Only the Beginning

Praise 14

 

          I was reading through Deuteronomy 3 when a phrase from verse 24 jumped out and grabbed me. O Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? Set that phrase within some context, and what you find will be beautiful indeed. If context bores you, give up reading now. But if you persevere for a minute or two, it will be worth your time.

          As Deuteronomy opens, we find Israel has returned to the door of Canaan after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. In the meantime, the mature Egyptian-born generation has died out due to judgment for the doubt/disobedience at Kadesh Barnea. Moses himself is about to die. He knows this, and Deuteronomy is his last instruction to his people before he dies and they enter the Promised Land under Joshua.

          In the above verse specifically, Moses reiterates how he prayed for more time; he wanted to be allowed entrance into the Promised Land. God, as we see, denied this request. This, too, is judgment, in Moses' case, for striking the Rock that was Christ, which gave them water while they were traveling through the wilderness.

Moses, Rembrandt, c 1659

Deuteronomy 3:23–28

23 And I besought the Lord at that time, saying,

24 O Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?

25 I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.

26 But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.

27 Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

28 But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

          Understanding that context, then, I find Moses' choice of words here fascinating – thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness. I suppose you could argue that when Moses initially prayed this, he did not know God would not let him enter the Promised Land, but I think you would be wrong. God told him immediately after he struck the Rock he would not be allowed entrance. (Numbers 20.11-12, 27.12-14) No, Moses knows here he is at the end of his life, even if he is asking for more time anyway. One would expect him to say, "Wow, God, here at the end of my life, I want to testify that You have shown me Your power in amazing ways." Instead, he actually says, "You have begun to show me Your power."

          I struggle to convey with my pen how staggering that is. Consider all Moses had seen God do, and understand Moses realized he had only seen the beginning of what God could do.

          Moses had survived the culling of the Hebrew infants. Moses was raised as a prince in Pharaoh's house yet was still cared for by his mother. Moses had a dream of delivering Israel from captivity, saw that dream crushed at forty, and then unbelievably restored at eighty. Moses saw God in the burning bush and talked with Him. Moses was given the power to turn a rod into a snake, turn his hand leprous, turn water into blood, and reverse the first two. When you look at it, Moses was used by God to confront the mightiest empire in the known world and to humble it. In addition to turning his staff into a snake and swallowing Pharaoh's magician's snakes, he also turned the Nile into blood and commanded the land to bring forth frogs, lice, and flies. He slaughtered herds of Egyptian livestock with his words, afflicted Egypt with boils, prayed down fiery hail, ordered up plagues of locusts, and plunged the land into a living, breathing darkness for days. He also reversed many of these. In the end, he brought about the death of most of Egypt’s eldest sons.

          Wow. Yet we have not begun to reckon what Moses saw God do. Moses lived under a sometimes warm, sometimes cool, always encouraging pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. For decades. Moses led Israel across the Red Sea on dry ground as they walked between two walls of water towering over their head. Moses healed the bitter waters of Marah. At Moses' word, God produced manna and quail, and water from the Rock. For decades. Moses saw God beat Amalek in battle while Aaron and Hur held up his arms. Moses spoke with God in the Tabernacle face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend. On Sinai, Moses got so close to God that his face shone with reflected glory. Moses hewed stone tablets out of the rocky mountain face and watched as God's finger wrote the Ten Commandments on them. Then Moses did it again after the first tablets were destroyed as God judged Israel. Moses saw God consume Nadab and Abihu in judgment with fire. Moses saw God judge Miriam with leprosy and then reverse it. Moses saw God judge Korah and his cronies by swallowing them with the ground beneath their feet. Moses saw Aaron's rod bud with fresh leaves and flowers. Moses saw Israel delivered from the judgment of snake bites by looking at a brass serpent on a pole. Moses saw his ragtag ex-slaves win battles they should not have won against Amalek, Edom, Arad, Bashan, and the Midianites. This list of miraculous things Moses saw God do is too wide-ranging, too numerous, and too broad to possibly quantify…

          …and at the end of it all, Moses says, O Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness. 

Moses, Michelangelo, c 1515

          There is something sublimely beautiful about an old man who had seen it all, still looking forward to seeing what God will do next. I want to be that kind of man.

          Have you and I, too, seen God display His power? Not like Moses, no, but yes, we assuredly have. Then, it behooves us likewise to understand we have only begun to see God display His power. Whoever we are.

No matter our situation, no matter our age, let us, too, look forward and praise Him for the great things He is about to do next.