Smashing Tablets

I want to talk to you about Moses again today. Most of you know the story of Moses and the 10 Commandments. Moses went to the top of the mountain and spent time with God and God gave him the 10 commandments, written with the finger of God. Exodus 31:18 When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tables of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.
If you don't know the story as always I will tell you to read it for yourself in Exodus.
Now I want you to take that in for a minute, Moses once again was having conversation with God and this time God gave him something tangible to take home with him. Moses just spent 40 days and 40 nights on this mountain. That's what I call a mountain top experience.
I'm going to give you the Gena translation of what happened next.
After God gives Moses the 2 tablets He tells him those people of yours are out of control. They have made a calf out of gold and their worshiping it as we speak. God tells Moses He's over it and He's going to annihilate the whole lot of them and start over. God is sick of these people not listening, being ungrateful and having a total disrespect for God. He tells Moses He'll give him a new nation of people to work with. Moses begs God not to do that, he totally goes to bat for the people and then taking the two tablets he heads back down the mountain.
Now there are a few facts I want you wrap your mind around here.
1.Moses just had a mountain top experience with God.
2. God told him exactly what the people were doing.
3.Moses begs God not to kill the people.
4.Moses knows exactly what to expect when he gets back down the mountain, God told him. He has had lots of time climbing back down a 7497 foot mountain to think about the situation and how he should react.
How he should react and how he does are not the same. When Moses get's to the bottom of the mountain and sees what's going on he gets so ticked off he throws the 2 tablets with the 10 Commandments on them, that God made him, to the ground and smashes them.
Exodus 32:15-16 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.
After I read this God asked me “what do you do with your mountain top experiences when you get to the foot of your mountain?”
What do I mean? Glad you asked.
I had an incident with my son the other day. I had asked him to do a favor for a friend of mine that would mean a lot to my friend and to me. I asked him this a few times on a few different occasions. Long story short I had one of those amazing days with God, a mountain top experience if you will and at the end of the day I called my son (again) to follow up on this favor. I spoke slowly and emphasized each word to my son telling him ALL the reasons I wanted and needed him to follow through with this favor. I told, not asked, him to call this friend that night as soon as we hung up and made him promise he would do it.
The next night I'm at a friends house and my son calls me. As soon as I answer I interrupt him and ask “did you call my friend?” to which he replied NO.
This is where it gets ugly, you may want to remove any small children from the room. I went ballistic! I started screaming at this kid that I am beyond pissed. Sorry I told you it was gonna get ugly. I used some questionable adjectives regarding how I felt about him and some four letter words may have escaped my mouth. I hate being hung up on so I then informed my son I was hanging up and for him not to call back and I then hung up on him.
There it is, I smashed my tablets at the foot of the mountain.
The thing is Gems I knew from past experience what I could expect from this conversation. God even warned me as soon as I saw my son's number on the caller ID. I knew how I should behave but I didn't. I had had a mountain top experience hours before but didn't apply one thing when I got to the foot of the mountain.
My son and I made up the next day and I apologized that psycho woman had emerged again and we worked it all out. The truth is had I given him a chance to speak he was going to tell me he met with my friend that morning and everything was all set.
OH.......
A few days later my son said “mom remember the other night when I called you and we had the “incident”? I of course responded no and we both started laughing. He went on to tell me the reason he called was he wanted me to meet his friend. She was home from college and he told her all about me and was calling to see if it was a good time to bring her over. Did I mention this friend is one of the Pastor's daughters at my church. He said she could hear me yelling through the phone and she asked him “who is that” to which he replied “my mother.” After I hung up on him he said to her “I don't think this is a good night for you to meet her.”
Well didn't I feel like a jerk....
I was so embarrassed that Sunday when I did finally meet her and apologized that she had been subject to psycho woman.
One of the many things I love about God is even though Moses messed up and had to deal with his actions God still allowed him to lead the people of Israel to the promise land. Moses had to go back up the mountain this time carrying 2 new tablets up and not just down the mountain to get the 10 Commandments again and I had to face the pastors daughter and eat crow. We both had to deal with our outburst, I got off way easier than Moses.
Gems how many circumstances do you walk into knowing the outcome and STILL mess up.
You know your kid probably didn't do his chores and you still freak out. You know your boss is probably not going to give you a raise and you still have a fit. You know your spouse probably isn't going to do what he or she says and you still blow up.
We have these opportunities to have teaching moments of what God has taught us but we blow it because we smash our tablets.
Gems I want to encourage you that when you get to the foot of your mountain remember what God taught you when you were at the top. But even if you mess up He will still love you, forgive you and allow you to continue on in your position. You may have to do things the hard way but He will still give you another mountain top and bottom experience. Even if we smash our tablets He will make new ones, written on our hearts by the very finger of God. And that my friend will be a mountain top experience!