Archive for February, 2008

Danielle and I were reading through the story of Moses the other night, and a couple of things really stuck out to me that I either hadn’t read before or just never really noticed.

1.) Moses changed the course of history.

You might say, “well yeah, Jared, we know that.” I’m not talking about the plagues and leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Don’t get me wrong, that was a miracle, but there was another moment where Moses was used to change history.

The back story…Moses has been on Mt. Sinai meeting with God, receiving instruction on all sorts of different subjects for a long period of time. The Israelites left in camp become restless, they ask Aaron (who, by the way, is supposed to become High Priest) to build them a god that they can worship, Aaron complies and builds the golden calf. Moses hears the sound of the Israelites throwing one wild party, and God becomes extremely upset, and rightly so. Can you imagine being miraculously led out of Egypt, and then complaining that Moses hasn’t come down from the mountain, so you want to worship the golden calf that “led you out of Egypt?” A little crazy, right?

Anyway…God is so incensed with the Israelites that he decides to burn them up. Moses asks God to spare the Israelites in Exodus 11:13-14 (The Message)

Stop your anger. Think twice about bringing evil against your people!

And God did think twice. He decided not to do the evil he had threatened against his people.

Just goes to show the effect that someone cane have when they truly connect with God and ask Him to make a difference not only in their life but in the lives of people important to them.

2.) God uses imperfect people.

I thought it was quite ironic that God still allowed Aaron to be priest after this little episode. Because, while Aaron is busy building the golden calf, Moses is receiving detailed instructions regarding Aaron’s priestly duties. Yet, God still allowed him to serve as priest, despite his playing a part in the Israelites’ sin.

It’s encouraging to know that we serve a God who can work with imperfect people.

3.) The whole sacrifice system must have been a mess.

When you read about all the different sacrifices that had to be performed daily you start to realize that it must have been a big bloody mess, between the slaughtering, removing of certain organs, etc. etc.

Thankfully, Jesus performed/was the ultimate sacrifice during His death on the cross so that we could be right with God without all the mess of animal sacrifice.