DAY 34

 RENEGING ON AN INVITATION

Exodus 31, 32 & 33 and Matthew 22:1-22

The readings today seem like a bit of a blur; so much to take in. I feel like delving deep into any one of these episodes, and as I push through there is so much there. As I read through it I feel like I am on a “see-saw” or “teeter-tooter”.

Consider that God is intimately involved in the creation of the Tent of Meeting with all its contents. He has been giving direction, and now we read that He has appointed craftsmen (Oholiab and Bezalel). Not only appointed, but anointed! God has filled them with His Spirit, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship…I would say that is a high point.

Not only that, but God gets even more involved by writing out the tablets. How God did this I have no idea. I think the point of the language is to communicate what we read back in Genesis 2. In that book and chapter God formed man out of the dust. He figuratively “got his hands dirty”. In this reading God is similarly involved.

Then of course things change as the people make a golden calf. The sentence that jumped out at me was Aaron being right in the middle of it, and he even is quoted as saying, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” I am thinking, “You have got to be kidding me, Aaron!” Although they seem to be able to “throw together” this idol and worship rather quickly.

The situation continues to go downhill quickly. While Moses bargains with God to save this people, he also breaks the tablets, destroys the calf, grinds the gold into dust making them drink it, and then 3,000 people are killed. Remarkably Moses asks God for forgiveness on the behalf of the people. Stripped of their ornaments, they move on, plus they have a plague on them.

The readings then turn upward. Moses has an amazing interaction with God: not only interceding for them, but seeing God’s glory.

Jesus has a similar yet much shorter story; in fact a parable. It starts with a similar highpoint, a king giving a wedding. It goes downhill rapidly with the servants being killed and then the king retaliating and killing the perpetrators in return. The joyous wedding feast begins. However someone is found improperly dressed and ends up bound and thrown out. Talk about up and down.

A short word about wedding invitations: In our day and age people are invited to a wedding on the exact date and time. In Jesus’ day people are notified of the impending wedding and invited. They don’t know the exact day and time, but they have accepted the invitation. When preparations are complete, servants and friends are sent out to notify people to come. So in this parable we read that people, all of them, have seemingly reneged on a previously accepted invitation. [The king then sends out his servant to the main road – this is like going out in our day and age to the Interstate – read this parable as the King (God) is rejected by those who had accepted his invitation (the Jewish people) and so he goes and invites others.]

It seems as if in both the Old and New Testaments people are reneging on their invitation. God has invited the people of Israel to follow him. He will be their God and they his people. In fact, Moses when he debates with God points out to God that they are His (God’s) people. He constantly says, “Your people.” A few chapters earlier the people shouted out they would follow God and Moses sprinkled them with blood – they have accepted the invitation.

We should understand our position in all of this. If you are reading this blog, then there is a reasonable probability that you “have accepted God’s invitation”. Which is great! The point in these reading today might be, pay attention to it, don’t take it for granted that God has  extended it, and He takes your accepting it very seriously.