The Long-Suffering God
Scripture Reading: Exodus 32: 7 - 14 (NIV)
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
9“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
11But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ ” 14Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
Message: The Long-Suffering God
The conversation between God and Moses (your people…)
This is a fascinating conversation between God and Moses!
God is upset with the Israelites - they have turned away from Him
You get a sense that God is hurt by the actions of the Israelites
God was having a conference with Moses and while they were busy on the mountain, the Israelites decided to do their own thing
“We don’t need a God that stays up on the mountain and have a long conference with Moses.”
“We’ll do this ourselves…” so they made the golden calf
Notice the language when God speaks to Moses - He refers to “your people”
“Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt”
God is distancing himself from his people - responding to their rejection
God is angry - He wants to wipe them from the face of the earth
They have committed the sin of “They have made themselves gods of gold.” (Ex 32: 31)
They thought they did not need God anymore…
God called them “stiff-necked people”, because God has seen them for who they are
But Moses respectfully sought the favour of God…
And Moses is using the language of “your people, who you have brought out of Egypt”
And even the argument: What would the Egyptians say about this God that frees his people from Egypt only to destroy them in the desert?
Moses pleads with God to turn from his anger
Moses pleads that God would relent in his intention to wipe the Israelites from the earth
Moses pleads with God to remember his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
And God listens: “Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened”
We should note that Moses himself was very upset when he eventually went down the mountain
He threw down the tablets on which God had written with his own hand, and they broke into pieces
And it wasn't if there were no consequences for their actions - many were killed by the Levites and they were struck by a plague
But God returned to his covenant with his people
God turned from his anger, God relented, and God remembered
The character of God - Long-Suffering God
What kind of God does this?
What kind of God goes to confide and express his anger with a mortal?
What kind of God allows himself to be convinced by mere mortals?
What kind of God listens to human arguments, despite being right and having all the right as the Creator God to wipe these people out?
And this story is not the first time we have heard of this God listening to mortals… in Genesis 18 Abraham is pleading for Sodom to be saved
We live in a time where people say: “I can’t believe in a God that allows so much suffering to come into this world” or “a loving God would not allow his children to have so much pain”
Some will read the Old Testament and say that God is brutal for killing people and bringing plagues on them
In the context of believing in a Creator God who is almighty, certainly God has the right to do with his creation as He pleases?
And as God’s creations, we certainly cannot demand anything of God?
Yet, our God is a relationship God - our God wants to engage with us
Our God listens to arguments, however flawed
Our God is sharing with us that He gets angry and upset with us
Our God is willing to give second chances
Our God is a God who turns away from his anger, who relents in his intention to destroy and remembers his promises
Our God is a long-suffering God, willing to listen again…
And we need God to have patience with us, don't we?
We tend to stray and turn away from God…
We love to make ourselves gods of gold, thinking that we don’t need God
But our God is done with us…
Our God wants us to turn to Him
Our God wants us to live our lives in dependence on Him
Our response to the long-suffering God - Empathy
When I hear of this long-suffering God, how can I respond?
What would the relevance of this story be for me today?
Well, we live in an angry and intolerant world right now, don’t we?
We saw a young man being shot this week in a volatile environment
We hear leaders making populist statements that is meant to divide all the time
Not just South of the border…
We are caught up in what our algorithms feed us on social media
We form opinions of one another without knowing what we have been exposed to
We see people for what their opinions are and not the person
We don’t stop to think anymore why an opinion is important to someone, we just file them in our category boxes (liberal, conservative, evangelical, woke…) instead of seeing them as persons…
We might think of different ways to respond to the long-suffering God
But if we understand how this long-suffering God is willing to go the extra mile with us, would it not be appropriate to respond to the long-suffering God by being more empathetic to one another?
If the Almighty God can turn away from his anger, and relent in his intentions and remember the goodwill of past commitments, should we not?
AMEN
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