Stubborn or what?

"Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” Exodus 32.13

The mis-behaviour of the Israelites in their desert wanderings after Egypt can obscure our appreciation of the maturing of Moses' own growth in grace and in his relationship with God, whom he has come to trust and know. It is his knowledge of God's character and his trust in his righteousness and power that fuel Moses' audacious intercession on behalf of the "stiff-necked" people God has tasked him with leading - against their will and against his better judgment.

Moses never wanted the gig in the first-place but God convinced him of his role in the timeless and global story of emancipation. Initially Moses knew nothing of Israel's God, who defied the nature of the Egyptian deities he was raised with but God became the dominating and transforming presence in his life. So convinced is he - both of God's true intentions and in his place in the story - that when God expresses the intention of doing away with his faithless people, Moses stands in the breach, not only interceding on their behalf but reminding God of his character and of his own commitment to that very people - "stiff-necked" thought they may be.

Moses' example invites us all into a deeper relationship with God and a clearer understanding of what part we are called to play in God's story...