Monday, March 17, 2025
Exodus 33:3-6, NIV
[The Lord said to the Israelites] “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.”
When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff- necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’” So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.
Reflection- Pastor Taylor Walker, Zion Lutheran Church, Spring City
Once, a long time ago, the people of Israel were on their long journey to the promised land. They brought with them as much Egyptian gold as they could carry so they could make their way in their new land (not quite trusting that promise of milk and honey). A little while ago they’d melted down some of it to build an idol to Ba’al, a god to comfort them from the land of Canaan. Moses shut that down, but the desire to find some safety, some certainty, hadn’t disappeared – and they still had the gold… in case, perhaps, they needed an exit strategy. God’s plan would be Plan A, but that gold represented their Plan B.
And then here, God says… no. No, you may not have your Plan B and still call yourselves my people. You cannot praise my name and then ignore my teachings. You cannot keep a hoard of gold to insulate you from our mission together – and that gold definitely won’t get you to the land of milk and honey.
The people of God mourned, for these words were painful. But instead of protesting, right there on God’s holy mountain, the people stripped away their gold. They took off their ornaments – bangles, necklaces, rings of gold from Egyptian treasuries – and they waited.
The instruction came in the form of the ten commandments, ten best ways carved into stone. These instructions represented, for these people at this time, the basis of their life together.
It turned out that they could only access them, only take them into their hearts, once they had laid down their gold.
Meditation: I wonder what you have been holding on to that God is calling you to lay down. What is holding you back?
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