When at last Moses began descending from Sinai, he held in his hands the tablets of stone on which God had returned the words of His law. Yet, the weight of God's law in his hands was less than a weight he carried on his heart. God had given Moses a final command: to go down to a people who had already turned away from the covenant they had so solemnly affirmed. They were not to make an idol (Ex 20:4). But they had already made a golden calf, worshiped it and sacrificed it.
When Moses saw the licentious orgy at the foot of the Mountain, it was too much for him. He flung down the tablets of God's law shattering them. When Moses called out for those who were for the Lord, only the Levites, Moses' own tribe rallied to him. Moses commissioned them to execute God's sentence on the rebels and about three thousand died as the Levites carried out their grim task.
What future remained for Israel? If the people completed violated God's covenant at the very foot of the mountain where God was speaking, what point was there in continuing the covenant relation? Moses pleaded with God not to blot Israel out of the book of life but to blot out his name instead. Centuries later, the apostle Paul reflected the same plea of Moses, that "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. " (Romans 9:3-4)
Many people today want of religion where they do not lose all contact with God, but prefer that their relations with HIm be handled by a professional. Left a clergyman do the praying. It is well to have God available at no great distance. We might need His help, in a counseling center perhaps. But to have God at the center of our lives - that is decidedly too close. His presence would be most inconvenient for some of our business deals, our entertainment, or our grabbing a little of the gusto that the TV commercials advertise. Is this true of us?
If it were us thousands of years ago at the foot Sinai, would we have fared even better? How are we faring now?
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