February 10, 2012 - Numbers 20, 21, 33

Friday, February 10, 2012
Numbers 20, 21, 33

The Israelites are in their final year of the forty years they
spent wandering in the desert. Once again, we encounter the all too
familiar scene of ungrateful, faithless, grumbling Israelites. I can
relate. Their greatest complaint is lack of drinking water. God of
course provides. He commands Moses and Aaron to call water forth
through a rock in front of the people. When the people are gathered,
Moses says, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this
rock?" We? Rather than give glory to God, Moses and Aaron take credit
for drawing water from the rock. The consequence of their pride is
banishment from the Promise Land. God even said, "Because you did not
trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites,
you will not bring this community into the land I give them."

I admit, at first I thought God was being a little harsh on the
people He chose to bring His nation out of slavery with, give His laws
through, and establish His priesthood with. Then I realized that
everything God did for the Israelites had to do with Himself. God
chose the Israelites to glorify Himself. God chose the Israelites to
demonstrate His power to the world because He wanted His creation to
know who He was and give Him praise. Any mere human that takes credit
for God's work diminishes God's glory, which goes against God's plan
to be known and praised. The Israelites might have worshiped Moses and
not known God if Moses had been allowed to be proud and call glory to
himself. God performs the miracles therefore He deserves the praise.

Moses and Aaron understood God's just consequences for their
actions too, which I find significant. In Hebrews 12:9-11, the apostle
Paul said, "Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us
and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the
Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a
little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our
good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant
at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of
righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Moses
and Aaron respected their Father God's disciplining. They knew God was
creating in them an even stronger desire for righteousness, which
specifically in this case, was humility. They knew that the peace they
had in God and their eventual life in heaven far outweighed their
present pain.

We are all children of God. Like a great parent, God loves us
first and foremost and would rather not discipline us. But when He's
forced to discipline us, it's for our own good. Let's allow the
disciplining in our lives to produce a harvest of righteousness. Let's
allow the pain in our lives to be reason to draw closer to God. For in
Him there is healing and peace and life.

God Bless,
Anthony