Doing It My Way

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “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!” (Numbers 20:12 NLT)

Water Out of the Rock

Good men sometimes make bad choices.  Slight changes in God’s directions for us can have enormous consequences.  The Devil is always in the details.

Moses and his people were without water in the wilderness.  The Lord told Moses and Aaron to speak to the rock, and he would provide water (v.8).  Unfortunately, Moses struck the rock (v.11).  It was not so much the outward action that displeased God, but what it represented.  Moses spoke to the people instead of the rock (v.10).  It is a leader’s responsibility to obey God and then allow him to change peoples’ hearts.  Moses may have inverted that principle.  Also, they may have taken too much of God’s glory for this miracle, “Must we fetch the water (v.10b).  In our scriptural reference we are told their sin was unbelief.  They did not believe that God could do it as he said he would.  Therefore, they had to try and make it happen on their own.  Making things worse was the fact that they did this in public view.  One of quickest ways to lose your spiritual leadership is by not demonstrating God’s character traits of faith and humility to his people. 

 Pride or unbelief is the basis of most of our indiscretions.   Moses and Aaron seemed to have violated both. Doing it our way instead of God’s, always gets us in trouble. Taking the admonition from that great old hymn, “Trust and Obey,” could keep us from doing it my way. 

Image used with permission by Google.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
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