Setback
Exodus 32, 33, 34
Remember that top prospect in your organization? The one taken with a top 5 pick, given millions of dollars before he can rent a car, and heralded as the next [insert Hall of Famer from your favorite team here]? Remember when he destroyed the low minors and was bumped up to AA baseball when he was the youngest player there? Remember how the team traded away the guy in the offseason who plays his position at the major league level, and how excited everyone got? Then do you remember when that top prospect got that hamstring issue, and then got rocked the rest of the year in AA? Yeah, that wasn’t as fun as the other times. This isn’t all that uncommon; A to AA is a huge jump (the toughest in the minors other than AAA -> MLB), and some guys who are promoted to early on (and some who aren’t) get eaten alive by the competition. As a fan, it’s tough to check the next offseason and see that top prospect back in AA again, or even sent back to A to work on his mechanics. We curse our luck and wish, just once, that maybe we’d get a Mike Trout or a Manny Machado. This doesn’t spell doom for the prospect, but rather just that the prospect needs to learn from his mistakes and figure out what will make him successful going forward.
Exodus 32:7-14
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.” And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
The path was set for the Israelites. They were set to go through the desert, get their commandments, and head straight for the promised land. Then they really screwed it up. They got worried that Moses was gone, and made an idol, and worshipped it. They just weren’t ready yet for the challenge of the Desert and then the promised land, so God made them repeat the desert until they were. God’s top prospects had a setback in the AA desert. The results weren’t pretty; Moses commanded the Levites to put many of the Israelites who disobeyed God to the sword, and the rest were forced to roam the desert for many years. Stories like this can be tough to read; why does God let things like this happen, and then demand sacrifices and atonements? The reality is that, in a world with free will where he allows us to take part in his kingdom, we recognize that our nature isn’t one of service and praise. Some things need to be refined a bit. Maybe it’s a callous personality, or a bitter emotional wound we won’t let go, or a lust for money. Whatever it is, God may put us through periods that are tough and seem to be repeating ourselves, in order to make us into the people we want to be. Don’t view tough times as a curse or a condemnation, but rather as a setback and a natural part of maturation. Trust God that he knows what he’s doing, and pray and seek what it is God wants us to do. Maybe it’s nothing; I’m not saying that all periods of harsh times are a result of sin, or that being a perfect believer will result in happiness and success. Just don’t look at difficult times as a punishment or a sign that God doesn’t love us. He’s got our lives mapped out for his kingdom, so just trust that he sees our plight, and seek after his kingdom regardless. We can’t control the circumstances around us, but we can control what we do in response to them. Just stay the course, and serve your God who loves and wants the best for you.
