Digging in Deeper: Exodus 32:7-10

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“The Lord spoke to Moses, ‘Go down at once! For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, “Israel, these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”‘ The Lord also said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone, so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever known someone who liked to play the Devil’s advocate in a debate setting? Are you that person? Some people just like taking the other side in a debate. Even if they don’t really believe in the position, they’ll stake it out simply because they like arguing. I bring that up because this next part of our story is hard to understand. All the players switch roles in ways that are confusing at best. If we are not sufficiently grounded in our understanding of their character outside of this story, we are going to struggle to make any positive sense out of it. Let’s take a look at God’s getting angry with Israel.

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What’s Mine Should Be Mine

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We all love talking about our rights. We like having our rights honored and respected. When something should be ours, we want that thing, whatever it happens to be. Not getting our rights recognized can lead to conflict. Big conflict. This happens out in the world, but it also happens in our own families. In this second part of our teaching series, Stormy Waters, we are talking about the conflict that can arise in families when different members feel like they aren’t getting what is theirs by right. Let’s look at how we can navigate these stormy waters with a look at how Abraham had to navigate his own family drama. Read on for more.

What’s Mine Should Be Mine

We hear a lot of talk about rights these days. Political candidates of various stripes assure us that if elected they will be tireless in their fight for our rights. People claim to have rights to all sorts of things. Sometimes the government itself tells us certain things are within our rights as citizens. Our Constitution was only ratified when it got paired with a Bill of Rights, a set of things the Founders declared were inherent to citizenship in this nation and which cannot be taken from us by any state actor. In the opening lines of our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson declared life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to be among a set of unalienable rights from our Creator that are common to all people everywhere. These are things we can claim as our own simply by virtue of being human. 

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Digging in Deeper: Proverbs 17:27

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“The one who has knowledge restrains his words, and one who keeps a cool head is a person of understanding.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We never know what tomorrow will bring. Sure, we have our predictions, and sometimes those predictions are fairly reliable because of a consistent pattern in the past. But we don’t really know. Sometimes things go like we expect. Sometimes we find ourselves treading through territory we could have never imagined we would have to navigate. Had you asked anyone in my town a year ago what the state of things would be today, they would probably not have guessed they would be where they are right now. Things have been a bit…unsettled of late. Let’s talk today about why as well as some things we should keep in mind when thinking about it or responding to it.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 32:2-6

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“Aaron replied to them, ‘Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaon. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf. Then they said, ‘Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it and made an announcement: ‘There will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow.’ Early the next morning they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been given a set of instructions you didn’t properly understand? The result is often that you do the wrong thing without realizing it. Maybe you do something that falls more in line with a previous understanding than the one you didn’t quite get this time. Either at, your doing the wrong thing is the result. While Moses was up on the mountain, after the people had agreed to play by God’s rules, the first thing they did was the wrong thing. Worse yet, they were led into it. Let’s talk about what’s going on here, and making sure we understand God properly.

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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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