Defaming Yahveh’s Glory
Moses dishonored the character of the Rock. He defamed the mercy, grace, and the ever-loving, forgiving kindness that Yahveh showed him as He passed before Him proclaiming, “Yahveh, Yahveh … abounding in lovingkindness and truth” (Exodus 34:6). Moses forgot all that because his anger took over. He blocked the Israelites from seeing the character of the Almighty, who is all-loving, all-merciful, all-forgiving. What they needed most was to see the glory of Holy One more than the water itself, because His glory would have filled them; it would have transformed them. Yahveh would give them whatever was required to keep and bring them into the Promised Land. For example, for forty years, not even the soles of their shoes wore out.
Likewise, He has kept us; yet we grumble, we complain, we murmur, we don’t have what our flesh wants. We defame the glory of our God and Savior. We are an embarrassment to Him, we stand in the way with our “ME this” and our “I that”—our worldly desires and our fleshly attitudes. We stand in the way of others seeing Yahshua (Jesus). This is a dreadful sin, as we are to be dead to the flesh.
Moses was to be dead to his flesh; he worked and lived to the glory and honor of the Almighty. But his flesh stood in the way. Instead of the glory he once had that was so great that the Israelites could not look at him, Moses defamed the glory because he rose up in anger. Moses was seen instead of the honor, glory, love, mercy, and kindness of Yahveh. The defamation was the Almighty’s to avenge. Our debt is to love, forgive, and to continue forgiving over and over seventy times seven times.
We block the glory, yet we are to be instruments through which the glory is manifested. That was the sin that kept Moses from going into the Promised Land. He blocked and defamed the honor and glory of the Holy One of Israel. He did not listen, because his own flesh filtered the instruction, and he wanted to get his two cents in, “Listen, you rebels, you don’t really deserve this.” We must remember that Yahveh “sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). The Almighty says, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Romans 12:19).
With such lessons, it is a wonder we are all still standing! But the greatest wonder of all is to be standing in His eternal holy Presence. These are examples to us upon whom the end of the age has come, so we do not commit the same sins and fall prey to the same destruction and judgments (see 1 Corinthians 10:11). Yahveh (the LORD) is not a man who lies or the son of a man who changes His mind (see Numbers 23:19). He is sovereign.
“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” after trampling the blood of the covenant that was poured out to sanctify us as holy people —through which the Holy One will be glorified (Hebrews 10:31). We have all fallen short. We have blocked the view. We have not listened carefully, we have not followed wholeheartedly His instructions.
Moses was a foreshadowing of Yahshua (Jesus). For the unsaved Jews, he is the ultimate until Mashiach (Messiah) comes, because they do not recognize anyone but Moses as the great deliverer. Our Savior says in John 8:50-51, “But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.” Messiah lived seeking glory for the One who sent Him, not for Himself. Moses lived a life seeking glory for Yahveh, but he couldn’t take the pressure after forty years, and he slipped out of the spirit into the flesh.
Many times the church system makes the path very broad. Come one, come all. But Yahshua (Jesus) spoke about that too, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to [eternal] life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13). So Messiah told His disciples, in lieu of this reality, that very few will find salvation, though many will try. Many will try, they will be religious and will try with every fiber of their beings to go through religious formalities, but very few will enter by the narrow path. Strive with everything in you to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling’ (Philippians 2:12). Reading these accounts is to put fear and trembling in us, to spur us on to work out our salvation continually, day in day out, moment by moment, because it was a momentary slip for Moses that caused him not to enter the Promised Land.
We need to look very carefully into our hearts and beat back our own flesh like Apostle Paul said, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified [a castaway]” (1 Corinthians 9:27).
“What does Yahveh God require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness [loyalty] and to walk humbly with Him?” (Micah 6:8) His glory is to be our heart’s desire. His glory manifested to others is the desire of His heart, that they too might join in with the remnant to “worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
