"Ask & Believe" not "Ask & Do" - Exodus 32
This morning through the reading today's chapter, God spoke to me about waiting on Him.
1 When Moses failed to come back down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. "Look," they said, "make us some gods who can lead us. This man Moses, who brought us here from Egypt, has disappeared. We don't know what has happened to him."
Like these people, I seem to have a very short waiting tolerance. I'll pray about something and if it doesn't seem to be answered right away, then I jump into action. This has caused me much unnecessary suffering. God has been telling me over and over lately - through my accountability group, in the Sunday message, in my personal study - to ask and believe, not ask and then do it yourself.
The other thing that jumped out at me is Aaron's comment to Moses after he had been busted:
21 After that, he turned to Aaron. "What did the people do to you?" he demanded. "How did they ever make you bring such terrible sin upon them?" 22 "Don't get upset, sir," Aaron replied. "You yourself know these people and what a wicked bunch they are. 23 They said to me, 'Make us some gods to lead us, for something has happened to this man Moses, who led us out of Egypt.' 24 So I told them, 'Bring me your gold earrings.' When they brought them to me, I threw them into the fire – and out came this calf!"
One of my other dBraggers pointed out how ridiculous this is as well: "and out came this calf" ? Please, Aaron - do you expect Moses to buy that?
This just goes to show me again - God picks ordinary people to do His work. He chose Aaron to be the High Priest, in charge of all the other priests. And look how he blows it. Not only does he agree to gather everyone's gold and then make an idol and then encourage the people to worship it - he saw how excited they were, so he built an altar and sacrificed to this golden calf. Then he lies to Moses on top of it all: "Gee, Mo - I don't know what happened. Here I was just gathering up everyone's gold, I threw it in the pot and out jumps this golden calf!"
For the children of Israel, expecially Aaron, there were consequences, as there always are. We'll read about that later on. But, for today the encouragement is to wait on the Lord and to have no other idols before Him. Even when it seems the Lord has abandoned you, you will be blessed for believing and waiting on Him.
peace,
e
