| WHEN GOD WAS OBVIOUS |
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| The Great Rebellion Exodus 32 shows the Israelites at their worst. People who had eaten manna for breakfast, who had just solemnly agreed to keep every word of the covenant, who were at that moment standing beside a mountain stormy with the Lord's presence - those very people proceeded to melt down their gold jewelry and flagrantly flout the first commandment. "Stiff-necked," God called the Israelites as he burned in anger against them. Only Moses' eloquent appeal saved their lives. The history of the Israelites should nail a coffin lid on the notion that impressive displays of God's power will guarantee faith. (Jesus would later say, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead," Luke 16:31). People who had everyday proof of God demonstrated only one thing: the monotonous consistency of human nature. The offenders would pay for their acts by wandering 40 years in a desolate wilderness while a new, untainted generation grew up to replace them. But a pattern was beginning to emerge: if the Israelites failed God in the shadow of Mount Sinai, how would they possible withstand the seduction of new cultures in the promised land? The next generation, too, would fail God, as would all their descendants. The old covenant, as Paul would so convincingly argue in the book of Galatians, succeeded mainly by proving undeniably the need for a new one. Life Questions: Do you ever have doubts about God's existence? What would it take to completely convince you? |
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