The Deliverer (15 page)
For the first time in weeks I was excited. If God were actually coming down on Mount Sinai to meet with the people, maybe I could wedge my way into the crowd and at last get my audience with Him. Even if He didn’t speak to me directly, perhaps if I could blend in with the throng of people, then whatever blessing He released over them might fall to me as well. After all, my exile had certainly come about from standing among a crowd in the wrong place; perhaps my redemption could come in the same way. I couldn’t wait for three days to pass.
On the third day at daybreak there were loud claps of thunder, flashes of lightning, a thick cloud covering the mountain, and an ear-piercing trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp shuddered in fear, including me. Moses called the people to attention and lined them up to lead them out of the camp to meet with God. I lined up with them, more nervous than any of them, I can tell you. We all stood at attention at the base of the mountain.
Mount Sinai was all smoke because God had come down on it as fire. Smoke poured from it like smoke from a furnace. The whole mountain shuddered in huge spasms. The trumpet blasts grew louder and louder. Moses spoke, and God answered in thunder. God descended to the peak of Mount Sinai and called Moses to come up where He was. I wondered if I should chance getting closer so I wouldn’t miss anything. It was then I heard God give Moses a warning.
“Go down and warn the people not to break through the barricades to get a look at Me lest many of them die. And the priests also—warn them to prepare themselves for the holy meeting lest I break out against them.”
That’s when I decided against trying to get closer.
Moses said to God, “But the people can’t climb Mount Sinai. You’ve already warned us well, telling us to post boundaries around the mountain.”
“Right, I did, but I’ve noticed that I sometimes have to tell you more than once. Go down and bring Aaron back up with you. But make sure the priests and the people don’t break through and come up to Me lest My glory break out against them.”
Moses hurried back down the mountain to get Aaron, who was hiding at the back of the line, scared as could be and in no rush to go up the mountain to meet with God face-to-face. See, that’s just how it is with you humans. You run around boldly declaring your search for God and how God has told you this, that, or whatever, but when God finally shows up in your neighborhood, you try to crawl under the rug until He leaves.
Moses took Aaron by the shaking hand and began leading him up the mountain to where God was waiting. I so wanted to go along, but to be honest, I was as afraid as any human. I had rationalized that if God happened to spot me in a crowd of people He intended to bless, He might just let it pass that I was there so as not to inadvertently injure one of His pet people, but in a threesome? He could take me out with just a look. Better not chance making my situation worse than it was.
I don’t know how long they were up there, but when Moses and Aaron came back down the mountain, Moses’s face was full of light, and Aaron’s was drained of color. I’ve noticed that is how God seems to affect you humans—with sheer exhilaration and awe or sheer terror. Moses is the one who spoke to the people.
“The Lord your God says to you, ‘I am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a life of slavery. Have no other gods before Me. Do not use My name in an irreverent way. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor your father and mother so that you’ll live a long time in the land that your God is giving you. No murder. No adultery. No stealing. No lies about your neighbor. No lusting after your neighbor’s house or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s.’”
If you can, try to picture it: throngs of people experiencing the thunder and lightning, the trumpet blast, and the smoking mountain, totally afraid—terrified is more like it. They pulled back and stood at a distance to rethink their bravado.
Realizing the power they were about to encounter, the Israelites developed a new humility and pleaded with Moses.
“You speak to us and we’ll listen, but don’t have God speak to us or we’ll die.”
“Don’t be afraid.” Moses tried to reassure them. “God has only come to test you and instill a deep and reverent awe within you so that you won’t sin.”
Nice try, but the people were so traumatized by the glory of God that they refused to come any closer and so kept their distance while Moses turned and approached the thick cloud where God was. I suppose God must have realized He had let too much of Himself rest upon a people who in no way were prepared for who He is. That must be why He went along with their request to speak to them through Moses.
“Give this message to the people of Israel: ‘You’ve experienced firsthand how I spoke with you from heaven. Don’t make gods of silver and gods of gold and then set them alongside Me. Make Me an earthen altar to sacrifice your offerings. Everywhere I cause My name to be honored in your worship, I’ll be there Myself and will bless you.’”
