"But I [God] will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way." [Exodus 33:3]
Bit by bit, moment by moment, God is pulling back from man.
In yesterday's reading, He talked about dwelling among them. And that's always been His wish...to be with us. Our sin has repelled Him. He's stepped away not because He doesn't love us. He's stopped away because He does love us and so fears the punishment He would rain don if He remains so close.
Before Moses can return from the mountain where he is receiving God's law and the 10 Commandments, the people make and worship a golden calf. Death and plague visit them for their blatant sin. But ultimately they're forgiven and saved. But now God declines to lead them in their march as He has for so long.
And when Moses returns to the mountain for the law again, having broken the tablets in his anger over the people's sin, well, this time the Lord doesn't put His own hand to the stone. Moses takes dictation instead.
Sadly, the distance between man and God is growing.
My post from last year on this day.
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