Be Flexible

O. T. #245  "Be Flexible"
March 13, 2014
Exodus 32-Part 5

LET IT GLOW

I don't know what the next day holds for me and my family, neither do you. One morning everything was going as planned. My husband and son went to the youth camp for a meeting. Then the call came. It was Mom, telling me that Dad had passed away earlier that morning. Our family changed forever. Our plans for the day changed. Our plans for the week changed.
Change is so hard for me. I like to plan things out, plan my activities for the day or week, then do them. However, through the years, I have been working on being flexible.
What if tomorrow a phone call comes to you and your life is changed forever? Your plans are changed. Will you be ready? Are you willing for God's will to be done?


The next day:

• Moses told the people they had committed a great sin. (verse 30)
• Moses said he would go up to the LORD.
• He wanted to make atonement for the Israelites' sins.

Moses sought to intercede for Israel, asking God to forgive Israel's sin or else blot me, I pray thee, out of Thy book.

Moses' request asked God to act only in one certain way. God would not have Moses, or us, dictate actions to Him that ignore His mercy. God noted that the sinner himself would be punished, not Moses, and he accomplished it via a plague (verse 35).  (Falwell)

Moses returned to the Lord on the mountain and offered to give up his own life that the people might be spared. When a person dies, his or her name is removed from the book of life (Ps. 69:28;
Ezek. 13:9). The book of life (or "the living") should not be confused with the Lamb's Book of Life, which records the names of the saved (Rev. 21:27; Luke 10:20).  (Wiersbe)

Nothing more strongly marked the love of Moses for his people than his sincere willingness to offer up his own life rather than see them disinherited and destroyed. the book to which Moses referred, the psalmist entitled "the book of the living". Untimely or premature death would constitute being blotted out of the book. The apostle Paul displayed a similar, passionate devotion for his kinsmen (Rom. 9:1-3).  (MacArthur)

Such love Moses had for his people!

LET IT GROW

What was God's answer to Moses?

• Whoever sinned against God (worshiping the golden calf idol), He would blot their name out of His book.
• Go, lead the people to the place He had told Moses to take them.
• God's angle would go before them.
• When the time for God to punish them for their sin, He would do it.

Here was an abrupt change in God's plans. Instead of God going with His people, He was sending a created angel with them. Only when Moses is insistent (33:14-15) does God actually accompany the Israelites, renewing His original plan.

Verse 35 tells us that God kept His Word. He struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.

God's people had provoked Him to wrath while in the wilderness (Deut. 9:7).

I our relationship with God so close that He would even consider changing His plans for our life or our loved one? Better ye, is it so close that I would consider changing my plans?

Can we surrender to God's will instead of our will?


LET IT GO

Exchange my will for God's will.

Surrender my ways unto God and do things His way.

Be flexible when God changes my plans.

Love my neighbor as myself.