Glimpses of Glory: A 7-Day DevotionalНамуна

A Man Made by God

Have you ever wondered why God forbade the Israelites from making anything in His image?

Because He already did that.

Imagine the scene: Last time Moses came down from the mountain, he found the people worshiping a false god gleaming in the sunlight; this time, little does he know it, but his face gleams, and it bears upon it the evidence of the one true God. Formerly, the people made a false god in the likeness of Yahweh; now, the people saw that Yahweh made Moses reflect His likeness. Moses stood in the very presence of God, and after the mountaintop, he carried the evidence of that encounter wherever he went.

The words of Genesis ring in our minds: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27). God forbade the creation of idols because He had already created something intended to reflect His image: us. When we make vain attempts to confine God’s image to a single statue or picture or idea or philosophy, we spit in the face of His creation. Of course, humans, in and of themselves, lack the capacity to embody the full splendor of such an infinite God. But in mankind we see, to quote J.R.R. Tolkien, “the refracted light through whom is splintered from a single White.” We were created to exist as image-bearers of God; our faces might not shine as literally as Moses’s, but when people see us, God intended that they would receive a glimpse of His glory.

In Moses’s shining face we find a wonderful principle: The more time God’s people spend with Him, the more they look like Him. Rather than devoting so much time to crafting false gods, what if we devoted our time to embracing our God-given purpose and living as images of God ourselves? Rather than crafting God in our own image, what if we devoted ourselves to conforming to His image and His likeness, allowing Him to shape us from the inside out? And if we desire to live according to God’s image, who better to model ourselves after than Christ Himself, “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature” (Heb 1:3)? That seems like the more worthwhile task.

But as we embark on this journey, Lord willing, we can come to reflect Him more with each passing day. However, as with Moses, others might notice the change in us before we see it in ourselves. The more time we spend with Him with open hearts and the nearer we draw to Him, the more like Him we will be. In doing so, we will give God far more than lip service and we’ll follow in Moses’s footsteps by understanding the heart of God and responding properly to Him.

This 7-day plan was written by Dallas Theological Seminary student David Tate with Now Let's Be Honest (www.nowletsbehonest.com) and is brought to you by Aspire Productions at www.aspire2.com