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Let’s consider a scenario in which the judgments of God are going to fall on your city. Yep, yours, not mine. Whew!
I’m not sure exactly what is happening in your city – but it’s not good. But you are an elite prayer warrior, and God lets you know one morning during your prayers that He will destroy your city in the next 24 hours.
He doesn’t mention how. It could be fire from heaven, an immense tornado, or with a seaside community, maybe a typhoon. What should you do – rent a U-Haul today or ask God to change His mind?
But first, you must determine — does God change His mind? Let’s read Exodus 32:14 . . .
So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people (NASB1995).
Evidently, God does change His mind. This is good for your city. You may be able to get God to forestall the judgment.
All you have to do is figure out why God equivocated in Exodus and use the same reasoning to get God to change His mind with your zip code.
We read that the Israelites, despite being miraculously delivered from Egypt and with food on the ground in the form of manna every morning, became impatient when Moses tarried on a mountain while God gave him the Ten Commandments.
What happened?
The Israelites said to Aaron, “That guy who brought us up from Egypt has been gone a long time. We don’t know what’s happened to him. Evidently, we can’t trust this God. Now, Aaron, please make us another god, who will go before us to the Promised Land” (Exodus 32:1, OGV).
As Aaron later explains to Moses, “The people forced me to do something when you didn’t come back. I collected their gold earrings and threw them into the fire and, miraculously, out came this golden calf” (Exodus 32:21-24, OGV).
When the Israelites began worshipping the idol, God said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are forgetful and ungrateful. They don’t deserve the Promised Land. I’m going to destroy them” (Exodus 32:9-10, OGV),
Moses then interceded for the Israelites, and God changed His mind.
Why did God change His mind? Does this indicate that we serve a wishy-washy God who can’t make up His mind?
Scholars debate just about everything, and “God changed His mind” in Exodus 32 has been a juicy discussion topic for centuries. I realize that most of you, having high expectations of Interruptions, expect a solution in one sentence.
Okay, I’ll try . . .
Whether God changed His mind isn’t the point. What we find is Moses developing compassion and interceding for the Israelites. This entire scenario is a prophetic precursor of the work of Jesus on the cross, and Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father in heaven, interceding for us.
I failed — it took me three sentences. But what can we learn from the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32?
- All of us are like the Israelites. They were led from captivity through God parting the Red Sea; we are delivered from sin by Jesus on the Cross. Yet, all of us continue to look for golden calves to serve. However, in America, we throw out the calf and just serve the gold.
- Prayer changes things!
I believe that our country (and the rest of the world), through extreme rebellion against God’s laws, all stand on the verge of judgment.
What can we do?
Three choices:
A. Leave your city and move to Springfield, Ohio.
B. Compromise the gospel and join the golden calf worshippers, or
C. Ask God to change His mind and send revival.
I’m not building a tornado shelter, and I don’t own gold – so I’m praying!