PEA RIDGE — Stop me if you have ever heard this one before, “Moses had an anger problem; David had an affair and then murdered the husband; Paul persecuted Christians BUT all of them were used by God.” It’s true, all these men had sin issues and God still used them.
The more I read and study my Bible I see this as the reoccurring theme. God takes messed up people and uses them for His glory, but what is His glory?
In the church circles, we talk a lot about the glory of God. We talk about bringing glory to God in our lives but what does that mean? It is the highest level of praise and worship. We can never fully understand the full glory of God or His beauty or majesty.
It is interesting the interaction that Moses and God have on the mountain top.
Moses goes up the mountain and God gives him the 10 commandments, then Moses comes down to find the people have made their own idol to worship. He is angry and breaks the tablets that God had given him the 10 commandments on.
Then Moses has this moment where he deals with the people and then he goes back up the mountain to meet with God. “Then Moses said, ‘I pray You (God), show me Your glory” (Exodus 33:18). Moses asks God to show him His glory.
Imagine in your mind what that would look like to you.
I would imagine angels singing praises to God. I would imagine the sun rising on the east coast and setting on the west. I would imagine that God and Moses are on a mountain and God saying, “look around, creation is singing and reflecting my glory.” If I were to be in Moses’ shoes I would want to SEE God’s glory. I think that is what Moses was expecting.
But God answers in a way that may not be what you would expect. In Exodus 34:5-7 “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as hecalled upon the name of the Lord. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth;
who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
God reveals His glory to Moses by telling about His love, compassion, grace, mercy and forgiveness.
God’s glory is revealed in His character. He could have visually shown Moses the ocean, mountains, and angels but he told him about His character. By the way, this leads Moses to bow low and worship God. It also causes his face to shine brightly when he comes down from the mountain.
God just continues to blow me away with His glory. The more I study and learn about the character of God the more I am led to worship. The more I understand how God uses broken, messed up people the more I am convinced He could even use me. God also wants me to reflect His character and glory here on Earth. That is only made possible through Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. That means that God wants me to reflect love, compassion, grace, mercy, and forgiveness.
God, today let us see your glory and then show it to others through our lives.
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Editor’s note: Michael Smith is the youth pastor of First Baptist Church, Pea Ridge. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Church, Pages 2 on 10/17/2012