Today's reading: Exodus 4; 1 Corinthians 10
I think about the Aaronic priesthood in this context a lot.
God is beyond gracious to Moses. He not only selected Moses for one of the most important tasks in all of history, but he promised to be with him and displays a small portion of his supernatural power to convince Moses that he is good for it, and when Moses resists, God tries multiple times to convince him to come around on his own. Eventually though, God brings Aaron into the picture as a concession, and even still Moses pushes back.
But the end result was a diminished role for Moses, and a major impact on the people for generations. Instead of Moses being the priestly and governmental head, he divides the responsibility with Aaron, and Aaron quickly molds a golden calf and leads the people into idolatry.
If Moses had listened the first time, all indications seem to be that he would have followed the priest-king formula of Melchizedek before him and the Messiah after him, and that could mean that things would have looked different for the nation, but because he refused when God kept pressing, that’s not the way things went.
This is what I think about in my life. God is good, and he will keep pushing and prodding us when he is calling us to more forward and we are dragging our feet (or just digging in our heels), but him continuing to pursue us doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences. It doesn’t mean that things won’t look different when we finally listen and go his way, and it doesn’t mean that other people won’t be impacted by our slowness in listening. I want to be better about hearing his voice and listening to him the first time he speaks.
God, give us all the ears to hear you when you speak to us, and hearts soft and resilient enough to listen, trusting more and more every day that whatever you are calling us to is unquestionably better than whatever we would otherwise choose.
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