Moses Changed His Mind: Tuesdays with Tata

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Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh Hello, friend, we're back.

It's Sunday afternoon on the river here on Thanksgiving week,

2023, and I'm sitting here with my main man, Dennis McDonald. Hey, Ta-Ta.

Hi, how are you? I'm really well. How are you doing today? Better.

Back from the edge of the crypt.

Yes. Yes I am. I still still have Moments have good days and bad days,

but it sooner or later it it'll go just like it came whatever it was do That's right.

We were laid up for several weeks with kovat and the flu and all kinds of stuff

and it's been a rough It's been quite an experience Lord willing. We're back on our feet.

Yes, it's a beautiful day out there. It's kind of warm It looks pretty out there, Tata.

It did. It started out rainy and cold this morning, but now the sun is shining

and it's absolutely gorgeous.

Beautiful. It's the last day. God has continued to reveal himself to us.

Amen. It's the last day of deer seasons. We've heard a few gunshots here and there.

It's just going to be a good day. That's right. It's almost Thanksgiving,

which is my favorite time of year. Yes, it is.

I'm thankful for you, Tata. Thank you. I'm thankful for you,

myself. I'm thankful for Lisa and all our listeners out there.

Friend, thank you for taking 30 or 45 minutes to spend some time with me and

Tata, and we're gonna get right into it today. Tata, you got something for us today?

About Moses, and we'll wind up in Exodus chapter 32.

But just think about the journey that brought him to this place.

He started out, he was found in a basket by Pharaoh's daughter because of an

edict that had been sent out by the Pharaoh that all of the Hebrew baby males would be destroyed.

But his mother and father decided to go against what the edict had been passed.

So but what is so amazing to me is that he was rescued because he was a beautiful

baby and he was adopted into Pharaoh's family and he was brought up in the family.

He was taught all of the various various history and various teachings that

were required of the people that lived in Pharaoh's palace.

But he was part of their family. But lo and behold what happened to him after

he grew up he killed an Egyptian.

And that caused him a great deal of alarm and a great deal of concern because

even Pharaoh was looking for him to have him arrested and also the children

of Israel turned against him.

So he fled and he went into the wilderness and became a shepherd.

Now, we don't know what happened during all that time.

We know that it was about 40 years that he was a shepherd, but he met Jethro

and married Jethro's daughter. Jethro became his father-in-law.

But one of the things that occurred that is so mysterious too is that he observed

a bush that was burning, but the bush was not consumed.

And a voice came out of the bush.

And so Moses engaged in a conversation with God. Yes. In this bush.

But God has chosen him. He did. But what did what did Moses do? He objected.

He said, I'm not good enough. I don't talk good enough. Send somebody else.

When God was going to send him back to Egypt. Yeah, that's right.

He didn't want to go back. That's right.

And that's interesting because the Bible had already said he was well-liked, well-educated, noble.

You know, able to communicate well. Absolutely.

But maybe it's because he had spent 40 years in the wilderness that he's forgotten those things.

Well, maybe so. But at any rate, what happened is at that point,

somewhere in that conversation with God, he changed his mind.

He did. And that changed his life.

That sounds familiar. Yes, it does. And so we fast forward now to,

he's on the mountain with God.

And apparently Joshua went up partially with him, and because we see later that

Joshua had some comment to make about the noise that they heard in the camp.

But what's so interesting to keep in mind, that Moses changed his mind.

Now here he is, face to face with God. Now he did not see God's face because

God Himself said, if you see my face you will not live.

But anyway, during this period of time, and this is when the tablets of stone

had been engraved by God and Moses had them.

But God knew what the children of Israel had done. He knew.

He called them stiff-necked, he called them, they had rebelled against him.

Yes. God said that. They had sinned against him. Yep. And what did God say?

I'm going to kill them all. I'm going to get rid of them. He was fed up with them. That's right.

