Trust issues
As the boxes pile up again here, because the old house has to be emptied and we're running out of time to go through each of them there, it's time to come back to thinking of other things.
Our class is in Exodus now, and last week's lesson was one I had the opportunity to teach twice, because the teacher for the evening class was away. The previous lesson was on the Ten Commandments, and we looked at not just "The List" but the framework of how it was given. This lesson I returned to that, to Exodus 19:3(b)-8:
They have acknowledged Him and stated their readiness to obey and follow. They prepare themselves, and on the third day they hear His voice give these commandments and the listed examples of their application. (The examples of 'case law' as our manual puts it.) Then in Exodus 24 they accept the written version of the revelation and offer sacrifice, both burnt offerings and peace offerings, which blood is sprinkled on the altar and on themselves, signifying that both God and they have entered into this covenant--the covenant of Abraham, renewed for these descendants of Abraham. I will be your God and you shall be my people. The promise of both posterity and priesthood to continue in righteousness through all the generations.
Then it becomes a little less certain to them. Moses, Aaron and two of his sons, and seventy elders of Israel go up the mount, and they see the Lord. But as Moses then goes up alone to have further instruction and communion with God, the people are left in the camp to wonder what's happening, and they wonder and then become afraid. They go to Aaron (Exodus 32):
I asked the question, what should they have done? Don't we all hit those points, don't we all have those moments, in which we can't understand why we seem to have been left alone? Those 'moments' may last a long time, when we have received the promise but can't see it being answered, when we need and want it right now. Why does the Lord delay his coming, men will ask in the last day. Where is the help I was promised, I'm in pain and teetering on despair right now, and I see nothing.
What do we do in the times of our extremity? Do we give it up and turn away? Or do we plead more earnestly? Do we hang on, or abandon faith?
If the people had come to Aaron to plead for help in their fear, if they had gathered in fasting and prayer, I asked the class, do you have any doubt that the comfort of God would have been poured out upon them? We all believed that it would. Who knows what manifestations they might have received, if they had come together in faith? But their reaction was not humility, but riot.
Instead, they lose the blessings of the priesthood. Moses comes back down, and breaks the tablets which the Lord has made, signifying that the covenant is annulled. The second tablets are written as the first, in terms of the Ten Commandments, but do not continue into the powers and ordinances of the higher priesthood, the full blessings of Abraham as the first stone tablets did, because they have lost the promise the Lord wanted to give them. They had so quickly abandoned what they had just committed.
What do we do in the times of our uncertainty, our fear? Do we continue to be faithful?
His timetable is not our timetable, but He will always answer that he is still watching. Trust sometimes means waiting when we wanted to understand right now, but He says, "not yet." He knows our needs, with a longer view than our limited sight.
Our class is in Exodus now, and last week's lesson was one I had the opportunity to teach twice, because the teacher for the evening class was away. The previous lesson was on the Ten Commandments, and we looked at not just "The List" but the framework of how it was given. This lesson I returned to that, to Exodus 19:3(b)-8:
Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;"All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." The people of Israel have stepped forward into the first stage of the covenant. The Lord says that they will be a kingdom of priests, not a kingdom led by priests. He desires to make them all partakers of his blessings and glory. They have been delivered out of Egypt, have gotten past the first reactions to peril of "couldn't we have just died in Egypt?!" and He was patient, tutoring and reminding them; showing them by words through Moses; by manna to feed them; by the pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day that He was real, that He was watching over them.
4) Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on aeagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.5) Now therefore, if ye will aobey my voice indeed, and keep my bcovenant, then ye shall be a cpeculiar dtreasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:6) And ye shall be unto me a akingdom of bpriests, and an choly dnation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.7) ¶And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord acommanded him.8) And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will ado. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.
They have acknowledged Him and stated their readiness to obey and follow. They prepare themselves, and on the third day they hear His voice give these commandments and the listed examples of their application. (The examples of 'case law' as our manual puts it.) Then in Exodus 24 they accept the written version of the revelation and offer sacrifice, both burnt offerings and peace offerings, which blood is sprinkled on the altar and on themselves, signifying that both God and they have entered into this covenant--the covenant of Abraham, renewed for these descendants of Abraham. I will be your God and you shall be my people. The promise of both posterity and priesthood to continue in righteousness through all the generations.
Then it becomes a little less certain to them. Moses, Aaron and two of his sons, and seventy elders of Israel go up the mount, and they see the Lord. But as Moses then goes up alone to have further instruction and communion with God, the people are left in the camp to wonder what's happening, and they wonder and then become afraid. They go to Aaron (Exodus 32):
1) And when the people saw that Moses adelayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us bgods, which shall cgo before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we dwot [know] not what is become of him.They're not talking about the Lord who brought them out of Egypt, but a fallible and now (it seems) absent man, and they see no safety. They lose so much in demanding the making of the golden calf. They have rushed back to their 'default' setting as powerless slaves, living in fear rather than strength.
I asked the question, what should they have done? Don't we all hit those points, don't we all have those moments, in which we can't understand why we seem to have been left alone? Those 'moments' may last a long time, when we have received the promise but can't see it being answered, when we need and want it right now. Why does the Lord delay his coming, men will ask in the last day. Where is the help I was promised, I'm in pain and teetering on despair right now, and I see nothing.
What do we do in the times of our extremity? Do we give it up and turn away? Or do we plead more earnestly? Do we hang on, or abandon faith?
If the people had come to Aaron to plead for help in their fear, if they had gathered in fasting and prayer, I asked the class, do you have any doubt that the comfort of God would have been poured out upon them? We all believed that it would. Who knows what manifestations they might have received, if they had come together in faith? But their reaction was not humility, but riot.
Instead, they lose the blessings of the priesthood. Moses comes back down, and breaks the tablets which the Lord has made, signifying that the covenant is annulled. The second tablets are written as the first, in terms of the Ten Commandments, but do not continue into the powers and ordinances of the higher priesthood, the full blessings of Abraham as the first stone tablets did, because they have lost the promise the Lord wanted to give them. They had so quickly abandoned what they had just committed.
What do we do in the times of our uncertainty, our fear? Do we continue to be faithful?
His timetable is not our timetable, but He will always answer that he is still watching. Trust sometimes means waiting when we wanted to understand right now, but He says, "not yet." He knows our needs, with a longer view than our limited sight.
He knows, and our part is to trust. Yes.
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