Raph

The nature of Aaron's sin with the golden calf was idolatry and syncretism i.e. he not only passively allowed the fashioning of the golden calf, but actually led by supervising its fashioning. I think he won't take responsibility for his actions because he is not having leadership competencies and also that, maybe he still did not know that, what he did was wrong; for him it is the people who did it not him. I think he gets off so easily because the Lord has already arranged a responsibility for him; he will serve as a priest in the Tabernacle. Leaders must be accountable for their actions because this is the only way they will be seen as true leaders; not shifting blames to others. It is necessary for leaders to be able to learn from their mistakes beacuse it is from these mistakes they can be good leaders. They say: making a mistake is not a mistake, but reapeating it.

I think the people of Israel were so quick to make idols, even after hearing the monotheism of the Ten Commandments that forbade graven images because for the long time while in Egypt, 400 years, were used to worshiping gods, which appeared in the shapes of animals. I think Aaron facilitated their sin because he wanted to be seen a "good" leader of the people by giving them what they want without realising that, although majority rules, but not always what the majority wants is correct. Thus, by agreeing to make god in the shape of a golden calf, Aaron led the Israelites into sin. I think the golden calf made God feel very bad, dissapointed, betrayed and angry. The idols Christian churches do allow that lead them away from pure worship of God in our day include the money, fancy cars, mansions,etc. Considerable number of people who own such things normally forgot about the true God and think their riches are their gods.

In Exodus, the "blood of the covenant" is to consecrate people, to ratify covenants and for cleansing te altar and everything used during a ceremony. The "blood of the covenant" in the New Testament is Jesus our Lord. The Old Covenant is similar to the New Covenant in that, they are both sealed with blood that is used to cleanse, to consecrate people, to make them pure thus bringing forgiveness for the wrong doings. They are different in that the blood used in the Old Covenant was from animals - goats, bulls; but the blood used in the New Covenant is blood of Jesus Christ himself.

Israel is a "holy" nation in the sense that,the Lord declared it to be sacred, devoted to and belonging exclusively to Him. God. To be holy means to be belong to God and practice what God wants us to do and avoid doing things that displeases God. Ithink personal holiness is being de-emphasized in our time beacuse of many eartly temptations of the world. We fail to avoid these temptations even if they displease God and in some cases we may even try to justify them.

In the Old Testament priests served God and acted as God's representative for, and to, the other nations of the world. I think I am a priest in the sense that, I am required to serve Him by doing what He wants me to do; by following His instructions. I function as a priest by doing what pleases God. I am a "royal" priest in the sense that, I belong to God, who is Yahweh the King. My personal priestly function can improve in many ways understanding that,as a human being I cannot be perfect. There are stones on the way which make me fall but I have to rise and continue. Accepting and believing that, God is there for me is a sure way to ensure that, my personal priestly function improves.

It feels very good to take out and look over one of your treasured possessions. In Israel, the idea of "treasured possession" was fulfilled by obeying and fulfilling the covenant. It feels very good and indeed privileged and special to be God's treasured possession -- as we Christians clearly are according to 1 Peter 2:9?

It took Moses so long to delegate his judicial role to others because he had to live with the tradition of that time. I think it was a way to be accepted by all people if they have access to you as a top leader. It then needed time to change that. And I think the accepted time blessed by God came when the suggestion to delegate was made by Jethro. The judges were to be capable, God-fearing, honest and accountable men. Moses' role is similar to the role of leaders in Ephesians 4:11-12 in that, in both cases the leaders are required to delegate some of the functions in order to achieve a common goal. It is not ideal to concentrate all the functions on your own. The importance of the anointing of the Spirit in Christian leadership is to enable Christian leaders to combine natural wisdom with listening to what the Holy Spirit says so that they can observe God's direction and His power to accomplish their tasks.

God provided manna for the people to show His supernatural mighty; that with Him there is nothing impossible. While Israelites were hungry and wondering what will become of them in the desert and started grumbling against their leaders, od gave them foof "manna" in the desert. The manna finally ceased as they were able to get food from the land. I think that the people gradually began to take the manna for granted because it was there for a long time (forty years) so they start seeing it as their right and forgetting that it is God who is bringing the manna to them to show His love to them. A tricky question but maybe the provision of God that sometimes I take for granted is my success in life. I sometimes think it is my capability that made me to succeed forgeting that, it is the mercy of Lord and His power that leads to my success.

Grumbling against a leader can really be a symptom of grumbling against the Lord as leaders are carrying out the Lord's instructions. I think there cases where this might not be true especially where the leader fails or neglects to adhere to God's instructions and do things that are contrary to the Lord's instructions. In this case grumbling of the people can be justified. Leaders tend to take complaints so personally because they fail to understand that, people are not complaining against them but against God. To learn that "it's not about you." it takes understanding the meaning of leadership and that, leadership is not the person who leads but the Lord himself.

People grumble and complain because of their fear which is rooted in their unbelief. Fear leads to grumbling and faith helps us to ovecome grumbling. The symptoms of grumbling I see in my own life include the impatience I feel when I am faced with troubles; I sometimes become weak in faith and think God has deserted me. What I should do about it is to pray, asking God to strengthen my faith.