He said, I can't tolerate them anymore. But what did Moses say? Wait a minute.

Think about what will happen. The Egyptians will say, well, God just let all

these people out into the mountains so he could kill them. That's right.

This is one of the first examples of intercessory prayer. Absolutely.

That's right. So Moses said don't do that.

But what happened then, God relented. He changed His mind.

And so that saved the children of Israel.

But so many things happened during that time. because God became very angry

because they had sinned against Him and Moses talked Him out of it and God relented

and did not destroy the children of Israel.

So as we look in Exodus 32 we see that one of the things that happened, Moses got mad.

Because they were going down the mountain and Joshua said, there's something

wrong, I hear all that noise in the camp.

Sounds like a battle has occurred or something has happened.

Yeah. And Moses said, no, that's singing.

And Moses, when he came down the mountain, he saw what they were doing and he

threw the tablets of stone down and broke them. Yeah. Because he was angry.

He had a little streak in him. We see that again later in the wilderness. Yes, we do. Yeah.

But it was so it was. And then from that point on, one of the first people he confronted is Aaron.

His brother. Yeah, right. He said, what have you done? What have you let these people do?

And they're worshipping idols now. And what did Aaron say?

He just came out this way. He just made up a story.

He said, I got all the gold together that they had and threw it in a fire and

out jumped this calf. That's right. This goblin calf.

But the people, in a short period, we don't know how much time there was.

We know that Moses was on the Mount in about 40 days.

But look how their faith waned in his absence. In such a short period of time. Yes.

And look what had just happened to them.

They had seen the ten plagues. Yeah. They had seen the Red Sea open.

Yeah. And they had seen Pharaoh's army destroyed.

And they'd been led into the desert.

But they were envisioning they were still remembering how good it was.

They thought it was so good. But they were they were not thinking about the

time that they were slaves.

That's right Because that's what they were. That's right for 400 years.

I think it also implies that they had Absorbed some of the pagan culture of

the Egyptians around them and the idea that they needed a guide that they could

touch and feel That's right.

Even when the real guy was up on the mountain. That's right Well,

yeah, and because the mountain and the mountain was there was so much going

on there there was thunder and lightning and smoke, and they had been warned,

don't come near this mountain.

If you do, you will die. Don't let any of your animals come near this mountain,

because you will die. That should have been their first cue.

Moses went up into the mountain to meet with God.

And we find out later that Moses, being in the presence of God,

his face shone so much, so bright that he had to wear a veil because they couldn't

look upon him. They were terrified.

And so all of that experience that Moses had, he talked to God face to face,

he changed God's mind, or God changed his mind, or God relented,

and then Moses himself became very angry because the people had rebelled.

And so here we here we find all what we find here is is a man that God has picked out,

And so the question remains for us What do we do when we when we're when we're

when we're chosen to do something?

Yeah if we feel compelled to do something if we if we can feel compelled to

make changes in our lives so that we We will be more accepted by God. That's right.

What do we do? we change.

Because this is evidence, this is self-evidence right here, that if we don't,

we're displeasing to God.

That's right. Because He said that there are no other gods before me. That's right. I am it.

That's right. Fact is, He said my name is I am. That's right.

The question for us, I guess, is in a time when God's clearly on the mountain,

God is still there, but we're more comfortable with making gods of our own.

Like, what kinds of things do we make gods out of? That's correct, that's correct.

Because what we do is we find something that placates a longing in us,

that causes us to be satisfied. That's right.

And it's just like one of the things that the people of Israel said that they

missed was the cucumbers in Egypt.

I don't understand that. I don't even like cucumbers. I don't either.

But comers and melons, they said they wanted to go back for.

That's right. That's right.

This, by the way, that idea, we've talked about it before, with that idea of

the Egyptians, or Egypt seeming so appealing to the Israelites,

shows up over and over through the Old Testament, through the history of that nation.

They constantly had this idea that there was something to be found and going

back to where God had delivered them from.

