Never Forsaken: He Did it Anyways

“They said to me, ‘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.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”  Exodus 32:23-24

 In case you aren’t familiar with the story, let me catch you up. God used Moses to lead the people of Israel out of captivity in Egypt and through the Red Sea, bringing the sea back down upon their enemies and destroying them completely. Then, knowing that the people were not yet ready to be tested in battle, He led them into the wilderness where they were to learn from Him and grow to trust Him. And there was a lot of growing to do! At every turn, at every hiccup, they whined and complained about ever having left Egypt, where they were horribly treated and enslaved. Never did they come to God and humbly say, “We have a need and we trust that You will provide for us.” No, they came to Moses and insisted that he make everything right. At this point in the story, God has called Moses up on the mountain to meet with Him. He didn’t do this secretly, without the people knowing. No, in Exodus 19 we read about how God had Moses gather all the people, they all agreed that they would follow God and do what He asked. Then God had all the people consecrate themselves, washing and abstaining from sexual intercourse for three days in preparation for meeting with Him, and He came down in a dense cloud on the top of Mount Sinai. From there He spoke to the Moses so that the people could hear, that way they would trust that Moses did, indeed, hear from God. They heard God speak to Moses, some of the elders actually saw God on the mountain. The way the smoke billowed and the ground shook, the people were terribly afraid and insisted that Moses go speak with God on their behalf for they did not want to hear from Him directly. In Exodus 24:7, the people heard all that God had commanded them and they agreed to follow it. These were not an ignorant people who just blundered into trouble accidentally. They knew full well what was expected of them, what they had themselves agreed to.

 The whole time Moses was us up on the mountain learning from God, God knew exactly what was going on in the camp. Before God ever called Moses up there, He knew what would happen when He did. None of this was a surprise to God, but you’d better believe that Moses was surprised! While Moses was up on the mountain, just days after all the people had trembled in fear of God and whole heartedly agreed to follow Him, the people turned, and Aaron, Moses’ brother and right-hand man, went right along with them. Aaron didn’t caution them against disobeying or try to stop them, no. He led them in their idolatry, gathering their gold and making them an idol to worship.

 God warned Moses about what was happening in the camp below, but I’ve got to wonder if Moses truly understood and believed that the people were doing things as evil as they were. It would be hard to believe that the people could flip-flop and start creating gods for themselves and worshipping them so quickly! I wonder, if God hadn’t warned him in advance, how Moses would have dealt with the situation when he encountered it? When God warned Moses, he intervened for the people. This set Moses up with a heart for his people, a desire to see them live and succeed. That way, when he encountered the true horror of what was going on, Moses already had a stake in their cause.

 What is impressed upon my heart this morning, though, is that before Moses came down from the mountain, before God called him up to it, before the people entered the wilderness, before the people entered Egypt for that matter, God knew what the people would do while Moses was up on the mountain, and He did everything anyways. He still called Moses up. He still spent 40 days with him, writing the Law on stone tablets with His own hand. God knew those same tablets were about to be smashed to bits in Moses’ rage at what he found. God knew that the people who had so readily agreed to follow and obey Him were just as quick to turn away. But He did it anyway.

 Jesus did much the same thing in John 13 when He washed the disciples’ feet. We read in verse 2 that, “the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus,” but, nonetheless, Jesus got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, wrapped a towel around Himself and washed the disciples’ feet. As He did this, He knew that Judas was about to hand Him over to His enemies where He would be tortured and killed. He knew that Peter was to betray Him three times before the rooster even crowed the next morning. He knew that all the disciples would scatter and He would be left to face the end alone. And yet, He washed their feet. Lovingly. Kindly. Carefully. He washed their feet.

 I think God wants us to learn something from His time on the mountain with Moses and His time with the disciples. Here we can see that He knew what was coming and He loved us enough to do good for us anyways. Likewise, He knows our hearts, our sin, our lostness without Him. Nothing is hidden from Him. Nothing surprises Him. Before Jesus went to the cross, He knew we were not deserving of it and never could be. But do you know what else that tells me? He’ll never regret it. He’ll never look back and think that He wouldn’t have done it if He’d known how awful we would be, because HE DID KNOW. He knew, and He loved us so very much that He did what we needed Him to anyways.

Here’s the Thing: That’s what God calls us to, also. That’s what God called Moses to. We are to love and forgive, no matter what, because He did. We’re not God, and we will often be surprised by people’s terrible choices, but we can lean on the truth that God is not surprised, and He loves them and provided for them anyways. Is it easy? No! Do you think it was easy for Jesus to wash the disciples’ feet knowing what He knew? I doubt it. But He did it anyways, and He told us in John 13:14 to do the same.