One Year Bible: April 8

For both of you betrayed me with the Israelites at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. You failed to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel there. So you will see the land from a distance, but you may not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”

To read today’s portion of scripture, you can purchase The One Year Bible (paid link) or find the following in your Bible:

Deuteronomy 32:28-52
Luke 12:35-59
Psalm 78:56-64
Proverbs 12:24 

In Exodus 22:12, we see Moses committing what is unarguably, to the human mind, the worst of sins. He kills an Egyptian who is beating another Hebrew. And yet that is not the act that God is holding against Moses. Why is God refusing Moses entrance into the Promised Land? Because instead of speaking to the rock, he struck it twice.

At first glance, that sounds like a simple, old-fashioned act of disobedience. God said to do a), but since I was angry, I did b). Is that worse than murder?

It is when the disobedient act completely misrepresents the heart of God to His people. 

When the Children of Israel thirsted, they did what they were always quick to do: they blamed Moses for bringing them out into the wilderness. I imagine that was a tad irritating to Moses.

So Moses and Aaron did a good thing–they went to the door of the Tabernacle and fell on their faces before the Lord. This was the best thing they could do, because they had a need that only God could provide.

God gave them clear directions about what they were to do. He told Moses to take his rod and speak to the rock, and it would then pour forth water for the people. 

Note what is absent from those directions. He did not say, “Lecture the Children of Israel, put your bitterness on full display, and then take your rod and beat that rock into submission.”

But that’s exactly what Moses did. And because our God is Jehovah-Jireh, the God who provides, He did produce water from the rock Moses struck. But that was for the benefit of the people; not for Moses. Now Moses is receiving the penalty of his error.

Why was this so bad? Here are the things I see:

• By his bitter tone and harsh words, Moses implied that God would provide, but that He wasn’t happy about it
• By including himself in the equation (“Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?”) Moses implied that half of this miracle depended on him
• By striking the rock (twice) exactly the way he did back at the bitter waters of Marah (Exodus 15-17), Moses revealed that he thought he knew better. He knew the formula that would produce water, and it didn’t involve speaking.
• By finding a way around God’s instructions, Moses demonstrated that he didn’t believe God could (or would) do it that way

God did tell Moses to bring his rod, but he gave him no instructions for using it. I believe God was proving a point to Moses. “Just because this initially looks like a repeat of what we did before, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to do something different this time.”

The cost for those brief few moments was enormous. Moses and Aaron were denied entrance into the destination they’d been moving toward for 40 years.

So what lessons does this hold for us?

• We must be careful that we never misrepresent God to others. This works in both directions. Some people–usually legalists–bring God out in arguments like He’s their Big Gun. “God doesn’t like what you’re doing, and you’re going to hell.” But on the other hand, others neutralize God by saying, “God is love. Love, love, love, all day long. And He doesn’t care what we do as long as we’re not hurting anybody else.”
• We must never fool ourselves into thinking that God can’t get His work done without our help. It’s a blessing to get to partner with God–but He only invites us to help for our benefit. He doesn’t need our help for anything.
• We must never limit God by assuming that because He worked in a certain way in the past, He will work that way every single time. He reserves the right to surprise us.
• We must be careful not to doubt those things God has clearly and specifically spoken to us. This includes scripture as well as those times when you know that you know that God is speaking to you.

And keep this in mind: whatever action seems supremely wicked to you, the mischaracterization of God’s nature is apparently far worse. Woe to anyone who uses God to justify their own anger, or to justify their sin.