That's right. And God kept saying, don't go down there for chariots and horses.

I'm your, I'm providing for you. That's right.

And he did. He provided for them when they were hungry in the desert.

He provided food for them. He provided water for them.

He provided a land for them, a home for them. And they had never had a home.

They were strangers. And so that's us as well.

And one of the verses that I like is about that we're aliens and strangers in this world.

Yes. The message translates that same verse.

This world is not your home. Don't make yourself comfortable in it. That's right.

That's right. But that's what we do. Yeah. And is there anything inherently

wrong with that? I don't think so.

If we worship that, yes. That's right.

Make pause, the Apostle Paul talked about there are people that worship the

creation as opposed to worshiping the Creator.

But what do we do? We can't see Him. We can't talk to Him. We can't touch Him.

Talking about God. And so will we give ourselves to Him? How do we even know who He is?

He tells us right here. That's right. In the Word.

In the Word. Well, and we have an advantage that they didn't have.

And it's easy to pick on the Old Testament folks and even the pre-resurrection,

folks, because we have the Holy Spirit inside us.

We have God living inside us. They did not. They had God on the mountain,

they had God through the prophets, they had Jesus walking among them.

But Jesus himself said, and John, after I go, you're going to get something

even better than me being here with you.

The Holy Spirit's going to come and live inside you. And Jesus even went so

far as to say, if I don't go, he won't come. That's right.

That's right. And it's better. So we don't have to worry about being able to

talk to God. He's inside us.

We don't have to worry about communicating with him or having presence and fellowship

and family with him. He's right here with us if we know Him.

And I think even then, we still tend to move towards making those golden calves

in our lives. That's right, because we have to do one thing,

all of us, we must make a choice.

Change our minds. That's right, we have to change our minds.

And we have to decide that He is. That's right. And that He is the rewarder

of the ones that seek Him. That's right.

And I think it's it we keep talking about this thing.

Dr. Phil used to say he would listen to somebody Laid their tail out of how

their life has been going and he would say well, how's that working for you?

Like we have to make a decision and get rid of all cognitive dissonance We have

to decide that everything we've sought after Everything we've tasted and felt

and chased after hasn't really satisfied us That's right And hasn't really solved

our problems and hasn't really brought us peace or hope and that's when we can

start to then and say, you know what?

It really is God that I wanted all along. That's right.

He says, taste and see, drink this water and you won't be thirsty anymore.

And I think that's really what we have to make a decision about, Ta-Ti.

It's very simple to me because you have to start. And you have to start with

how you talk to yourself. That's right.

If you say about yourself, oh, poor me, ain't it awful?

How long can you have that conversation? Ain't it awful? That's right.

That's one of the things that's interesting about Thanksgiving week is we learn

when we study the neuroscience of gratitude,

if you scan somebody's brain when they're unhappy and then you ask them just

to think about something that they're grateful for, even just for a second,

and if they can't think of anything, you say, well, just think about the fact

that you can breathe, that you have oxygen. Be grateful for that for a second.

The parts of the brain that light up are the parts that are not tied to thinking

about yourself and thinking about your current situation.

They're tied to empathy and other people and bigger picture things.

And so what we learned then is learning to be grateful, learning to understand

what God has done for us and what He wants to do for us is a great way to get

that selfishness out of our life,

that desire of peace that we're chasing after something that we don't have or

our life is so tough or woe is me.

Gratitude switches that in your brain towards being able to see the bigger picture.

That's right and sometimes all we have to say is thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

That sounds so trite because it's worn out in some circles, but for me,

that's all I have to say. That's right.

And if I say, if I'm thankful, then I'm going to live my life so that He's pleased with me. That's right.

Now, is He pleased with me every moment that I take a breath? No.

Because sin is with us and will be with us as long as we have breath. That's right.

Yeah, thank you is a perfect word to switch on your brain in different ways

and line yourself up with what God wants.

