David Bahn – Reflections

Numbers 14:11-16

The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nationgreater and stronger than they.”

13 Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. 14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, Lord, are with these people and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face,that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 15 If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 16 ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

A friend of mine once said, “When you come to the communion rail, you don’t expect to receive rusty washers and motor oil.” His point was that God instituted the Lord’s Supper and conveyed his body and blood through bread and wine, and that we do not expect anything less from him and his servants as we celebrate this meal.

Moses has a similar approach to God when he learns that the LORD was going to wipe out all the people of Israel in his anger and disappointment over their feeble faith and failure to follow in his ways. Moses calls up images of Egyptians laughing and deriding not Israel, but the LORD if God were to put them to death. God’s name had been attached to them. God’s presence had gone with them. God had rescued them and guided them. Where were they being led? To their death? Surely the LORD’s reputation would be ruined if he did not see them through.

We know better than to try to make a name for ourselves in service to God – at least we ought to. We know better than to demand the glory that is due only to God (cf. Acts 12:23!). But the flip side of that truth is also important. God’s glory is displayed in his faithfulness to his people. If we pray as though nothing will come of it, we are robbing God of the glory he deserves – the glory that is his.

Next time you pray, think of how God will be glorified in answering your prayers. Consider how you might rob God of glory if you pray half-heartedly, or in a way that is contrary to his will. Consider, also how God will be glorified as people see his work in your life and recognize his favor toward you because you trust in him, and are seeking his kingdom’s graces in your life.