared and made this bold announcement: “Why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go.” (Acts 1:11) What? Does this mean that God is continuing to watch our planet and all humanity, and when God sees the time is right, God will once again say to His Son Jesus, “GO DOWN”! Yes my friends, yes! God is watching and YES, God will send Jesus, God the Son, to earth once again! Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to give us this specific prediction about that event: “… According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever! (1 Thess. 4:13-18)

Yes my friends, Jesus is coming again, and maybe soon! When Jesus was with His disciples, before He returned to heaven, He described to them what the conditions on earth would be like when the Father would send Jesus again to earth. Matthew records for us that Jesus said: “..Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains… At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.“ (Matt. 24:4-14) So my friends, as you look around the world, I wonder what you think? Could it be that we are very near the time when God the Father says to God the Son, ‘GO DOWN’ and once again Jesus returns to accomplish God’s plans and purposes here on earth in miraculous ways? May I ask you this simple question… if Jesus comes back before the end of 2021, are you ready? How will His return impact your life? Let’s spend some time reflecting on that very real possibility.

And I’ve found a short little song, sung in a language you probably don’t know. In fact I don’t know it. But listen closely toward the end and you’ll hear them in English singing… “When my Jesus comes again”. Look at the people singing about Jesus in their hopeful way, despite their simple and poor surroundings. What is God seeing in our world today… is it almost time for Him to say, as He has before… “GO DOWN” Jesus?

Today’s Scripture is Exodus 32:7-8.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).

Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.