Exodus 31 opens with God telling Moses who has been gifted to make the tent of meeting and all of the pieces that will go into it. We always need to remember that God has given us gifts to use for His service. Some are out in front and visible; some are behind the scenes, but everyone has a gift. There is no one who is not able to do something for the Lord.

God then reminds Moses that the people are to keep the Sabbath and totally rest on that day. The penalty for not keeping the Sabbath is death.

Moses gets ready to take the stone tablets down the mountain.

Exodus 32 is a “meanwhile, back at the ranch” chapter. You will recall that the people saw Moses go up into a cloud of fire at least a month ago. Now they are getting worried, not so much about him, but about themselves. Despite the fact that God has promised to be with them, they fall back on their old beliefs. They credit Moses for bringing them out of Egypt and he has apparently abandoned them. They forget that it was God who delivered them.

The people convince Aaron to make a golden calf to aid in their worship. They are worshiping “gods” but Aaron hears them saying that they are worshiping “God” and organized a festival day. One has to read the Hebrew to recognize why Aaron misunderstood the people’s intent. Remember the word for God is “elohim”. This is a plural word “im,” is a plural ending. So “elohim” can be translated as both “gods” and “God”. Aaron wasn’t really listening to what they meant by their words.

Now, we might be quick to criticize the people anyway. After all, they had heard God telling them no to make an idol (Ex. 20). But, remember that the people were very distracted and frightened by the God’s presence and had asked Moses to tell them what God said instead of hearing it from God Himself. This is perhaps not a great excuse, but it could explain some of the reason the people changed their allegiance. On the other hand, they did promise to obey all of God’s commandments and have reneged on their part of the covenant.

We often only hear part of what God or others tell us. Plus, our memories seem to be short, especially when things start going wrong or we get anxious. This doesn’t excuse their bad behavior, but we should be able to identify with them.

God sees what is going on at the base of the mountain and gets angry with the people. He tells Moses to get down there at once. God says that his anger is so great that he is going to destroy them and start all over with Moses (we have heard this before, haven’t we). Moses pleads for the people, reminding God of the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses also plays on God’s sense of pride, so to speak, by telling Him that if He destroys the people the Egyptians would defame His character. God changes his mind about completely destroying the people.

Moses goes down the mountain with the tablets God wrote with His own finger, and sees what the people are doing. Now Moses is angry. He burns up the golden calf and makes the people drink the ashes. He yells at Aaron for allowing the people to make him sin. Aaron blames the people for what he did.

Moses gathers the tribe of Levi together, those who are still faithful and has them kill some of those who have sinned. Moses tells the people they have sinned and explains that he will go to God to see about making atonement. God tells Moses to lead the people to the next place and that He will punish the people for their sin. He sends a plague on the people (before He promised to keep them healthy if they obeyed His commands).

We are beginning the book of Acts. Congratulations, you have finished another book. The exact title is The Book of the Acts of the Apostles. It is a sequel to the book of Luke and focus on the beginnings of the church after Jesus resurrection and ascension.

The first chapter brings the reader up to speed in an “in our last episode” way. It speaks of what happened during the forty days between Christ’s resurrection and his ascension.

Jesus appeared to the disciples (“followers”), now called apostles (“sent out ones”) and teaches them about the kingdom of God. He explains that while they have all received John’s baptism with water, soon they will receive a baptism of the Holy Spirit who will give them the power to be Jesus’ witnesses all over the known world. Then Jesus is taken up on a cloud into heaven.

The apostles are just standing there looking into space when two angels come to them. They explain that Jesus will return the same way he left.

The apostles go back to Jerusalem to the upper room to await the coming of the Holy Spirit. While they are waiting they prayerfully replace Judas, who killed himself over his betrayal of Jesus. They choose Matthias who joins the eleven apostles.

So frequently, when things change in our lives, we spend time looking into space, staring at the past as though somehow things will go back to the way they were before. It is important for us to stop staring start preparing for the future, praying all the while for God’s guidance.