Moses

‘Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.’ (Exodus 32)

While Moses has been up on the mountain receiving the Law – the Ten Commandments – from God, the Israelites have gotten tired of waiting for his return.  And so they ask Aaron to make them a new god. Aaron complies, gathering gold jewelry and trinkets from the people, melting it down, and fashioning a golden calf!

When God realizes what is happening, He wants no more to do with these people.  After all He has done for them, after having kept His end of the covenant through thick and thin, the people still turn away from Him so completely?  No, He wants nothing more to do with them.  And who could blame Him?

But  Moses pleads with God on behalf of the people.  He asks God how will it look to the Egyptians if God destroys the Israelites now?  Moses also reminds God that the covenant was established long before these people ever came on the scene – back in the days of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.

Remarkably, God is persuaded by Moses and decides not to take immediate action against the Hebrew people.

In this season of Lent, we are reminded of two things in particular.  Like the Israelites, we too have turned away from the Lord, in different ways and at different times.  Despite all that the Lord has done for us and continues to do for us, we still at times decide there is something better than the Lord.  And off we go.

But the other thing we are reminded of in this holy season, especially as we look up at the Cross, is that the Lord does not renege on His end of the covenant – no matter what we do.  Fortunately for us, His mercy and His forgiveness are still there for us.

Our response, therefore, can be only one thing.  We need desperately to turn back to Him, to express our sorrow for turning away, to let Him know how much we need Him, and then pledge to never turn away again.

May our Lenten prayers and practices truly strengthen us to do just that, so that through all we say and do, we might indeed be drawing ever closer to our ultimate goal – eternal life in the Father’s Kingdom of true and lasting peace.