A spectacular Glimpse of God at Work

            

 The book “God smuggler” is a story of Brother Andrew, a Dutch Christian who smuggled Bibles into closed Communist countries; the penalty of doing that was death. The book gives a first-person account of his missionary adventures-slipping past border guards with Bibles hidden in his blue Volkswagen Beetle. The story is a true account of a modern man’s relationship with the living God.

The following is one of the episodes in the book. “It took me four hours to get to the Romanian border. When I pulled up to the check point …I said to myself “well I am in luck, only half a dozen cars, this will go swiftly”. When forty minutes had passed and the first car was still being inspected, I thought, “poor fellow they must have something on him to take so long”. But when that car finally left and the next took an hour too, I began to worry.

Literally everything that family was carrying had to be taken out and spread on the ground. Every car on the line was put through the same routine. The fourth inspection lasted for over an hour. The guards took the driver inside and kept him there while they removed hub caps, took his engine apart, removed seats. “Dear Lord”, I said as at last there was just one car ahead of me, “what am I going to do?”

Any serious inspection would reveal the Romanian Bibles right away. “Lord ”, I went on, “I know that no amount of cleverness on my part can get me through this border search. Dare I ask for a miracle? Let me take some Bibles out and leave them in the open where they will be seen. Then, Lord I cannot possibly be depending on my own stratagems, can I? I will be depending utterly upon you.”  

While the last car was going through its chilling inspection, I managed to take several Bibles from their hiding places and pile them on the seat beside me. Finally it  was my turn. I put the little VW in a low gear, inched up to the officer standing at the left side of the road, handed in my papers and started to get out.  But his knee was against the door, holding it closed. He looked at my photograph in the passport and scribbled something down.

He shoved the papers back under my nose and abruptly waved me on. Surely thirty seconds had not passed. I started the engine and inched forward. Was I supposed to pull over, out of the way where the car could be taken apart? Was I…surely I wasn’t … I coasted forward, my foot poised above the brake. Nothing happened, I looked out the rear mirror. The guard was waving the next car to a stop, indicating to the driver that he had to get out. On I drove a few more yards.

The guard was waving the driver behind me to open the hood of his car. By then I was too far away to doubt that indeed I had made it through that incredible check point in the space of thirty seconds. My heart was racing, not with the excitement of crossing, but with the excitement of having caught such a spectacular glimpse of God at work (God smuggler. 1967). Brother Andrew died on 27th September 2022 surrounded by his family, he was 94 years old.

Moses was given a difficult job assignment by God to lead a rebellious, stiff-necked people through a desert to the Promised Land. His was not an easy task; often his leadership was called into question and his orders were disobeyed. Yet, Moses had a job that required faithfulness and dependability. He had the task of walking in obedience to the Lord and His will.

One time he was gone for 40 days and while he was away, the people made a golden calf to worship as God (Exod.32). As a result, the Lord wanted to destroy them. Moses pleaded with him not to do it. Can you imagine how Moses must have felt? He had done his best to lead them and all they did was complain and sin against the Lord. There must have been many times when Moses wanted to throw in the towel and just quit! God relented from destroying the whole nation.

He told Moses to lead the people toward the Promised Land, but with one significant condition: “I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way” (Exod. 33:3). Moses said, “you have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me. If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.”The Lord replied, “my Presence will go with you and I will give you rest.” 

Then Moses said to him, “if your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

Moses prayed to see God’s glory in a time of great crisis. He needed something special from the Lord if he was to continue to lead these people. Moses seemed to know that the best cure for discouragement and disillusionment is a fresh glimpse of who God is and what He is all about. In times of great trial men have asked God, either to give them a signal token of his love or a special revelation of himself, that they might be strengthened and encouraged.

Nearness to God and unusual glimpses of his glory makes it easy for a person to leave all matters in God’s hand. Sometimes we long for some deep personal experience that will banish our doubts and increase our faith. Moses had asked that God not only go up with them, but also, that he would make them distinct among all the peoples of the earth. Moses wanted God’s presence in his community. He wanted the people around to see that there was something different about them.

God simply said, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” He summoned Moses to the Mountain and there he showed him a glimpse of his glory. When Moses came down from the mountain, his people saw his shining face and knew that he had been with God. Moses had no idea his face was shining until they told him. The people around him saw the visible evidence of God’s work.

The glow on Moses face was symbolic; God had answered his prayers; he was going to make his people distinct. People around them would see the manifestation of God’s presence in their lives.  The revelation was meant to give Moses the encouragement he needed to get on with his mission of leading a stiff-necked people. God does not give a glimpse of his glory merely to satisfy our curiosity. He does it in order to help us know him better, so that we can trust and obey him.

Moses dared to pray a magnificent prayer. He asked for more than any man had asked for before, and he received more than any man had ever received. Yet both the prayer and the answer came in a time of crisis. These things are here for our encouragement. Your trials are not meant to destroy you. God intends that you should use the hard times to draw near to him. You can have a clearer view of God when its darkest.

We should follow Moses' example, to be thankful for what we have, but also to continually seek a deeper understanding of God and a deeper relationship with him.  We should desire to know God's ways so that we can serve Him better. We should long for his abiding presence to guide us day by day, so that we might have an ever-deepening fellowship with him. We should long to see his glory so that we can give him the worship that he deserves.

Like Moses, our greatest fear should be to lose the presence of God in our lives. The tragedy of going on without the Lord is that we generally don’t discover it until it’s too late to do much about it. Wrong decisions can’t always be undone; many of us can look back at some major decision and say, “I see now that the Lord was not in that at all”. If God has led you out of Egypt, do not leave him behind at Mt. Sinai. You will need his help to navigate the wilderness.

None of us has ever been given an assignment quite like the one Moses received. But, we have been called to follow the Lord and to represent Him in this world. At times, this task becomes difficult and discouraging, and we need something from the Lord. Something we cannot do on our own, something that will recharge our spiritual batteries and rekindle the old flames of excitement and passion for the Lord.

When Moses saw the Lord as he really was, he immediately fell before God in worship. There was an immediate desire to worship God in a way that he is worth. The evidence of spending time with the Lord was all over Moses! His face glowed and this was a testimony to the rest of the people that spending time with God makes a difference. Moses was a living, visible witness to the power of walking in the presence of God.

When we live in the presence of God, there will be evidence on the outside that we are walking with him. Our faces may not glow, but our lives will bear witness to the fact that we are walking in His power and presence. When we walk in fellowship with the Lord, a special relationship develops. God reveals Himself more to those who are walking close to Him. He speaks to them more directly and uses them more wonderfully for His glory.

Are you closer to the Lord today than you were last year?” The people around you know if you have been walking with the Lord. They can see the light shining from you even when you are not aware of it. If you feel that you have made much progress spiritually don’t stop there. No matter how far you come, there is always more ground to cover. Sometimes it takes a friend who can say, “Look, I can see God’s glory in your life.”