…And Moses Delayed

Three months into their miraculous departure from Egypt, the Israelites arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai and set up camp there. God summoned Moses up the mountain numerous times to receive several instructions for the people; sometimes alone, other times with others as the Lord directed him.

On his sixth or so ascent to Sinai, Moses went with Joshua, then God called him up higher to meet with Him and pick up the commandments. Moses stayed up the mountain for forty days and forty nights. As his return delayed the people got antsy. They must have felt stuck, afraid, not knowing what was coming next or when they would continue to their next level. They must have felt abandoned by Moses. He was their leader, their symbol of hope, the mediator between them and God and he had been gone for so long. Perhaps they even thought he was dead! So they rallied and went to the second in command.

“Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”” Exodus 32:1

It was not enough that God had entered into certain covenants with them in the preceding chapters. It was not enough that God had delivered them from Egypt in an unprecedented move. It was not enough that God had fed them, watered them, clothed them and protected them for months!

In that moment when they realized Moses had delayed and things were not going as expected, they panicked and took a wrong turn. They turned back to the familiarity of the idols they had worshiped in Egypt! Something tangible they could see, feel and touch as an alternative to the almighty God.

If you read further down, you will see this ill-advised move did not help them one bit and led to many sorrows!
So my question is what do you do when God seems silent or you cannot seem to find Him in your situation? When you think God is delaying, do you turn to what is familiar which may not be good for you after all? Do you take bad decisions and make wrong turns when your faith is challenged?

May God give us all the grace to wait on Him even when waiting does not make sense to our human minds!

Blessings!
Love, Lady Monica ❤