God Says You’re Traveling Alone For Now

Exodus 33:1-3: Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants, I will give it’: “And I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite – to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, lest I destroy you on the way.”

The Israelites were given instructions to move camp and head towards Canaan to the land that God reminds Moses He had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  We are reminded again that He promised it to their “descendants” and not specifically even these generations. God was basically implying, “Look, I’ll keep My promise even though these people have sinned again me.”

Here’s the good news. God promises that He will send an angel before them for their physical protection.  He promised them that they will have no problems with those they meet on the way or in the land of Canaan and names all the various tribes He will drive out to facilitate their travels. The Israelites as a whole (but perhaps not individually) are guaranteed safe passage to the land of milk and honey.

Now here’s the bad news. God tells them that He will not go with them as before when in Exodus 13:21 we read, “The Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.” Now, I believe this was a really big deal for the Israelites. They had always counted on God’s accompaniment. Now they have to go it alone. Perhaps the best way to relay this feeling is to think of a young child who has been disobedient and their parents say, “Sorry, you’ve blown it. Now you have to do it alone.” We’ll see how the Children of Israel react in the next section of the chapter. Right now, we note God’s rationale for His decision.

In the last part of this text, God tells His People that He won’t go up with them to Canaan – He won’t be in their midst. First of all, we need to consider how much that decision hurt or caused sorrow to God Himself. I remember when our young children had defiantly disobeyed one of their parents and I had to spank them (yes, that was okay in my days and, in my books, still is). I would always end up saying, “Now this is going to hurt me more than it does you.” And I’d end up with just as many tears in my eyes. I’m sure God felt somewhat like that when He was sharing this news.

And His reason for taking such action is that they are an “obstinate” people. Try looking up some synonyms for that word. You get stubborn, pigheaded, inflexible, adamant, unmoved, persistent, and tenacious among other possible substitutes. Can you imagine feeling that way about your own children? God was so angry with them that He realized if He joined them on their journey, He may have come to the point of destroying them along the way.

We do not very often think of this but this passage indicates that God knows Himself well. It’s almost as if God has to fight His own emotions at times in order to stick with His promises. He withdraws temporarily to save His children and get them to their destination.

It hit me as I studied this that God also remains silent and at the sidelines of our lives today when we too are obstinate in one fashion or another. He certainly holds back His anger from us and He remains patient with us because He loves us to no end.

In this world of ours today, it is very difficult for many to imagine what I call a “real relationship with the one and only real God”.  And yet, for those of us who are believers, that’s exactly what you and I have – a “real” relationship with the “real” GOD. And it’s a love relationship – certainly on His part.  But that’s all the more reason why we can’t just keep on being obstinate – being lukewarm, being apathetic towards Him. We have a choice – call it quits or see it as the greatest investment for our eternity. My prayer is that you and I will find ourselves on the same side of the line having chosen to love Him back dearly.

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God’s Anger Burned, He Wanted Solitude

Exodus 32:7-10: Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.  They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

In the previous segment, we left the people eating, drinking, and “getting up to play” the Bible says. All of which was fine except for the circumstances under which they were doing so – celebrating their worship to a god represented by a man-made calf fashioned with gold. God was watching from above where He and Moses had been meeting at the top of Mount Sinai. He had enough; He had to speak – as He always does, one way or another – when we have pushed His buttons beyond the allowable limits.

So God tells Moses to go down to the people “at once” because they are in great spiritual danger. We often think of God being outside of time and He is, but here is more evidence that He can get involved in our timeline – “Go down at once”. There is a time God is saying, through His words to Moses, for us to act immediately. When our fellow believers or our family is getting to the point where their spirituality or faith is in danger, we need to act “at once” – be it through fervent prayer on their behalf or be it through wise counsel and/or positive intervention.

You will remember back in Genesis that man was fashioned in the image of God. So when God here in speaking to Moses refers to the children of Israel, as “your people”, we can see in Him one of the characteristics He has endowed us with – legitimate or what we may call righteous anger. God was so angry with the children of Israel, that He in essence, for that moment, had disassociated Himself from them because of their idolatry. To the point I might add that He was willing to give Moses the credit for bringing them up from the land of Egypt. Poor Moses, this is not what he had bargained for.

The people had indeed as God points out, “corrupted themselves”. They had “quickly turned aside” from His commandments. There is no reference here to the “devil made them do it”. When we stray from God’s commandments, it is our choice, our decision, and there is no one else to be blamed for it. Just as our relationship with God is personal, so too our failure to keep that relationship whole is our doing, no one else’s.

And God doesn’t just stop at that observation. He goes on to call the Israelites an “obstinate people”. That’s a fascinating word and well worth looking up in any dictionary. Bottom line is that it means stubborn and unyielding even when presented with logical evidence and argument. How disappointing that must have been to God. How disappointing must it be to God when, thousands of years later, He gave His only begotten Son to die in their place and people today still are “an obstinate people” refusing to see His love for them.

We come now to a very difficult passage for some of us. God tells Moses that He wants to be left alone, but not to cool off. He wants to be alone in order to let His anger really set in (to boil) to the point that He would be able to destroy the very people He so dearly loved. What’s all that about?

We need to remember that these people were in covenant with God. And from God’s perspective, they broke the covenant. Sinning against God is not a uni-directional action. There will be a reaction. At a minimum we evoke God’s anger. And sometimes there are direct consequences of our sin, not because God wants to punish us, but because breaking His laws often have natural consequences. For example, if we steal, ultimately the authorities will lock us up. We cannot blame God for that.

Secondly, we need to ask ourselves whether or not God had any intention of breaking His covenant with the children of Israel? I believe He had every right to given that they had violated the terms of the agreement. But did He really want to? I do not think so and perhaps that is why God brings Moses back into the equation in a very roundabout way. He tells Moses that He would destroy the people and make a great nation out of Moses and his descendants. As a minimum, what we have here is a further testing of Moses’ true character. All he had to do to end up with a greater legacy than what he did end up with, was to say, “Okay, God, let’s do it.  I’m prepared to be your man in that decision which you are making in your anger.” But as we soon will see, Moses did not do that.

Thirdly, we need to remember that Moses was writing this account of Scripture and he only had human terms or language with which to describe the actual experience he had had with God. As such it is difficult for us to understand what was fully in the mind of God and in the intent of His words.

Finally, perhaps we can argue as some do that God was really inviting Moses to interfere, to save the people from God’s wrath. We do not know. But we do know this, if our God wanted to destroy the people of Israel, He could have. And if He had no intention to do so, He would not do so, no matter what Moses did or did not do. God had then and has now the right to do whatever He wants. And He also has the right to show His anger and His disappointment in whatever way He wants. I would not want to base my eternity on anyone with any less authority and power and dominion than what God has. Our God is not a golden calf.

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Also, I’ve read some good books and make some great recommendations for you at http://astore.amazon.com/accorconsu-20  which you can purchase right from there.  Finally, check us out at Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

 

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