Imitate God- Through Intimacy

After reading in Exodus 32 of the encounter of Moses with God on the mountain, I was impressed with the lessons that can be learned from this passage. In discussing this scripture with my husband, he helped me to see the most important lesson that can be derived- that being the importance of spending intimate time with God, so that we will become more like Him. When we move even a little ways from intimate fellowship with Him, we can easily follow our natural inclination to sin, as we see evidenced after Moses’ encounter with God on the mountain. 

In Exodus 32: 7-10 we read the words of the LORD, “And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

From man’s perspective, it would appear that God is very angry with the people here, while it is Moses who shows compassion as he pleads on their behalf, “But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.” (Exodus 32:11-14).

God displayed a righteous anger toward the people (who in reality deserved to be destroyed), yet He chose to show His great mercy toward them by turning from His anger and showing unmerited compassion, seemingly at Moses’ request. We should note, however, that God did not change his mind during this encounter with Moses, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it” (Numbers 23:19)? Rather, He carried out His purpose in showing the people mercy, and in showing Moses more of his own heart. For after Moses moved a short distance from God’s presence, having proceeded down the mountain with the two tablets (containing the ten commandments), and closer to the scene of the people’s great transgression, he reacted in anger. Moses then recognized that the people were indeed deserving of death for their rebellion against the very law that he held in his hands; this law that God had given them that they might know how to please Him. Exodus 32:19-20 tells us,“And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.” 

 

It is interesting to note that when Moses was spending intimate time conversing with God, he showed compassion and long-suffering toward the people, yet when he moved just a short ways from God’s presence and witnessed the people’s great transgression, his ‘anger burned hot’ and he lost his temper. I think we need to understand that God is teaching Moses (as well as all who read His word) a lesson here. As long as we are spending intimate time with God, we will be more like Him, exhibiting an unusual (considering our sinful nature) compassion and even long suffering toward other’s sin. Whenever we move even a short distance from God, however, we are more inclined to give in to our own sinful desires, as did Moses in breaking the tablets of stone containing God’s law and displaying a hot anger toward the people. In moving away from intimacy with God, we will not be nearly as longsuffering toward others’ sin, instead we will be far more condoning of our own. Far more often than not, our anger is affected by our own sin, and is not a righteous anger. Even though we may become angry at one’s transgression to God’s commands, our anger is often due to the unpleasant effect that transgression has on us rather than the shame brought upon our Lord’s name. A righteous anger is displayed solely in response to the lack of glory displayed toward our most Holy God. Our anger is rarely righteous. God alone displays a righteous anger, because He alone is righteous, and does act rightly in all things. We are a sinful people who can do no good apart from Christ’s righteousness at work within us.

It is comforting to know that God is long suffering toward His people and will always exercise compassion and forgiveness toward those who remain true to Him. However, we must realize that any time we move even a short distance from that intimacy with Him, we can easily give in to our sinful tendencies. Hence the warning, “The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chronicles 15:2). Thus we are reminded of the importance of drawing near to God daily and consistently, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). Only those who are indwelt by the Spirit will even desire to do good in the biblical sense of the term, “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God” (3 John 1:11). “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Colossians 3:12-13). As followers of Christ, we must take to heart the following verse in Ephesians 5:1,“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” The more intimate time we spend with God, the better imitators of God we will be.