The canvas of the biblical storyline depicted a beautiful and erudite scene of color as God made a way for His people where there was otherwise no way. Moses, the mouthpiece and covenant mediator of God’s law, was put in place to stand between a grumbling people and a holy God. These people received the law of God, and they accepted the terms of the covenant–to be a people of peculiarity…to be a kingdom of priests to the Nations. However, as with all of us, they feared God–in the wrong kind of way. Their improper fear was actually them being afraid, and subsequently led them away from God. Instead, they should have feared God, insomuch as they move toward God with respect and reverential awe of Him in the way He ordained and established. Moses corrected them, and then for nearly 3 chapters he lines out God’s way to continue to be in a relationship with Him. God has made a way where there was no way, and the people again affirm their commitment to being true to God and His way…
“All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!”
Exodus 24:3b
With the best of intentions they make their promise to God…to stay true to Him and His Word. At the same time Moses is called away from their community to go up to Mount Sinai to memorialize this new means to fellowship with God…
“Now the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction.””
Exodus 24:12
The glory of the Lord rested upon the mountain top, and Moses went in to the cloud where God’s presence was powerfully on display. He remained there with God–receiving the memorialized law of God on 2 tablets–for 40 days and 40 nights. The people of God–the chosen people, rescued from slavery in Egypt–remained at camp, and they became restless. They waited…and waited…and waited. While Moses was in the presence of the Lord receiving the means and instruments through which a sinful people would be able to fellowship with a holy God–tabernacle plans, priest’s duties and function, etc.–they began to grow weary. Their desire for God and His Word faltered…and they requested the unthinkable…
“…Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.””
Exodus 32:1
Just like that…they give in. They fell short…they usurped God, they broke their promise and commitment to their responsibility of keeping God’s law, and they abandon Moses and God all together…
Have you been there?
Maybe you’re not building golden calves, but are you placing your trust in anything other than God to satisfy your present needs? It’s easy to read this story and not understand how these people could have abandoned God so easy. However, if you’re honest and candid about this past week, would you say that you’ve filled yourself up with temporary satisfactions in an attempt to satisfy your greater spiritual needs? How did that work out? For some it’s spending. Are you spending more money than you make…? For others it’s gossip. Did you slight someone or even your spouse in word or action? There are even those who tell just a “white lie” or they “barely” shade the truth in conversations.
Whatever it is that we do…say…or think contrary to what God has said in His Word makes us as guilty as these Israelites in their idolatry. They distrusted God, and we distrust God, too. But there’s hope…there was One who never distrusted God, who always lived according to the Law, and who received the punishment we should have received for not doing what He did perfectly. In other words, this is just another reason why Christ had to die…distrust of humanity.
— March 31, 2017