“Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.”
Exodus 34:8 (NIV)
May this be our response today as we reflect on God’s revelation of His glory.
I am grateful to Jonah for the Words in his lament to God recorded in Jonah 4:2 sent me to this passage. What a powerful revelation of the glory of our great God!
Jonah believed this revelation of God’s glory, but instead of this belief producing worship in Jonah’s heart - it produced anger.
Anger? How can we be angry at God acting in accordance with His character?
That is a big question and yet it is of secondary importance.
Of primary importance is that Jonah knew that the LORD is a gracious compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity, for to know this about God is a gift from God, it is the core of saving belief. This belief is not a matter of the mind only, like a simple agreement that something is factual, for only our actions cane reveal what we truly know/believe about God.
In the parable of the talents recorded in Matthew 19, one of the servants hid what God gave him in the ground because of what he believed about God’s character. His belief was real though what he believed was false and doomed him to destruction.
In Jonah’s case his belief was true, and his action of running from God’s command revealed what he believed/knew about how God would act towards the Ninevites when they repented.
What do we believe about God’s character?
Do we believe this revelation recorded in Exodus 34?
May God help us to believe this, to know Him as Jonah and Moses knew Him, and yet may God’s grace also lead us into the worship Moses exhibited instead of the rebellion Jonah exhibited.
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