Moses Disobeys
August 16th, 2009Well, you could say our class is grumbling about three weeks of grumbling, rebelling and disobedience.
Imagine how the people of Israel felt after weeks, then years in the wilderness.
Imagine how Moses felt.
We’re tired after three weeks? Come on now!
Still, today’s lesson scripture made for some good discussion – the obvious question took up most of that discussion: how fair does it seem that Moses would be denied entry into the Promised Land after a single incident of disobedience – not blatant disobedience at that:
1 The Israelites, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there, and was buried there.
2 Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron.
3 The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had died when our kindred died before the Lord!
4 Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here?
5 Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there is no water to drink.”
6 Then Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting; they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
7 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
8 Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them; thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.
9 So Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he had commanded him.
10 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?”
11 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.
12 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.”
13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and by which he showed his holiness. Num 20:1-13 (NRSV)
Moses’ disobedience took the form of pride – “Shall we bring water” – of lack of trust – striking the rock instead of commanding it as the Lord directed him – and of something akin to anger and loss of control – hitting the rock not once, but twice. Okay – we can all see that there is some form of disobedience going on here, but after a lifetime of obedience and carrying out God’s purpose, was this enough to warrant the punishment that God ordained?
The easy answer wasn’t really satisfactory for class members: that Moses was a leader and therefore held to a higher standard. John suggested we might not be getting the whole story of what transpired at Meribah . . . that could be.
It could also be that Moses was fulfillilng God’s purpose yet again. Just as he acted as God’s messenger to Pharaoh, just as he called for the first Passover on behalf of God, just as he played his role in accomplishing God’s purpose in taming the Red Sea and destroying Egypt’s army, just as he mediated the delivery of God’s law to Israel, couldn’t it be that Moses was teaching Israel (indeed all the world) that everyone falls short of God’s glory?
What to you think?
Maybe it was God’s will originally that Moses should not enter into the “promised land” – he was approx. 120 years of age, and a “talker/negotiator” not a “fighter”. Maybe the upcoming task would have been too much for Moses, as the leader of the people and this is just another example of God’s mercy.
I’m with Karen on this as another example of God’s mercy. Our South Georgia Advocate lesson writer Herchel Sheets had quoted Alexander Maclaren as saying “The Lord’s decision not to have Moses to lead the people into the promised land may have been less an act of punishment than an act of kindness. As it was time for him to be freed from the heavy load he had carried for so long. It was if the Lord was saying, “you have done enough . Other hands must now hold the leaders staff. Enter into rest.” My thought on this is that our understanding some things that God does or allows will not be comprehended in this life. As the scriptures say in Deut. 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” This applies to Moses mistake as well as the loss of life, cancer, and other ills of humanity, circumstances brought aboput because of evil.
However there is another valid point Rev Sheets gave in his lesson commentary by saying:
“A person can come to the point of identifying one’s own purposes and causes as identical with God’s. Then if someone has doubts about or opposition to those purposes and causes , one may be more concerned with one’s own prestige than about the honor of God. It always matters more what people think about God than what they think about us.”
Vain-glory is one of the afflictions of the soul along with indifference to the things of God and pride. All sinful responses of our fallen nature that have their birth in our thoughts.