What do you do when the people you took out of Egypt with all sorts of mighty miracles, betray you? You destroy them of course. Except this God and the appointed leader are different. Take a listen to this weeks sermon:
If I might, I’ll add a detail that probably would have been good to have in the sermon. God speaks of the wrath that will come on the people. Which, let’s be honest is disturbing. If that’s the character of God, I’m not sure I’m interested. Or, I’m only interested with some pretty sophisticated verbal gymnastics.
To help understand or try to explain, maybe an elaboration would be helpful.
If you could have a conversation with one of the National Gods. During that conversation you might expect that God to say something wrathful against the peasants that this God ruled. Why? Because everyone, your friends, your family, the government propaganda of the time (I’m sure they had it too) would all say that the God’s were wrathful. God’s were wrathful.
So, to people listening to the story of Moses and God, this was conversation as per usual. God’s were angry and Moses was trying to appease God.
Then the story flies off the rails.
Moses talks back against God. Moses bargains with God and seems to be more rational than God. That is jaw-dropping. It’s a bait and switch story. You think you are listening to common God’s story and you most definitely aren’t.
Then things get really crazy, because Moses wins. He has the better argument. Or at least that’s what the story seems to say. This story is so outside your frame of reference because it’s the actions of God that are so unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
It’s an idea, not sure if you buy it or not, but it helps me understand the story more.