If I’d been God, knowing the earth people as long as He had, I would have quit right there with the rules. Moses should have interrupted and reminded God how Adam and Eve had done with only one rule to obey; it had been a disaster. Now here He was not only giving them no less than ten absolute rules, but He was also about to pour out dozens of other regulations that no human I had ever seen could possibly keep up with. Moses could barely write fast enough to get them all down. From selling slaves to property rights to oxen in ditches to seducing virgins—He covered the gamut of every possible misdeed a human might think to do.
This seemed totally out of character for God, as I’d known Him before the fall from heaven. He never was much of a thou-shalt-not kind of ruler. I had to think awhile before I could figure out why He was going into so much detail with the Hebrews.
The people had been slaves for four hundred years. They’d never before had an option to make a decision on their own and therefore had no experience in even the most trivial of matters. God took up His valuable time to think of every possible repercussion for any misdeed the average person might get himself into and gave Moses a way to avoid it. When I thought about it, I remembered that was the only reason God ever laid down laws to start with: to keep the people out of trouble, even the rules about worshiping other gods. It’s not because God is jealous the way humans understand jealousy but because He knows that worship to anything other than Himself is covert worship to Satan, and once the prince of darkness gets his hands on a human, well, let’s just say there
will
be blood before he lets one go.
By the time He got to the ordinance about not boiling a kid goat in its mother’s milk (as if anybody would think that was a good idea) I found myself losing interest. I knew Satan wouldn’t care a thing about health and diet issues, and it looked like the law giving was going on for a good while longer, so I decided to go back to my perch and resume my meditation about the meaning of life.
I must have succeeded in meditating my way right into a trance because the next thing I knew, one of the other demons was at my perch, shaking me by the hoof and yelling something about Satan wanting to see me. I must tell you, I was a little groggy, and I had some trouble remembering why I was standing on my head on my perch. How long had I been there? I couldn’t be sure—days maybe. I just didn’t remember. From the tone in the demon’s voice, I knew to hotfoot it over to Satan’s lair without further delay.
“Where have you been?” Satan had been standing near his portal through which he could view the earth when he whirled around to face me.
“At … at my post, sir,” I stammered.
“I told you to watch Moses.”
“I was watching him, sir. I was right there the whole time, well, most of the time.” I knew not to lie. “God began giving him a plethora of rules I knew you wouldn’t want to be bothered with, so I didn’t … bother you, I mean. I assure you I didn’t miss anything important.” I decided not to mention my meditation.
“Then where is he?”
I looked around the room to see if any of the other demons might give me a little help. Not even a side wink. I could never count on them for any support. I thought it best to clarify the question.
“Do you mean Moses, sir?”
“Of course I mean Moses, idiot. Where is he?”
I began to sweat.
Was Moses missing? How long had I been in a trance?
“You don’t know, do you?”
“I’m sure he’s right there in the camp, sir. That’s where I left him—well, more like on the mountain actually—but he was right there taking down all those nitpicky rules God was dictating. I wasn’t gone but a minute. He couldn’t have gone anywhere else. And … I mean, really, even if he wanted to, where could he go?”
“Find him.” Satan’s eyes narrowed as he glared at me.
I kept my head down as I backed slowly out of the room. As soon as I was safely beyond Satan’s sight, I began flapping my way back down to the earth.
That was it; no more yoga.
S
ATAN WAS RIGHT
. I made the rounds of the whole camp, but Moses was nowhere to be found. The people were agitated and angry as if they thought Moses had simply run off somewhere and wasn’t coming back. I knew that couldn’t be the case, but where was he? The last time I’d seen him he was up on the mountain with God, but that had been weeks ago. He wouldn’t still be up there.
The loud voices coming from Aaron’s tent caught my attention, so I flew over to see what was going on. A large contingent of mixed people was arguing with Aaron over what to do about the missing Moses. Did I mention mixed people before? I can’t remember, what with so many of them to keep up with.
