If He Gave You Power He Also Gave You Mercy

Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink. - Numbers 20:8

In the scene from history which includes the aforementioned event Moses and the Israelites had been traveling for days without water. They were thirsty. They were complaining and grumbling about their plight. Moses became the object of their complaining. So, as any good target should ol' Moses sought the Lord for wisdom (you should read that, r-e-l-i-e-f) on how to handle the situation. The Lord instructed him to speak to a particular rock and water would come forth out of said stone, ore or boulder. The seemingly impossible would act as a sign that God was still in control, that Moses was still the leader, and that Jehovah was their provider.

When it came time to speak to the rock, Moses', and his A D D or otherwise inability to focus on the command of God (which we define as Moses' disgust with the people) became so great that instead of speaking to the rock, he angrily addressed the people and then banged on the rock twice. The water came out, in spite of Moses' disobedience. However, this was not a "happy God" moment.

God had set his leader, our friend Moses, up to succeed and establish position, power and provision at a very high level. Moses was moving from the use of "things" to work with (his staff) to the use of his inability(he saw himself as one who did not speak well) in order to work the miracles of God. Moses' stumbling verbiage would have changed the situation. Previously Moses' staff represented two things-his physical work as a shepherd of sheep and his spiritual work as a shepherd of the people. But the very God of Israel was calling Moses to new ground and into a new dimension. Moses was to move from physical action to a position God had previously reserved to Himself, "Speak it! It shall be!"

Like you and I, Moses botched it. He used his instrument with force to accomplish something for God. He took something God wanted to be used in a righteous manner and used it, lashing out, angrily.

Moses used the thing with which he had been gifted against versus for the purposes of God.

He used force to solve the problem.

The result: Moses lost his blessing to see the Promised Land.

How about you? When was the last time you used your power, skill, and ability to force a situation to happen, perhaps even out of anger?

God is calling us to use meditation and prayer to move the face of mountains. The force of our ability is not satisfactory nor is it able. God is calling each of us to a new level of discipleship in Him. I hope you pray with me, daily, to learn the lesson here...the lesson to wait to understand how it is God wishes us to move before we decide improperly how we are to use the things put in our hands. My prayer is that we all move into God's promises together...Moses, my mentor...thank you for this painful lesson...may I not have to repeat it. I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~