Where is he, anyway?

 

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Exodus 32:1, NIV

When I have read this before, I have focussed most on the golden calf and what that says about my own idolatry. But what I noticed today was how the Israelites reacted. 

Moses disappeared up the mountain for 40 days. I'm guessing he didn't tell anyone when he was coming down - did he know himself? So they had no idea how long to wait for, and eventually decided that he was a goner, and they should sort themselves out. I mean, I would have expected him to come down for dinner. Sound familiar?

What they expected to happen did not happen. The person they expected to be there wasn't there. The experience they wanted didn't happen. They feel betrayed.

I see myself in this story - right here, in the reaction. I have definitely decided that God has disappeared, I can't find him anywhere and it is up to me. 

It's even more interesting that it doesn't say the the Israelites actually had to do anything. They may have been just sitting there twiddling their thumbs. It doesn't say they were short of water, or food, or were facing an enenmy. They just had to wait, and that just freaked them out.

I should know by now that God likes to make people wait. There are so many times when deliverance is delayed - Abraham, Joseph, David. And we don't necessarily have to do things while we wait, but that in itself is hard - not knowing how long to wait for, not knowing what the deliverance will look like. 

These passages come to mind.

Psalm 40:1-3
I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
    out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
    and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
    and put their trust in him.

 If David had to wait patiently, it probably was for a long time.

Psalm 46:8-10

Come and see what the Lord has done,
    the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease
    to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”

Be still and know that I am God. Wait.

Yep, that sounds sucky to me too. But at least I kind of know what I am expected to do!