Sincere apologies for the delay on this post. The excavation and then getting back to the US have made my life rather hectic the last two months but things are starting to slow down and so hopefully I can be more prolific with these posts.
Once again we are skipping several chapters. Exodus 25-31 generally deals with the things that Moses and Yahveh discussed while on the mountain, typically pertaining to the sanctuary. Now I am not diminishing in any way from the value of those chapters; they are sensational chapters with a great deal to offer any student of Yahveh's word. But they are not events in Moses's life and as this is a character study, more or less, they are not relevant to this particular discussion. Therefore any examination of the sanctuary and its contents at this time would only prove to be a disservice.
Also, because there is so much in this episode, like others, we are going to deal with it in two parts. The first part is going to focus on Moses while the second part is going to deal with the Israelites.
Where we last left off, Yahveh had called Moses up to the mountain and told him that he wanted the Israelites to build him a sanctuary so that he could "tabernacle" or dwell with them. He then details specifically how this sanctuary is going to look and how the services are going to be conducted. All in all it's pretty cool.
The only problem with all of this is that Moses is up there for a very long time, 40 days to be exact. Down below, the Israelites are getting antsy, wondering where on earth Moses is. Admittedly, 40 days is a long time. I mean, imagine how we'd react if the President dropped off the face of the earth for 40 days. We'd probably declare the President dead and elevate the VP to the big job.
That, more or less, is what the Israelites did. They figured Moses was either dead or not coming back and gave up on him. Simultaneously elevating Aaron to fill Moses shoes, they give up on Yahveh and demand that Aaron make them gods to go before them. Aaron, who, as we shall see has the backbone of an octopus, capitulates.
He takes the peoples donation of jewelry and fashions it into the infamous golden calf, probably combining Yahveh with El, the chief Canaanite deity with whom Yahveh has often been confused. El's symbol is the cow. After making the calf, Aaron declares that the following day will be a celebration, to which the people heartily approve.
Meanwhile on the mountain, these recent developments have not escaped the eyes of the all-knowing Yahveh. Understandably Yahveh is furious when he sees the Israelites, people who had just the previous month sworn to serve him and obey his commands, so quickly jump ship. While 40 days to us may seem like a long time, when you put it in perspective, is it really worth ditching everything over? You couldn't just sit tight for a little longer?
Apparently not and Yahveh has had enough. Their grumblings and complaints about every little thing were bad enough, but this was outright rebellion against his commands. And if there is one thing Yahveh has little patience for, it is outright rebellion.
Yahveh's reaction is swift and severe. "Go down," he tells Moses, "for your people who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. (An aside here: I love how the Israelites are suddenly Moses's people. Kind of like when the kid screws up and the mom says to the dad, "Look at what your kid did). They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, 'These are the gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!' I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you."
Before we judge Yahveh's answer as a harsh overreaction, we have to understand what the Israelites switching gods meant. They had basically signed a treaty saying that they were under Yahveh's rule; essentially they were his vassals. Now, a scant 40 days later, they were breaking that treaty and going into open rebellion against Yahveh.
To contextualize it in our terms, what the Israelites did was essentially the same thing as what the South did just prior to the American Civil War. They declared themselves independent from the rest of the United States and set up a new president for themselves, Jefferson Davis. The reaction by Abraham Lincoln and the rest of the "Union" was equally swift and harsh as was Yahveh's, albeit far more inept.
With this context in mind, Moses has a choice. He could step aside and let Yahveh do his thing and turn the Israelites into ashes, as they richly deserved. I doubt any of us would've faulted Moses for taking this option. After all we've discussed in this study about the awesome majesty and power of Yahveh, we can all understand that an angry Yahveh is not someone that any of us want to deal with.
Or Moses could step in and plead on behalf of the Israelites. There is great risk here. First, he doesn't have a case; they have been caught in the act. It would be like trying to plead the case of someone who was observed committing murder by a bunch of cops. You aren't going to get that person off. Secondly, he risks putting himself in their camp, which if he fails could have some very unpleasant consequences.
Yet this is the option that Moses chooses. For all the griefs that the Israelites have given the prophet since he helped free them from the Egyptians, he still stands in their place (sometimes I wonder if he ever regretted that decision. Probably not).
"Oh LORD," he said, "why does your wrath burn hot against your people (he's putting them back on Yahveh), whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth?' Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit forever.'"
Surprisingly enough, this works. Yahveh relents and doesn't wipe the Israelites out. Moses goes back down and then flips out himself when he sees the Israelites dancing around the golden calf but that is something that will be dealt with in the following post.
After Moses personally deals with the Israelites, he tells them that he will try to make atonement for them before Yahveh. Then he does something truly remarkable.
"Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold," Moses laments to Yahveh, "But now, if your will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written."
At first, this doesn't make sense. What book? Moses is referring to the Book of Life, the book that records all of those who have been saved by Jesus grace. And Moses is offering to have his name erased if it will it will eternally save the Israelites.
Think about that for a minute. Moses is volunteering for eternal damnation to forgive the sins of the Israelites. And you thought Katniss was brave! This is arguably the bravest statement ever uttered by man.
Yahveh's response is that it doesn't work like that; Moses cannot take their place. Yahveh punishes only the guilty, not the innocent. He will not destroy the Israelites, but their day is coming and they will pay for their crime. But that is the topic of the next post.
There was, of course, one major exception to that policy. That exception was Jesus Christ. Jesus, who was the definition of innocent, volunteered for damnation, suffering the second death for all mankind so that no one else had to.
You see, we have all rebelled against Yahveh in ways that are sometimes worse than even what the Israelites did. Our race has become a blight, a poison in the universe, polluting the holiness of Yahveh's creation. We deserved eradication for our crimes, just as the Israelites did.
Yet someone took the risk to step in between us and God, just as Moses did. Jesus, although in very nature God himself, surrendered that to become man. And then as a man, surrendered even that to take the full wrath of God's holiness, suffering the penalty that we all should have born, letting his name be blotted out of the book in place of ours.
I don't know how much the Israelites knew of what Moses offered to save them. Even if they did, I doubt they fully comprehended the full weight of what that offer entailed or how close they came to death that day.
Neither, for that matter, do we. We live so much of our lives in blissful ignorance in the great awesomeness of Jesus grace. We don't fully comprehend what he sacrificed for us or how close we are to death.
Perhaps that is the point; Christ suffered and understood it so that we don't have to. But at the same time, we often are prone to treat his gift of grace and salvation with flippancy or even sometimes disdain. We are apt to treat Jesus's grace lightly, forgetting how much that sacrifice cost and how much it gained.
But then we read stories like this and the veil that shields us from the Great Controversy is pulled back, just slightly, and we begin to realize the power of the cross. Christ stood between us and annihilation, offering himself in our place. We stand alive with the hope of eternity because of that.
That is why the cross matters. That is what it means. It signifies the moment that someone stood between a race and utter destruction and absorbing it into himself. That is why we worship Jesus today.
No comments:
Post a Comment