Protecting God’s Glory, Numbers 20:6-13
We have been talking for several weeks and from several different angles about the glory of God. Along the way I have said that there is no greater matter about which we could be talking. Why? Because, from God’s perspective, the single most important matter of all is His glory. God is very serious about His glory and as the children of God we must also take the matter of God’s glory very seriously. And we’ve been trying to do just that over the last several weeks.
And because we will be turning our attention next weekend to our First Annual Conference on Biblical Authority under the most able leadership of Dr. Rick Melick, I want, today, to close the loop on our discussion of God’s glory by summarizing just a few of the most salient points from our previous messages and then introducing one final thought about God’s glory for our focus today.
GLORY DEFINED—And let’s start with the most fundamental of those points, namely, what exactly are we talking about when we talk about “God’s glory.” Essentially, the word, “glory” speaks of all of the many, many ways by which God makes Himself known to us. Everything that reveals any aspect of God’s perfect character and being is an expression of His glory. So, even though we can’t see God Himself with our eyes because God is invisible God has, nonetheless, made it possible for us to get to know Him by revealing to us glimpses of His glory. For instance,
–Jesus revealed God’s glory because He helped us see that God is good, loving, kind and gracious.
–The Bible reveals God’s glory because it helps us see that God is pure, righteous, eternal and holy.
–And, as we recently saw in our study of Psalm 19, God’s creation also reveals God’s glory because it helps us see that God is awesome, mighty, powerful and creative.
So, when we talk about God’s glory we are talking about everything that accurately reveals God as He really is.
GLORY IN CREATION—A second major point that we made about God’s glory is that since God is constantly revealing His glory to us through His creation (and we know that’s true because PSALM 19 tells us that, “day after day” and “night after night” God’s creation is constantly talking to us) we should pay attention. It is inconceivable to think that God would give a voice to His creation…empower it to cover the world with that voice and then NOT give it a message that was worth hearing. No, God is speaking to us through His creation because He wants to bless us through that message. Bless us with joy, hope, encouragement and an ever-increasing knowledge of God.
And all of that simply means that we need to grow in our ability to hear the message of God’s glory that is constantly being spoken to us through His creation.
DECLARING GOD’S GLORY—A third major point that we made about God’s glory is that we were saved for the purpose of declaring God’s glory.
1 Peter 2:9 says that we were saved to, “…declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
Ephesians 1:14 says that God chose us, adopted us, redeemed us, forgave us and saved us to this end: that we would be, “to the praise of His glory.”
Now, folks, what all of that means is that God moved to accomplish our salvation so that our entire lives would be living testimonies of praise to the beauty, the majesty and the wonder of God’s glory. It’s why He saved us.
GOD’S GLORY & PROGRESSIVE SALVATION—Now, I want to expand on that point by asking you a question and I want to set it up like this: The scriptures make it clear that the salvation that God is accomplishing in us is a progressive salvation. It works like this.
–The moment we place our faith and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and making right our relationship with God, we are saved. In that moment, our eternal destiny changes from an eternity in Hell to an eternity with God in Heaven through our faith in Christ. We are saved.
–And with that first step of salvation we begin a process by which God grows us, over the rest of our lives to become more and more like Jesus. So, we are saved and we are also being saved.
–And one day, we will be at home with God in heaven. And we will join the saints of all the ages to declare God’s glory forever. Our salvation will be completed.
Question: Do you believe that if God had wanted to do so, He could have taken us home the moment we were saved to add our voice to voice of the heavenly choir singing of the glories of God? If God had wanted to do that, could He have done so? Absolutely. He’s God. He’s sovereign. He’s all powerful. He can do whatever He wants to do.
So, if God has the power to do whatever He wants to do…and He didn’t take us home the moment we were saved…it must be because He has another purpose for us, right here, right now. And He does. And here’s His purpose for us, right here, right now—He wants to make sure that His glory can be made known in this sin-darkened world. His glory already radiates through heaven and will for all eternity. But God also wants His glory to be made known here in this sin-darkened world. And He wants it to happen through His children. And that’s why 1 Peter 2:9 tells us that God first called us out of the darkness of this world and set us apart to be His distinct people and wrapped us in His holiness and claimed us as His own and then immediately sent us right back into that same sin-darkened world so that we could spend the rest of our lives here making His glory known.
That is our God-given mandate and it conveys to us a two-fold obligation. We’ve already talked about the first of those obligations. It’s the obligation to declare His glory.
GOD’S GLORY AND OUR GOOD DEEDS—And last week we saw one of the ways that we do that in Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Now, folks, there are four components in that verse that need to be put together if we’re to understand what Jesus is saying. These are the components:
Component #1 is Christians/children of God/those of us who believe in and know God.
Component #2 is captured in that word, “men” and it includes all of the people around us who don’t know God.
Component #3 is “good deeds” done by God’s children: being kind, generous, loving and so forth.
Component #4 is God receiving “praise” or glory.
Those 4 components fit together to form a single command addressed to every child of God. Here’s the command: We are to live such openly God focused lives that when the non-believers among whom we are living see all of the good deeds that fill our lives they attribute those good deeds to God’s influence on us. And the promise of God’s word is that when people who don’t even know God attribute our good deeds to God’s influence on us, God receives glory.
