Moses and Aaron walked from the assembled congregation to the Tent of Meeting and threw themselves facedown on the ground. And they saw the Glory of God.
God spoke to Moses: “Take the staff. Assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron. Speak to that rock that’s right in front of them and it will give water. You will bring water out of the rock for them; congregation and cattle will both drink.”
Moses took the staff away from God’s presence, as commanded. He and Aaron rounded up the whole congregation in front of the rock. Moses spoke: “Listen, rebels! Do we have to bring water out of this rock for you?”
With that Moses raised his arm and slammed his staff against the rock---once, twice. Water poured out. Congregation and cattle drank.
These were the Waters of Meribah (Bickering) where the People of Israel bickered with God, and he revealed himself as holy," Numbers 20:1-13.
“No fair, I only…”. “Well, if I had known, I wouldn’t have…” Have you found these words spilling from your mouth like milk from a 4 year old’s cup? How about your children’s mouths? When consequences for our infractions seem harsh or unfair, we generally start generating laundry lists full of ‘but...’ Seldom do we acknowledge our complicity with contrition of heart and ask forgiveness as our FIRST response.
Momentary losses of self control have often yielded results that had me fervently praying for a time machine. We’ve all been there. I’ve been there more times than I’m comfortable admitting.
Does God have a lesson for us in these punishments? I’m struck by Moses’ story at Meribah. Probably at his wits end of the constant bickering and complaining, (can any mom’s relate!?) he had a momentary loss of self control. God told him to speak the water from the rock, instead Moses banged the rock. Hardly seems an offense worth canceling his ticket into the Promised Land though! And why doesn’t Moses seem as upset about this as I am? I’m ready to go to bat as his defense attorney with a boat load of reasons why Moses should still be allowed into the Promise Land!
I did not like God’s punishment for this man usually so full of patience and I just could not wrap my head around Moses’ calm acceptance of this. Problem was, I had been focusing so much on what I perceived as the unfairness of the punishment that I was missing what the lesson God was trying to teach. I was focused on the banging of the rock instead of the sin of Moses, which was to steal the miracle being performed right from God. Moses and Aaron pronounced, ‘Listen rebels, do we have to bring water from this rock for you?’ instead of ‘watch as God, our Provider, brings water from this rock.’
What’s the big deal? Well, Moses was old and would soon be dead; the Israelites would need a new leader in their new land. They needed to know that God was their Provider, not Moses or any man. If they trusted in a man instead of God, they’d be doomed. This was a nation of people given easily to worship of the wrong thing. God brings forth living waters to sustain, not the weak vessel (Moses) He uses to pour His power through. Moses did not make that clear with the miracle God enabled him to perform.
God had commissioned Moses and was a friend to Moses. Moses was the mouth piece of God for these people. The Israelites were about to enter a land where temptations to walk away from God in disobedience would abound. Rather than see God as a cruel punisher, perhaps God was trying to impress upon His people the severe consequences of disobedience. God appears to be pointing to His friend Moses and saying, ‘see, he will miss out on great blessing because of failure to hear My voice and do as I’ve said. Learn from his mistake so that you will not also miss the blessings I have to pour out on you.’
My boys and I talked about Moses and the punishment he received. We carried it over to our own lives. What impulsive decisions have we made that have resulted in being excluded from something we were really looking forward to? Did we know before we made the bad decision what we would lose? Often we don’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that we lose out on blessings God longs for us to have.
The Bible does not record any fit Moses had in response to this punishment. I’ve read plenty of fits in the Bible, so this one is conspicuously absent. Could it be that Moses realized the severity of what he had just done and contriteness of heart was his first response? Could it be that his own heart broke for how he had not used this opportunity to point the people he loved and nurtured to their loving Father? It seems Moses is at peace with his punishment which speaks volumes about his relationship with God. Moses has a lot to teach me about discipline from the Lord.
*******************************
“Don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline; don’t sulk under His loving correction. It’s the child He loves that God corrects; a father’s delight is behind all this,” Prov. 3:11-12.
“The people I love, I call to account---prod and correct and guide so that they’ll live at their best,” Rev. 3:19.
*******************************
No comments:
Post a Comment