Some readers of scripture might think that God went way overboard in punishing Moses so harshly in Numbers 20.
And, according to human standards, it would appear that Moses didn’t deserve the terrible consequence he was promised.
But God’s ways are not man’s ways and God had a very good reason for what He did.
I’m talking about Moses being forbidden from entering the Promised Land as a result of his losing his temper in front of the Israelite nation.
This wasn’t only about having a bad day emotionally because of the whining, demanding, ungrateful Hebrews.
This was also about disobeying God’s instruction to speak to a rock so that water would pour out as a fountain for the thirsty people.
You can read the account by clicking this link, but the bottom line is that Moses was told by God to do one thing and, in his out-of-control anger, chose to do another that showed a loss of self-control and a loss of submission to God.
At a crisis moment, if you and I default to our fleshly way of handling things, God is pushed to the side and we have declared that our way is better than His way.
How can we not expect there to be consequences from God for our rebellious moment?
Listen, somebody is always watching when we become angry.
Even if no people are seeing us diminish our faith testimony by acting worldly, God still sees it.
And His heart is wounded.
We can all, of course, understand why Moses was so upset with the Israelites. We can only take so much whining and foolish complaining before we’re at the end of our patience rope.
When we run out of that rope, though, we still have to reach out and hold onto a compliant, self-controlled faith so that we don’t set the bad example that demonstrates a loss of self-control and so we don’t have to suffer some form of consequence as a result.
If weaker believers can’t count on us to set the example of self-control in the midst of people who are out of control, then to whom can they turn?
As always, I love you
Martin
