The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response

The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response
Psalm 78: 1-37

Yesterday in church the Old Testament reading was the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, and we followed that reading with some congregational discussion of which of these commands seem most important in our context and whether there were puzzling features about them. One person asked about the warning that God would punish people who made images through to the third and fourth generation; someone else was able to quote God’s words that follow not long afterward in Exodus 32, about each individual dying for his or her own sin (I was impressed by her ability to quote that verse). The first contributor apologized later because she thought she might have asked a silly question. I assured her that there are no silly questions and that the questions she was brave enough to ask were often the questions other people wanted to ask but were a bit shy about asking...