Title: Grace For The Misdirected
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Exodus 32:1-14
I grew up with bad guys wearing black and good guys wearing white. It was easy to identify the good characters. It was just as easy to recognize the bad characters. There was hardly any overlap between being good and bad. Good characters were not challenged to become better through change and adaptation. It was always the good characters leading children, youth, or the ignorant to do and be better. Then I discovered life is not nearly as black and white. Bad guys have good traits, and all the good guys have flaws. We tend to focus on how those we categorize as bad are woefully misdirected, inadequate, and condemnable. Yet deeper down, aren't we all misdirected?
I don't particularly like this passage of Scripture. There is something about this narrative that has always bothered me, even as a child. I may have finally managed to put my finger on the problem. I had been taught to see Moses as a perfect example of one who followed Yahweh. After all, Yahweh did appear to him in that burning thorn bush. God revealed a personal name to Moses. God used Moses to redeem the people from Egypt and lead them across the Sea of Reeds, and then gave the people laws and instructions through him. Notes in the New Testament that would also portray Moses as one of the great ones akin to Abraham or Elijah.
What I find in today's passage, however, does not quite measure up to those expectations. More than that, the text raises questions about the very character of Yahweh. Is Yahweh the redeemer and God of grace, or is Yahweh the indignant, angry God ready to snap at the people at any moment? Is Moses a good intercessor for the people, appeasing Yahweh's anger, or is he perhaps the problem, and his character is being projected upon Yahweh?
Sometimes, it is hard to know exactly what to do with a text before us. Is it actually telling us who Yahweh is? Is ...
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Exodus 32:1-14
I grew up with bad guys wearing black and good guys wearing white. It was easy to identify the good characters. It was just as easy to recognize the bad characters. There was hardly any overlap between being good and bad. Good characters were not challenged to become better through change and adaptation. It was always the good characters leading children, youth, or the ignorant to do and be better. Then I discovered life is not nearly as black and white. Bad guys have good traits, and all the good guys have flaws. We tend to focus on how those we categorize as bad are woefully misdirected, inadequate, and condemnable. Yet deeper down, aren't we all misdirected?
I don't particularly like this passage of Scripture. There is something about this narrative that has always bothered me, even as a child. I may have finally managed to put my finger on the problem. I had been taught to see Moses as a perfect example of one who followed Yahweh. After all, Yahweh did appear to him in that burning thorn bush. God revealed a personal name to Moses. God used Moses to redeem the people from Egypt and lead them across the Sea of Reeds, and then gave the people laws and instructions through him. Notes in the New Testament that would also portray Moses as one of the great ones akin to Abraham or Elijah.
What I find in today's passage, however, does not quite measure up to those expectations. More than that, the text raises questions about the very character of Yahweh. Is Yahweh the redeemer and God of grace, or is Yahweh the indignant, angry God ready to snap at the people at any moment? Is Moses a good intercessor for the people, appeasing Yahweh's anger, or is he perhaps the problem, and his character is being projected upon Yahweh?
Sometimes, it is hard to know exactly what to do with a text before us. Is it actually telling us who Yahweh is? Is ...
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