In Exodus 24, verses 9-11 tell us that Moses, Aaron and 72 other elders in Israel saw God. They saw the God of Israel, and it says that his feet were perched on top of 'something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness'. There, they saw God, and they ate and drank.
They saw God. They saw God in his glory, and clearly struggled for the words to describe God. It's a moment many of us long for.
And yet, after Moses had been on the mountain for 40 days, these were the folks in charge of making the golden calf to worship.
The ones who saw God. Less than 6 weeks later, they were ready to worship a calf of gold, despite having seen God in his glory.
Such is the condition of the human heart. We have such short memories, and are always so tempted to reach for what is easy and convenient.
It's easy to believe that a vision of God would compel us to live properly for the rest of our days. Here, we have evidence that it barely sustained Aaron and the elders of Israel for 6 weeks. They got distracted. They must have forgotten, although that is hard to believe. Their human minds turned from the vision of God to the immediate situation around them, and they were soon so distracted that they had wandered from the path altogether. They were so lost, despite this glorious vision.
There is no easy solution to living faithfully. There is never going to be a pill that we can swallow to keep us from sinning. It's going to be a struggle to stay faithful, and temptation to stray is constant. Let's not fool ourselves and think there is an easy way out. Instead, let's wake up every day and put our faith into action, living out what we believe, and gathering as a community be strengthened together for our faithful service and worship. We can't do this on our own. We will fall short. We believe that God is merciful and gracious, and we need to remind each other of this fact. We have short memories, but together we can remember all that God has done.
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