June 11, 2009
Last week we left Moses at the waters of Kadesh, having been scolded by God for his pride and insolence.
Moses was told to speak to the rock to bring water from it, but instead Moses struck the rock twice. While the water flowed, God was not happy.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” — Numbers 20:12
In his commentary Robert Jamieson noted, “The act of Moses in smiting twice betrayed a doubt, not of the power, but of the will of God to gratify such a rebellious people, and his exclamation seems to have emanated from a spirit of incredulity akin to Sarai’s. These circumstances indicated the influence of unbelief, and there might have been others unrecorded which led to so severe chastisement.”
During Israel’s wandering in the desert Moses was the nation’s link to God. The intercessor had yet to come. Without Christ, the sin of the people kept them at a distance, so they went through Moses.
The parallels are the same as today. As followers of Christ we have a responsibility to lead others to Him.
Whether we know it or not, the world is watching — Satan is watching and waiting for us to fail. We all have moments of doubt and disbelief, but when we allow those doubts to rule us, instead of our faith, then we have failed to be an example to the world.
To put this in to context of Moses, since Moses, the great lawgiver and friend of God did not have the faith to believe God would do exactly what he said he would do, then how would the nation?
The Keil & Deitzsch commentary described it like this, “The want of belief or firm confidence in the Lord, through which both of them (Moses and Aaron) had sinned, was not actual unbelief or distrust in the omnipotence and grace of God, as if God could not relieve the want of water or extend His help to the murmuring people; for the Lord had promised His help to Moses, and Moses did what the Lord commanded him. It was simply the want of full believing confidence, a momentary wavering of that immovable assurance, which the two head of the nation ought to have shown to the congregation, but did not show.”
So, how does that apply to us? Let’s look at this passage from Matthew.
“Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is a lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you, bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you.” — Matthew 17:15-20
All of us country folk know how small a mustard seed is. Most of us are quite familiar with this passage. What is so astonishing, at least to me, is that if you look to the beginning of Matthew 17, Peter, James and John beheld Jesus at the Transfiguration, yet they still had doubts. They could not drive out the demon, because Jesus said they did not believe.
God has showed himself to us through his word and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our lives, yet we still are not credible witnesses for Christ. We all can look about and see a world filled with sin, yet we do not offer through our lives an alternative.
I am going to lay something out right now, it’s going to make a lot of fellow Christians mad, but they need to hear it.
I listen to a lot of Christian talk radio. People call in all the time saying they need to fight for this, write their congressman for this or that reason; attend some kind of rally for another reason. I will agree that all of them are noble causes, but we are called to a higher purpose through Jesus Christ than to worry about what our government’s next move is.
Our government has become a tool of the devil. I hear so many Christians say we need to fight to take our country back. Bravo I say, how are you going to do it?
Then they will tell me to get behind this or that candidate, start a letter writing campaign and that I should get out there and report the truth.
Here is the truth, what you are supporting is the work of men which is doomed to failure. It boils down to a clear case of not trusting God.
If you want to take back this country, then you need to try a different tactic. Don’t try and win votes for a candidate, instead, go out and try and win souls for Christ.
Anything short of completely devoting ourselves to Christ is idolatry. There is no middle ground.
If we don’t have faith enough to believe the Holy Ghost can move through and change people’s lives then we stand as guilty as Moses and Aaron at the waters of Kadesh.
Praise be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for what he has done for us. Call upon his name and repent for our lack of faith
Moses was told to speak to the rock to bring water from it, but instead Moses struck the rock twice. While the water flowed, God was not happy.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” — Numbers 20:12
In his commentary Robert Jamieson noted, “The act of Moses in smiting twice betrayed a doubt, not of the power, but of the will of God to gratify such a rebellious people, and his exclamation seems to have emanated from a spirit of incredulity akin to Sarai’s. These circumstances indicated the influence of unbelief, and there might have been others unrecorded which led to so severe chastisement.”
During Israel’s wandering in the desert Moses was the nation’s link to God. The intercessor had yet to come. Without Christ, the sin of the people kept them at a distance, so they went through Moses.
The parallels are the same as today. As followers of Christ we have a responsibility to lead others to Him.
Whether we know it or not, the world is watching — Satan is watching and waiting for us to fail. We all have moments of doubt and disbelief, but when we allow those doubts to rule us, instead of our faith, then we have failed to be an example to the world.
To put this in to context of Moses, since Moses, the great lawgiver and friend of God did not have the faith to believe God would do exactly what he said he would do, then how would the nation?
The Keil & Deitzsch commentary described it like this, “The want of belief or firm confidence in the Lord, through which both of them (Moses and Aaron) had sinned, was not actual unbelief or distrust in the omnipotence and grace of God, as if God could not relieve the want of water or extend His help to the murmuring people; for the Lord had promised His help to Moses, and Moses did what the Lord commanded him. It was simply the want of full believing confidence, a momentary wavering of that immovable assurance, which the two head of the nation ought to have shown to the congregation, but did not show.”
So, how does that apply to us? Let’s look at this passage from Matthew.
“Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is a lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you, bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you.” — Matthew 17:15-20
All of us country folk know how small a mustard seed is. Most of us are quite familiar with this passage. What is so astonishing, at least to me, is that if you look to the beginning of Matthew 17, Peter, James and John beheld Jesus at the Transfiguration, yet they still had doubts. They could not drive out the demon, because Jesus said they did not believe.
God has showed himself to us through his word and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our lives, yet we still are not credible witnesses for Christ. We all can look about and see a world filled with sin, yet we do not offer through our lives an alternative.
I am going to lay something out right now, it’s going to make a lot of fellow Christians mad, but they need to hear it.
I listen to a lot of Christian talk radio. People call in all the time saying they need to fight for this, write their congressman for this or that reason; attend some kind of rally for another reason. I will agree that all of them are noble causes, but we are called to a higher purpose through Jesus Christ than to worry about what our government’s next move is.
Our government has become a tool of the devil. I hear so many Christians say we need to fight to take our country back. Bravo I say, how are you going to do it?
Then they will tell me to get behind this or that candidate, start a letter writing campaign and that I should get out there and report the truth.
Here is the truth, what you are supporting is the work of men which is doomed to failure. It boils down to a clear case of not trusting God.
If you want to take back this country, then you need to try a different tactic. Don’t try and win votes for a candidate, instead, go out and try and win souls for Christ.
Anything short of completely devoting ourselves to Christ is idolatry. There is no middle ground.
If we don’t have faith enough to believe the Holy Ghost can move through and change people’s lives then we stand as guilty as Moses and Aaron at the waters of Kadesh.
Praise be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for what he has done for us. Call upon his name and repent for our lack of faith
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