Keep the conversation going

Exodus 32:7-14

      This seems to be another passage where the writer is engaged in a sincere effort to understand God.  Does God really change his mind? Can we convince God to do something, to intervene? There is a discussion going on between Moses and God. Moses does not understand it all and he is attributing actions to God that may just be fate or chance. Moses recognizes bad behavior and there seems to be a part of him, the part of us that likes justice, that believes the evildoers will surely be punished. Again, I am not sure God's mind can be changed or if it's even possible to negotiate with God.

       
        I do believe though that God appreciates the conversation with us. He does not laugh at our sincerity or limited capacity to understand. God loves to hear from each one of us. Like any good parent, he is concerned for our welfare, loves us immeasurably and aches when we are in pain.

         Keep the conversation going. 

The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ’ The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’

But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, ‘O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth”? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.” ’ And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.