Being Like God

If I was Moses, I think I would have lost it with those people in the desert.

The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation." 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? 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. 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.'" And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people. - Exodus 32:7–14

Moses shows his true colors here.  He has a chance to be raised up once again by God and he turns it down to save the people who eventually cause him to lose his right to enter the promised land.

In a way, it is a lot like what happened to Martin Luther King Jr. in our day.  He led his people in a quest for glory and equality, only to be taken down before getting a chance to see that glory come to pass.

And where are we now?

It may seem we are more divided than before.  Moses has a point.  He tells God the enemies will be justified in their view of God as a strict tyrant wanting to lead his people to death if God punishes them.  How will it look? 

So, God relents and the people are spared, even though they broke their covenant once again.

Did they deserve what Moses did for them?

That may be the whole point.  We never earn God's grace, no matter how good we try to be.  It is given freely, and in this case, almost against God's own will.  God can be persuaded to be even more graceful toward us, and yet we remain stiff-necked sometimes, demanding more than we deserve.

Perhaps we should stop and think about how God sees us for a change.  

Is he smiling or wagging his head?  Instead of thinking we are so great, let us challenge ourselves to be more graceful and forgiving.

We might just see how hard it is to be like God.

More to come...