Meribah, Aaron’s Death and Brazen Serpent

Bible Passage:  Numbers 20 – 22:1

Today’s passage carries a very apt lesson for me as I come to the close of another week.

Did you notice this dialogue between Moses and God in Numbers 20? (Paraphrasing all mine (:)

God said: “Speak to that rock.”

He said: “[Struck] the rock twice with his staff.”

Hmm…. doesn’t this picture look familiar?

It may be a scene at home.  Or at the office.  Or at school.  Even in Church…

Both God and Moses were addressing the same problem.  Only problem was… Moses and God were saying two different things!

Picture this….

Your parent calls you to tidy your room… you go and do your homework!

Your spouse asks you to pick up the fish from the supermarket on your way home.  You buy everything except the fish.

Your boss wants the report as soon as possible.  You figure you can wait until after a good lunch.

One person says or do one thing… the other says or does another.

God says one thing; we do another.

As in all things… it usually starts with a problem…

“Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron” (Numbers 20:2).

Problems are part and parcel of life.  This is because nothing is perfect in this world and we still live in the midst of our imperfections.

And here we see Moses leading an imperfect group of people trying to follow a perfect God.

Boy!  Did Moses struggle!

I always wondered what would I do if I were Moses?  I think God would have taken action even before we step out of Egypt!

Moses was certainly the meekest man in the world…

But now he faced the people once again…. there was no water… and once again the people grumbled against Moses and the Lord.

Well… Moses must be used to this by now… after all… the Israelites have been in one constant complain fest!

Maybe Moses was used to the accusations… pretty much like you and I in our different situations.  His leadership was questioned… maybe you are in that position too…. I certainly am…

But Moses and Aaron humbled themselves before the Lord.  They fell “facedown” before the Lord and after spending some time before God, the simple instruction was given… “speak to the rock”.

I am not sure if you remembered, but God had told Moses to strike the rock before (Exodus 17:6). This time, for whatever reason, things were different.

So Moses went… and instead of obeying the word of the Lord in full, he partially obeys. He strikes the rock twice instead of speaking to it.

Hey!  No fair!  How can God do this?  Isn’t He trying to trick Moses?

Now before we all jumped in the wagon and start putting the blame on God… just consider this for a moment….

Moses knows better.  He knows God and that every word is to be received carefully and carried out faithfully.

We also should know better…

God may have been testing the listening ears of Moses.

And God is also testing our listening ears today.

Sometimes, we are so used to old habits that we have no idea that we are or have disobeyed God.  We think that we are still being faithful in carrying out God’s work and are self righteous about it…

But our disobedience to God is affecting others from honoring God and His holiness.  All this because of our sin. The sin of disobedience…

Moses brought dishonor to God and this led to him being cut off from bringing the Israelites into the Promise Land (Numbers 20:12).

Have we also disobeyed God today?  Would we be cut off too?

Something to consider as we come to the end of the week and start of the Sabbath.