“Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me . . . For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from God alone. Yet it is not I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses on whom you set your hopes.”  — John 5:41-45

These are Jesus’ words to the Pharisees after they accuse him of breaking the Sabbath rules, and you can almost feel the heat coming off of them. Jesus accuses the Pharisees of seeking earthly honor and the praise of men more than the honor of God. The Pharisees wanted to do their good deeds before men, to be seen, to attract attention to themselves. And if we’re honest, how often are we just the same – even though we know that Christ calls us to do them in secret, regardless of whether the world takes notice?

If this wasn’t a crushing blow enough for the Pharisees, next Jesus tells them that it’s not him, but Moses, their super-hero if there ever was one, who will accuse them before the Father. Now, the Pharisees prided themselves on following Moses’ regulations to the letter, so what in the world could Jesus be talking about? Why would Moses accuse them? And how offended would the Pharisees have been at this point?

Well, to answer these questions, we need to look at the person of Moses. Moses has always been a great figure of the faith, but recently I have come to have an even higher view of him, and here’s why. Moses served God and the Israelites for years under the most difficult of circumstances. The people were constantly complaining to him and about him. Why did you make us leave Egypt? We were better off there. Why? Why? Why?

Their whining runs throughout the story of the Exodus and the wandering in the desert. How irritating would it have been to have to listen to their same complaints over and over again? And yet, Moses keeps his cool — until in one moment his temper gets the better of him. He’s tired of putting up with these whiny people who are saying that he brought them into the desert to die without any water. So instead of speaking to the rock as God commands, he hauls off and strikes it, brazenly disobeying the Lord and making it look as though his own strength had provided the water, which robs God of the glory.

It’s helpful to point out here that according to the text found in Numbers 20, Moses’, sister, Miriam, had just died and been buried. And while I’m certainly not making an excuse for Moses’ action, I do know that our emotions run high when grieving the loss of a loved one. Throw on top of that the berating of the people, and you are just asking for a rock-striking moment, no doubt.

The Lord punishes Moses for his disobedience — Moses will not enter the Promised Land.                All of that wandering in the desert. All of that putting up with the whines and complaints. All of the stress that Moses had endured while trying to be a leader to these people; and in one moment, he loses the great prize, the reward that’s been dangling before him all through the years, the one that should have been a recompense for all the trials he has been through.

But does Moses pout? Throw in the towel? Say, “Okay, Lord, if there’s no reward for me, then I’m done. I’m out. See ya!”  No. Instead, he shows his great humility and his belief that God is the only one worthy of glory by continuing to lead the people. He leads them to the Promised Land, and while he does not enter it, he sees it from a distance before he dies. And I believe he dies content. Not because he got the prize, but because he knows that God is glorified when his people enter the Promised Land. And isn’t giving God glory a far greater prize than any earthly reward we might receive?

The Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus’ time had set their eyes on trying to be great leaders like Moses; yet they had missed out on the fact that precisely what made Moses a great leader was his willingness to put his people and God’s glory first, ahead of his own ego. The religious leaders didn’t like Jesus because they wanted the glory for themselves more than they wanted it for God.

If I’m honest with myself, in Moses’ situation, I’m not sure how I would have responded. Would I have been humble enough to continue on in the face of humiliation and loss of reward? Would I have been able to say, “It’s not about me anyway —  to God be the glory!” I’d like to think yes, but my response to much smaller setbacks in my life may indicate otherwise.

And so each day as we live, we must answer these questions:

• Whose approval do I seek?
• Whose honor matters most to me?