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If you give me long enough, I can come up with the Ten Commandments. I know for certain that the very last one is about coveting. I’m not particularly interested in my neighbour’s house, though it is probably a lot cleaner than mine, or his manservant, his ox or his donkey. If I was going to covet anything it would not be something my neighbour has at all. It is Moses who has what I want.
When Moses blotted his copy-book very seriously with God and was told that he wouldn’t enter the promised land, he earnestly pleaded with God, “O Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do?”
Excuse me, Moses. “Begun to show?” Let’s just do a quick recap on the great things that you have seen God do. OK, you probably don’t remember much about the bull-rushes, but it was not by coincidence that the Pharoah’s daughter found you. Then there was the burning bush, staffs that turned into snakes and back again, hands that caught leprosy one minute and were cured the next. Plagues, there were quite a few of those and while the Egyptians suffered each and every terrible disaster, the Israelites remained untouched. I know you didn’t see the Angel of Death passing over as you remained hidden under the blood of the lamb, but you heard the anguished cries of those who lost their first born sons.
Then we have the Red Sea opening up to let you and your people through, and closing again on the Egyptians and all their chariots. There is a pillar of fire guiding you, and clouds descending and enveloping the tabernacle you built. There is manna from heaven, quails just flying in for lunch, and water pouring from a rock. There is a mountain with fire and thunder and a voice that makes everyone tremble, and a finger that writes on tablets of stone.
There is so much more and you say that you’re just beginning to see the greatness of God. You saw so much and yet you knew that what you were witnessing was just the beginning of God’s greatness and his strong hand.
I think that if I saw all of that you had seen I would sit back and stretch, my appetite for the miraculous sated and satisfied. If I saw that I would think that I had seen it all.
I need what Moses had. I need the revelation that what I see is just the beginning of God’s greatness, even after I have seen all that Moses saw.
We see so little, we expect so little and we are satisfied with so little.
“O Sovereign Lord, begin to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For there is no other god in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do.”
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