Has someone ever shared with you an incident that got them really upset and when you heard it, you thought they might be overreacting? Maybe it’s not that bad, you think. It’s something that can be dealt with in a calm and rational manner, you think. Then you go and see the situation for yourself and your reaction is even worse than the person who told you about the incident. It can’t be that bad, surely?
Moses shared some quality time away with God and received the Ten Words on tablets of stone with His own finger. The conversation had been so sweet, spending time in the presence of God, listening to the instructions for how the people would live in a way that marked them out as the people solely for the purpose of God. The people had already said they were up for it. They had given their verbal confirmation of their part in the covenant relationship with God who had brought them out of the land of slavery. Things were going so well.
You can imagine how disturbed Moses would be by the words that God relayed to Him before He went down to the people. God was not happy at all …
“Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
Exodus 32:7-10
Things are serious when you make God this kind of angry. Moses takes on the pleading role on behalf of the people. His response is not just about the mercy of God, but also in terms of what it would say to others if the people God rescued were wiped out by Him. That didn’t make sense. What did make sense was for God to ease up on the anger business, while he went down and saw how bad things were …
… And when Moses saw how bad things were, he himself did not have a mental understanding of how God felt. He was enraged to the point that he smashed the special tablets on which God had written the precious Ten Words marking the foundation of this covenant with the people. Even as the people’s actions had clearly shattered any sense of faithfulness to what they said to God, so too Moses’ anger led to an act of what had been shattered. The anger that Moses experienced did not stop at shattering those tablets.
Once the his anger was expressed and the people knew exactly what was going on, Moses still had the presence of mind to plead the case of the people to God. His role as the intercessor was clearly something that he had grown in over time. At this stage the needs of the people are still important to Moses. He still wants this people to be established Not just coming out of slavery, but making their way to the Promised Land.
What this episode in the life of Moses highlights is whether we have the capacity to intercede on behalf of others whilst at the same time being able to be attuned to the heart of God where engaging with those others is concerned. We put the people to God in looking for Him to have mercy on them and lead them and guide them. Can we feel what God feels, however, when unfaithfulness is displayed in the blatant idolatry taking place among His people? People might want to refer to a measured, calm and considered approach, but is that always the response to something as heart-breaking and abhorrent as the wilful, stiff-necked, rebellious response to the One who has liberated His people from slavery? Can we feel the anger? Can we empathise with the hurt? Can we express that today to those that belong to Him? Or are we more minded to avoid the necessary confrontation preferring a certain conciliatory approach that breeds complacency?
God help us in our walk with Him to be faithful to Him. hod help us to be compassionate to those He has called and looks to lead. God give us that concern to be angry and upset about expressions of spiritual adultery. God have mercy on us.
(Photo by Christian Meier on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 