Exodus 32:1-14
“A Mind Changed”
October 11, 2020
It might have been the arguing over whose turn it was to empty the dishwasher. It could have been the last-minute request for cupcakes for tomorrow’s school bake sale. Or the 23 shoes (always an odd number) laying around that someone was bound to trip over before they would voluntarily pick any of them up and they were definitely not picking up any of our brothers’ shoes.
I clearly remember my mother’s patience fraying as she was the one at home with all seven of us kids during the week with her only escape being her job as a nurse at a hospital on the weekends, while my father was at work that sometimes took him away for a night or two at least once a month. We certainly heard the “wait ‘til your father gets home” occasionally but it was what happened when my father walked in the door at supper time that was the true measure of how fed up Mom was with our shenanigans and the perceived threat that we would soon be living in a one-parent home that had the power to send us scurrying to our rooms and our suddenly urgent homework assignments. When she had reached the end of her rope, and Mom started on the list of our wrongdoings, we would be referred to my father as “your kids” and that was never a good sign.
After all they’ve been through, here God is telling Moses to come down off that mountain and take care of “Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt.” That’s one sure sign that God is experiencing a divine fit of rage because only a short time earlier he was saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt.”
God here is on a tear! The people of Israel have made this journey of trust with Moses and escaped the bondage in Egypt. The sea was parted for them and they have been given manna and water and promised a new home and, most importantly, they were free. So much has happened to and for them with Moses as God’s agent.
God then goes full throttle, even resorting to name-calling when he refers to them as “stiff-necked” which meant he was comparing them to oxen who would be drawing a plow and if the plowman wanted them to turn or to keep a straight path when they were deviating he would refer to them as hard of neck or stiff-necked which meant stubborn or hard to lead.
Maybe it isn’t such a stretch for us to relate to a people who are feeling alone and scared. They desperately want a God to follow. In this case any God will do, even one of their own making. They want to be saved. Of course, they could have taken responsibility for themselves or gone looking for God on their own.
Isn’t it fascinating that none of them follows Moses up the mountain? They wanted a God but not the intimidating kind. One they make for themselves must seem more manageable. And Moses takes the heat from God who just wants to be left alone and he’s even willing to bribe Moses to help make that happen by promising to make of him a great nation.
God thinks the best solution is their destruction. Maybe he wants a do-over. But Moses pleads their case by reminding God of God’s greatness and of the promises made to their forefathers. Moses focuses on getting God to not act in anger and bring disaster on God’s people. Amazingly, Moses changes God’s mind.
To change a mind with humans is hard enough but its not for lack of trying. On our trip to the Finger Lakes this week, I was struck by the many, many campaign signs, often with one neighbor in support of one candidate and their next door neighbor with the other candidate which got me thinking about the debates and all of the energy that goes into elections and the effort to not just get out the vote but to get folks to vote a certain way by appealing to hearts in order to change minds.
In one of my morning devotionals this week I read, “The present culture of angry partisan politics that exists on both the Left and the Right is far more effective at making us feel morally superior than it is at changing anyone’s mind.” (Richard Rohr, Center for Action & Contemplation, 10/9/20)
There certainly are plenty of events in the news that remind us of how short of God’s will as a human race we fall. And still God remains with us. We continue to be God’s people and to be claimed as God’s own, in spite of the mess humankind has made of so much of the world, idols and all. The good news is that God abides and when we feel our most alone, the Psalmist reminds us, “O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever” and “Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people; help me when you deliver them…that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory in your heritage.” (Psalm 106, NRSV) Amen.