We want Glory, we get goodness

In the discussion between God and Moses we find a marvelous understanding of the difference between man's wants and what God knows are man's needs...glory & power or goodness & grace?  

Let's look at that passage, Exodus 33.18-19:

18. Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory." 
19. And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

The brashness of Moses is quite a mirror for us in our own arrogance as we demand from God health, prosperity, positions and vengeance. We want glory & power, hence our list of beseechments that could easily be perceived as besiegements.

We would do well to learn 'entreaties,' both in our approach to God and our interactions with each other. Moses demanded of God...we demand of God and our fellow man. Aren't we the entitled ones?!

And, have we forgotten the 'golden calf' of the 32nd chapter? It seems that Moses had. It also strikes me that we frequently forget our own golden calf moments as we bounce right back with another demand of God.  "Yeah, I may not have been what I should have been, or done exactly the right thing, but God - you really need to...

I am also incredulous that Moses didn't consider God's offer (to have an angel go before them to fight their battles for them) adequate. Moses was insistent that God was to personally accompany them. 

This reminds me of when I was working in a shoe store to earn my way through college. There would regularly be someone who would insist upon being waited on by the store owner, who rarely was in the store as he also owned five other shoe stores in other communities. These folks knew him from a civic club or the chamber of commerce or church...for some reason they felt that he needed the opportunity to know that they were going to buy a pair of shoes from his store and that he ought to help them pick out a pair.

When he was in the store, Chuck would always very graciously wait on those requests and make them feel as though they were the most important people in the county. Powerful lessons to be learned there...both from Chuck's people skills and from the attitudes of entitled people.

Well, God knows us individually and treats us like we are the hub of the universe. We don't deserve it and must be very careful not to become so entitled in our delusion of importance to the universe that we start acting as equal with God and demand of Him our heart's desires.

God is willing to share with us His goodness and grace with the understanding that we then will share goodness and grace with others. Don't be greedy, entitled, (stupid) and demand that He share with us His power and glory.