“I am the LORD: (…) my glory will I not give to another...” Isaiah 42:8

We know from personal experience and our readings that we serve a jealous God who can be merciful when we abide by his words and will but equally pitiless when any man tampers with his lordship and glory.

When Uzzah, probably well-intentioned, stretched his hand to prevent the Ark of God from falling, he was instantly smitten and died. That filled witnesses of the scene and king David with fear and it taught them one key lesson: God is self-sufficient and does not joke with his glory.

When Nebuchadnezzar boastingly said to Daniel's thee friends: “(…) but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?”, God felt that his glory was being trampled and on-the-spot he sent the fourth man in the furnace. That made Nebuchadnezzar to understand the limits of his intelligence and the insignificance of his power; he finally recognized the Hebrew boys' God as the supreme God, the one no one in his kingdom was allowed to speak anything amiss against for fear of reprisals. Imagine what it is like for someone who first denied the existence of your God eventually evangelizing in your place! That can only come from God.

Let's also look at how, out of tragic ignorance of history and his disproportioned desire to show off before his concubines and friends, Belshazzar died cheaply and how he untimely shortened his kingship! He pushed arrogance to God to the extreme, became circumstantially myopic about how tiny his power and life are compared to eternity and dared to bring holy utensils withdrawn from the temple to drink in them during his feast. Even his father, Nebuchadnezzar, in the deepest demonstration of his foolishness, did not take that chance.

What about us today? Sometimes I hear people speak and I wonder if they know what they are saying. Anytime I hear sentences like this “I will do it and not even God will be able to stop me”, it creates instant waves of shock inside me and I can’t help asking: Is it of the creator of heavens and earth whose lightest breath is enough to extinct a man that they are talking? To say something like that and still be alive gives credence to Psalm 86:15.

Whatever you do, avoid joking with God’s glory!