When the slaves followed Moses out of Egypt, a whole group of other people went along with them. They were the Egyptians who believed in the power of the God of Israel as a result of living through the devastation of the plagues. Hedging their bets that the glory days of Egypt might be over, they wagered on a future’s market with Moses and joined the caravan they’d heard was on the way to a land of milk and honey. These people were nothing but trouble from the first day, and I never knew why Moses didn’t throw them out of the gang early on. When there was any complaining going on with the Israelites, you could just bet it was the mixed people at the bottom of it.
For example, remember when the people started complaining about how good life had been in Egypt and how they missed the food delicacies they used to eat like onions and leeks? It was the mixed people doing the complaining. Come now, you didn’t really think slaves dined on such things, did you? It didn’t take long for the slaves to join right in with the entitlement grousing, but they would never have thought it up on their own. Manna and quail was quite a step above the gruel they usually had.
“What do you intend to do about it?” They badgered Aaron, who sat on the floor with his head in his hands.
“What do you expect me to do? Just give him a few more days; he’ll be back.” Aaron rose to his feet to take a look out the tent door as if hoping Moses might stroll up at any moment.”
“No, he’s gone. We must have a new leader. The crowds will panic without a leader. It could be a stampede.”
“Do you want the job?” Aaron shot back.
“No, don’t be ridiculous. I don’t want it,” said several at one time.
“Well, neither do I. Neither would anyone in his right mind.”
“Then make us a god.”
“That’s right! Make us a god to lead us out.”
“Are you insane?” Aaron was incredulous. “We can’t just make up a god.”
“Oh, sure you can. We used to do it all the time in Egypt.”
“You made gods?” Aaron couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Well, not really, if you mean like a
real
god who could, you know, do anything.”
“He means make an idol. Who cares if it’s a real god? If we say it’s a god, then it’s a god as far as the people are concerned. They lived in Egypt their whole lives. They’re used to it. They’ll follow the new god because we tell them to.”
“This is crazy.” Aaron wiped the sweat from his brow. “Get out of my tent.”
“You better think this over, Aaron. You’re in real danger of a rebellion here. The crowds are turning into mobs. They think Moses isn’t coming back. If panic sets in, the people will disperse like frightened animals. Then what will you do?”
“Do it, Aaron, just till Moses gets back.”
Aaron looked at one then the other then out the door one more time to be sure Moses wasn’t about to walk in. He threw his hands up in the air in a sign of defeat.
“OK, you win. Bring me all your gold.”
“Now you’re talking.” They ran out of the tent and began gathering up the gold jewelry and anything else made from the gold the Israelites brought with them from Egypt.
I was stunned. Never would I have predicted this. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to think. Maybe I hadn’t heard right. How could Aaron be agreeing to such a thing? About that time Miriam, Aaron’s sister, came running through the tent door. She had been standing outside and heard it all.
“Aaron, what are you doing?”
“That’s right.” I agreed with her. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m buying time. The people won’t want to give up their gold. Maybe Moses will be back before the mixed people can get it together.”
“But what if he doesn’t come? What if the mixed people bring the gold? You can’t go through with it.”
“Miriam, do you see any other way? Look at them. There are hundreds of thousands of them, and me against them by myself? How long do you think I could last?”
Oh, my. It looked like Aaron might cave. I wondered if I should take off and tell Satan right away? No, better not. He wouldn’t believe me anyway; better to wait and see what happens.
“Aaron, come out here,” the men shouted.
I followed Aaron outside as the men came running back with a basketful of gold. Aaron was dumbfounded, and so was I, to see how quickly the people had turned over their treasure. It was a downward spiral after that, at least as far as God’s plan was concerned. The mixed people built the fire to melt the gold while Aaron watched. I began to wonder about God; something like this wouldn’t escape His notice. He must have known what was going on. And where was Moses anyway? I was so caught up wondering what God and Moses would do about the fiasco in process that I didn’t actually see what happened next.
