Disappointing God

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, and I might destroy you on the way.”

When the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments.
— Exodus 33:1-4

God gives Israel a no-confidence vote. He even distances himself from the works of the exodus, saying to Moses, “the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt.” Usually God doesn’t give up any of the credit for his mighty deeds. It kind of reminds me of what God said before the great flood (Genesis 6:5-8). This is a revelation of a very human God, whose heart is broken because the people just won’t get it. A God is so passionate about a vision for the future (and how he even wants to bless us), that He gets downright angry that we don’t feel the same and can’t see beyond our noses.

But again we see “My angel” as an intermediary. Possibly the same angel as The Angel of the Lord… possibly another way that Christ’s grace protects us from God’s passion.  We also see God’s faithfulness.  In some measure, it’s like He’s given up hope.  But in another way, he maintains His faithfulness to the things that He promised.  He does not waver, and He’ll do what he has to do to make it happen.

The people put away their ornaments.  Partly because God told them to as a sign of solidarity (in the following verses).  But what do you do when you realize that you are being very disappointing to God?  Usually, we’ve tried very hard to see it His way… and we just plain failed.  Try as we may, we just don’t get it. So, for lack of anything else we can think of, we put away distractions and spend a time in humility trying to seek God and please him.

In Israel’s case:  it didn’t work.  Sure, they put away their ornaments for a spell.  But when they came to the promised land (in Numbers), they balked.  God got mad again.  Later on said of them, “They are always going astray in their hearts.”

So… what do you do when you want to get it, but you just can’t seem to get it??

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