By Sarai Williams
When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”
2 So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”
3 All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
5 Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!”
6 The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.
Exodus 32:1-6 (NLT)
Have you heard the saying “out of sight, out of mind”?
Well no sooner had Moses left the room the Israelites were up to no good. And worse still they were making excuses for their behaviour.
“Where is this Moses fellow anyway?”
“He’s not here. He’s abandoned us”
“He really brought us into the wilderness to die”
“Why shouldn’t we rebel and do whatever we want? If Moses really cared he’d be here with us”
The problem is we do the same thing. We lose sight of God. We might pray and ask God for something, and if our request is not granted imminently, we too become irrational. We believe that God has forsaken us or has forgotten about us, and instead of seeking God more intentionally to determine His will, we do things our own way and occasionally make the simplest of situations a whole lot worse.
The Israelites did not know God on a personal level, they relied on Moses to intercede for them. But we glorify God that we have direct access to the throne of grace, through the shed blood of Christ Jesus. We don’t have to depend on anyone in order for us to commune with God. Hebrews 4:16 encourages us: “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” We are urged to boldly approach God our Father, and there at His throne, will our needs be supplied.
We don’t need to wait for another; be it Moses, or our pastor, or the designated prayer warrior. But with great power comes great responsibility; our slackness cannot be excused. The Israelites had an excuse, and still they were held to account, so we too can be sure that God will hold us to account, if we do not commit ourselves to knowing His will for our lives, and walking therein.
Ask – What did the Israelites rely on Moses for?
Seek – How often do we make excuses for the things we do wrong? Who or what do we blame?
Knock – Today, boldly approach God. The Israelites were in need of something from Moses and in his absence, sought to create something else. Maybe you are in need of something from God, but are filling the need, with other things. Mark 11:24 reminds us: “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” Pray with confidence today, that whatever you desire from the Lord will be granted onto you.
(Upper Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash)
(Inner Photo by Danny Howe on Unsplash)
