Not My God

 The people saw that Moses was tardy to descend from the mountain.  So the people assembled themselves against Aaron and said to him: "Rise!  Make for us elohim who shall go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him. 

Exodus 32: 1, Concordant Old Testament

I recall in the days and months after Donald Trumps victory in the 2016 election cycle that I began to hear those from the losing side proclaim that Trump was "Not my president."  As if not casting a vote for the man somehow negated the results of the election.  Of course, this was simply sour grapes and Donald Trump went on to do some pretty positive things for the country.  Yet every now and then you would hear them..."He's not my president!"  The people of Israel also endured such a episode in the days following their deliverance from the Egyptians.  These Israelites were filled with victory and praise for the living God when He delivered them from their captors.  But as they began to trek through the desert on the other side of that Red Sea their attitudes began to change.  Food was scarce, as well as water I'm sure.  The Israelites began to grumble and complain to their leader Moses in their uncomfortable circumstances.  Had the Lord delivered them from those Egyptians simply to have His people die in this desert?  I assume that the Israelites had to be wondering such things.  So it was after Moses ascended mount Sinai to commune with the Lord that the Israelites approached his brother Aaron and demanded that he build them a god of gold which they would carry before them on their journey.  For they had not seen or heard from Moses in quite some time and these Israelites were getting nervous.  What if Moses was dead?  For his part, Aaron gave in to the people and had a golden calf constructed which would be the "symbolic" god of the people of Israel.  I can even hear a few of them shouting, "This God of Moses is not my God!"  Of course, many of us recall how this story ends, with Charlton Heston standing on the mount Sinai and tossing those stone tablets down on the sinning people of Israel.  Hollywood movies aside, Moses returned to find the people of Israel in the midst of a celebratory orgy.  They finally had found their god...so it seemed.  Yet the God who had delivered His people out of Egypt wasn't through with them just yet.  The golden calf was destroyed, the party was over and the Lord was the true God of Israel once again.  Was there ever a doubt?  

And Elohim said further to Moses: Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, Yahweh, the Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac and the Elohim of Jacob, He has sent me to you.  This is My name for the eon, and this the Remembrance of Me, for generation after generation. 

Exodus 3: 15, Concordant Old Testament 

As so many election deniers failed to realize, wanting something to be true doesn't really mean that it is.  You may come from a place of hurt or embarrassment and say that there is no God, but that will never be true.  You may deny the God who allows tragedy to strike the lives of the innocent, but He remains the God of all creation nonetheless.  Many times we fail to comprehend or understand the ways of the Lord, but that does not diminish who He is.  He is God of all...He is the I Am.  There is no other before Him.  When we try to wrap our human understanding around Him we sometimes fail to see how God could be who He is and yet still be our loving God.  I have learned that it is far better to trust in Him than in myself.  For I, as a independent being, do not exist.  Without God I am nothing.  He created me, saved me from myself and assured me a future in His presence.  All which I have is a result of His loving hand.  If I were to suddenly proclaim that He is not my God, I would lose my future and my hope {Jeremiah 29:11}.  For it is the Lord who provides me such things.  The God of Abraham.  The God of Isaac.  The God of the universe.  He is my Lord.  

~Scott~