12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." Numbers20:10-12
The Bible doesn't sanitise the stories of its heroes. We know of David's philandering, of Saul's insecurities, of Peter's motor-mouth and now we know of Moses' mistook-mistake.
This is not the first time the Israelites are short of water. This is not the first time they are quarrelling with God. This is not the first time that Moses and Aaron went before God for guidance.
God's instructions were clear: "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water."
Previously, when faced with a similar situation Moses had struck the rock with his staff and water had flowed. Now although God had asked him to _speak_ to it, Moses struck it again and said: "must _we_ bring you water out of this rock?" For this one misdemeanour God makes it clear that Moses will not enter the Promised Land.
Why God was displeased with Moses and Aaron?
There are two issues:
The first has to do with the holiness of His Glory.
There is only one God and it is not Moses!
Moses mistook the situation: "I've been here before - I know the drill, hit the rock, water flows, everyone's happy and I'm the good guy!"
God is jealous (in the very best sense of the word) for His glory. When we as human beings begin to take His glory for ourselves and make people look to us instead of to God, we are in grave danger.
God deals firmly with Moses, because Moses was the point-leader. To whom much is given, much is required and when God's power is abused for personal prestige, disaster will follow.
(We'll look at the second issue tomorrow)
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
