Psalm 106:23

Psalm 106:23

Dare to reason?

One of the most extraordinary features of the relationship that Moses had with the Lord God, is that he was able to bargain with Him! By that I mean that Moses had the effrontery to confront the Lord and plead with Him to change His mind! What this reveals to us is that God is not an authoritarian, head-in-the-sand, I will do it my way kind of Being. He is the God who responds. Our God can change His mind and He will listen to rational arguments, and He is open to different ideas! This is far different from the view of God that most of us have been brought up to believe in. The thing is, dare we interact with Him in this way? Are we shocked that Moses got God to change His mind because that is what this verse is telling us. It refers to the conversation between Moses and the Lord after the incident with the Golden Calf. The Lord had had enough of His “stiff-necked people.” He told Moses to, “Leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I might destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” In other words, God was finished with the Israelites and He intended to start again with Moses, just as He had with Abraham.

Moses sought the favour of the Lord His God, and he reminded Him that if He killed the Israelites the Egyptians would consider Him to be a vengeful God who had delivered the people just to kill them and wipe them off the face of the earth. Moses pleaded also that the Lord would remember His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Israel (Jacob), how could He go back on His word? What is the divine response to this? “Then the Lord relented, and He did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened.” Exodus 32:9-14. 

Maybe our prayer lives are based on a theology that teaches us that God is sovereign and in control and everything that happens is God’s will. Therefore, we must not cross Him or argue with Him but simply and meekly accept whatever happens as being what He intended. Maybe today, He is prompting our prayer lives to change so that we become engaged with Him and are willing to at least discuss what is happening to us and around us. Maybe, He would love to know what we think. Remember, we are not robots.  

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