Beauty & Sadness

Exodus 32 & 33

There are some really beautiful story pieces in these two chapters, but there are some really sad ones too.  To me. 

Moses was up on Mt Sinai with God for forty days and the Israelites so casually refer to Moses as “this fellow who brought us up out of Egypt” (ch 32:1) As if this was all Moses’ idea.  I feel for Moses that there was not more appreciation for him.  Leadership can be like that. 

Forty days of absence was long enough for them to forget about him.

It was a long enough pause for them to become impatient with the lack of forward movement in their deliverance and rescue.  Hence the golden calf incident under Aaron’s interim leadership. 

God alerts Moses that there is rebellion and anarchy at the base of the mountain and the saddest moment to me is where God disowns His Beloved People.  He is so angry and calls them “your people” (ch32:7) and wants to destroy them.  And Moses goes to bat for Israel.   He begs and pleads for God to relent, reminding God of His Covenant and the Promises to make these a-numerous-as-the-stars kind of people. 

Moses rallied the troops.

Actually!

Ch 32:26,27 & 28 “So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said,

"Whoever is for the LORD, come to me."

And all the Levites rallied to him.

Then he said to them,

"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says:

 'Each man strap a sword to his side.

Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other,

each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'"

And that day 3,000 people died.

And because of their zeal the Levites were set apart

to be caretaker of the tabernacle and priest’s helpers.

Holy warriors.

I didn’t realize this is how they landed that role!

I may have missed that story for most of my life. 

But there are more sad bits.

At the beginning of Ch 33

God says “Go!’

“Leave!”

You and your people!

Go to the land I promised on oath

Go to the land flowing with milk and honey

But I will not go with you

Because you are so stubborn

And I might destroy you on the way.

And the people just broke down

And started to mourn.

One the most poignant moments for me follows

When Moses went back into the Tent of Meeting

Where the LORD would speak with Moses face to face

As a man speaks with his friend. 

This is not just “some fellow”

Moses was a friend of God

Enjoying and experiencing deep friendship.

And did you catch glimpses of Joshua in these stories?

This understated role of guardianship

Over sacred moments

Cursory glimpses of this quiet commitment to Moses

On the mountain and over by the entrance to the Tent of Meeting

This little room where God and Moses sit down.

And I love the story in Ch 33:12 to 22

I just want to type all the words here. 

That moment when Moses

“If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here”

That just gets me. 

That Moses would rather stay there in the dessert with God, than go forward to the land of milk and honey without God.   He would be lost without God.  Moses knows that the confidence of the people lies with him because God is leading through him.  And without God’s Presence on their journey, without His Blessing and without His Name, they are just another group of people.  Really not that special.  Average. 

I love the moment where God takes Moses and tenderly places him I the cleft of the rock. And covers him til He passes by.  Could you imagine that moment?