Agua De Una Roca

I continue to be amazed at how God works.  His ways are so way above and beyond my understanding!  I am just filled with gladness that He has compassion toward me and continues to show me His mercy and grace.  Today, as I was preparing a Sunday school lesson that I have the privelege of teaching I found myself being led to deeper insights into the way God is at work in our lives - a glimpse into some of the ways the tapestry is being put together and how I am so often wrapped up in the here and now, I easily forget there is indeed a bigger picture.  And all of this wouldn't be happening if I weren't teaching this Sunday school lesson and that wouldn't be happening if I hadn't come to Mexico to live and love out a walk with God here, his leading.

Since arriving I have been blessed with God leading me to a couple brothers in Christ.  One is Germano - I wrote about him the other day and yesterday we spoke again and I found out that all is well with him, all thanks to God.  There is more to the story, but I will save it for another post.  Another brother is my spanish teacher, Manuel.  He is the one who asked me to help out in his church and that is what led me to what God wanted me to learn today.

So the passage I will be teaching on is Exodus 17:5-6 .... how God provided for the Israelites, even though they were at it again, grumbling and complaining, this time about being thirsty.  God told Moses to strike a rock and He would make water pour out from a rock.  Moses obeyed and struck the rock and like God said, water came out to quench their thirst.  Well this wasn't the last time the Israelites would grumble and more specifically not the last time they would grumble about their thirst and question why the left the "comfort and provisions of their captivity"  (side note to self: ouch!).  The second time around didn't go so smoothly for Moses.  God told Moses to take his staff, go to the rock and speak to it and water would come out. 

I wasn't there and scripture is pretty net on how it all went down, but it is pretty clear in Numbers 20:11 that Moses didn't exactly follow God's command as he struck the rock, like the first time, instead of speaking to it as commanded.  And since that didn't work, as no water poured out, he struck it again!  After the second blow water did come out, the people were happy, maybe Moses was relieved, but God wasn't too pleased.

I honestly have to say I've struggled a time or two with what would follow.  Because of Moses's disobedience God told him he would not enter the promise land.  This is the land that Moses was leading the Israelites to.  He had to wait 40 years, wandering in the dessert with a bunch that was quick to turn their eyes back to captivity, to make idols for themselves and whose grumbling and complaining brought about this situation to begin with.  Now Moses would not get to enter the promise land!  I think I've stopped short of crying foul or saying aloud that this punishment sure seemed harsh, but I have to say the thought entered my mind.  

But not today.  It seems more clear to me, more understandable from a couple of points.  I read up on a couple commentaries and several gave a good perspective on how the rock stood for Christ and how in the first encounter the Rock poured forth water, but it took a strike to bring it forth.  The second time around was just to come from a spoken word, yet Moses struck the rock, not once, but twice, as if to say what the Rock bore the first time around didn't accomplish the task and there needed to be more punishment ... this of course implying that the work to be done on the Cross would be insufficient.  Maybe God intended the second experience to have living water pour forth with a shout, reference to Christ' second coming.  Interesting perspective on the severity of Moses' disobedience.  In truth, all of our disobediene flies in the face of the work of Christ on the Cross, yet we find Grace when we turn to Him.

More of my own insights .... he messed up, Moses didn't follow God's instructions.  Maybe this was a time where that little  bit of Moses left in Moses was to be pruned and refined, maybe it was quick for him or maybe it took some time of wrestling after he got the news, but I believe in the end he was good with it since it ultimately would bring him closer to who God intended him to be.  And when we look at it from that perspective missing out on the promise land is a pretty good trade, maybe didn't feel like it at the time ... at least discipline and pruning for me hasn't felt good from my own personal experiences, at least not at first.  

Maybe God wanted to set an example for the other leaders and those being shepherded.  Here is Moses being broken and stripped of the privelage of entereing the promise land for not following God's instructions.  If this could happen to Moses, think what could happen to them ... it's time to ship up, get tight, pay attention and stay in formation ... which we know from reading ahead wouldn't come to pass.  How about in our own lives, are we getting it?  

And then finally maybe God intended this to be a teaching opportunity for you and me.  I know it has been for me.  I need to pay attention, be quick to follow His leading and instructions, to take God at His Word, not to put myself in the mix by doing what I think would be best, and when I do to stop quickly, repent and seek His forgiveness and leading instead of doubling down on my own efforts.  I've also grown in my understanding that God is just - what He did was right no matter why He did it.  And this last point is really the most important of all.  

It doesn't matter why He did it.  He did it and we can rest in the fact that it was right and just because of who He is and know that His intentions were pure and He acted out of love, you don't need to go any further than the cool refreshing Living Water that pours from our Rock to be assured of that.