“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come makes us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, we don’t know what happened to him.” (Exodus 32:1 NIV)
It doesn’t take too long for folks to go awry and start looking for false gods. In less than forty days the Israelites lost interest in the routines that had shaped their existence to that point. Forty days felt too long because they didn’t fully understand what was happening. When Moses went up the mountain he wasn’t simply retrieving a handful of commandments. He went up to establish a theocracy. Historian Josephus sums it up nicely when he explains how Moses ascended Sinai to bring back “a happy method of living for the people, and an order of political government, a short history of the patriarchs and a Decalogue.” In retrospect, forty days seems quite quick to accomplish so much!
Yet, at the lower altitude, forty days felt like forever. The Israelites gave up on ‘that fellow’ Moses – you know, the humble leader who had gone head to head with Pharaoh for them just a few months prior? And Aaron, Moses’ own brother wasn’t much better. Though he had seen miracle after miracle performed through Moses, when the people plied him for a false god he gives in without argument.
Why am I pointing this out in a pandemic?
Because forty days is long enough for us to lose our way.
Friends, it’s been 46 days since our president declared a national emergency and asked us all to stay home. How are you holding up? Maybe more importantly, what are you holding to? What are you going to do when we can gather again? Has church left a hole in your life or have you found another false god to fill the vacancy?
Let me encourage you. Don’t give up on God because He’s busy on the mountain establishing a way forward. Decide now that you won’t share the fate of the false-god worshipers. Wait on the Lord. Pull close to Him as we wait this out.
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down because your people, home you have brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I have commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of calf. They bowed to it and sacrificed to it and have said “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.””” (Exodus 32:7-8 NIV)
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:14 NIV)
Lord, help us wait well even when the days grow long and we are stuck at low altitude. We can’t see what You are up to on the mountain, but we trust that You are working on our behalf. We look up, sure of where our help comes from. You are our source of hope and salvation, not some created thing. May we resist the tendency to defect to lesser gods. Help us hold tight to our faith even when we feel alone, small or forgotten. Give us the guts to gather in Your name again, absolutely convinced of Your sovereignty. Amen.