"'Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals'...Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.'” vv.8,11-12
Read chapter 20
Ever wonder why Moses didn't enter the Promised Land? Here it says it was because he didn't believe God, but didn't he? Throughout Moses' life he was God's advocate, surely he believed Him. Well in this chapter there is a tiny detail that can be missed. The people are complaining their thirsty and there's no water so Moses and Aaron go before the Lord and God says He'll give the people and their livestock water. How this was to happen was Moses was to SPEAK to the rock and it would yield water. What ended up happening is that Moses STRUCK the rock two times with his rod. So we see the disbelief, that both Moses and Aaron didn't really think that speaking to a rock would bring forth water because God said so specifically to them (I wonder why they thought striking it would be any different). It's kind of like when Jesus says to His disciples, "I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says." If God tells you to do something, no matter how ridiculous it seems, it will happen if you believe. Now this doesn't mean if you speak to a rock it will bring forth water for God was talking specifically to Moses and Aaron, not you. But where we can believe this passage is that it is true, that it actually happened, because God is telling us through His word and we are to believe in our minds everything His Word tells us, no matter how crazy it seems. It seems a small thing that because of this one occurrence of Moses not believing he doesn't get to enter the promised land, but we have to remember that apart from faith it's impossible to please God. Moses will still be in heaven, just not seeing the earthly promise given to his people. What is something in scripture that you have a hard time believing it's true?
No comments:
Post a Comment