THE DANGER OF IMPATIENCE
“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, ‘Come, make gods for us who shall go before us; 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.’ ” Exodus 32: 1
The story in Exodus is a cautionary tale about losing patience. The Hebrews were tired of waiting for Moses. So they panicked. Aaron, the consummate politician did what they asked. He fashioned an idol that would allow them to do anything they wanted. But for the grace of God, they might have destroyed themselves by this rash display of impatience.
This story comes to mind in the midst of the Corona Virus pandemic of our time. For a while, people were amazingly cooperative. They stayed home. They wore masks. They tolerated separation from family and friends and church. They were even willing to put up with financial hardships….. for while.
But now you can feel that patience wearing away. Some places are opening up sooner than it is safe to do so. They will almost certainly increase the spread of the virus and cost lives. Others go out in groups to protest the stay at home orders. Some start advocating crazy treatments and cures without any scientific merit or concerns for safety.
We are starting to fashion a reality of our own making. We want to party and do whatever we want to do without limits; just like the Hebrews in the desert.
We, like them, will certainly receive punishment for our panic. I don’t believe God will punish us. God won’t have to. A wise man once said that we are not punished for our sins and much as we are punished BY our sins.
I’m just as anxious as the next guy to get the country back to work. I am just as anxious as you to not have to live in fear of going to the store or to have one of my children have to go out to work. But this is not the time to lose patience and stop listening to the scientific and medical experts. The life that will be lost if we lose patience may by yours or your parents. Wait on the Lord. His word of healing is already on the way down the mountain.
