Behold! Not a word we're really accustomed to using, but it grabs our attention, doesn't it? We tend to be "Listen!" or "Check this out!" sort of people. But God? Whether it's Behold!, Listen up!, or Get a load of this!, when He says it's going to be awesome, He means it.
In Exodus 34:10, God is renewing His covenant with His people, Israel. Behold! is just the beginning:
I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
The Complete Jewish Bible says, What I am going to do through you will be awesome!
Imagine that! Awesome! Through His people! Where do your thoughts go? Are you picturing throngs of people moving forward in an emotional altar call? Are you seeing homeless and women's shelters spanning the globe? How about luscious green crops growing in the once barren fields of an impoverished country? How about those children we have been praying for night after terrible night, finally falling on their faces before our Lord God? Awesome!
God goes on:
Observe what I command you this day. (Exodus 34:11)
Okay, God! You got it, God! Anything You say, God!
Don't get too friendly with the world. In fact, shed their garments, break their molds, reject the things they love, and maybe even annoy them a little --okay, a lot. Don't give yourselves or your children to them. Don't imitate them or try to integrate their practices into worshiping Me. Eat matzoh. Give me your first born. Redeem your firstborn. Rest 1/7 of your life. Celebrate the ingathering and Shavuot and Passover. Keep kosher. (Exodus 34:12-28, my paraphrase)
And that's it? No battles? No fundraisers? No preaching or teaching? No healing services? No social justice warriors?
Nope. Just live as I've instructed you to live. Obey Me.
Doesn't sound very awesome, does it? Not by our standards. In fact, it sounds downright dull, and it's incredibly difficult. There are no peaks and valleys; this land is flat and you can see its perpetuity for as long as they keep making calendars. Wash, rinse, repeat. Steady as she goes. Obey, obey, obey. The small things... Obey. The big things... Obey. The good days... Obey. The bad days... Obey.
Obedience is the pathway to awesome --the way God defines it. Thirty years of punching the same clock, sharing your faith with the same renitent coworkers is the way to awesome. Countless years of pastoring a church, answering the midnight phone calls of people who never seem to follow your counsel anyway, is the way to awesome. Teaching tiny hands to tie their shoes and fold together in prayer is the way to awesome. Day after day, night after night of living a life that will never make the pages of this world's newspapers or gain the attention and accolades of even one celebrated politician, is the way to awesome. Who knows, there might be a faraway mission field or a podcast in your future; but only if God calls you to it, only if God says, This is the way, walk in it. It's going to be awesome!
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