31:3 - Worship goes beyond just singing. Bezalel is filled with the Spirit of God and worships God through his creativity...through his job. We can honor God anywhere if we are filled with His Spirit and living to honor Him.
31:12ff - God is serious about the Sabbath isn't He? People will die if they do not keep the Sabbath! So what is the big deal - why is it so important? It is s symbol of what God has done for all of mankind through creation...it reminds us of who we are and where we come from. It is a time to find your rest fully in God...not just to be lazy, but to rest in God. To allow God to fill you. It is a show of trust in God, because you do not have to work constantly to stay alive...you know God will take care of you and you place your trust in Him. If you understand these things, then all the other commands will fall into place - you will love God and people.
32:2 - A Christian leader and any Christian for that matter, cannot give in to the crowd or the culture if they are calling us to sin. We must stand firm and not back down like Aaron did.
32:4 - Man! Talk about twisted! They are attributing the good in their life to idols they just crafted out of gold, "Look these things brought us out of Egypt." They just spit in God's face! And don't get to cocky modern day Christians, because we like to do the same thing. When life is horrible we are all about God, yet when life is good, we start attributing the success to ourselves and the good things in our lives. Don't forget how unfathomably disrespectful that is to God.
32:10 - Okay, what is going on here? Did Moses seriously just win a debate with God? Well, let's think about what we know about God. We know He is perfect. We know He is just. We know He is working all events in the universe whether good or bad into His will. So what do you think? A: I think He might be testing Moses (We know God like to do this - see: Abraham). Maybe God wants to see what kind of leader He has in Moses? Is Moses going to go, sounds good God - now everyone of your people will come from me alone? Or is he going to cry out for the people? Maybe it is a test. B: We know that God is a just God and He has just been absolutely rejected by His people. He has every right to destroy them and start over - it would be just. Maybe God allows the cries of His people to impact His decision even when the thing He was going to do is right and just (Which it always is). We know that prayer is powerful and prayer makes a difference, so maybe God allowed Moses to have a say and held off His judgement.
32:24 - Come on Aaron! Integrity is not real high on his list of good qualities. He won't even own up to what he did. Did you see what he says, "Uh, I just threw the gold in and a calf popped out!" That sounds like something my 4 year old would make up - come on!
32:20 and 27 - Okay this is some freaky stuff...let me offer a possibility. Moses grinds up the idol and makes the people drink it. The Israelites had another ritual about drinking stuff that might give us a clue about what is going on. If a woman was accused of adultery, she would be made to drink water and dust from the tabernacle...after drinking it they would know if she was guilty or innocent. Maybe when the people drank the dust, the Levites could tell if they were guilty of rebelling against God or innocent and they went through the camp killing those who were wrong...they were God's instrument of justice.
33:5 - They strip off all their jewelry because they are in mourning. They are mourning the sin the committed against God. They have stripped off their ornaments and they have stripped off their pride and they are naked and ashamed before God. This is what repentance looks like...you remove all the garbage and all the walls and excuses and you offer yourself to the mercy of God.
33:10 - They worshipped when the cloud was in front of the tent, because they knew they were in the presence of God. We have the opportunity to worship every minute of every day...never forget that.
33:16 - All the other nations carry around powerless idols of stone and metal. The Israelites move with the presence and power of God. Hmmm, which one is better?
33:18 - The more Moses in with God and learns about God...the more and more he wants. He cannot get enough of the goodness of God. That's a great picture of the faith journey...you keep moving closer and closer to God and as you do, you want more and more.
3 comments:
I was thinking the same thing in 32:24. how could you be that Naive?
Sometimes i always find myself jealous because Moses got to see God, but i always forget that God is inside of me; Working through me. And that can be greater than any experience these Old Testament guys went through.
Good point Matty...there was a ton of good stuff in those three chapters!
32:35 Really stuck out to me for some reason. The people were all given the same punishment, no matter their degree of participation in the matter. I'm sure that there were some people that didn't really want to make the golden calf, but they DIDN'T stand up and try and stop them.
It's just like when you get pulled over.. and someone inside of your car is caught with possession of an illegal substance, EVERYONE inside of your car can get tickets and or arrested. Oh the price for not standing up to your friends...
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