Devotion by Jennifer Hall (IN)
Exodus 31 and 32 are full of some pretty exciting stuff. There seems to be good reason why Moses is a recurring character in children’s lessons and why illustrations of these stories made the cut for one of the rare colored pictures inserted into the old Children’s Bibles of my day!
In this story, while the Israelites were busy stripping off their valuable gold to fashion it into a false god, Moses was busy encountering the LORD. Unfortunately, not only were the Israelites just doing the handicraft work of sculpting calves with gold, we also see in Exodus 32:8,
“. . .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”
Umm, excuse me, who brought them out of Egypt?? The only God. The one true God. The LORD who was busy inscribing tablets for His people at this same time. God was writing. At a time where writing wasn’t something you did with a stylus on magic screens, when you didn’t highlight or color code or copy and paste. . .writing itself was more rare and precious. And while they were spouting lies and whining, God was inscribing His words in stone for them anyway.
As an occupational therapist, one thing I get to do quite a bit is assess how people write, how I might be able to make it easier, less painful, help children develop writing skills, etc. So, while I read this chapter, I couldn’t help but get intrigued wondering how He was doing it and how it looked. Is God right handed or left? Was He pointing with an index finger? Does He have an index finger? Were there any pink sparkles involved? Basically, I got distracted thinking about things through my filter and what I know. While these chapters don’t share this detail, Deuteronomy and later in Exodus tell us that these tablets were written by “the finger of God”. That is some handwriting action I would LOVE to observe! But most importantly, given the God who parted the Red Sea for this crew to miraculously flee Egypt, was writing with His finger on stone for His people, one would assume these words were treasures. But. . .
How heartbreaking to see two vastly different things going on at Mount Sinai at the same time. A God who loves His people and knows them best writing a message for them. A people who claims to be His in one breath, yet lifting a golden cow as their god in another, all the while clueless to what the true God is busy doing for them. Surely we can relate before we throw stones. We live in a world of gold, cows, false gods, lies, distractions, and people telling us other things are gods constantly. We also live in a world created by the one true God with a beautiful plan for renewal in the coming kingdom. Maybe one day we can see God write, but until then, we have His living word, His spirit, and His love available to us. Let us purge our golden idols and seek to focus our attention on Him even if it means being patient, obedient in tough things, and focused on the promised land.
Reflection Questions:
- What can you learn and apply from the characters on the top and bottom of Mount Sinai in today’s story?
- What can you do today to treasure God’s word?
Prayer:
Dear God, You are the one true God worthy of all our praise. Thank You for loving us through all our faults. Help us remember to seek You first and cast aside any idols we have. Amen.
Seek Grow Love 