Jump Start # 3849
Numbers 20:10 “and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, ‘Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you of this rock?’”
Our verse proceeds something very wrong and terrible. Moses struck the rock. Not once, but twice. Earlier God had told Moses to strike the rock. That was in another place. This time the Lord told Moses to speak to the rock. Moses didn’t do that. He struck the rock twice. As a result of this Moses would not be allowed to enter the promise land. God considered this an act of unbelief. And, in our verse today, Moses seems to have left God out of the picture. “Shall we bring forth water,” is something that Moses could never do on his own. The hand of God miraculously produced living water from a rock. Moses could have struck that rock all day long and without the Lord, nothing would have happened.
But, here is something very interesting. Numbers 12:3 tells us that Moses was the most humble person on the face of the planet. No one was more humble than Moses. Yet, humble people get upset. Humble people get mad. Moses wasn’t mad at God. He was mad at the complaining and criticizing nation. They were never content. They were never satisfied. And, humble Moses was fed up. He had enough of their lip. I’m surprised that he didn’t strike a few people with the rod in his hand.
In this, there is a powerful lesson for us.
First, our disappointment and anger with others can us lead to getting out of step with the Lord. Moses was mad at the people. That led him to disobey God. We can be angry with our family. We can be angry with our brethren. And, in the course of that, we can say or even do things that are not right. Mad at the dog can cause us to kick the cat. We can justify our actions and words by pointing to the problem and saying that these people are not right. Yet, only in math does two negatives make a positive. God did not excuse Moses. We must be in charge of our faith, our words and our actions. Because we are mad at our spouse does not give us reason to say things that ought never to be thought of, let alone said. Because we are mad at the elders or the preacher does not give us justification to stay home and not worship God.
Second, humbleness and anger can co-exist in one heart. The words of Moses in our verse seems to indicate that he had a lapse in his humbleness. He seemed to take credit for what God could do. He seemed to think that he was the focal point of the anger. The people were really angry with God. Moses was just leading them as the Lord directed. And, the same is true today. Someone doesn’t like what the Bible says about divorce or gender identity or the role of women or faithfulness so they take it out on the church. They say cruel things on social media. They tell their friends mean things about the people of God. The real problem they have is with God. The church simply follows what God says. And, when a person doesn’t like that, they often blame the church. Rather than changing their ways, they leave, looking for a church that teaches the way they want and a church that accepts them as they are. Change the plan or change the man, they stand with changing the plan.
Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, says that God was not pleased with ancient Israel. The apostle would use this to warn the Christians, “nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.”
Third, it is important that we do not let anyone sidetrack us from our walk with the Lord. Angry with the people, led Moses to disobey God. Trying to please family can lead us to disobeying God. Wanting to fit in with friends can lead us to disobeying God. Wanting to climb the corporate ladder can lead us to disobeying God. Our love of things can lead us to disobeying God. When something stands between us and the cross, there is a good chance that we are not going to be as faithful and dedicated as we ought to be.
Moses was mad at the people and that led Moses to disobeying God.
Roger