Back to square one…..

At the beginning of Exodus 34, it appears that Moses and the Israelites are back at square one. Having smashed the stone tablets in rage at the people’s disobedience, Moses is now required to chisel out two more so that God can inscribe them with his commandments all over again. First, God has to remind Moses exactly who he is –

 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”  Exodus 34:6-7

The compassionate and gracious God. Thank God.

Slow to anger. Thank God.

Abounding in love and faithfulness. Thank God.

Maintaining love to thousands (I particularly like that turn of phrase). Thank God.

Forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Thank God.

And yet……..but…….however…….there are consequences. There will always be consequences for the wrong choices that we make. This idea of passing the sins of the parents down through the generations has been misused and abused over the centuries, but there is a truth in it. What is done to us and what we do affect who we are and how we treat our children, which in turn affects who they are and how they treat their children, which in turn affects………every choice we make matters; every decision we make matters; how we behave and who we are matters.

Moses begs for mercy and God reminds him of the covenant that He has made with the Israelites so that –

The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.  Exodus 34:10

Cool.

And what do Moses and the people have to do? It really is very simple.

Obey what I command you today.  Exodus 34:11

Move on. Don’t dwell on what you have done wrong. Don’t beat yourself up. Get up. Get moving. Start over. And obey. Trust and obey.

And God starts to give Moses the commandments all over again, just to make sure the people will never forget what has been asked of them.

When Moses returns to the people with the Ten Commandments, he has changed. He doesn’t realise it, but his face is radiant from having met with God. Everyone was scared of him so he wore a veil over his face all the time apart from when he was speaking to God. We cannot force people to see God at work in us…..I struggle with the whole ‘how to be a good witness’ thing. There are no strategies. It comes from within. It comes from walking with God and seeking Him in the everyday and recognising those special little encounters in our daily lives. It’s our soul responding to the living God. It ‘s not forced. It’s spontaneous and unsolicited and very wonderful. People will see that and be in awe of the God who can bring about that kind of transformation in the likes of flawed individuals such as us.

The section from Exodus 35:4 to 36:7 makes for a lovely, encouraging read. It’s the section about creating the Tabernacle again, but shows a wonderful generosity of spirit amongst the people who are more than willing to give their skills and their possessions to create this place of worship.

Bring what you have. Bring your skills. Not because God commands it. But because you are willing. Because you want to. As a heartfelt response to all that God has done for you.

And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.”

Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.  Exodus 36:3-7

How wonderfully uplifting is that? People are naturally generous. Underneath all the cynicism and weariness, people do genuinely want to help. The most unlikely of people too. I was chatting at the front of store the other day to a lady involved in organising a fundraising event to buy a physiotherapy vest for a local young girl with cystic fibrosis. They needed £7000. They raised nearer £140000! She was completely blown away by people’s generosity. She told me of a biker who had come into the event off the street and handed over £2000. ‘We saw your poster in the Post Office and wanted to help.’ He was a stranger. He did not know the girl. And yet he and his mates had been moved to give. And give generously.

Wow.

And yet this seems to be a far cry from the life of many of our churches today, where there never seems to be enough money or people to do all that needs to be done. Why is that, I wonder?

Back to our story. Everything was made exactly as God set out – the Tabernacle and its contents, the courtyard, the priestly garments –

 So all the work on the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses.  Exodus 39:32

They did good. They got it exactly right. Things are looking up.