These first tablets were inscribed by God Himself, and contained the Ten Commandments. God had spoken to Moses only about what was happening in the camp, Joshua did not know what was going on.
Although God had told Moses what the people were like, Moses had not appreciated just how true it was. Most of us find it difficult to come to terms with the reality of hell, but when the Last Day comes we will not be shocked at how severe God is, but at how lenient He has been. We do not appreciate the awfulness of sin.
Moses had a bad temper, and it was to get him into trouble, as it had done when he killed the Egyptian. Here he smashes up the tablets of stone and makes the people drink water containing them.
Aaron tries to placate Moses, and tells a few lies in the process. He claims the calf came out of the fire all by itself. As humans we are expert at manufacturing reasons for our own sins.
Next a terrible thing happens. Moses calls those who love the Lord to his side and the Levites come. Then he instructs them to go about the camp killing people who were worshipping the idol. I am no more comfortable with this than you are, but then it is not meant to be a comfortable tale. Jesus said we must love Him more than our family, and this is a vivid illustration of that. The Lord must be first. (May I hasten to add that that does not mean you go and kill anyone!)
Moses then goes up to the Lord again, offering himself as a sacrifice. The Lord replied that it was for Him to judge. The Lord does this both in exercising judgement, and He did it in providing Himself as the atonement for sin.
Finally we see that the Lord inflicts a plague on the people. We need to keep our lives free from idols. Idol worship of any sort always has terrible consequences, both for ourselves and for others.
No comments:
Post a Comment