This year I am reading through the bible in a year. I try to do this every few years. As of the middle of February I am currently reading through the book of Numbers. One of the interesting accounts in book is when Moses extracts water from a rock.
Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”
Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moses, “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.”
So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
Numbers 20:2-12
I feel for Moses here. He has got the weight the community expectation on his shoulders. All they are doing is complaining and grumbling against him. His actions are being opposed and criticized to by those who he is serving. It is hard having people telling you constantly that you are doing a bad job and judging you. He was in fact doing everything that God had told him to do. The Passover and the crossing of the Red Sea is the greatest miracle of the Old Testament, but Israelites had quickly forgotten what God had done for them and how he had rescued them.
If you have ever been in church leadership, a parent of teenagers or any other position of authority, then you will probably relate to this and understand the pain and pressure that Moses was under.
However, God’s expectation of Moses was for him to Trust him. No excuses, Trust God. “But don’t you understand the pressure I’m under” Moses could have told God. But the answer was always to trust God. Moses didn’t trust God.
I find it hard to trust God. It isn’t always natural. Trusting God might not bring about the outcome I want. I can be afraid and insecure. I want take control myself instead of giving it to God. But the call is to trust God. He is sovereign. He is in control anyway. Regardless of what happens, the bigger picture is always good. Trust God. Life isn’t easy, Trust God. When the tears flow, go back to God and put your trust in him. God is good, all the time and all the time God is good.
Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.
John 14:1
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus says that we can trust him. He demonstrated his love and proved himself trustworthy on the Cross. Jesus’ expectation of every faithful Christian is that they trust him.
When times are hard, trust God
When times are challenging, trust God
When times feel overwhelming, trust God.
It is when we have this trust in God that we experience what Paul felt in Philippians chapter 3. A letter which was penned while chained in prison for being a disciple of Jesus awaiting his execution in Rome. Paul trusted God.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:7-14
Trust God.
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