More than gracious!

I have recently finished studying the book of Exodus. And man! That is a hard book to study! There’s the surface level story of Moses and the redemption of the children of Israel, but man there’s a lot of crazy things in the middle.

The central character of the story, besides God,  is really Moses. And following Moses through the ups and downs of his monumental life is amazing, and crushing at times. The garbage that the people of Israel dished out on him, and particularly God, was unbelievable.

There was one aspect of his story that I read with new eyes though. It is the account of Moses going up to the mountain to meet with God for forty days as he is given God’s commandments for His people. The glory and awe of that experience must have been incredible!

As he heads down the mountain after the best days of his life, he is confronted by the abhorent debauchery of the Israelite people. God had already told him what had happened but seeing it was a whole new experience.

Now at this point, most people focus on the anger of Moses and his breaking of the 10 Commandments, but there is something so much more monumental going on here!

Think of God. Think of all He had just done for the Israelites. Think of all the power that He displayed before them and the world!

But the new thing that stuck out to me here was Aaron. God had already called him and his family to serve as preists. He had already been the mouth-piece to Pharaoh for God and for Moses. Next to Moses, he knew more about what was going on with God and His plan for the Israelites than any other man on earth. He was the number two guy!

But while Moses was away, the people convinced Aaron to collect all of their gold and create for them an idol to worhsip. And Aaron, with apparently little reservation, did! And gave the lousiest excuse for his actions to Moses when he returned.

So here we have God who has done all of this for his people and for Aaron specifically. And God witnesses- no, knew first hand- Aaron would and did completely abandon him and led God’s people into worshipping a false God. Breaking the very first two commandments that God had just given Moses! And he was their leader!

Think of the anguish of God, watching his chosen servant cheat on him! And what I notice here is God’s grace! God passes over his sin and continues to allow him to be the high priest. Teaching us that God’s plans never change, that His purposes for our lives our concrete. He just wants our love and our trust and our devotion.

Aaron definitely had consequences for his actions, but God was more than faithful and more than gracious in allowing Him to serve.

I know that these are random thoughts, but ones I wanted to jot down.