9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. 10 The LORD gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the LORD proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.
11 At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the LORD told me, "Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made a cast idol for themselves."
13 And the LORD said to me, "I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! 14 Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they."
15 So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.
16 When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.
THANKS TO INTERNET TECHNOLOGY, I CAN WATCH ICE BUILDING UP ON LAKE MICHIGAN FROM MY WARM OFFICE 30 MILES AWAY. THE CHANGING ANGLE OF THE SUN'S RAY IN THE WINTER CHILLS THE EARTH. FRIGID TEMPERATURES TURN SURGING WATER INTO ROCK-HARD ICE IN A SURPRISINGLY SHORT TIME. WITNESSING THIS RAPID TRANSITION REMINDS ME OF HOW QUICKLY OUR HEARTS CAN TURN COOL TOWARD GOD.
THAT HAPPENED TO THE ANCIENT ISRAELITES. AFTER GOD MIRACULOUSLY RESCUED THEM FROM SLAVERY, THEY BECAME IMPATIENT WHEN MOSES CLIMBED MT. SINAI TO MEET GOD AND DIDN'T RETURN ACCORDING TO THEIR TIMETABLE. SO THEY GOT TOGETHER AND CREATED THEIR OWN GOD (EXODUS 32:1). THE LORD TOLD MOSES TO HURRY BACK DOWN THE MOUNTAIN BECAUSE THE PEOPLE HAD SO QUICKLY TURNED AWAY (DEUTORONOMY 9:12)
WHEN SITUATION DON'T UNFOLD ACCORDING TO OUR TIMETABLE WE MIGHT ASSUME THAT GOD HAS LOST INTEREST IN US. WHEN WE NO LONGER FEEL CLOSE TO HIM, OUR HEARTS MAY GROW COLD. BUT GOD IS ALWAYS WITH US. AS THE PSALMIST WROTE, "WHERE CAN I GO FROM YOUR SPIRIT? OR WHERE CAN I FLEE FROM YOUR PRESENCE?" (PSALM 139:7)
EVEN WHEN GOD SEEMS DISTANT, HE'S NOT. HIS PRESENCE FILLS HEAVEN AND EARTH (VV. 8-10). THERE'S NEVER A REASON TO LET OUR HEART FREEZE OVER.
COME, HOLY SPIRIT, HEAVENLY DOVE,
WITH ALL THY QUICKENING POWERS;
KINDLE A FLAME OF SACRED LOVE
IN THESE COLD HEARTS OF OURS.
THE QUESTION IS NOT WHERE IS GOD,
BUT WHERE ISN'T HE??
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