Saving Face

Numbers 20:11 – Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the staff, and water gushed out. So all the people and their livestock drank their fill.

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We spent a lot of time on this passage in Bible College. The story goes on to tell about God being angry with Moses for hitting the rock when all he commanded him to do was speak to it. Sadly this little blunder is the reason that Moses never gets to see the promised land. Not the getting mad and smashing the 10 commandments, nor the killing of a slave drive back in Egypt. The thing that keeps Moses out of the promised land is beating up on a rock. I don’t want to get into the reasoning of God on this subject. It seems weird to me, but he is God for a reason, and this disobedience must have really upset him. Others would argue that this was written by Moses and so he tried to minimize his sins in this way. I am willing to take it at face value.

The thing that sparks my interest is why in the heck water came out of that rock. Moses didn’t follow gods instructions, and God clearly wasn’t with him in his striking of the rock, so why did the miracle just not work. It seems to me that this would have been the most appropriate response on Gods part. “You don’t obey me, I won’t empower you.” This is what should have happened in the story. Moses should have beaten the rock…and that’s it. Maybe he would try it again and then realize that God said to speak to it and finally get it right after a couple of embarrassing moments.

But God is so big, he must have known the consequences of this, and chosen to do otherwise. Maybe if Moses had failed just once he would have completely lost the respect of all of his followers. So God in his wisdom, made it work for him, saving Moses some face, and keeping his people for the time being. That is all supposition on my part. We can’t be sure to know what God was doing here, but I need to trust that it was good. I hope he does the same thing in my life. I am sure I will sin in my future, and that could possibly jeopardize all that God wants to do in my life. I pray that he would save me some face, and continue to use me, however he sees fit. I don’t want to take his grace for granted, I just want to be covered by it.

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God pour your grace upon me even though I don’t deserve it. I sin too much. Treat me like Moses. Punish me for my sins, but don’t let the punishment ruin my ministry, and all that you want to do in me. I will take anything other than that. Bringing you glory is the most important thing in my life. Give me grace enough to do it. That’s Hot.