Trust and Honor
This is a rough one. Something about this Biblical account makes God seem unreasonable. Numbers chapter 20 talks about when Moses struck the rock instead of following God's instruction to only speak to it. The consequential judgment of this disobedience seems too harsh. But just like much of Moses' life, God used even his disobedience to illustrate a fundamental principle of righteousness.
At the beginning of the twentieth chapter, we see the Israelite nation wander into the desert of Zin, close to a town called Kadesh. Kadesh was close to the southern border of Cannan, the land promised by God to the Israelites. Kadesh was also an area Abraham frequently journeyed in. It was a hard, arid, dry area, and to this day, it is a desert wilderness. When the account in Numbers took place, there was no water for the Israelites to drink. As usual, the people brought the matter up to Moses in dramatic terms, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord!", they told their leader. Always to the extreme. But the people were thirsty, and they knew Moses knew God, and they knew God could help.
So Moses and Aaron went before the Lord at the tent of meeting, and God showed up in glory. These two leaders told their Maker that the people needed water, and God Almighty gave them instructions on how to proceed to get water. Moses was to take the staff, the budded staff of Aaron, kept before the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle. The men were to assemble the people and speak to "that rock before their eyes." So Moses took the staff, as instructed. He and Aaron gathered the people as instructed. Moses said frustrated words: "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with the staff.
Without trust in God we cannot not honor Him.
The result? Water gushed out of the rock, and everybody, along with their livestock, had water to drink. When I say everybody, I mean two million people and their livestock! A lot of water came out of that rock. But there was a problem, and this is where some might scratch their heads and wonder why God was so harsh. Moses was disobedient. He did not follow God's instruction, at least not fully. Now, the leader's disobedience did not prevent God from providing the answer to the people's need. God still mercifully brought forth water. But Moses and Aaron would be judged.
Before we get to how God punished them, let's consider the account again. So, the people of Israel did not have water. They were thirsty, and they complained to Moses. That makes sense. Moses was the leader who got stuff done. Moses and Aaron took the problem to God, which is precisely what any good leader would do. God showed up in glory and told them how to get water. That is awesome! Moses takes a walking staff that had miraculously budded, and he and Aaron proceed to assemble the people together at a rock. This is a ROCK that God has said will bring forth water. Have you ever seen a rock give up water? Have you ever thought of going to a rock to get water? We don't think of rocks as anything other than rock! Why wasn't it a tree? I know it was desert, but surely there was at least one small tree! I could imagine getting water from a tree more than I could from a rock. Why not a hole in the ground? That would be a very likely place to get water.
God wanted it to be a rock. So a rock it was. Moses and Aaron go before the people in the sight of the rock with the belief that the rock would bring forth water as God had said. But instead of speaking to the rock, Moses struck it. Because of this moment of failure, Moses and Aaron would not "bring this community into the land that I [God] give them." That was the punishment. Moses and Aaron would not set foot in the promised land. These two men who were used by God to deliver the Jews from slavery in Egypt, to part the Red Sea, to establish the Law and the Tabernacle, to lead the Jews to the doorstep of the Promised Land, would not see the culmination of the promise given to father Abraham. That seems incredibly harsh. They did everything as instructed up to hitting that rock. The fact that they were standing there looking at a rock and expecting water to come out was enough. They had experience in this, but still!
Moses' close relationship with God would have certainly supported him being completely obedient. Moses must have been in a bad way at that moment. But the fact is God's chosen leader did not follow His instructions. The reasons why Moses didn't do it like God said really don't matter. He did what he did, and God judged him and Aaron for it. We should most definitely learn from this account. We should understand that God is to be obeyed. It should also be clear that no matter how close we think we are to God, there are always opportunities to falter and fail in the flesh - particularly when you have a bunch of nagging people wanting to die or go back to slavery instead of trusting in God. This account also makes it evident that there are consequences to disobeying and sinning against God, even if one is a child of God. Those consequences can be severe!
But God spells out one other lesson for us in this scripture, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy…" The righteous principle outlined in this verse is that honor requires trust. In God's Kingdom, one cannot honor unless they have placed their trust in the one whom they are to honor. If there is a lack of trust, there will not be any honor. If we say that we trust God but do not trust Him fully in our hearts, we cannot honor Him. We honor God in word and in deed. That honor and even the ability to honor comes from a foundation of total trust in Him.
Where do we place our trust? Is it in wealth? Is our trust placed in the things of the world, in physical things that we can touch and feel? Do we trust in ourselves and our own abilities? Where do we place our trust? If it is placed in anything other than God Almighty, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot honor Him.