A trustworthy God

One of the lectionary readings for this week is Exodus 32:1-14. In this passage, the Israelites lose faith in God, and ask Aaron to prepare an idol for them, which he does. Moses, who is on the mountain with God, convinces God not to destroy his chosen people.

As I read the devotional in Disciplines based on this passage, I noticed something that I had never seen before. In these versus from Exodus, Moses is calling on God to be true to God-self. He is counting on his belief that he knows the nature of God well enough to ask God to do as he knows God will do.

We can have that faith, too. We can count on God to be faithful to who he is. We can count on him to act as he has revealed that he will. God is steadfast and loyal. If the Israelites had remembered that, or if they had known God better, then they might have avoided the trouble in the first place.

Sometimes, I imagine that we are much more like the Israelites, far from God, untrusting and unable to call on God to be who he has revealed himself to be because we just don't know him. We are much less like Moses, so we trust in that which is not trustworthy.

We can learn from Moses, who trusted God enough to have faith in his character.