Exodus 33:1-23
Our LORD Forming a Nation
1 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.’ 2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 3 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.”
4 When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments. 5 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.’” 6 So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.
The Tent of Meeting
7 Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. 8 And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. 10 Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. 11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.
Moses and the Glory of the LORD
12 Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
19 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. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
21 Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Jonah 4:1-11
Jonah’s Anger at the LORD’s Compassion
1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”
5 Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”
“I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.”
10 But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
Hebrews 13:8
Our Unchanging LORD
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
I have listened and watched many debates about God, and many times it comes up that our LORD and our God is vindictive...Especially, God of the Old Testament...Richard Dawkins, a most noted atheist, has many unkind words for God of the Old Testament...Dawkins and other non-believers bring up how God rules and runs through the history of the Old Testament, in a non-caring, jealous, unforgiving way...Many atheists in their debates, question God's morality...But it is not God, we should question...It is our own morality, that we must question...
Dawkins and the other atheists were not with God, as the people of the world, especially the Near and Mid-East got to know our Father, as He formed the nation of Israel...The context of time is hard for us to factor, but it must be looked at, examined, and studied....In the Old Testament, I think we can make a great case that Moses, knew God very well, as did David, as did Noah, as did Jonah...King David wrote much of the Psalms...David many times talked about our forgiving Father...David praised Him...David tells us how merciful our Creator is...I do not think David thought His LORD vindictive...
Moses led God's people out of Egypt on its way to the Promised Land to form a new nation...Moses and Joshua were at the beginning of this process, the process of starting a nation...It is easy to say, starting a nation is not easy...People have to learn how to be a nation...It would be very difficult for let's say a hundred thousand people to go out start a nation from scratch, and things go easy, peaceful, and rosy...There would be hundreds of issues along the way...God was always watching and overlooking His people, as they left Egypt, and made their way toward their new nation...We have many things going on during the Old Testament...God is there, individual people are there, and God (with the help of Moses, Joshua, the Judges, the Kings, the Prophets, and others are building the new nation of Israel...Then after the nation is started, we have this genesis of a new nation of His people, which God must now protect...In the above verses, we see that God tells Moses that He would leave His people, because they are stiff-necked, and He, because of His anger might be mad enough to destroy them along the way to the Promised Land...But instead, God says He will send an angel to Canaan and the surrounding areas of the Promised Land to drive out the people, so the land of milk and honey would be theirs...But the people heard these distressing words and began to mourn...They began to mourn because their LORD, their God, knew they were very stubborn and not morally right, and they wanted their Father to be with them...Moses steps up (in verse fifteen) and says -that if Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us to the Promised Land...How can we go, if the people of the world, think You are not pleased with us and You are not with us...How can our new nation, be distinguished from all the other nations, if You are not with us?...As Moses says this, does this sound like a vindictive God, or does it sound like someone you want to spend eternity with?...
Jonah was another one who walked with God...Jonah was close to God...The word of the LORD was with Jonah (Jonah 1:1)...Jonah was, in fact, mad at God because he (Jonah) does not like the Ninevites, and does not want to preach to them...Jonah knows the our LORD has great compassion...Jonah even says that I know You are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity...
Moses, David, Jonah, and Noah knew God as much as anyone in the Old Testament...These men do not seem to write or speak of the type of God, the atheists in their debates describe...The ones who walked with God know His attributes... Abraham was in the Promised Land, but would not see the birth of the Israeli nation, because God is slow in anger and abounding in love...God in Genesis 15:16, kept His covenant with Abraham but waited four generations to punish the Amorites to allow them to repent, before Abraham's descendants could possess the Promised Land...
It seems to believers that God knows when the time is right...God gave the Amorites, and the Ninevites the right amount of time to repent...God knows discipline...The Great Prophets and Saints know that God is the Perfect Judge for the universe, and will do what is right...God is a loving God, the same yesterday, today, and forever...