A few days ago, I heard Dunsin Oyekan’s song: Who is on The LORD's side for the first time. My God, Mercy Chinwo can sing! One of the lines in the song asks the question- are you on the Lord’s side? This question got me thinking about Ex. 32:26. The context of the verse is the story of the gold calf which the Israelites asked Aaron to make, just because they didn’t know what had happened to Moses (Ex. 32:1). The same Israelites that promised to keep the covenant before Moses went up the mountain (Ex. 24:3).
But as we the bible tells us in Ex. 32,
they didn’t. When Moses came down the mountain and saw the evil they had
perpetrated, he had to ask - “Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!” (Ex. 32:26, NKJV). If you’re a fan of movies like Gladiators, you’d often hear the leader
of the army issue a rallying cry. Instinctively every single soldier, regardless
of their morale would answer the cry. This wasn’t the case for Moses! Out of twelve
tribes, only one responded the sons of Levi. You can imagine Moses' shock/disappointment
at that abysmal response.
In today’s world, as in our anchor verse,
we are surrounded by evil. Everywhere we turn, we are confronted by things that
run counter to God’s kingdom. From alcoholism to drug addiction, idolatry, homosexualism,
murders, fornication/adultery- you name it. But just as the sons of Levi were
bold enough to answer the call, so should we. Meaning we should back our
response with action. In Matt. 5:13 – 14, Jesus uses the analogies of salt and
light to describe our responsibility and goes further in vs. 16 to challenge us
to let our light shine wherever we are.
So if your response to the question- are
you on the Lord’s side? – is yes, then you know what you ought to do in today’s
world. Shine your light, which is the light of God in you, “….that they may see
your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16, NIV). They being
those in the world stumbling around in the dark. If you are yet to be on the
Lord’s side, I urge you to join Him. God’s side is the winning side (John 16:33), and best of all is that He loves you so much that He sent His only
begotten son to die for your sin (John 3:16). All you have to do is answer the
call (Rev. 3:20).
