daily java

Daily Java:

The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away.  (2 Corinthians 3:7)

At the foot of Mt Sinai, the Lord spoke the Ten Commandments to the Children of Israel (Exodus 20). It wasn’t until later that he gave them the tablets. At first he spoke to them.

And it scared the Israelites to death. They told Moses you go up and talk to him. Make him leave us alone, they said. We are scared.

So Moses did. And while he was there, he asked God to let him see him. Of course, the Lord told Moses that no one could look at him and live, but he would let Moses see his back. And he did.

But just seeing the back of God was enough to make Moses shine. He had seen God, if nothing else than his back. And it impacted him in a way that was immediately noticeable.

When he got down off the mountain, everybody in the bunch could see that he had seen God.

What’s more, though, is that they could tell that they had not. They sent Moses off to do something they were afraid to do, and when he got blessed instead of them, they got mad.

The least God could have done, in their eyes, was send a little down here. But he didn’t. Moses got it all. And they didn’t want to look at his success while thinking about their failure.

So they told Moses to put a veil over his head. That way they wouldn’t have to look at their own personal failure to see God. And they could pretend for a while longer that they were fine.

That’s what happens when someone else gets blessed instead of us. Especially when we sent them to do something we didn’t want to do. They go off and do it and something great happens and our first impulse is to get mad. Why didn’t I do that, we ask? Then I would have gotten whatever the blessing was.

In 1973, I was in college choir. The choir director asked if there was someone who would like to try as student director. I did really bad. But I held off for a moment, and another guy volunteered. He went on to become the assistant director. Every time I looked at him the rest of the semester, I recognized that I had missed out because I had hesitated.

As the body-builders say, no pain, no gain. If you do not put out the effort, you will not get the benefit. Nobody outside a comic book ever became a well-built guy without a lot of effort and exercise. No one ever accidentally learns a foreign language or applied calculus or anything else that is worth knowing.

They learn it by trying hard to do it. They learn it by effort. Above all, they learn it by doing it.

We do not accidentally serve God. We serve God on purpose. We choose to serve him.

And when we do, we show it. And when we show it, others think we should quit. There are always those who think that no one should be any better than anybody else. That way they do not have to push themselves and they can have “positive self-esteem” while being a failure.

But that is not true. It is perfectly fine to show the effects of God in your life. Not arrogantly, of course. Moses didn’t parade around with a little band in front of him, selling autographs or forcing himself into others’ lives with his visible holiness.

He was just quietly and noticeably holy.

Just like we should be.