Waiting, acting and facing the consequences

Forty days and nights is no time at all really. Barely six weeks. It can feel a long period if you have given something up for Lent, I suppose, or if you are waiting like the Israelites without knowing the end time.  I feel like that in the Doctors’ surgery if I am waiting more then ten minutes after my appointment time! Panic rises – ‘they’ve forgotten about me’; ‘I missed them calling my name’; ‘I’m going to be here all day’; ‘I’m never going to be seen’. Maybe the Israelites were beginning to panic – ‘what if something has happened to Moses?’; ‘what if he is never coming back?’; ‘what if God is angry and is going to leave us here forever?’; ‘what if God cannot be trusted after all?’

So after forty days and nights of waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain, after all that God has rescued them from and done for them, what do they do? They return to their old ways. They return to what they know and feel safe with. They build a graven image – a golden calf no less (the fact it is a calf is a clear throwback to life in Egypt, where animals were regarded as sacred and the gods were represented with animal heads and sometimes animal bodies). We can be quick to judge but I wonder if we were in their position, would we have done differently? We may not have been the one to suggest it, but I wonder if we would go along with it to keep the peace and keep the ringleaders happy. Just like Aaron did. He went along with it, maybe because he thought it would appease the increasingly anxious, frustrated and angry people until Moses got back. Maybe because he too had his doubts and had no answers for what was going on. Maybe because he felt inadequate to stand against the weight of public opinion. Guess we’ve all been there.

Having pledged their allegiance and obedience to God, how quick the people were to break the first three of the ten basic commandments.  And Aaron takes it further – as priest, he mixes traditions and creates an altar and burnt offerings and a festival to the Lord – what kind of unholy compromise is this? A fun party to take their mind off their growing concerns if nothing else.

Notice how God refers to ‘His’ people when instructing Moses to go back –

Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.  Exodus 32:7

Because your people. Your people. Not ‘my people’ as He referred to them previously. He has to distance himself from what they are doing, even though He is committed to them and to putting it right. I do that with the dog when he has chewed my nice cushion or eaten a chunk out of the cake I have just made – ‘Andy, come and deal with your dog!’  And with the kids too actually – ‘Andy, have you seen what your kids are doing?’ Mainly because, as it is described in verse 9, I am burning with anger and can’t trust myself to say and do the right thing.

Moses has gained in courage, hasn’t he? Who is he to question God and yet from verse 11 onwards, he makes a case for the people and pleads for mercy.

But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?  Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.  Exodus 32:11-14

God relented? God changed his mind? Because of the great argument Moses put for the people? God showed mercy. This is what they deserve….and OK, I will spare them what they deserve. Great mercy. Amazing grace.

So Moses comes down the mountain with Joshua and with the tablets of stone inscribed with instructions straight from God and when he sees what is going on, he throws the tablets on the floor and smashes them to pieces. I have a friend who does this – smashes things. It may seem very out of control but actually in her case, it is very controlled. She feels so mad and has such a rage growing inside her that she takes a plate (chosen carefully from those she cares least about), goes outside and smashes it. The rage is then gone. She is then calm. She clears ups the pieces, comes inside and moves on. Some people find this odd but she has found a way of dealing with her rage that works for her and is over in a moment……good on her, I say.

Anyway, smashing the tablets is of course highly symbolic and not just a way of Moses venting his anger, I suspect. God’s commandments have been broken and the tablets signify the broken covenant.

It all then turns rather nasty –

And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.  Exodus 32:20

Aaron trues to justify himself –

So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”  Exodus 32:24

How childlike an excuse this sound?

Moses gives the people a chance to show their allegiance to the Lord –

 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.  Exodus 32:26

He then instructs those who have come to stand with him to kill the men who did not declare their loyalty – three thousand in total. A brutal weeding out of the rebels. Not easy reading.

Moses intercedes for the people, but God will not forget yet. They have to pay in some way for what they have done so he sends a plague on the people. He reminds them of His promise to their descendants and urge them to move on – because for now, He cannot trust himself to be around them. This seems harsh, but I can recognise that emotion in some small way – when I have been treated very badly by one of my children, I cannot bear to be around them and I will not pick up immediately with them as if nothing has happened – I feel that they need to know that what they have done has damaged our relationship in some way and to experience what that damaged relationship feels like for a while. But I do love them and will do all I can to rebuild relationship – just not quite yet.

Moses is scared by this –

 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”  Exodus 33:15-16

He doesn’t know how to lead the people without God by His side, guiding him and giving him the words to say.

He wants to see God’s glory, to have that reassurance that he is doing the right thing. God hears his cry and has compassion –

 But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.  Exodus 33:20-23

Fascinating.

We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how that pans out.