104_The way back to God Ex 33:1-6 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” 4 When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. A little boy was exploring a crowded exhibition ground with his parents. His parents were attentively keeping watch over him, mindful of the crowds. Despite their efforts, he wandered away, lured by an attractive stall down an alley. When he looked around at last, he realized he was lost. Fear gripped him, as he frantically searched for the familiar faces of his parents. Finally, he ran into a kind police officer who attempted to console him with ice cream, chips, and cookies. But all the little boy would do was cry out, "I just want to get back to my parents." This simple desire —to return home—is the cry of every human heart. In Exodus 33, the Israelites found themselves lost, separated from their Savior who had rescued them from hopeless and harsh slavery in Egypt, and had fulfilled his promise to bring them to the mountain where they would worship. Of course, they had not merely drifted away unawares. It was their deliberate choice to replace their God with an idol they had made. Tired of waiting for Moses, who was up on the mountain receiving the law from God, and perhaps skeptical that he would ever return, they became impatient. They demanded, “Make us gods who shall go before us.” They wanted something tangible, and a god that they could manipulate. something they could control. Paul, in Romans 1:21-23, describes their terrible exchange: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” The heart of sin, theirs and ours, is the desire to redefine God on our terms, to fashion Him into something that fits our preferences and conveniences. Moses recognized the depth of their sin and interceded, going