Numbers 13
God tells Moses to send some scouts out to the land of Canaan to explore and learn what the land like. Moses sends a dozen men out to check out this area for 40 days. Their task was pretty simple, go ahead, scope out the scene in Canaan, bring back some souvenirs.When the men return, they bring back goodies in the form of fruit. They even bring back a branch of the first grape harvest. However, with such goodness in the land, the people that lived in the cities there were well fortified.
Have you ever worked on a group project with a handfull of others? At the end of the project, did you have to give a report on how the project went? These dozen scouts were basically on a similar group project together.
When they finally returned to report back what they learned, did you think it sounded like good news or not?
Think back to your group project. While it's important that you work on achieving the tasks set before you, usually the main point of the project is how you end up working with others. This is ultimately reflected when you report back at the end of the project.
After Caleb made his declaration that they could take out the Canaanites (v. 30), his other scouting buddies were pretty quick to say how it couldn't be done. Never mind that they not to terribly long ago escaped from Egypt, Pharaoh, and his army...
No one likes a nay-sayer in the group. Caleb was surrounded by 11 of them. When you are in a group project, even if the task is really hard, be open to ideas and know that God will always be with you.
Numbers 20
Everyone has their limits. Did you ever know someone that always seemed patient and never really lost their cool? Were you around them when they finally did lose it?The Israelites are at the Desert of Zin. This should set the scene well enough. It's hot outside and everyone has been traveling for a really long time. It's pretty dry too, being a desert and all. Everyone is really, really, really thirsty.
Now Moses and Aaron have been listening to all the issues of the Israelites since they left Egypt. All the bickering, whining about this and that has probably been less than fun to deal with since day one of their journey.
This is where Moses and Aaron cracked. Their patience finally wore thin. Unfortunately, even though it's pretty understandable, it still happened to bring some judgement from God upon them.
Here's the interesting part: God wasn't mad that Moses and Aaron were frustrated with the Israelites. When the people came to Moses and Aaron, Moses and Aaron went to God for help, God gave orders to Moses and he then went out to carry the orders out. So far everything is going fine, just like many other times before. But, when Moses strikes the rock in front of all the people of Israel, he says, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" This is where Moses made his misstep before God.
When I read this passage, I hear lots of sarcasm dripping from Moses' words. He's pretty fed up with all of the crap he's been getting from the the Israelites. Don't forget, he's been in the desert like everyone else, and is probably just as tired, hungry and thirsty.
Moses said, "...must we bring you water...?" He didn't say, "...must God bring you water...?" Therefore, because Moses did not honor God with the act of bringing the water from the rock, God punishes Moses by telling him that he (and Aaron) will not live to see their people enter the promised land. Ouch. Moses was completely justified in being frustrated, however, he grew complacent and didn't give God the honor and glory for bringing water from a stone.
Have you ever gotten in trouble when you were trying to set something right but did something bad in the process?
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