God's glory is not enough!
What are you putting in the place of God's glory?
May 9
They traded their glorious God for a statue of a grass-eating ox!
Psalm 106:20
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God's glory is not enough!
This undated anonymous psalm is referring to the Exodus and the incident that occurred when Moses went to the mountain and received the commandments on the stone tablets from God. Moses was up on the mountain for forty days. Moses had left his brother Aaron in charge while he was gone. All the people could see on the mountain was the glory of the LORD that appeared as a consuming fire.
When Moses didn’t come back right away the people went to Aaron and told him that they were ready to leave and that they needed a god so that it would lead them. It is not surprising that the god that they fashioned for themselves was one of the gods of the Egyptians. Our verse for today describes how ridiculous this action was. They had the glorious presence of the LORD right in front of them and they decide they want a grass eating animal instead. And not even an animal but the image of an animal. How foolish!
But before you are too quick to judge them you need to know that we do the same thing on a regular basis. Far too often, we take our eyes off of the glorious presence of the LORD and fix our eyes on some lesser thing and allow that thing to fascinate us to distraction. It can be a person that we know or see in the media. It can be a thing like a car or a motorcycle or a house or some other toy. It can be a feeling produced by some activity or alcohol or drug. Whatever that thing is that we allow to entice us is far inferior to the glory of God.
The people came to Aaron because the glory of God was not enough from them. Aaron failed to focus them back on the glory of God and keep them from this great sin that they committed. In fact, Aaron helped them to commit this sin.
As leaders of God’s families, ministries, and churches it is our responsibility to first keep our eyes on the glory of God and to encourage those around us to do the same. The Israelites were tired of waiting for something to happen. Their frustration led them to start looking for another option. It is the responsibility of those that God has put in charge to always point people to the glory of God. We can’t do that if we are not looking to the glory of God ourselves. Refocus your eyes on the glory of God and don’t let the desires of those around you to stray from what God told you to do.
The glory of God is enough for all of us. There is nothing that we could possibly substitute it with that would even be a shadow of the glory of God. It is the responsibility of God’s servant/leaders to faithfully remind the restless among us of that truth. Jesus, help us to see Your glory as it is meant to be seen and help us to point others to it as well.