Monday Morning Devotion-May 28, 2018
An oldie but goodie from 7 years ago. (June 6, 2011)
Making God Mad
As the people watch, command the rock over there to pour out its water. You will get enough water from the rock to satisfy all the people and their livestock...so Moses shouted. "Listen you rebels, must we bring you water from this rock?" Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the staff and water gushed out. Numbers 20: 8-11
If there is one thing you don't want to do, it would be something that makes God mad. Do you agree? Scary to even think about it isn't it? If you did something really bad that made the Creator of everything mad, what would He do?
Who knows? Only God could answer that. But, we do know that He is a God of love. In fact, love really begins and ends with God. If it wasn't for Him we probably wouldn't know anything about love. Without Him we wouldn't experience the depth of feeling that accompanies love. Probably wouldn't even know what love is.
With God love begins, well, in the beginning. Since he created the World, then he apparently loves His creation. That means us as well as all the other things we read about in Genesis 1. The land, the sea, the sky, the moon, sun and stars and baseball. Baseball...uh, wait a minute. He didn't really create (invent) baseball in the beginning. It was probably about a week later that He did that. :)
His love is something we bank on when we do something, that in post-analysis, we realize God probably didn't care for. I mean, for God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son, didn't He?
Well, yeah, but does that mean He is never gonna get mad at us. And if He did what would the results of that anger be?
Now, I realize when I start speaking for God I'm treading on dangerous territory. So, I certainly don't want to do that. There is some evidence in the Bible that God was angered by some of the things those Israelites did. Boy, they messed up a lot didn't they?
Well, they probably didn't foul things up any more than we do. It's just their messes are recorded in the best-selling book of all times---the Bible. Ours sometimes fly under the radar. We hope that no one notices. Unfortunately, God does.
Even though God gave us a free will to choose for ourselves what actions we will take, when He gives us instructions, obviously, He expects us to follow them. Case in point is Moses: Remember how Moses answered God's call to lead his people out of captivity? Moses had escaped the Egyptian captivity himself and was living in Midian. He had killed an Egyptian who was beating a slave, so he had to vacate Egypt.
He was living comfortably, but he was still concerned about his people whose slavery was harsh. So, the Lord got his attention while he was out in the fields tending sheep. He appeared to Moses in a burning bush. A bush that was obviously on fire but not being consumed.
Now that he had Moses' attention, God told Moses that He had surely observed the plight of his people and knew that they needed to be rescued from it. He and Moses were in agreement on that. What they weren't agreeing on was how.
He told Moses, "The cries of the people have reached me! Now go for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You will lead my people out of Egypt." Say what? That was not exactly what Moses had in mind. As you've heard many times I'm sure, "God works in mysterious ways."
Anyway, we are familiar with the miracle of parting the Red Sea that God performed as Moses led the people out of captivity.
We've also read about his faithful, but difficult leadership of this bunch of grumbling, complaining people who God allowed to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years.
When they ran out of water the people blamed Moses saying: "Did you bring the Lord's people into this wilderness to die. . .This land has no grain, figs, grapes or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!" (Numbers 20:4-5.)
Earlier the people had run out of water and were moaning about it. When Moses brought this to God's attention (Exodus 17:6) "The Lord said: I will meet you by the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock and water will come pouring out." Moses followed instructions and it happened just as God said it would.
Now in today's story we read about a similar situation. It was similar but different in one respect.
Once again, the folks were thirsty and were complaining to Moses. And in Numbers 20: 8-11, we read what happened. God told Moses "As the people watch, command the rock over there to pour out its water. You will get enough water from the rock to satisfy all the people and their livestock."
So Moses did as he was commanded...sort of. He assembled the people, as instructed, then he relied on past knowledge to carry out the task. It was like, "Oh yeah, I've seen this one. He's gonna have water come gushing out of this rock after I hit it with my staff."
So, he did and it did. But, that was not what God had told him to do. He had instructed Moses to command the water to come out of the rock, not clobber the rock with his staff. God intended to bring about the result in a different way. Moses had even less to do, all he had to do was depend on God and follow instructions.
God was mad. How mad? Mad enough to tell Moses "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."
Wow, that's tough. After all that faithful obedience in being God's instrument to deliver His people from captivity Moses messed up and was punished by not being allowed to lead the people into the Promised Land.
What's the lesson for us here? Two things, I think. First of all don't limit God's ability to act in a dramatic way in your life because you think you have it figured out how He will do it. God is amazing, unpredictable and can get results in a multitude of ways.
Second, rely on Him. Don't think you can do things all on your own without consulting and following his directions. Apparently doing this can make God mad.
Monday Prayer: Lord lead us, and grant us the wisdom to follow.