Impatience

This feeling sparks the most anger sometimes, I have to admit. When I get impatient about something, especially a solution to a problem, a whole bunch of anxiousness & frustration comes along with that-recipe for disaster! So many things in our lives can tempt us to take the path of impatience rather than the path of patience & waiting on The Lord. He will equip us for the journey ahead! But sometimes, that's so quickly forgotten. Let's compare this to Moses & the Israelites:

All God needs is a willing, ordinary vessel to make something shine like gold! Take a look at Bezaleel:

"See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,"
Exodus 31:2‭-‬4.

When God's Spirit moves, look out! (And how about when we receive the Holy Ghost with us today!? Remember Acts 2:38 as mentioned in other posts!). God gave him wisdom & knowledge to complete the task of putting together the parts of the tabernacle. And not only that, He gave him some friends to help:

"And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee;" Exodus 31:6.

God provided inner strength & outside help. Remember: "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5.

The Israelites quickly forgot to stay content. They became covetous of a new idol & god since Moses stayed with God a long time in the mountain. Their impatience got the best of them & they created a golden calf, just like we are quick to jump to conclusions when we are impatient:

"And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." Exodus 32:1.

Wait, surely Aaron didn't listen to the people! This was that same Aaron who did the priestly work in the tabernacle with his sons, right? Yes, this is that same Aaron, and yes, he DID listen to the people. No matter who we are, our humanity does not escape us. We always have a choice to turn to God or turn to temptation, and Aaron gave in this time:

"And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."
Exodus 32:3-‬4.

This of course did not please God. In fact, God grew impatient with His people and desired to destroy them, but Moses pleaded with God:

"Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people." Exodus 32:12.

God ended up listening to Moses' request! What if Moses did not interceded for the people? What if Jesus did not interceed for us, even being God Himself robbed in flesh? We need to be thankful for all those who plead for us, and God sends people like our Pastor to do the same thing today! To continue the work of Christ! We just need to be sure we don't let things get so carried away for the sake of impatience! We don't want this "life or death" situation to have to happen like it did between Moses & God's people...

So Moses went down from the mountain, bringing with him 2 tablets of stone with God's law written upon them (God used His own finger to write upon these stones!). However, both the stones & golden calf were destroyed when Moses saw the horrible behavior of the people. He turned to Aaron, who was left in charge, and Aaron explained it this way:

"And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf." Exodus 32:24.

He pretty much said "And the calf just came out! It kinda just happened so fast!" Almost as if it came out of nowhere, right? That's exactly how it happens with our impatience, too. When we find ourselves in desperate situations, we end up doing some crazy things when we don't take the time to wait upon God in prayer. No matter how much pressure we are under, it's always important to stop and pray! God has made the sun stand still before, I'm sure he can quickly turn around an urgent situation!

Moses keeps on praying for grace for the people, and with that grace, he wants to see God's glory. He is probably in desperate need of something miraculous after all of that! God fulfills this request too:

"And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen." Exodus 33:22‭-‬23.

God revealed the most of Himself that He could at that time. The relationship Moses had with God was so incredible! We need to strive to see God's glory in every way we can!

So the journey to the promised land continues. Moses & the Israelites pick up & carry on...but will they also continue to get carried away with impatience? Will WE continue in that behavior? I pray not! It's so amazing how much WE are written into the Bible every time we study it...different people, same struggles! And hopefully, same overcoming victories!