Do you have trouble waiting? Are you impatient? I knew a man who was very impatient. He had congestive heart failure and was in the waiting room for an appointment with his Cardiologist. He waited longer than what he thought he needed to wait for the appointed time of his doctor’s appointment. He got worked up, angry, frustrated and walked out. He never saw the cardiologist that day. Which of course made his situation must worse. Do you know people like that? Are you like that too?
The Israelites were a very impatient people. Did you know they fashioned the Golden Calf to worship because they didn’t wait on Moses to come down from Mt. Sinai? Exodus 32: 1 reads, “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us [a]gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” They didn’t handle delay very well.
Now before I judge them for such idolatry and say I would never. How many times have I not waited on God’s timing and taken things in my own hands and walked in the flesh? As I read through chapter 32 of Exodus, Holy Spirit was speaking to me about when I am impatient not to mention how carnal and fleshly it is, not walking in the Spirit like Ephesians 5:16-26 what it costs me.
Here are some examples in Exodus 32:
1. God for the past 40 days had given Moses the exact detailed blueprints for the Tabernacle where God’s presence would live among the people. The Golden Calf was A POOR SUBSTITUE FOR GOD’S GLORY IN THE TEMPLE.
2. When Aaron made the calf, he did not know that God had chosen Him to be the High Priest over Israel. When the people ask him to make an idol for them, he took the role of priesthood himself. IF HE HAD WAITED, HE WOULD HAVE LEARNED THAT GOD HAD CHOSEN TO INSTALL HIM AS A HIGH PRIEST IN THE TABERNACLE.
3. If they had waited, they would have known that God ordered them to give the jewelry and gold as a sacrifice offering to build the Tabernacle. Instead, they used the gold and jewelry to make the Golden Calf, THUS MISSING OUT OF THE BLESSING OF GIVING UNTO THE LORD.
4. Because of the Impatience of the people it caused 3000 to be killed, their names were blotted out of God’s book and God placed sickness upon them who were disobedient, Exodus 32:26-36. Lesson learned: NOT ONLY DOES IMPATIENCE COST US, BUT IT ALSO AFFECTS GENERATIONS.
Here is the principle of this week’s Torah reading. When we get out of God’s timing and we take things in our own hands there are consequences that come into play. God is a God of order. When we step out of his divine timing we step into chaos. God is a God of Light. When we step out of light we step into darkness.
May the Lord Bless you to walk in His Divine Timing and learn to wait on the Lord.
Shalom! Jim and Debbie Laymon, Wellspring Israel.
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