Give a Guy a Break March 7, 2016

¹ So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. ² And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ Deuteronomy 31:1 ESV

The Waters of Meribah

  ² Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, ⁷ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” ⁹ And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

Moses Strikes the Rock

¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. ¹² And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel (italics mine), therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”  Numbers 20:2,6-12 ESV

Quick timeline of Moses' life.  Saved from being murdered as an infant  Raised in Pharaoh's palace.  Banished from the palace for committing murder.  Forty years a shepherd.  Returns to Egypt.  Plagues.  Exodus.  Miracles.  Leads a grumbling, grumpy people for 40 years in the desert.  On several occasions pleads with God not to destroy these grumbling, grumpy people.  Promised land just over the horizon.  But not for Moses.

The brass ring.  The land of plenty.  Nope, not you Moses.  You were obedient.  You served Me well.  You sacrificed much.  But you hit a rock with a stick.  Stop here.  Do not pass "go".  I cannot imagine what Moses must have felt, thought, and said.

It wasn't the striking of the rock that doomed Moses' entrance to the Promised Land.  Look at verse 12.  "You did not believe in me (and) hold me as holy."  Moses had been instructed to speak water from the rock.  He fell back on the staff that has served him well in the past.  God was moving him beyond props and crutches.  Moses was not ready. 

What is God trying to move you from and to?  Perhaps the comfortable small group at church is keeping you from the next level of spiritual growth.  Maybe you are putting off retirement one more year because it is the tried and true "staff" you hold in your hand. 

If God instructs you to move, to grow, to evolve, and you don't, you are showing a lack of faith.  You are not "holding Him as holy".  Perhaps you will also miss the Promised Land.