Abandonment Issues Series

How many of you have children? Did you have any idea, while you were painting the nursery and picking out your first set of onesies, how much of your life would get taken over? Children take a huge amount of time and attention. And of course it gets worse when they start to crawl and then to walk and when they start to talk it seems like practically their first word is “no!” And before you know it they’re begging for the keys to the car.

How old were your kids before you felt you could leave them alone without a babysitter? When they’re really little, a lot of parents don’t even leave the room for 10 minutes - even when they’re fast asleep in the crib - without turning the baby monitor on. Maybe by the time they’re 12 or 13 you’re pretty comfortable with giving them an hour or two on their own. And while you might go out for an evening leaving a 15-year old in charge, with a complete list of instructions and your cell phone number, I doubt if there’s anyone here who would leave their 15- or 16-year old home for a week without adult supervision.

Look at the sort of thing that happens when parents leave their children alone for too long. They start living on breakfast cereal and frozen pizza. The laundry may not get done. Maybe they skip school. And in all too many cases, they have parties. Wild ones. Dangerous ones. Parties that leave the neighbors calling the cops and the house in a shambles. It can happen even with “good kids” as the parents’ absence gets over-ridden by peer pressure. And that’s even when the kids know where the parents are and when they’ll be back.

Last week the new exiles were behaving like picky 6-year-olds: “I hate manna! I want chicken nuggets!” Is it progress to note that this morning’s story places the Israelites’ emotional development pretty squarely in the adolescent stage? Because they behaved just like a bunch of teenagers left too long with the keys to the wine cellar.

At the beginning of the 32nd chapter of Exodus, “The people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain.” [v. 1a] Moses was up on Mt. Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights. Now, this may seem like a lot, but it’s the standard length of time for a spiritual retreat. And they knew where he was. You’d think they could at least wait until the deadline. But no. Remember what happened before Moses left.

Moses went up into the mountain of God. To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.” Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. [Ex 24:14-16]

Did the people really fear that God had swallowed Moses alive and that they would have to go it on their own? Or was this a gross act of rebellion, a deliberate rejection of the One who brought them out of Egypt? How do we discern what’s really going on? We do have some clues. Back in chapter 20, the Israelites had asked Moses to mediate between them and God.

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” [Ex 20:18-19]

They were scared witless. So maybe this is panic more than rebellion. They fear they’ve lost their only safe connection to God.

But is that true? Is fear really what motivates the Hebrews? Resentment is much more to the forefront of their state of mind. Listen to how they speak about Moses. “As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” [v. 1b]

I think that fear of abandonment is the Israelites’ excuse, not their reason. They knew where Moses was, they knew that he would return. But they are here, he is there, no one is looking, and character is what you are when no one is looking. They are doing what they want, not what Moses tells them to do, and he isn’t the boss of them! They want a different kind of god, one who doesn’t ask so much of them. This new God was an invisible God with impossibly high standards. The ten commandments were only the tip of the iceberg. They have new responsibilities and obliga¬tions, from how they are treat their servants and their women - in most cultures back then their status was virtually the same - to detailed instructions for handling criminal and civil cases. And they’d all signed it in blood, and this new God could strike people dead in an instant. But who was this Moses, anyway, that he should have the only insight into God and what God wanted? Surely there were many different ways to worship! Why not have a god who was ok with wild parties? Everybody else had statues and booze - and often women - as part of their religious celebrations, what was wrong with that? The old gods were content with offerings and holidays and let you alone the rest of the time. And you could even bribe them if you wanted special favors. They were a whole lot easier to live with.