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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Ex. 31
I love how God’s provision is so complete! He provided the plans for everything He asked His people to build. He also provided the materials, likely through the plundering of the Egyptians. But He didn’t stop there. He said, “I have put wisdom in the heart of every skilled artisan in order to make all that I have commanded you” (Ex. 31:6b). And He even went so far as to appoint two specific men to head up the operation. So, though the project sounded like a daunting task, God made the whole thing possible. Why, then, should I fear when He requires something of me?
Ex. 32
After crafting the golden calf and building an altar before it, Aaron announced, “There will be a festival to the LORD tomorrow.” (Ex. 32:5b). He didn’t say, “to your God”, or even simply, “to God”. No, he specified the name of the LORD, the one true God. I am trying to make sense of what was going on in his head. How could he think that idol worship could be any part of a festival to God?!?
This is frightening to me. I get the impression that Aaron truly thought he was serving God in all of this. Yet he was the leadership – one of the closest to God in the entire camp! If he could be so easily deceived into thinking his misguided actions were for the LORD, can’t the same happen to me? It makes me think of when Jesus said that many would come to Him at the end claiming all that they had done for Him. Yet He will respond to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!” (Matt. 7:23). I guess the comforting part is that Aaron was not destroyed by God’s plague in spite of his actions.
How are we to discern when our service and our worship are truly for God? Clearly, familiarity with God’s word is a good first step. But the non-compliance of a golden calf was blatantly obvious. So why did Aaron fall for it? I think the key to that question is the familiarity. Aaron and the others simply fell back to what was familiar and comfortable. How often do we do the same on our journey with God? He leads us into an uncomfortable situation or He feels absent in our lives, and what do we do? So I’d say that if I really want to learn to stay faithful to God, I need to learn to embrace the discomfort when He stretches me. It is when I fall back to my comfortable defaults that I deceive myself into thinking I am still following Him.
Ex. 33
What was up with the people’s jewelry? When God said that He would not go with the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land, He told them to remove their jewelry. They mourned at the news and put it away for the remainder of their journey. I wonder if this had anything to do with the fact that they had used their gold rings to make the calf idol. Like maybe this was symbolic of removing other gods from their hearts. Whatever the case, it does strike me as a form of humility. Jewelry is ornate; something we decorate ourselves with. Thus, leaving themselves unadorned would have been a way of stripping themselves of their pride.