The Israelites were moaning again,
this time it was due to a lack of water. They rebelled against
Moses and Aaron and they in turn turned to God and asked Him for
help. God did help them and told Moses to get his staff, to
assemble the community and to command the rock to pour out water
and it will. Moses was obedient, like he had been for the past 40
years. He picked up his staff and he assembled the community in
front of the rock. But then he deviated a little bit from what God
told him to do:
"Listen you rebels!" he shouted.
"Must we bring you water from this rock?" Then Moses raised his
hand and struck the rock twice with the staff, and water gushed
out.' Numbers 20:10, 11
Moses has had enough! After almost
forty years of leading these people, Moses couldn't take it
anymore. They had been moaning and grumbling from the beginning and
they were disobedient to the Lord and to Moses on a number of
occasions. This was the last straw! Moses didn't follow God's
instructions, instead of speaking to the rock, he hit the rock
twice and instead of giving glory to God, Moses claimed that he and
Aaron gave them the water. And God was not pleased.
"Because you didn't trust Me enough
to demonstrate My holiness to the people of Israel, you will not
lead them into the land I am giving them!" Numbers 20:12
When I read this I couldn't help
but feel sorry for Moses. The poor man hasn't had it easy for the
past 40 years. In fact he has had it rough. The Israelites were
moaning the whole time, they were in an unpleasant desert due to
their disobedience, they wanted to appoint other leaders a number
of times instead of Moses and so I can go on. And in this forty
years he acted admirably and he obeyed God down to the letter. Only
this once he didn't obey Him 100%. And now due to this, he was
denied access to the Promised Land. Poor Moses.
His punishment feels a bit harsh to
me, but as I discussed in a previous devotion, the further advanced
you are in your spiritual life, the more God expects of you. Moses
was God's leader, but more than that he was called God's friend and
he had the privilege of talking face to face with God, a privilege
unheard of in those days. And therefore much more was expected of
him. He was also God's role model to the people. They didn't have
any other example to follow and therefore his disobedience had to
be punished. Plus he also claimed that the miracle came from
himself, which was seen as blasphemy in those days. Unfortunately
he had to be punished.
How Moses reacted was not recorded
in the Bible. I am sure he must have been devastated. The Promised
Land was what he had been looking forward to for forty years and
now he had been denied access. He must have been down in the dumps!
But he certainly didn't stay there. The next we read is how he
started to lead the Israelites forward towards their entrance point
into Canaan. He didn't remain depressed, but continued with the
task ahead.
Sometimes we can also have severe
setbacks. Sometimes the setbacks are due to our own fault, or due
to someone else's, but we cannot let it keep us down. We need to
move forward like Moses did. We need to keep on going, God's plan
for us hasn't ended and His guidance is not now a thing of the
past. He will help you to get up again and to stand tall again.
Trust Him and ask Him for His help, He won't let you down.
Father, please forgive us if we
have sinned against You and others. Please help us to get on our
feet again. We would like to move forward with You and experience
Your glory and power again. Thank you that we can know that You are
there to help and to guide us. Amen