TO GOD BE THE GLORY
Numbers 20:12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
WOW!!! I can’t imagine how devastated and ashamed Moses must have felt at this time. After all the times that he served and glorified the Lord, now to come to the end of his life and ministry for the Lord and sadly in a moment of anger take the credit for Aaron and himself for bringing water from the rock for the people. Moses had been called by God to leave his home in Midian that was without any demands or pressure other than taking care of his family and some sheep, to lead possibly a million or more people that didn’t want him to lead them. This had been going on for more than forty years and now the Israelites that he was called to lead were mad at him again. They acted as if he was leading them instead of God. God had been leading them with a pillar of fire or a cloud, and it was God that had led them to their current location where there was seemingly no water.
Isn’t this how often things work in life? People don’t feel like they can get mad at God, so they blame someone or something else. Maybe they get mad at the employer, the co-worker, the dog, the kids or their mate. Anyway you look at it, it is no fun to blame yourself even if it is true, so off we go on those we feel will not get mad at us and will love us anyway! After Moses had led Israel for over forty years and now he was over one hundred years old, I am sure that he had more than enough of the constant grumbling and backbiting against him and Aaron. God’s servants are still human just like everyone else. Sometime we tend to look at the the apostles of Jesus as special, but really they were very common people with a very uncommon leader that just happened to be the Son of God. They had their frustrations and disappointments just like all of us. The thing is that Satan, the powers of darkness and the evil of this world certainly don’t care how old, young, tired, successful, depressed, beat down, abused, or anything else we may be! When they see an appropriate time they strike! Just like after Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness for forty days, Satan left Jesus alone, but only for a more opportune time. (Luke 4:13) Of course that more opportune time came in the garden as Jesus was facing the passion of the cross, and even up to is last breath as they challenged him to come down if he was the Son of God. (Matt 26:36-47 & Matt 27:32-44)
I believe Moses had come to his own Gethsemane. Satan knew that he was now over one hundred years old and like Popeye the Sailor he couldn’t “stands no more.” (Probably unless you’re sixty-eight like me you can’t appreciate this without hearing old Popeye say this. Ack - Ack - Ack!) Anyway, Satan and the hordes of hell always know not only the best time, but also the best way to push our button to turn our eyes off of the Lord. For Moses I believe it was the button of pride. And we might ask, “Why shouldn’t he be proud. Look at what he did.” But the better question might be, “Was it really Moses that did all those things to deserve the credit?” Well, we know it really wasn’t Moses. It was the Lord all the time. Moses continually told the people, but for some reason they refused to glorify the Lord by giving him the credit and glory. I believed all along they like Pharaoh believed it was Moses just using magic like Pharaoh’s magicians.
Once before in Ex 17:6 God told Moses get water from a rock for the Israelite people. At that time God had Moses strike the rock with the staff. Now this time God wants Moses to speak to the rock, but Moses strikes it instead. Then he make the comment, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock.” The key word is of course we. We is such a small word, but now it came with great consequences! Satan had hit the button of pride, and like with Satan it would cost Moses and Aaron dearly. (Isa 14:13-15) While Moses didn’t get to go into the Promised Land it didn’t ruin his relationship with the Lord. We know this because on Mount Transfiguration in Matt 17, Moses and Elijah came to talk to Jesus. God loved Moses and he knew the weakness’ of humanity, as well as the temptations of Satan, the powers of darkness and the evil of this world. He judged Moses on his heart until the blood of Jesus could atone for all his sins. (1 Peter 4:6)
There is no doubt that no matter how mature we may be in our Christian pilgrimage, we will always sin. We are all susceptible to sin while we are still in our humanity. There is one sin that we as Christians must try of avoid at all cost, and this is taking or not giving God all the glory he deserves! As a pastor I have cringed many times as I have even heard other pastors and mature Christians give credit and praise for answered prayer to pastors, prayer chains, saying certain scripture verses or their own faith. God will not share his glory with anyone! Moses can testify to this! If you want God to stop answering your prayers all you have to do is start giving the credit and praise due to him to someone or something else!
When we look to Jesus, it was always his passion to glorify his Heavenly Father. Even as he face the cross, he told his Heavenly Father that he only wanted his will to be done and not his own. (Matt 26:39-44) It is not hard to give God all the glory for all the good that happens in our life. Even if God didn’t do something directly,he had a hand in it indirectly that is for sure. God is worthy of our praise. We don’t need to constantly be saying it in front of other people, or they sometimes think that we really don’t mean it and are just trying to show how religious we are. It’s all a matter of the heart just like pride is!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit and Heavenly Father thank you for all you have done, all you are doing, all you will ever do in our life and that for all your creation! You are a wonderfully marvelous God. Oh, how we love you!!!!
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