God's glory is important in the Exodus because it shows that God is Divine, Powerful and cannot be mocked as Pharaoh was trying to do. The recognition of God's glory is important to faith, holiness and reverence as it shows his power to perform miracles where the mind of the human being cannot apprehend. It shows the need for us to believe, respect and follow what he wants us to do without questioning. When leaders take for themselves the credit and glory that should go only to God are doomed to their own destruction. They fail to understand that, all their successes are from God Leaders can keep themselves from pride by understanding that, they are also made to glorify God and not otherwise.

The people blamed Moses for the advancing Egyptian army because they were terrified. Their fear is motivated not only by how big and powerful the Egyptian army was but also by their issuficint faith; thinking what Moses was doing was his own making and not from God. The people are really blaming the God as Moses was carrying out the instructions of God. Moses responded to their blame and fear by giving them commands in order to direct their activity and by making faith assertions in order to bolster their faith. Moses does not defend himself from their unfair criticism as he knows what he is doing is not his own making but he is carrying out the wishes of God. His focus is not to defend himself but to make the people understand what God wants. I think after hearing Moses' words, the people were encouraged and believed on God.

Obedience was so important to the people's deliverance because by obeying their leaders, they obeyed the Lord who was bringing their deliverance. Thus,they got blessed by such obedience and they were delivered. Obedience is so important to our deliverance from "sin, the flesh, and the devil" because by obeying we are blessed. It then follows that, obedience is the key to receiving God's blessing. I think there cant be any discipleship without obedience. A person who says he believes in Jesus but don't obey him has no real faith. It means the belief of such person is in words but not in action. But we should remember: Faith without action is dead.

Christ is our Passover Lamb in that, He was crucified in order to save us from sin. He is the Lamb who was slained totake away our sins. We are marked by his blood when we participate in the Lord's Supper during the celebration of the Eucharist. God's judgment pass over us because of Christ's Blood by not being condemned for our sins following our names being written in the Lamb's Book of life.

I think we tend to fight our battles by the flesh rather than using spiritual weapons due to our human stubborness. We dont want to trust the Lord that He will make us win the battle. We do often mistake the human enemy for the spiritual enemy because of our little faith. God will fight our battles if they are battles of faith and prayer. He will not fight our battles if we make them our own.

Moses did not accept Pharaoh's compromises as he was faithful and obedient to the intsruction of God; the comprimises were not in line with what od wanted Moses to do. The Church leaders can accept comprimises when it is in the interest of the church and do not go against the wish of God. It is wrong for church leaders to comprimise when such comprimise goes against the instruction of God.

I think it is difficult for some church leaders to confront the people due to the fear such leaders have to be seen "bad". They also lack the courage to speak out the truth. They want to stay in good books with the people without realising the damages this may cause. By not confronting the people the church leaders are faced with the destruction of the church as they see something wrong being done but they close eyes. Confrontation and rebuke is good as it helps to bring back people who are going astray to follow the desired values. If we fail to confront we are heading to our own downfall, as when the organisation falls due to misbehaviour of its people, the leader falls also.

Moses blamed God for his troubles as he did not understand the diversion tactic of the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh managed to trick the Israelite elders and in turn the elders turned on Moses as the cause of all troubles. I think Moses and Aaron are stubborn because of both fear and unbelief. They see the Pharaoh has become more harder on the Israelites and the elders are turning against them. But again they still hesistate to belief that, God will deliver them, despite all the troubles. God had to command Moses and Aaron to show His authority and to ensure that His plan to rescue the Israelites is fulfilled.

I think we are so afraid to obey God when He puts on our hearts to do something decisive because of our little faith; we always doubt. When we feel afraid, we must run to God and ask for courage and have faith that, He will deliver us. We should remember what He said to us, that He will always be with us. Fear destroys; removes courage and therefore leads to failure. Courage is required in order to succeed. A leader can not succeed if he or she is full of doubts.

God is angry with Moses because he still refuses to carry God's plan despite answering all his questions. I think all three: he does not believe even after been assured of his doubts; he is afraid despite being told God will be with him and he still does not want to carry the plan for no apparent reason: Oh Lord, please send someone else. It can be that, God becomes angry with me when I do something wrong; but just temporary anger as He still calls me to repent and after that, He ambraces me. Moses appeased God by accepting His call to go to Egypt and carry out God's plan to rescue His people.

I think his response to God indicates his humility, not necessarily lack of faith. He feels to be a wrongdoer who killed a person and he is just a shepherd. Thus he feels that he does not deserve such a responsibility. God reassured him by telling him that He will be with him. God reassures us the same way: He will be with us.

Moses hated wrongs, evils. He was quick to react, not knowing the consequences of his quick decision and reaction. He did not react as a leader. Even after his reaction which I think he expected the Hebrews to be grateful to him; he is questioned as who he thinks he is? He is frightened and runs for his life. The positive things I learnt from this incident is the hate of evil and the sympathy to victims. The negative thing is the decision to take justice into ones hand without following the prescribed procedures.

Hi ALL I am Raph from Namibia Africa. Very excited to do this study. May God be you ALL. AMEN.