7/21/2004 07:32:13 AM|||Laura|||And Jehovah spoke to Moses saying, Take the rod, and gather the assembly, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes. And it shall give forth its water, and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock. So you shall give the congregation and their animals drink. And Moses took the rod from before Jehovah as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now you rebels. Must we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he struck the rock twice. And the water came out plentifully, and the congregation and their animals drank. And Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.(Numbers 20:7-12)
And I begged Jehovah at that time saying, O, Jehovah God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness, and Your mighty hand. For what God is there in heaven or in earth who can do according to Your works, and according to Your might? I pray you, let me go over and see the good land beyond Jordan, this good hill-country and Lebanon. But Jehovah was angry with me because of you and would not hear me. And Jehovah said to me, Let it be enough for you. Speak no more to Me of this matter. Go up into the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and behold it with your eyes. For you shall not go over this Jordan. (Deuteronomy 3:23-27)
This perplexed me a great deal, because it seems as if God would cut Moses a little slack - after all, God had given him a pretty big job to do, and most of the time, Moses did pretty well, right? Well, after reading carefully, I find it was a pretty big offense. 1. That same temper that caused him to kill the Egyptian so many years before was not completely eradicated. "Listen up, you ungrateful brats!" 2. He seems to take credit for what God is about to do - "must we bring water for you," is a rhetorical sentence. He knows he must; God just told him to do it. Phrasing it the way he did implies Moses and Aaron are going to all this trouble themselves. 3. Next, he adds to the instructions God gave him, by hitting the rock (twice! more display of temper) instead of speaking to it. Was he provoked? Certainly. I wonder if anyone in the history of the world was ever provoked more than Moses was. But clearly provocation doesn't give us a free pass to rage on about something. Having said that, why didn't God forgive him and cut him some slack? Should this one display of temper trash decades of service?
God did forgive him - but sometimes consequences are necessary, not just for the offender, but for other people involved. According to Matthew Henry, Israel, in addition to Moses, was punished by Moses' exclusion from the Promised Land.
The removal of Moses at that time, when he could so ill be spared, was a rebuke to all Israel, and a punishment of their sin. Or, [3.] It was for their sakes, that it might be a warning to them to take heed of offending God by passionate and unbelieving speeches at any time, after the similitude of his transgression; for, if this were done to such a green tree, what should be done to the dry?
With all of the goodness and mercy God has shown to me, even when I feel provoked or treated unfairly, I don't have the right to be offended. If vengeance is warranted, God will take care of it. And if He gives the offender repentance, wouldn't I rather accept their apology than have to accept theirs, AND proffer one of my own?
|||109041871329577147|||Temper, temper...