Articles
Relying on God Through our Frustration (Revisited)
Everyone at some point will make a mistake and this can be frustrating in the moment. In fact, I made a mistake in my writing and this is why I put “revisited in the title. Originally this article was on Moses making what I believed to be a mistake due to being angry. Later on though, I learned that it was not a mistake he made from sinful anger, but a choice made to symbolize the righteous irritation God felt due to the actions of the Israelites.
In Exodus 19, the Lord commanded Moses to go to the top of Mount Sinai to hear all of the rules that the people of Israel should follow. In chapter 20, Moses receives the Ten Commandments from God written on two stone tablets. By Exodus 32:1, the Israelites were beginning to doubt that Moses would ever return from the mountain. So the people gathered together and said to Aaron the priest, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
The Israelites began worshipping the golden calf that Aaron created, saying, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:8) When the Lord saw what the Israelites had done, He became angry and desired to burn them, so He could start a new nation of Israel from Moses. In Exodus 32:12-13 Moses interceded on the people’s behalf and the Lord abated from His anger. Moses then went down from mount Sinai to confront the people about their sin. As he approached the Israelites he saw them worshipping the golden calf and became righteously angry. As a result, Moses took the commandments in His hands and shattered them against the base of Mount Sanai. He then smelted the golden calf, ground it into a powder, scattered it a top of water and made the people drink it all.
Moses’ action of breaking the tablets and drinking the powdered calf may seem like a harsh and irrational response to us, but they are righteous. By breaking the Ten Commandments, Moses physically represented what the Israelites had done. Due to their idolatry the Israelites had brazenly displayed that they were not yet ready to enter into a mature relationship with God. By smelting the golden calf and making the Israelites drink its powder, Moses had destroyed their idol and then defiled it in a way that it could never come back, effectively getting rid of their temptation to worship the idol again. He then called all the Levites and had them cleanse the camp of all who were still practicing the idol worship.
When I first noticed my mistake I was tempted by frustration to never go back to update my work and make it correct. A part of me wanted to say, “It’s too much work, I did it already, and it’s so far in the past that it’s not worth it.” Feeling that irritation and having those tempting thoughts in itself is not sin. As emotions rise, there will be a desire to prioritize satisfying them over acting in a pleasing manner to God. There is no reason to lose hope because Hebrews 4:15 reads, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” After being baptized, God’s children all have the ability to pray to Him through Jesus and repent of our mistakes. By choosing to repent and rely on God’s strength going forward, we can then make sure we do not repeat the same mistakes. That way the Lord can guide us to our eternal inheritance, as He did with His beloved servant Moses.