I was thinking about Anne Lamott, one of my favorite writers,

who is no theologian, but she's a great writer and she loves God,

but her theology is, I can't find it in the Bible that I read.

But she has a book that's the three essential prayers, help, thanks, and wow.

And I think that's pretty good. Yeah. Help, thanks, and wow.

Absolutely. Those are three good prayers. Absolutely. absolutely.

And I can remember when our youngest daughter was very small,

she always volunteered to lead the prayer whenever we sat down at the table.

But we divided it up. But her prayer was very simple, Lord, thank you for the

clothes on my back, the shoes on my feet, and the food I'm about to eat.

The wisdom of a child.

That's beautiful. Knowing where it came from. That's right.

And understanding that, and God himself said, and we've said this before,

that apart from me you can do nothing. That's right.

And that comes very clear after a time.

Do we understand that when we're 25 years old? Probably not.

Someone said a long time ago when you get to be about 35 you can see as far

behind you as you can see in front of you. That's right.

Because the Prophet said three score and ten. That's right.

So what does Moses have to tell us today Tata what's the what's the punchline?

Yeah, that we have to trust God and we have to be willing to be honest with ourselves,

Because he had a conversation with God at the burning bush,

And he made a mind he made up his mind then and he changed his mind and I said,

okay I'll do what you good, but you're gonna have to help me send me somebody

to help Okay, I'll send you Aaron to help you.

Yeah, and so that's where that all started right there But he decided that he

was gonna follow God. That's right.

He changed his mind and Did did that get what I can I don't understand?

I don't I can't even begin to understand that the position That he had in his

mind when he was talking to God and God said I'm gonna kill them all.

Yeah And and wait Moses said wait a minute.

Don't do that If you're going to kill them, just take me out of your book too.

So did he make a deal with God? I don't know.

But I know that he was willing to talk to God.

He already had experience with Him. And so that's also the key for us.

Talk to God. Talk to God. Talk to Him.

Sometimes it'll change your mind. Sometimes you might change His mind.

That's right. You never know.

He relented. He relented then. That's right.

It's beautiful, Ta-Ta. I can't think of anything more important than being willing to...

Well, Moses did two things, I think, that are important in his story arc.

Lots of things, but two things relevant to this conversation.

He saw the burning bush, and he could have just walked on by. That's right.

But he wanted to know what that was all about. He knew it was something remarkable,

and he was willing to say, wow, that prayer we talked about,

and walk towards it and figure it out. So that's one thing.

Keep your eyes open. As we recently talked about, Jesus has a habit of passing by.

That's right. He's a gentleman. He doesn't invade space. And if you want to

know more, just read about him on the road to Emmaus. That's right.

He was going to pass by, but they stopped him. So, he's there.

He might be burning a bush right in front of you, but you have to step up and

engage. That's right. You have to talk to God, like you said.

And the other thing is, same thing on the mountain. It was scary,

and God was up there, and stuff was smoky, and there was fire,

and there was thunder, and there was earthquake.

And Moses went up anyway. That's right. Because he knew God and he wanted,

he was God's friend and he wanted to see God and see what God had to say.

And so sometimes it is scary. It might be more comfortable to throw our gold

in the pot and see what comes out like that, like Aaron did.

It might be a little more easy to hold onto our grief or our pain or to whatever

it is that we are using to be bigger or more powerful or more immediate or proximate

than God in our life right now.

But the reward comes when we go up into the smoke. That's right.

That's exactly right. And Moses was willing to do that, just as you said.

And he changed his mind, and he changed his whole life.

Well, if you can make that kind of a mind shift in your life,

that'd be something to be thankful for. Amen.

Amen. That's right. Does it happen instantaneously? No. No.

Look how long it took him. That's right. Four years, or more than 40 years.

Well, I guess if we were going to do that sort of mind shift,

Tata, when should we start? We start today. We start today.

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