“Even at Horeb,” the people sinned. It’s a haunting phrase, and one made even more ominous when you consider just exactly where (and what) Horeb was.
We know it more colloquially as Mount Sinai, but most scholars believe that Horeb was the exact same place. Regardless, it was the place where, according to Exodus 18, Moses received the Law given to Him directly by God (Hebrews 2:2; Galatians 3:19).
That’s a big deal. It represents the literal moment that the Israelites stopped being slaves and became God’s people. They had the Law; they were under His authority.
It was also the day Israel committed one of their most infamous sins.
While Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the Law and communing directly with God and going through some sort of a physical fast (Deuteronomy 9:9), the rest of the nation were at the bottom, engaging in gross idolatry led by Moses’ brother.
Of all the people, and of all the places, and of all the times for this type of sin to take place, it had to happen…at Horeb.
That’s the tension that Moses keys in on here in Deuteronomy 9:8 when he says that “even at Horeb” they made God angry. Even at the most crucial religious and national juncture in their life, they still couldn’t keep themselves pure.
That’s why Moses knows that the people are going to have a rough time in the future. If even Moses had a hard time wrangling them, and they were willing to sin at Horeb, what’s to stop them when they are really in dire straits? Who or what is going to keep them in line then?
Perhaps that’s why God makes the offer He does to Moses. Instead of this ragtag group of hedonistic idolaters, why don’t we just obliterate them and start over with Moses? Wouldn’t he prefer that anyways?
Probably. But Moses understands (and rightfully so) that that would create a whole other set of problems.
Moses brings Horeb to memory at this point to remind them that even at the most religious point in their life, they still sinned against God. That’s not to shame them…it’s to get them to wake up!
We had a visitor not long ago at Hillside that I really enjoyed talking to. He seemed very knowledgeable, very sincere, very fervent. Great individual.
Then, on the way out, he dropped a few cuss words (not angrily or directed at anyone) and told me he was going to Chili’s to “knock back a few.”
My point is not to judge this person, although I do wish he had stuck around a few minutes longer so we could discuss that.
My point is to say that if someone is willing to turn a blind eye to their own actions when they’re literally standing in a church building, what’s to stop them from doing that later? How far will they go when they’re far away from God’s people, God’s teaching, and God’s worship?
This man needed some self-awareness. So did the Israelites at Mount Sinai.
But to be fair, we all do. The environment we’re in doesn’t always protect us from our own sins; instead, it may just magnify it further.
If we’re not willing to hold ourselves in check in a religious environment, what’s to stop us from sinning when we’re in a non-religious environment (Luke 22:31)?