The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay according to our iniquities. (Verses 6-10)
God had had it with Israel. Sure, He'd let them go on in to the Promised Land, but without Him. To His very core He was done with their sinfulness and complaining. Moses was on Mt. Sinai with his God for over a month, receiving from Him the instructions for the covenant of the law written by the hand of God on two tablets of stone. But...when Moses came back down the mountain, aglow with the residual presence of God and carrying the sacred law, the people were dancing around naked and stoned to foreign music around a giant golden calf before which they'd fornicated and worshipped. Aaron was stuttering something about throwing in all the jewelry and "out came this calf," when Moses threw the words of God to the ground, breaking them. What an unholy mess.
"I'm not going with you," God told Moses. "They make me so mad--this stiff-necked, stubborn people--that if I go I will consume them with anger on the way."
"Show me Your ways, if I have found favor with You. You have said you know me by name, and I've found favor in Your sight. So help me know what I need to do to with this nation of people who belong to You." Moses changed God's mind.
"I will go. But not with this generation."
The next morning, very early, Moses met God again on Mt. Sinai. Just God and His friend. No animals could graze nearby. No one else could be on all the mountain. Carrying two new stone tablets, Moses alone met with God, Who descended in a cloud and stood with him. There God proclaimed His name. "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but Who will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34).
Israel tried again. Cleansed themselves in order to receive the law on the second set of tablets. And God allowed them to wander in the wilderness until they died off. It was the next generation who saw the land promised to them. Joshua and Caleb led them in. What did the first generation say to the ones who finally conquered to make them ready? I think, "God was merciful to us. Didn't kill us in the wilderness. There is still a land out there, son, that we'll never see, but you will. Just wait." Forty years. A long time. Will it ever manifest? It was a rocky journey to fulfillment. And mercy took them there.
The ten plagues, the Passover of the angel of death, the parting of the Red Sea, the drowning of the Egyptian army, manna, springs of water gushing out of rock, flocks of birds for food and the very presence of God leading His people by night and day in cloud and fire. They should've known their God better than they did. Intentionally, sovereignly, He'd seen their need in Egypt, the deaths of their baby sons, the oppression of the government on their heads, and clutched a baby from a gentle stream to save them years before they even knew it. Thinking ahead about how He would deliver His precious people from bondage. Because He loves them. Couldn't watch them suffer any longer. Knew He needed to deal with their oppressors. Steadfast love. It doesn't change. And for the eighty years Moses had to grow into his leadership position, were they complaining? Thinking their God just didn't care? See where I'm going with this?
It wasn't enough. The Presence in the tabernacle. Ten laws became hundreds as man decided to fine tune the old covenant into a morass of tenets impossible to keep. So they could brag about how good they were and how bad the next person. The very law they claimed to keep showed what big sinners they actually were. The society of the self-righteous was as oppressive as the Roman government.
"We must show them." The Godhead, ready for the plan to save us all--not just Israel any more.
And Steadfast Love. The Lord. The Lord, Merciful and Gracious, Slow to Anger, the Faithful One did for us what we couldn't do. Enough of watching us struggle with our sinful nature that forgets Him and builds idols to replace our God in times when we can't understand His ways. In the years when He seems silent while perhaps He lets His anger rest...taking it slow...so as not to consume us. All along He's forming a plan for the deliverance of His stiff-necked children. No more smoky mountain tops or God-filled clouds of guidance. "I must go down to them."
In death, our God released His Spirit into carnal flesh to live forever among and in our flawed world. To tabernacle in all the earth in little temples of glory. Changing from the inside what the law of Moses couldn't. Our hearts. Oh, Jesus didn't deal with us according to our sins! No! The Lord, the Lord wrote a new covenant that wiped them completely away, smearing His blood on the tablets of our hearts when what we deserve is the death penalty. The All-right, All-just Judge of All robed me in His perfection, dissolved my wrongs in dust, and declared me "Not guilty!" Because...because He took my place. The Almighty God descended onto the whole earth, not just Mt. Sinai, this time, and became, instead of a golden calf, the Lamb of God Who took away the sins of the world. The Lord! The Lord! Bless the Lord, O my soul!
