Feet Of Clay That Changed The Mind Of God!

My favorite verse, my life verse, is found in the 27th chapter of the Psalms. Verse 8 says, 

'My heart says of You, "Seek His face!" Your face, Lord I will seek.'
There's nothing that makes my heart soar more than my relationship with the Lord. There's nothing I look forward to more than one day, actually, seeing Him face to face!  I love the obedience read inbetween these words, the quickness felt in the response, as if to RUN, it's an immediate reaction! It's with that quickness, I want my heart to turn to God, to seek His face (Presence)! Do you really think an intimate relationship with the Lord can make a difference in the grander scheme of things? Do you think your relationship is so personal and treasured by God that you could cause Him to change His mind? Check out the following passages!

Exodus 33:11 says, "The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend." (When you love someone, you cherish every moment spent with them and looked forward to it with anticipation!)

Exodus 33: 14-17 says,

'The Lord replied, "My Presence will go with you and I will give you rest.' Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 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?"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."

I love Moses' request here, his reasoning makes sense. "How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?" God's Presence in our lives distinguishes us ~ it sets us apart from the rest. I want God to be seen in my life, I want God to go with me ~ I want Him to be known by others as a "God WITH US", as seen in me! We may be the only Bible some people ever read! I want God to be, not just  prominent in my life, but Preeminent! How about you? 

The Lord agrees to Moses' request, but I want you to notice why: God says, "because I am pleased with you and I know you by name". God agrees to Moses' request because He knows him personally, Moses is shown favor because God is pleased with HIM. A man with feet of clay, like you and me, face to face with a Holy God and then he changes God's mind! Let's back up this story a little bit and take a look at the impact Moses' relationship, actually, has on God's decision making process, at this point; it's, actually, pretty amazing!

God has made a covenant with His people, Israel; He has given them the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. He's explained more than once, MANY TIMES, in Exodus 19 -25, that they are to have no other gods before them, no idols, no gods of silver and gold. And in chapter 24 He calls Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel to come up to Him. Again, as before Moses goes and tells the people all God has said and again they respond, "Everything God has said we will do." Verse 9 says, "Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself." (They, too, saw God!)

Then God calls Moses again, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction." Then Moses with Joshua, his aid, went up on the mountain with God ~ leaving Aaron and Hur in charge. God gives Moses all the instructions of the building of the tabernacle and all that is in it. "When God had finished speaking with Moses he gave him two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God." (Exodus 31:18)

Now, while Moses was gone, it says in Exodus 32:1,
"When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what happened to him." Remember, Aaron, has been doing all the speaking for Moses. And God, at this moment, is giving Moses all the instructions for the building of the tabernacle and Aaron is to be a priest. Aaron has seen all God's miracles as he's been with Moses every step of the way. Aaron, doesn't even argue, but says, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." So they brought them to Aaron and "he took what they handed him and made it into and idol cast in the shape of a calf".

So, this is what Mose finds when he comes down the mountain that has been in a fiery blaze above their heads, with the Presence of God! What were they thinking? (Especially, Aaron)

God tells Moses to go down that the people have become corrupt and quick to turn away from Him, "they are a stiff-neck people". In verse 32:8 God says, "Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you a great nation."

But Moses pleads with the Lord on behalf of the people: "Why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, "It was with evil intent that He brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth?" It says, in Exodus 32:14, "Then the Lord relented and did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened." Moses has just changed the mind of God!

How powerful is your prayer life? How intimate is your relationship with God? An intimate relationship is more powerful than you think ~ draw near and see for yourself! God hasn't changed, He shows favor to those He knows by name! May God write the passion of His heart on the tablet of yours and mine! Revival begins with one heart turned toward God, may our cry, continually be, "Lord, let it begin with me!" I'm praying for you!!!