Exodus 32:1 “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Moses was on Mount Sinai which was covered by a thick cloud of God’s presence. People were terrified by the awesome sight and sound on the mountain of God. On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled (Exodus 19:16). Moses was conversing with the Lord God but as his fasting prayer meeting was for about 40 days, the hearts of the people grew cold and callous. Rather than burning with the fire and fervor for God they were burning with lust and licentiousness. The powerful presence of the Almighty on the mountain must have stirred up a passion for the Living God but rather provoked them to revelry and rebellion. However, there was one man who never left the foot of the mountain. Joshua waited at the foot of the mountain for Moses to return and never took his eyes off the fiery mountain that was thundering with God’s voice (Exodus 32:17). The same sight prompted Joshua to draw closer to the Lord but provoked the rest of Israel to fall into idiocy, idolatry and debauchery.
The difference between the rest of Israel and Joshua was the ‘person of worship’. The eyes of Joshua were fixated on the manifested presence of God thundering on the mountain, but the eyes of the Israelites were on Moses. Since they could not see Moses they ignored the splendid sight of His visible presence. While Moses was up the mountain the men and women of Israel should have been worshiping in their tents. Rather, they ignited an unholy strange fire and threw their gold into fire to make a golden calf.
Like the Israelites if our focus is on pleasure, possessions and people we will lose sight of God and forget about the presence and power of God.
Prompts or Provocations:
1. Sensitive: If we have to become sensitive to God we must become insensitive to the prods, provocations and pouts of people. Israel chose waywardness when they assumed Moses was dead on the mountain of God. Those who are oversensitive to the opinion of people will numb their sensitivity to God.
2. Sensible: Corrupt thinking sears the conscience and makes the ungodly insensible, cruel and malicious. By means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron (2 Timothy 4:2). The Lord God told Moses that the people have become corrupt and rebelled against Him.
3. Sanctified: Sanctification/(dedication) turn provocations into prompts.
Sanctification is the step to train our conscience to be sensitive and sensible to the prompts of the Holy Spirit.
Exodus 32:25 Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies.
Prayer: Omnipotent Father, awesome in power and might, may my heart and hearing always be sensitive to your voice and presence. Amen.
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