May 23, 2010 (Exodus 32-35)

Once again, how did I get so far behind...I'll do the 'cliff notes' to catch up. As I'm reviewing these chapters, I would have sworn that I did this blog, but I guess not.

What happens when God doesn't act as quickly as we want? We have a tendancy to do what the Israelites did when Moses didn't come back down from the mountain. They turn to "other gods". Here's the account from Exodus 32:

¹ When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”

² So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”

³ All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

Before we get all critical of the Israelites, how about looking at our lives? How many times have we seen God's faithfulness to us, and yet, when He doesn't answer prayers in our timeline do we turn to 'other gods'. If you notice verse 4 above, you see that Aaron spent some time 'crafting and molding' the gold into the shape of a calf. But when Moses came down from the mountain and confronted him about his sin, here was his response:

²² “Don’t get so upset, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know how evil these people are. ²³ They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’ ²⁴ 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!”

Really, he threw the gold into the fire and out popped that calf! Sounds to me as if he wasn't owning up to his sin. I'm surprised God didn't zap him on the spot to be quite honest. I guess it shows what a patient loving God we have. I know in my dealings with others who have done wrong, if they own up to it - confess it - are truly sorry, I have a much easier time acting merciful. Shows how far I have to go in my attempts to be Christ/God like.

People are watching us. We may not know it, but they are. And those who don't have a relationship with Christ are probably watching us the closest, to see how we respond in certain situations. We can see that from the verse below:

²⁵ Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get completely out of control, much to the amusement of their enemies.

And finally, another of my favorite passages:

^33:14 The Lord replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.”

¹⁵ Then Moses said, “If you don’t personally go with us, don’t let us move a step from this place. ¹⁶ If you don't go with us, how will anyone ever know tht oour people and I ahve found favor with you? How else will they know we are special and distinct from all other people on the earth?"

¹⁷ The Lord replied to Moses, “I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.”

Another version of verse 17 says:

And the Lord replied to Moses, "I will indeed do what you have asked, for you have found favor with me, and you are my friend."

The desire of my heart is to know that God knows me by name, and that He would call me His friend. That motivates me. That makes me seek after Him, as I remember that and reflect upon it. But I have to continually remind myself of these things, otherwise they get crowded out by 'the things of this world'.