Morning Musing: Exodus 32:1

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‘When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt — we don’t know what has happened to him!” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We recently purchased a new (to us) vehicle. It was an owner-to-owner purchase. As a result, I got to go make a pilgrimage to the state licensing bureau. It’s basically the DMV, but privatized…sort of. Actually, I got to go there three times. In two days. It was awesome. Actually, the people who helped us were all delightful. But it did mean standing in line. A lot. With one person helping customers while the other three employees seemed to be standing around doing nothing. That was fun. We hate to wait. We especially hate to wait when we want something. Waiting leads to impatience, which regularly leads to bad decisions. If we were watching a TV series about our journey through Exodus, the next part we are starting today would be introduced with something like, “Meanwhile, back at the base of the mountain…” We’ve been on the mountain with Moses for several weeks now. Back down at the base of the mountain, though, the people were waiting with growing impatience for him to return. And they were about to make a really bad decision. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 31:18

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“When he finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In one of the funnier scenes from Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part 1, Moses (played by Brooks himself) comes down the mountain with the holy tablet of the Law. Except, unlike in the Exodus story, he is carrying three tablets instead of two. He announces that he has brought the people these fifteen commandments from the Lord. Then he drops and breaks one of the three tablets. Thinking on his feet, he quickly corrects himself to announce that he has brought the people these ten commandments from the Lord. Everybody knows about the law tablets that Moses brought with him down the mountain. Here is where we first learn about them. Let’s talk about what’s going on here.

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Differences Don’t Have to Divide

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This week we are kicking off a brand-new teaching series called, Stormy Waters. For the next few weeks, we are going to be talking about how to navigate family conflict without losing our minds. Family conflict is hard. It can be some of the messiest conflict we ever have to face. Thankfully, the Scriptures give us some helping wisdom on how to make it through without losing ourselves or our relationships. In this first part of our journey, we are starting where so many of our conflicts start: with differences. You’re not like the other people in your family, and occasionally that leads to conflict. Let’s talk about how to navigate it.

Differences Don’t Have to Divide

I love my sister. But we are not the same. For starters, she’s my sister. That fact sets us apart pretty well by itself. But the differences run much deeper than that. We didn’t like or excel at the same sports or activities growing up. We didn’t share the same tastes in music. Her friends sometimes made me want to move out when they visited. My friends and I once snuck into her room after a sleepover when there were like four of them on her big bed, and lifted up one side of the mattress so they all slid off the other side, one after the next on top of each other. That is to say, my friends drove her crazy too. We watched different TV shows. We had different interests. She would occasionally try to do things that I did before her (probably because I was her big brother and she wanted to be like me), but I would give her such a hard time about not doing whatever it was like I did that she didn’t tend to stick with those things very long. She quickly found her own things, and I don’t blame her. 

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 7:15

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“For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

As a parent, you quickly learn that every different age your kids go through has its challenges, but also its joys. They’re adorable when they’re babies, but you don’t get any sleep. Toddlers are great comic relief, but the tantrums get pretty old. When they’re in the no man’s land of early- to middle-elementary school they’re the most fun because of how much they are drawn to just play, but that’s also when they can start to become little punks. Well, I’ve got two right now that are teenagers. (Now there’s a sentence that makes you start feeling old…) Teenagers have attitudes. And emotions. In spades. But they are also reaching the point that they are starting to be able to meaningfully process the world around them in ways that reflect real critical thinking. You can start having an actual conversation with a teenager in ways other stages don’t quite allow. They also ask good questions that desire real answers. Today’s post is the result of one of those good questions. Maybe you’ve asked this one before. Here are some of my thoughts.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 31:12-17

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“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites: You must observe my Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, so that you will know that I am the Lord who consecrates you. Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a permanent covenant. It is a sign forever between me and the Israelites, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever gotten so focused on doing something that you forgot why you were doing it in the first place? I am a pretty task-oriented person. When I take on a project, the only thing I want to do is to finish that project and to finish it well. I can easily lose sight of just about everything else except the project resulting in no small amount of completely understandable frustration for the people around me. God had finished giving Moses all the instructions Israel needed to build the tabernacle. It was time for them to get to work on it. Before they got started on it, though, He took a second to remind Moses not to let the people lose sight of what mattered most. Keep that in mind as we walk through this challenging passage.

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