Moses' Focus

Romans 16:19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

At Men's Prayer Meeting last night, Pastor Brado preached a message about seeing the glory of God, and the things that had to happen in Moses' life for him to see God's glory in Exodus 33-34. I really cannot imagine what Moses experienced when "the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there." But, as Brado was preaching, he made suggestion to this thought, and it was one of those things that I wish he had carried further.

As I was hearing him preach, and afterwards looking back at Exodus 32, here's what I found. When Moses was meeting with God on the mount - thunder, clouds, lightning, the whole works - God told Moses about the golden calf thing going on at the bottom of the hill. Moses great prayer of intercession, found in verses 11-13 caused the Lord to "repent" of the evil which He was going to do to the people. The thing is that Moses was meeting with God, and his prayer of intercession seemed to be entirely God-centered. He basically said, "God, spare this people so that You look good and are glorified more among the heathen." And God spared them.

However, as Moses started getting away from God, coming down the mountain, in a picture he started walking away from God and towards the people. His eyes started focusing more on the sins of the people than on the time spent in the presence of God. The end result is that his anger waxed hot, and he broke the tablets that God had written for them. Now, I'm not saying it was wrong to be angry over the sin, but I think he took it to the point of having lost control.

Too often we get caught up with all the sins and things that other people are doing, and we can spend too much time and effort trying to understand the evil, and it distracts us from doing the good. God wants us to be wise concerning that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

Now, the real thought of the day: Can you really begin to imagine what it was like in Exodus 34 when God stood there with Moses? I mean, I usually use the "zoomed-out" image in my head of this little guy standing in the midst of a big cliff with God somehow around him. But, imagine yourself in the clift of the rock, and all you can see is God's hand as He covers you as His glory passes by, and the you see His "back parts" as He goes on. I don't think at that time Moses paid too much attention to what the people were doing at the bottom of the mount!

Anyway, just a thought...