Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends as we begin a new week together,
Would you agree most people are ‘fickle’? By that I mean have you found many people are inconsistent, unreliable, fairly easily swayed to making choices they later regret?
Join me again with Moses in the cloud with God up on Mt. Sinai. He’s been in there almost 40 days, and over the past several days we’ve looked closely at what Moses was hearing from God, as God was describing the worship centered relationship, He is inviting the rescued Israelites to start living!
Perhaps part of the reason God had Moses enveloped in a cloud was so he could not see what those 1 million Israelite slaves were doing while Moses was meeting with God. Exodus 32 describes it for us. Apparently it didn’t take long for those Israelites to grow impatient and even though they’d made a blood covenant with God they actually said to Aaron: “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him…” (Ex. 32:1)
Sadly, it appears Aaron was a terrible leader and like the rest of the Israelites he was not yet convinced either who God was or if God could be or should be fully trusted! The account of Aaron’s leadership failure is almost beyond belief. He invited the people to bring him some of their gold jewelry, melted it down and actually fabricated a golden calf statue!
Then Aaron actually invoked the name of God, the LORD, inviting the people to a festival in God’s honor but bringing out the golden calf for the revelry to be an important part of the celebration! Could Aaron have done anything more vile, more blasphemous toward the Almighty God who had delivered them from slavery. protected them, and even provided daily for their needs in their journey through the Sinai desert? (Ex. 32:2-6)
Meanwhile, of course, as always God was watching and saw it all, heard it all, understood the selfish, shallow hearts of all who participated in this rebellion against God and the rejection of the relationship God desired with His people. So, God said to Moses: “Go down, because your people, whom you brought 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…” (Ex. 32:7,8) God was fed up with them. God was angry and told Moses that He might kill them all and begin all over with Moses, making a nation from him as God had made a nation from Abraham! (Ex. 32:9,10)
Now let’s pause and ponder that for a moment. Those people had frustrated Moses several times. Do you suppose Moses was tempted to agree with God’s suggestion? Instead Moses stepped in as a mediator, an advocate and urged God to reconsider and remember His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the centuries past. Have you ever had that experience? Have you stepped as an arbitrator, a mediator seeking to help resolve a significant conflict before it escalates to a point of no return?
Ex. 32:14 makes this statement which is critical for us to understand: “Then the LORD relented and did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened.” While we are grateful, what does that tell us about God? Did Moses actually talk God out of destroying all the Hebrew slaves? 1 Samuel 15:29 answers this question with a clear statement about God’s consistent and holy character: “He who is the glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a human being that He should change His mind.”
The prophet Samuel spoke those words when confronting King Saul with Saul’s failure of unreliability and fickle leadership. Almighty, Holy God was not fickle, He did not change His mind, He again drew a distinction between how God thinks and responds to sin, and how most people do.
So Moses turned and walked out of the cloud to begin his descent from Mt Sinai. Moses understood God had been speaking about justice and mercy. In justice, the people deserved death for turning away from their blood covenant so quickly.
But God was extending Mercy, willing to keep working with these fickle people knowing it would take a great work of the Holy Spirit of God to transform these people into dependable, reliable, trustworthy people who would follow God wholeheartedly.
As Moses began his descent Joshua rejoined him. Remember Joshua had climbed the mountain with Moses and waited outside the cloud during all the time Moses was in the cloud. (Exodus 24:13-18) Moses had gone into that cloud empty handed, but came out carrying two tablets of stone which God Himself had carved out of the mountain and upon which the finger of God had engraved the 10 Commandments!! (Ex. 31:18; 32:15) Can you imagine the conversation these two men had and how Moses explained to Joshua what he was carrying and what he had experienced for 40 days with God in that cloud!
It was the sound which first alerted Moses and Aaron that things were not right in the Israelite camp. (Ex. 32:17,18) And when sound turned to sight, Moses’ anger flared and he threw those stone tablets out of his hands, shattering them on the mountain rocks!
The confrontation between Moses and Aaron and the people is worth you close attention in Exodus 32:19-29. Once this initial, bloody confrontation took place it’s important for us to see Moses hiked back up to be with God on Sinai, in an attempt to intercede with God, to mediate and perhaps negotiate with God for the lives and future of these 1 million fickle people. (Ex. 32:30-35)
Please take note that about 40 years later, Moses as an old man, recounting this experience to the next generation, explained that he actually spent another 40 days and nights with God on Sinai, praying to God, interceding with God, requesting that God would somehow forgive this rebellious people. (Deuteronomy 9:7-21)
Friends, it is well worth your time to read Exodus 33 carefully and slowly. It’s God’s response to Moses’ 40 days of prayerful intercession and finally God’s promise to accompany this rebellious people when He would lead them away from Mt. Sinai. I have several times in my life journey found myself spending prolonged times of meditation, reflection and recommitment in Exodus 33, and I urge you to do the same.
It is so rich in spiritual significance as we honestly face our desperate need for God’s patience, His forgiveness and mercy in our fickle failure.
I urge you to carefully review the “Lessons Learned” summary statements of these two chapters in the “Grand Narrative” link just below. I am finding these daily summary statements very worthwhile and I’m keeping them. I hope you are too! Don’t allow these powerful truths to escape your deep reflection and integration into your lives! The Holy Spirit is doing His character building work here!
As always we close with a worship song focusing our hearts on God’s mercy, and tomorrow we’ll hike up Mt. Sinai with Moses for his 8th, and final, and life changing time!
Today’s Scripture: Exodus 32-33.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Exodus 33
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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