The Lord Spoke to Moses
I’m reading Exodus 33 and I don’t know where to start. There are so many gems in there. Truth wrapped up in real life stories.
Ever since Exodus 19, Moses has been up and down the mountain. Up the mountain to hear from God and down the mountain to the people. Repeatedly from Exodus 3 onwards we read, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying …” (54 times for the people who like numbers)
When we arrive at chapter 32 Moses is down from the mountain after two massive downloads, a four chapter download about how the people should live with each other and then a six chapter download about the tabernacle and how they should live with God. Now he is back among the people and his head and heart are full of the excitement of how life will be so wonderful when the people live like God has designed for them to live.
I think that maybe it’s a bit like the feeling of looking at the exciting organisational plans for the year ahead in Flame. Oh, wow. So much potential, and if we can do what is in those plans – what an impact, what a great life many people will have.
What a shock then to read that the people rebel, collectively, all of them. With all that potential and promise in front of them, they commit the biggest slap in God’s face that they could. They break the very first commandment, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’, in the biggest way possible. Not just one person here and there, but collectively, as a nation, they are worshipping a golden calf after only 40 days of Moses being away from them.
God’s response is dramatic. “The Lord spoke to Moses saying … these people are obstinate … I will destroy them” but Moses goes in to fight for the people. We read, “Moses entreated the Lord his God saying, … “you can’t, they are Your people.” In my mind I can hear him saying, “God, remember the plans that we just spent 40 days talking about, the detailed plans for the tabernacle to give the people a place to meet with You. Remember the pains you went to when You delivered them from Egypt, the miracles You did at the Red Sea. They are YOUR people, You can’t do this.
These are the people of your promise to Abraham, there is so much at stake here.”
I’m astounded at Moses. He is so excited about the potential of the Israelite nation and so loyal to them. Even when they are massively wrong – he backs them up and goes in to fight for them with God
I’m challenged by this on a number of points.
1. Do I know Gods plans well enough (for myself and others) to confidently fight for them despite setbacks and disappointments?
2. Do I know God well enough to confront and argue with Him on behalf of His people?
3. If I wrote down all the times where God spoke to me, what number would I arrive at? 54? 44? 34? 24? 14? What about 4?