From childhood on we are told that the Jesus of his first coming is a polar opposite of the Jesus who even now seems ready to make a strategic entrance on Terra Forma. The first Jesus rides on a donkey, the suffering servant of Isaiah and Zechariah's image.
We've all experienced the friend who simply does not understand "social distance". As the conversation continues you are increasingly aware that something doesn't feel right. It does not matter if the back and forth is passionate or as boring as a very long opera sung in German, the discomfort is real. You back up to claim your personal space. He or she steps forward by inches and the discomfort begins to build and the dance continues.
Let us quickly note that social distance is a social/cultural construct. In American culture a casual-personal safe distance is right at 3 feet. Whatever the distance culturally given, the emotional response to violating "personal space" is dis-comfort.
From the earliest writings of Holy Scripture God's problem is not that God is too far off, distant. It is The Trinity of God up close and personal; invading our personal space. That is precisely the delimma Yahweh faced with Israel in the wilderness of Sin (pun intended) after their rebellion at the Mountain of God. ”Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way" (Exodus ).
At first glance God sounds like a toddler taking his toy and leaving the game. ”Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt" (Exodus 32:7 NIV-bold underlined added). Given the ten plagues, crossing of the Red Sea or sea of Reeds (whatever..), it wasn't Moses who drowned Pharaoh's entire army in either 6" or 25' of water, depending. And so the almost hilarious dance between Moses and Yahew continue, as first Moses, then God play good cop, bad cop.
So, as Moses descended the mount with Ten Commandments in hand God reveals Israel's betrayal and his feelings. ”“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation”“ (Exodus 32:9-10 NIV). Okay... There's an idea. Thankfully Moses talks God down and suggests it's not a good marketing idea. ”Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people" (Exodus 32:12 NIV). Then Moses appeals to God's loyal affection for Israel. ”Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ ” (Moses, good cop).. "Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened" (Exodus 32:13-14 NIV). Yahweh remembers, good cop.
Now, it's Moses turn. Gets angry! Breaks the ten laws; each designed to cleanse Israel's heart of Egyptian consumerism, empire arrogance: Worship God alone, leave the worthless, never alive idol gods behind, rest to a point beyond slavery to production so that your heart rest is in Yahweh alone. Bread and manna anyone? Then the kicker counter culture paradigm: Restore family health and wealth to the point of not even desiring whomever or whatever belongs to another. In time, through Israel, these become the bedrock of much of human culture.
And Moses response? He turned toward power and using the priestly class kills three thousand to quash the riots and give Israel a taste of its god by way of liquid gold. Good day. Yet it ends well as Moses seeks God's counsel as he now presents the brokenness that is Israel, in response to Yahweh's legitimate concern that if The Trinity of God comes in close, Israel's rebellious spirit would result in the nation becoming very much like the empire they had just left. Such is the way of a restless self-consumed spirit. Moses brother Aaron expressed it well in his defensive response when Moses asked him what in the world was he thinking? "I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”“ (Exodus 32:24 NIV). As good an SNL comedy sketch there ever was.
What is most incredible in this story is the dialogue between God and Moses.
Moses becomes the very type of Christ when he pleads with God. “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written”“ (Exodus 32:31-32 NIV)
Moses worships in the Tent of Meeting and Yahweh appears within the Tent as One who is very close indeed. ”As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent“ (Exodus 33:9, 11 NIV).
Moses boldly asks if he might not see God's face by asking “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live”“ (Exodus 33:18-20 NIV). Moses thus enters into the very quest for which human-kind exists and is allowed to see a shadow of God's very Presence.
After Moses attempts to atone for Israel by offering himself as one who would take Israel's place, God wisely responds. ”The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.” And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made“ (Exodus 32:33-35 NIV). What God is really saying is that removal of the sin offense is not something one can do in place of another, but only in relation for and with another. Atonement is at root an inter-active, inter-penetrating relationship wherein God dies experiencing the full death inside our sinfulness and we die with God in confession and repentance; the result being we taste the very Divine Nature of Love. It is fully human and Divine. God drinks the cup of our soured grapes and we in turn receive the sweet wine of God's holiness. Hence, "God made him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV). 1
As a sign of God's new and atoning Presence the Tent of Meeting is move from beyond the camp to its very center; accessible, interactive, continuing.
The eternal life rooted in The Eternal Son becoming human in Jesus of Nazareth is now on Israel's table, both as sacrificial love and as as human desire seeking the eternal quality of life; The Eternal and human Son of God's intimate relation with The Father. Moses has asked to see the Face of God, a prayer fully realized when "Jesus..looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent“ (John 17:1, 3 NIV).
Thank you Jesus for Moses becoming a Type of Jesus! Way to close for comfort, but then dying and rebirth are never comfortable.
Blessings! Terry
1 For more on Atonement see my little book: "Cross Purposes" at https://www.amazon.com/Cross-Purposes-Incarnational-Atonement-Salvation/dp/1521793360/ref=mp_s_a_1_6
Note: The movie "Proximity" reveals the central theme in blog: A Sci-fy movie "Proximity," follows the eventual coming together of three persons, over 30 years who have each encountered abductions by Aliens.
The violation of personal space is the theme throughout as these young and old humans work out in their hearts and minds the deep sense of social isolation, fate bringing them together seeking answers and comfort. Their journeys are made exceedingly difficult as government agents are introduced to the story line even as a second encounter with the aliens approaches.
The climactic ending reveals a great deal about "close encounters" and human and alien need of answers, freedom, safety, meaning and love.
Proximity Link
Also: Archeology Discovers an Altar Described in Deuteronomy
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