Lessons from the Waters of Meribah – Numbers 20:2-13

Free from the bondage of the Egyptians, God’s children journeyed into the territory that God had promised them. In the same way, we all who are saved by the power of Jesus Christ are on a journey to possess all of our inheritance in Christ Jesus as well as eternity. As I write this blog post, I am reminded of a picture I saw in the past which describes the Christian journey as an adventure. I cannot but agree with that statement. I have walked with the Lord for about six years and 11months now and it sure has been an adventure for me.

The focus of this blog post isn’t on the journey itself but on God’s children who are on this journey. The focus is on how we carry ourselves through out this journey that God has us journeying. And so we shall glean wisdom and knowledge from God’s word in Numbers 20:2-13.

God’s children now at a bottleneck while on their journey began to complain and murmur unto the Lord. And their leader, Moses was mad at their reaction. I can absolutely understand Moses’ reaction because these men and women were too forgetful! Forgetful of the God who saved them multiple times from the hands of their enemies, the God who provided them with Manna, water from the rock in a desert land. God had shown up for them too much for them to grumble and murmur towards God. Anyways, Moses and Aaron channelled their anger and emotions into seeking the Lord’s face for help. The bible says , “Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and fell on their faces” – Numbers 20:6. And God’s response to them was to overshadow them with His glory as well as give them solutions to their problems.

This is what God’s children should have done, this is what God’s children should always do – Turn to God for help at crossroads instead of grumble and complain: Last week’s blog post highlights God’s willingness and ability to save us given that we cry out to Him. The only hinderance to his saving power is if we wallow in sin. Sin such as grumbling and murmuring against the almighty God hinders our view of the Almighty God. This eventually deters us from calling unto Him to save us. As children of God, our mindset should be all encompassing and focused on God as our source, our lifeline, our everything and His ability to help us with anything. This was Moses’ mindset and He went to seek God’s face for an answer to their problem. As I leave this first point, I want to encourage you to stay in God’s presence, seek His face and ask Him answers to your challenges until He meets with you, until He answers you. Do not leave there until you see His glory or hear His voice concerning that situation.

God told Moses to gather the congregation together with the rod in his hand, He told Him to speak to the rock and the rock would yield water. Instead, Moses gathered the congregation together, yelled at the congregation, smote the rock twice with the rod and water came out of the rock abundantly – Numbers 20:8-11. It is interesting to see that God honored Moses’ action and caused water to spring forth from the rock but God’s words to Moses right after is something I cannot get over. God said to Moses, “Because you did not believe me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the Children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them“- Numbers 20:12. Another version puts it this way, “Because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land I am giving them!”. On this blog post, I am not even going to focus on the pain of leading people for so many years, the pain of laboring for people with the hopes that you would enjoy the milk and honey of the land together only to be told you won’t enter into that promise land because of an action. It must have been excruciatingly painful for Moses and Aaron in that moment.

Two key words that I find salient from the above verse are trust and Holiness. Clearly God was unhappy with Moses for two reasons: Moses did not trust Him enough and secondly Moses did not Portray God as Holy to the Israelites. I sense that God expected so much more from Moses given the level of intimacy they had share in the past and hence the measure that He did. For example, an eight month child who is crawling around the house and destroys some things in the house should not be given as much or any punishment at all unlike a ten year old child who knows his right from wrong.

But this is not where I am going today, my focus is on the things that God pointed to Moses. Although Moses obeyed God’s instructions to bring forth water from the rock, He did not completely obey God and this displeased God. After so much of pondering on this portion of scripture, I have come to the conclusion that there is a relationship between our trust in God and our complete obedience to Him. When we trust Him so much then and there do we completely obey Him without doubt or questioning. For example, our dear father of faith- Abraham trusted God completely when he was told to go sacrifice his only begotten son- Isaac. Abraham trusted God so much that he believed in his heart that God would give him another son after he sacrifices his son. And this pleased the Lord so much that He provided for Him a sacrifice and even blessed him so much more. Indeed it is Impossible to please the Lord with faith, for we who come to Him must believe in Him and trust that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him – Hebrews 11:6

And finally, God said to Moses that He did not demonstrate my Holiness to God’s children. I cannot help but take cognizance of how God wants to be portrayed on this earth. Just like any reputable organization or family that wants to represented and presented as excellent so does our God. No matter what we may be going through, no matter how pressured we may be, it matters to God that we portray Him as a Holy God. Even more so, we are made in his image and must represent Him excellently. Sadly, Moses failed to do so when He smote the rock twice versus speak to the rock as he was instructed. A classic example is our dear Jesus Christ who went through the worst of circumstances there could ever be but it was recorded that He never said a word or murmured a word back at His oppressors. Even in the worst of situations, He carried Himself with Grace, portrayed His father as a Holy God. This is a call for us who live this life of faith in Christ Jesus, we should learn of Him. The bible has will informed us that in this world there would be challenges but our dear Jesus has overcome for us. But the way we carry ourselves on that journey of overcoming is as important as the way we celebrate when we finally reach that destination of victory.

As I wrap up this blog post, I pray that we are strengthened to proceed in our walk with Jesus with so much poise and elegance. I pray that our faith is strengthened that we trust our father in heaven so much that we may demonstrate Him as Holy always.

Amen.

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