Yes, I do believe in the God of the Old Testament, it was the I AM whose name on earth was Jesus. I just do not believe in the idols and false gods who they worshipped for most of the time. See Judges chapter 3 starting at verse 7.
Never fully or can comprehend why they worshipped these false Gods.
I know there were a lot of them given the religions of the time.
They even started worshipping a false god (Golden calf) whilst Moses was receiving the commandments from God.
Now I'm not a perfect Christian but part of me thinks "Wow you have seen the miraculous work of God and yet you do this"
I often have to keep myself in check because I'm quick to forget the miraculous things God has done in my life.
What I do find interesting though is that I see some grace concerning what happened.
God could have just wiped them out.
It seems like at this time God was going to consume them yet Moses interceded for them. I think based on what God had done bringing them out of Egypt.
Exodus 32:9-14
9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!
10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”
11 Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “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?
12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”
14 So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.
I have highlighted V10 because I do not quite get what is happening here.
God saying I will make of you a great nation but Moses response is in V13.
Can anyone clarify this for me?