PROTECTING GOD’S GLORY—Now, I said a few moments ago, that the mandate to make God’s glory known conveys to us a two-fold obligation. We’ve talked, at some length now, about the first of those obligations
—namely, we are to declare His glory. Sometimes we declare God’s glory through a spoken testimony of praise and sometimes we declare God’s glory through the unspoken testimony of a life filled with good deeds. I want, now, to use the rest of our time talking about the second of those obligations. And that is the obligation to protect God’s glory.
Folks, the greatest blessing that we have as God’s children is the blessing of living our lives in such a way that we magnify the glory of God. It is an off the charts blessing. And, yet, that’s the very purpose for which God saved us and kept us here in this sin-darkened world. But, folks, we must never forget that greatest tragedy that we can create as God’s children is to live our lives in such a way that we diminish God’s glory. That our actions would cause someone to think less of God is simply a tragedy.
Current example? Mark Sanford. Mark Sanford is the openly, vocally, passionately Christian Governor of South Carolina. In the last few weeks, he’s made national news as word of his long-standing extra-marital affair has come to light.
Folks, what’s happened to his wife and children is heart-breaking. What’s happened to the glory of God is a tragedy. Sanford’s affair makes God look trivial. It makes God’s commands seem inconsequential. It makes it appear that we don’t really have to take God seriously. Folks, when a child of God, through their sinful disobedience makes it appear that God doesn’t need to be taken seriously God’s glory is diminished. And that’s tragic. And it’s a tragedy with eternal consequences.
MOSES EXAMPLE—How about an historic example? Moses, the great intercessor, great leader, great deliverer of Israel, chosen by God to lead His people out of Egypt and into the promised land. Yet, this mighty man of God made a tragic decision and paid a terrible price for it as punishment for robbing God of His glory.
Here’s the story. Moses has led the people out of their bondage in Egypt and they are now making their way through the desert toward the Promised Land. But it’s not easy going. Deserts are hot and travel is hard and the people are cranky. Chief among their complaints is a lack of water. They let Moses know that they would have been better off back in Egypt, than to have followed him into the desert. With that, we pick the story up in Numbers 20:6-12.
6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff…(Now, let’s stop for a moment to ask this question: Had God told him to strike the rock? No. He told him simply to speak to the rock. But Moses disobeyed God and came up with a plan of his own. He struck the rock twice and…) Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
13 These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he showed himself holy among them.
Now, fast forward years and years later. Miriam is dead, Aaron is dead and Moses is a very old man, soon to be dead, himself. And as he prepares to lead the people into the Promised Land he stands before them and delivers a stirring message about God’s unwavering faithfulness to them through the generations. You can read it in Deuteronomy 32:1-43. It’s usually identified simply as the Song of Moses. And after Moses finishes his stirring speech to the people, God has a few words for Moses. Same chapter, just a few verses later. Deuteronomy 32:48-52.
48 On that same day the Lord told Moses, 49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 51 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. 52 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
So, here is Moses, this great and in many ways faithful servant of God paying a terrible price for making a decision that diminished the glory of God. Look how it’s described:
In Numbers 20:12 God says, “you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites,…”
In Deuteronomy 32:51, God says, “You broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites …”
Later in the same verse God says, “…you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.”
In short, “Moses you sinned. Rather than declaring my glory to the people, you diminished my glory in front of the people. And as a consequence you will not be allowed to finish the work I gave you to do. Go up on the mountain and look into the Promised Land and then lay down and die because I’ve chosen someone else to finish your life’s work.”
God is very serious about protecting His glory. He has commanded us to protect His glory but if we don’t, He will and in the process we may pay a terrible price. His punishment of Moses in front of the people protected His glory. Lesson—we need to be serious not only about declaring God’s glory but also about protecting God’s glory.
And the key to protecting God’s glory is found in reversing the 3 critical mistakes that Moses made in the Desert of Zin.
(1) Where Moses did not trust God, we need trust Him. And the biblical definition of trust is obedience. We rob God of His glory when we disobey Him. We protect His glory through our obedience.
(2) Where Moses broke faith with God, we need to keep faith with God. What’s in view here is the covenantal nature of our relationship with God. God promises to bless His people in very specific ways and God’s people, in turn, promise to be responsible to Him in the conduct of our lives. When we seek to enjoy His blessings while ignoring our responsibilities, we break faith with God and rob Him of His glory. We protect His glory when we keep faith with God
(3) And, finally, where Moses did not uphold God’s holiness, we need to uphold God’s holiness. The root idea here is in failing to treat God as the holy, transcendent God that He is. So, Moses didn’t do things exactly according to God’s instruction. God told Him to speak to the rock, Moses decided to strike it instead. At first glance, it may seem like no big deal. Just a slight change in plans.
And do you know what? It may not be a big deal if the plans you’re changing are your friend’s plans or even your supervisor’s plans. But to even suggest that you might have a better plan than God’s diminishes His glory. We protect His glory when we uphold His holiness.
