Sunday, June 15, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Exodus 32-34
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 69
Key Verse
Exodus 33:12 — “And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.”
Devotional Thought
Moses has been on Sinai forty days, and the people below have grown restless. They gather around Aaron with a demand that sounds almost childish until you remember they are grown men and women who watched the Red Sea split open. “Up, make us gods, which shall go before us,” they say. Aaron collects their golden earrings, melts them down, and out comes a calf. Then comes the terrible line: “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” They credit a lump of metal for the deliverance of God.
Up on the mountain, God tells Moses what is happening and offers to start over with him. But Moses pleads, appealing not to Israel’s worth but to God’s own name and promises. He comes down, shatters the tablets, burns the calf, grinds it to powder, and makes the people drink it. He stands in the gate and cries, “Who is on the LORD’s side?” The sons of Levi answer, and three thousand fall that day. Yet even then Moses goes back up and offers his own life for theirs: “If not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book.”
What follows is one of the tenderest scenes in Scripture. Moses pitches a tent outside the camp and meets with God there, face to face, “as a man speaketh unto his friend.” He asks to see God’s glory, and God hides him in the cleft of a rock, covering him with His hand as He passes by, proclaiming, “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.”
It is mid-June, the long green weeks of the church year when nothing dramatic is happening and faithfulness feels ordinary. That is exactly when calves get made. Idols rarely demand our whole heart at once; they simply offer something visible when God seems delayed. The question in the gate is still asked of us: Who is on the LORD’s side? And the answer is still found in the same place—not in a golden thing we can carry, but in a tent where a merciful God meets sinners and calls them friends.
Reflection
- Where in your life have you grown tired of waiting on God and reached for something visible to “go before” you?
- Moses stood in the gate and asked, “Who is on the LORD’s side?” What would answering that question honestly cost you this week?
Prayer
Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth: we confess that we are a stiffnecked people, quick to turn aside when You seem delayed. Forgive us for the golden things we have fashioned with our own hands and trusted for our deliverance. Thank You that Moses’ plea points us to a greater Mediator, Jesus Christ, who bore our reproach and was given gall and vinegar for us. Hide us in the cleft of the Rock. Do not send us up without Your presence, for Your presence is our rest and our distinguishing mark among the nations. Show us Your glory, pardon our iniquity, and take us for Your inheritance, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 69:1 — “Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.”