It's Not About Me - Max Lucado [4]
You’d think that would have been enough for Moses, but he lingers. Thinking, perhaps, of that last sentence, “I will do what you ask ...” Perhaps God will indulge one more request. So he swallows, sighs, and requests ...
For what do you think he will ask? He has God’s attention. God seems willing to hear his prayer. “The LORD spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend” (v. 11 NCV). The patriarch senses an opportunity to ask for anything. What request will he make?
So many requests he could make. How about a million requests? That’s how many adults are in Moses’ rearview mirror (Exodus 12:37). A million stiff-necked, unappreciative, cow-worshiping ex-slaves who grumble with every step. Had Moses prayed,“Could you turn these people into sheep?” who would have blamed him?
Sheep. Only a few months before, Moses was in this same desert, near this same mountain, keeping an eye on a flock. What a difference this time around. Sheep don’t make demands in a desert or a mess out of blessings. And they certainly don’t make calves out of gold or ask to go back to Egypt.
And what about Israel’s enemies? Battlefields lie ahead. Combat with Hittites, Jebusites ... Termites, and Cellulites.They infest the land. Can Moses mold an army out of pyramid-building Hebrews?
I will do what you ask ...
“Could you just beam us to Canaan?”
Moses knew what God could do.The entire Ancient East knew. They were still talking about Aaron’s staff becoming a snake and the Nile becoming blood. Air so thick with gnats you breathed them. Ground so layered with locusts you crunched them. Noonday blackness. Hail-pounded crops. Flesh landscaped with boils. Funerals for the firstborn.
God turned the Red Sea into a red carpet. Manna fell. Quail ran. Water bubbled from within a rock. God can move mountains.
In fact, he moved the very mountain of Sinai on which Moses stood.When God spoke, Sinai shook, and Moses’ knees followed suit. Moses knew what God could do.
Worse, he knew what these people were prone to do.
Moses found them dancing around a golden calf, their memories of God as stale as yesterday’s manna. He carried the handwriting of God on a stone, and the Israelites were worshiping a heartless farm animal.
It was more than Moses could take. He melted the metal cow and pounded the gold into dust and forced the worshipers to drink up.
WHEN OUR DEEPEST
DESIRE IS NOT THE
THINGS OF GOD, OR A
FAVOR FROM GOD, BUT
GOD HIMSELF, WE
CROSS A THRESHOLD.
God was ready to be done with them and start over with Moses as he had done with Noah. But twice Moses pleads for mercy, and twice mercy is extended (Exodus 32:11-14, 31-32).
And God, touched by Moses’ heart, hears Moses’ prayer. “My presence will go with you. I’ll see the journey to the end” (Exodus 33:14 MSG).
But Moses needs more. One more request. Glory. “Show me your glory” (33:18 NCV).
We cross a line when we make such a request.When our deepest desire is not the things of God, or a favor from God, but God himself, we cross a threshold. Less self-focus, more God-focus. Less about me, more about him.
“Show me your radiance,” Moses is praying. “Flex your biceps. Let me see the S on your chest. Your preeminence. Your heart-stopping, ground-shaking extraspectacularness. Forget the money and the power. Bypass the youth. I can live with an aging body, but I can’t live without you. I want more God, please. I’d like to see more of your glory.”
Why did Moses want to see God’s greatness?
Ask yourself a similar question.Why do you stare at sun-sets and ponder the summer night sky? Why do you search for a rainbow in the mist or gaze at the Grand Canyon? Why do you allow the Pacific surf to mesmerize and Niagara to hypnotize? How do we explain our fascination with such sights?
Beauty? Yes. But doesn’t the beauty point to a beautiful Someone? Doesn’t the immensity of the ocean suggest an immense Creator? Doesn’t the rhythm of migrating cranes and beluga whales hint of a brilliant mind? And