When Giants Fall
When the water ceased to flow at Israel’s encampment at Kadesh-Barnea, a grand opportunity presented itself for Israel to look to God for help. He always had provided for them in the past, so why should it be any different now? However, they quickly forgot the past and turned on Moses and Aaron with their old complaints.
Read Numbers 20:1–13. What did the Lord command Moses to do, and what did he do instead? Why do you think that this meek, faithful, and devoted servant of God showed such an uncharacteristic lack of faith and trust?
On one level, it’s easy to understand Moses’ frustration. First, he just had buried his sister, and no doubt was feeling pain over that. And then to hear these people utter, basically, the same complaint that their forefathers had made years ago? Nevertheless, in the Lord’s eyes, none of this excused his behavior.
“The water gushed forth in abundance to satisfy the host. But a great wrong had been done. Moses had spoken from irritated feeling. . . . When he took it upon himself to accuse them, he grieved the Spirit of God and wrought only harm to the people. His lack of patience and self-control was evident. Thus the people were given occasion to question whether his past course had been under the direction of God, and to excuse their own sins. Moses, as well as they, had offended God. His course, they said, had from the first been open to criticism and censure. They had now found the pretext which they desired for rejecting all the reproofs that God had sent them through His servant.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 417.
Even the most faithful and diligent servants of the Lord need to be careful. What makes this sin even worse was that it was done by someone who had been given great privileges. Think of all that Moses had seen of God’s power; think of all the incredible revelations of the Lord that he had, again and again, witnessed. And yet, even with all that, he allowed self to rise up and dominate? What a warning this should be for the rest of us.
| Think of a time that you felt pushed over the edge and did something rash and sinful. How often did you wish you could have turned back the clock and undone the damage? What lessons have you learned from this incident that, ideally, could help prevent you from doing the same thing again? |
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