God Covers Our Mistakes

Numbers 20:9-13 -  So Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he had commanded him.  Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?"  Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank.  But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them."  These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and by which he showed his holiness.

 

The Israelites had been wandering in the wilderness for about 37 years…and had come back to the site of the camp where they first sent out the spies to check out the land of Canaan. They were upset once again as they made camp…thirsty…thinking that they would surely die here from lack of water. But the Lord showed up to give Moses guidance…just as he always did when Moses fell to his knees in prayer.

 

It must have been a while since God had used his supernatural powers…for he directed Moses to gather them all together...and told him to speak to the rock and command it to release fresh water for them to drink.  It was a simple solution…requiring no action but a few words…directed completely at the rock.  God would show this new generation a bit of the supernatural powers that had saved their parents and grandparents from slavery in Egypt…and provided for them as they traveled the first time toward the fertile land of promise to Abram.

 

Moses got a portion of his task correct.  He did bring the rod…but Moses messed up the rest of his orders from God. He added words to what God told him to say….and they were directed at the people…not the rock. Moses totally lost his temper…and called them rebellious people…who needed to be given water from a rock. Then Moses let the frustration of the last 40 years…allow his anger to control the rod in his hands…and he struck the rock….twice!

 

God’s saving water flowed freely from the rock…and provided the water they needed that day.  His grace overriding the mistake of Moses and partly Aaron. But Moses paid dearly for that loss of temper…those words spoken out of his own frustration.  God wasted no time telling him he had disobeyed….and would not get to enter the promised land with the people he had been called to lead for so long.

 

Sometimes the consequences of our sins stay with us for a long time.  They become ‘thorns’ in our flesh...like Paul spoke of in 2 Corinthians 12:7… “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” The thorn becomes a reminder that we were called to one purpose…and our own feelings must be put aside when we are told specific directions from God. Moses direction to lead a nation…to be the pure voice of God…required absolutely no added words from his experience over the last 40 years…it required him to do exactly what he had been told…exactly the way he had been told to do it.

 

Tough walking papers for me…who is daily guilty of speaking her own mind in most situations…..and not even falling to her knees most times to even inquire what God would have me do. I am sure I have messed up more than one situation that God has covered with his grace and forgiveness. So all I can do is thank him this morning...that in spite of the fact that most days I am an Eve….or an Abraham…or a Jonah…or a Moses….God chooses to bless me  in spite of my selfishness and thoughts that I am more important than the task he gave me to do.

 

Father…I thank you this morning for your grace and forgiveness…that somehow loves me in spite of all the orders from you I have messed up. Help me to listen a little better to your directions…and get the next thing you ask me to do right…exactly the way you say to do it….without inserting my own opinions or thoughts.  Thank you for sending your son….who followed your directions perfectly…and died on that cross to give me a chance to share in your grace and love. Amen.