Your People

God is Watching

Have you ever done anything in your life and think, God might be upset with me over that? Do you know when it is obvious that God is upset with the people? Exodus 32:7 (NRSV)

7 The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;

So, when do you think God was upset with you? People with idol hands will quickly do wrong. Exodus 32:1–2 (NRSV)

The Golden Calf

(Deut 9:6–29)

32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” Do you think Aaron was making a new God for the Israelites? He absolutely makes an image for the people to gather with. He even calls all the people together to have a festival, or feast. Now this was aimed at God to honor the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt. Exodus 32:4 (NRSV)

4 He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When I hear in verse 7 God claiming that these people are yours, Moses, He is giving responsibility to Moses for their actions. My father used to do that with my mother, how about you? When I would do something wrong my mother would say you need to do something with your children. This was not an actual giving up of ownership, but a proclamation about who I was in their eyes. So God is saying, these people are not acting like my people. They have already forgotten what I have done for them.

This next area of scripture may explain why God chose Moses to lead his people. Exodus 32:11 (NRSV)

11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? The reply that would always follow a reply from one parents disapproval in me was always, he is your child. Moses reminds God that these people were still the people who He had freed. The reply that Moses uses is that the Egyptians would gain the ability to claim that this God is not a good god or successful god. Exodus 32:12 (NRSV)

12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Moses is using the situation to encourage God to reconsider his anger against His people. A little bit like when my father reminded my mother that I was still her child.

Exodus 32:13 (NRSV)

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” Verse 13 reminds God of what His promises were. I often speak of how we should pray. This is an example of how we should pray. Scripture

Moses has success with his plea not because Moses is so good at arguing his point. Moses was the first to tell God that was not his strength, but he uses God’s words to make his point. That is specifically how we should always engage with God.

Exodus 32:14 (NRSV)

14 And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.