Rev. David Holwick ZF Make It Count, #13
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 2, 2011
Numbers 20:2-13
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I. Rashness can cost you.
A. The kind of thing you do when you are irritated.
A few years ago, a man in Los Angeles, California, was arrested
for negligent discharge of a weapon.
He faced the charges after shooting his toilet bowl five times
with a .38 caliber handgun.
He claims that he just got upset and "had it up to here" after
his daughter had flushed a hairbrush and clogged the pipes.
So he shot the offending toilet.
The court was understanding about it - the man was ordered to
have a psychological evaluation and was released on personal
recognizance.
#29388
1) The pressure builds and something in you snaps.
2) You can't always put your finger on it, but there's a reason.
B. Moses had days like this.
1) You probably do, too.
2) We let our emotions get in the way of more important things.
3) If we are not careful, we can pay a steep price.
a) You don't always get off easy.
b) For Moses, it cost him the honor of leading his people
into the promised land.
II. The same old thing, again.
A. The episode begins with the Israelites complaining.
1) This is a standard theme in the book.
a) You might say it is a standard theme in life itself.
2) There is no water (or so they say) and they want to die.
a) Once again, they say they prefer Egypt and slavery.
3) Moses and Aaron throw themselves down before God.
a) God instructs them to do three things:
1> Take the staff. (Moses' or Aaron's?)
2> Gather the people.
3> Speak to a rock.
b) There is no fire of judgment, not even a rebuke of
his people. It's a very gracious action by God.
c) There will be enough water for all, even the animals.
B. The "deja vu" doesn't stop at the grumbling.
1) Exodus 17:1-7 records an eerily similar event.
2) What they have in common:
a) The people grumble about water.
b) They expect to die and want to return to Egypt.
c) Moses cries out to God, who answers him.
d) He is told to take his staff to a rock.
e) He strikes it and water comes out.
f) Moses is told to name the place Meribah.
3) Some argue the two episodes are the same, but got garbled.
C. There are key differences in Numbers 20.
1) The location is different (Desert of Sin vs. Rephidim).
2) The time is different.
a) Exod. 17 seems to happen at the beginning of the Exodus,
and Numbers 20 happens 40 years later.
b) The first is a rebellion by the fathers (who had now
died in the wilderness) and the second is by the sons.
3) Both Moses and Aaron are present.
4) Moses strikes the rock but he is told to only speak to it.
5) Moses is severely judged by God.
III. What did Moses do wrong?
A. Jews have been perplexed by this passage for ages.
1) The text doesn't really specify what Moses did wrong.
2) In some way he failed to honor God.
a) Since he was forbidden to enter the Promised Land,
it must have been pretty serious.
b) Jewish tradition - it wasn't spelled out so we wouldn't
laugh at them. (Riggans)
c) Judaism and Christianity both teach that the greater
the person, the more strictly they are judged.
B. Moses and Aaron sort of followed God's instructions.
1) They took the staff.
2) They gathered the people.
3) Moses spoke...
a) But instead of speaking to the rock, he spoke to the
people -- in a particularly harsh way. (You rebels!)
b) Psalm 106:32-33 refers to this episode and says rash
words came from Moses' lips.
c) Is this where he went wrong?
C. Perhaps the source of the miracle is the issue.
1) Moses asks them, "Must we bring you water out of this rock?"
2) If "we" refers to him and Aaron, they seem to be taking
credit for something only God can do.
D. Is striking the rock the sin?
1) In Exodus he was told to strike it, so maybe he assumed he
should do the same thing here.
2) Yet he doesn't just strike it - he strikes it TWICE.
a) That's like putting five bullets in your toilet bowl.
b) Definitely overkill, and a sign of a bad attitude
which doesn't honor God.
E. Perhaps geology gives a clue.
1) One scholar notes that the two episodes occur in areas
of the Sinai that have differing geology.
2) Exodus 17 takes place in an area that is mostly granite.
a) It was OK for Moses to strike the rock there because
you can strike granite all you want and nothing will
happen.
b) When water came out the people would recognize a
miracle and God would get the glory.
3) In Numbers 20, the area is limestone.
a) The little rain they got would percolate down and build
up in an aquifer not far below the surface.
b) In some areas it would gush up and form springs.
c) Yet it was possible for the dissolved minerals to form
a plug so the water could not come out.
d) By smacking the rock, the people would assume Moses is
busting the plug - in other words, he is producing
the water by a purely natural way.
1> Speaking to the rock and producing water in these
conditions would have seemed miraculous, but
getting water by striking would not.
2> The focus would have been on God, not Moses.
IV. Pretty good obedience is not good enough.
A. Moses produced water but he did not demonstrate faith.
1) He defied God's instructions and shifted the action -
and glory - to himself rather than to the Lord.
2) And he did it all with a bad attitude.
3) This is why Moses struck out.
B. It is why we strike out, too.
1) We focus on where we end up more than how we got there.
a) Results are all that matter to most of us.
b) The water gushes out, and we feel justified.
2) But God is looking at our heart the whole time.
a) He looks at obedience rather than results.
b) A personal application as a pastor:
Most preachers want their churches to grow, a lot.
We want the numbers to be always going up.
And more money coming in so we can build stuff.
What does God want in a church?
Growth is wonderful - just look at the book of Acts.
Yet God wants more than big numbers.
He wants sincere Christians who care about their faith.
A huge church filled with warmed-over pagans means
nothing to God.
c) What would your application be?
1> You can grow your business by cutting corners and
cheating here and there.
2> Or you can work hard, obey God by doing the right
thing, and prosper a little less.
3> What do you think God would have you do?
V. God Rocks are still around.
A. The New Testament has several allusions to Numbers 20.
1) Some of them focus on the living water that God can provide.
2) Others warn about the danger of not following God exactly.
B. 1 Corinthians 10:4 says the rock that gushed was actually Jesus.
1) In a spiritual way, of course.
a) One of the most powerful metaphors in the Psalms is how
God is our rock, our refuge in a time of trouble.
b) Christians saw how Jesus fulfilled that for us.
c) And he ties the rock that gushed with the spiritual
food and drink we share in communion.
2) Paul also points out the negative in today's passage -
when they disobeyed God, he judged them in the desert.
C. John 7:38 seems to make US that miraculous rock.
"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of
living water will flow from within him."
1) Our spiritual sustenance will be internal.
2) This is because Jesus will be inside us, through his Spirit.
3) Have you experienced that refreshing water?
Would you like to?
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATION USED IN THIS SERMON:
#29388 “Is Patience Difficult For You?” by Steve Goodier, Wit And Wisdom
by Richard G. Wimer, May 3, 2005.
This and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
Riggans, Daily Study Bible
I. Rebels - either people or Moses and Aaron.
II. Reason for judgment:
A. The people are rebellious and this reflects on the leaders.
B. Moses and Aaron are doubtful of the miracle.
C. Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it.
1) He showed doubt, anger or arrogance in adding to command.
D. Moses acted out of bitterness and did it reluctantly.
1) Supported by Psalm 106:32-33.
III. They failed to sanctify the Lord.
A. See Isaiah 29:22-24.
B. To sanctify God is to praise him for being God and to let him
be see as God.
1) City of Kadesh (=holy) changed to Meribah (=contention).
2) God showed himself as holy by miraculously producing water
for them in spite of their lack of faith.
a) God's work is not just dependent on us.
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