God had had it with Israel. Sure, He'd let them go on in to the Promised Land, but without Him. To His very core He was done with their sinfulness and complaining. Moses was on Mt. Sinai with his God for over a month, receiving from Him the instructions for the covenant of the law written by the hand of God on two tablets of stone. But...when Moses came back down the mountain, aglow with the residual presence of God and carrying the sacred law, the people were dancing around naked and stoned to foreign music around a giant golden calf before which they'd fornicated and worshipped. Aaron was stuttering something about throwing in all the jewelry and "out came this calf," when Moses threw the words of God to the ground, breaking them. What an unholy mess.
"I'm not going with you," God told Moses. "They make me so mad--this stiff-necked, stubborn people--that if I go I will consume them with anger on the way."
"Show me Your ways, if I have found favor with You. You have said you know me by name, and I've found favor in Your sight. So help me know what I need to do to with this nation of people who belong to You." Moses changed God's mind.
"I will go. But not with this generation."
The next morning, very early, Moses met God again on Mt. Sinai. Just God and His friend. No animals could graze nearby. No one else could be on all the mountain. Carrying two new stone tablets, Moses alone met with God, Who descended in a cloud and stood with him. There God proclaimed His name. "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but Who will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34).
Israel tried again. Cleansed themselves in order to receive the law on the second set of tablets. And God allowed them to wander in the wilderness until they died off. It was the next generation who saw the land promised to them. Joshua and Caleb led them in. What did the first generation say to the ones who finally conquered to make them ready? I think, "God was merciful to us. Didn't kill us in the wilderness. There is still a land out there, son, that we'll never see, but you will. Just wait." Forty years. A long time. Will it ever manifest? It was a rocky journey to fulfillment. And mercy took them there.
The ten plagues, the Passover of the angel of death, the parting of the Red Sea, the drowning of the Egyptian army, manna, springs of water gushing out of rock, flocks of birds for food and the very presence of God leading His people by night and day in cloud and fire. They should've known their God better than they did. Intentionally, sovereignly, He'd seen their need in Egypt, the deaths of their baby sons, the oppression of the government on their heads, and clutched a baby from a gentle stream to save them years before they even knew it. Thinking ahead about how He would deliver His precious people from bondage. Because He loves them. Couldn't watch them suffer any longer. Knew He needed to deal with their oppressors. Steadfast love. It doesn't change. And for the eighty years Moses had to grow into his leadership position, were they complaining? Thinking their God just didn't care? See where I'm going with this?
It wasn't enough. The Presence in the tabernacle. Ten laws became hundreds as man decided to fine tune the old covenant into a morass of tenets impossible to keep. So they could brag about how good they were and how bad the next person. The very law they claimed to keep showed what big sinners they actually were. The society of the self-righteous was as oppressive as the Roman government.
"We must show them." The Godhead, ready for the plan to save us all--not just Israel any more.
And Steadfast Love. The Lord. The Lord, Merciful and Gracious, Slow to Anger, the Faithful One did for us what we couldn't do. Enough of watching us struggle with our sinful nature that forgets Him and builds idols to replace our God in times when we can't understand His ways. In the years when He seems silent while perhaps He lets His anger rest...taking it slow...so as not to consume us. All along He's forming a plan for the deliverance of His stiff-necked children. No more smoky mountain tops or God-filled clouds of guidance. "I must go down to them."
In death, our God released His Spirit into carnal flesh to live forever among and in our flawed world. To tabernacle in all the earth in little temples of glory. Changing from the inside what the law of Moses couldn't. Our hearts. Oh, Jesus didn't deal with us according to our sins! No! The Lord, the Lord wrote a new covenant that wiped them completely away, smearing His blood on the tablets of our hearts when what we deserve is the death penalty. The All-right, All-just Judge of All robed me in His perfection, dissolved my wrongs in dust, and declared me "Not guilty!" Because...because He took my place. The Almighty God descended onto the whole earth, not just Mt. Sinai, this time, and became, instead of a golden calf, the Lamb of God Who took away the sins of the world. The Lord! The Lord! Bless the Lord, O my soul!
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