The Rock and the Rod: Moses' Moment of Weakness

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to

The Bible Guys. My name is Chris. This is Jeff, and today

we have a great episode planned for you. Great episode. It is so

good, and we're going to start off with maybe one of the most important

segments that we share on a fairly regular basis, bringing only the finest news

and commentary for our listeners as we just comb the world wide web. Yeah,

it is the true definition of fake news. This is from the Babylon

b The title is let me pull it up here, It's so funny.

Man uses binoculars to ensure greeters have gone inside before approaching church doors. That's

so good. Columbia, South Carolina. Secure security footage from First Methodist Church

of Forced Acres revealed that church goer chat Watkinson used a pair of Hype Howard

celesteron Skymaster twenty five by seventy binoculars make absolutely certain that the greeeders had gone

into the church before approaching the sanctuary last Sunday. According to three minutes of

grainy images, Watkinson arrived strategically close to the beginning of the service, surreptitiously

parked his car at the end of a remote row in the church parking lot,

and then peered towards the church doors through a comically large pair of binoculars

until he was positive that both of the greeters had gone inside. Introvert that

I am. It's the most nerve wracking part of my week, Watkinson confessed

when asked about his actions. I mean, I love Todd and James,

but they're just so so friendly every week, and when they always ask how

my week was, try to make small talk. I just can't deal with

it. Just being near this many people's terrifying, much less trying to talk

to them is too much. So to say that Watkinson came close to beating

the land speed record for bipeds, efficiently bustling his family under their customary backpew

just milliseconds before the opening hymn began. At the end of the service,

Watkinson's family had been spotted slip being out the side door and tiptoeing past the

old ladies chatting after the service in order to avoid any unwanted conversation. The

publishing time Todd and James had purchased gilly suits and planned to hide in the

bushes ambush Watkinson next week. That's so good. Yeah, I know people

like this. Yeah, avoid the I'll be honest with you. That's kind

of me a little bit, is it. Yeah, Well yeah, you're

you're a little bit of an introvert. Yeah. So when you go out

into the lobby, it's not necessarily because you have to meaning like like like,

man, I have to go to the lobby and see some people.

Yeah, like what you want. You you're going out and recharging your batteries

for the next service right when, which is crazy to some people to even

think that that could be true. He's out there, just Chris. If

you think Chris is happy to see you, uh after a servicer before service,

he's not. He's just a relational vampire and he's sucking all of your

energy out of you so he can deliver it out on stage. Yeah,

if you can, if you could, if you could peel back the veil,

you can see the mist leaving in your body and going through the orifices.

Yeah, that's exactly right. That's so funny. Well, you know

what, to be honest with you I know it sounds crazy, but I

do. Like if I'm back. We do four services on a Sunday,

which is crazy. Uh, but you know, like after the third service,

I'm like, man, I'm tired. I'm like, I need to

go out and I need to talk to some people and so and and I

run into the lobby and I and it's not just any people. I have

to talk to people that are that are going to be in the church service.

Because then it reminds me, oh, wow, this guy is here,

this, this lady's here. Right, they're here and they you know,

they're they're here because of this really matters matters for that one. Yes,

it matters for him and her and everybody else and and and so it

just it just charges me up because I'm like, Okay, now I'm connected

to the people who are here and everything else. But uh, you know,

we have several people on the staff that you know, like you're wired

as an introvert, but our music or worship leader is a pretty massive introvert,

right, and so he forces himself to go into the lobby and uh,

and he does it because of me, because he's like he's like,

all right, man, He's like I'll do it with you, And so

we go out there and stand together and at the end he's like, dude,

He's like, I'm just exhausted. So technically I'm an extrovert, right

whenever we take the tests, you know, for personal to test, I

lean extrovert, but just barely. Like I'm just barely on the extrovert side.

So for me, it's it's more about getting revved up for it,

right right. Then when I'm out there, I'm always the last one backstage,

right right, they have to come and get me and go, Hey,

service is starting kind of thing usually, and it's because I wind up

getting to some great conversation. I love it. So for me, I

have to convince myself, okay, get going, and once I get going,

I love being out with the crowd and with the people and talking and

I get in great conversations. It's the getting myself revved up to get out

there. Whereas for you, you're like, oh good, everything else is

done. I'm running out in the lobby and it's just a different yeah.

Yeah, so and uh and by the way, there's uh, you know,

like my wife she actually tests introvert. Uh no, is it?

Yeah, she's tests introvert, but she's a very high functioning extrovert, so

you would never know she's an introvert. No, no's I oh is that?

What is that? Technically the way to say it, Well, she

functions well as an extrovert, so so she actually, like at a party,

you would never know she's introvert. But like she's just she just runs

with the best of them, and you're like, wow, she has to

be an extrovert. And then when everything's sitting down, I'm like, wasn't

that great? And she's like I want to collapse. I want to go

upstairs and be by myself for an hour. I'm like, oh, okay,

there's the difference, right, So yeah, it feeds you and it

drains her. That's correct. Yeah, well that's what I was saying.

That that that vampire, right energy vampire. You're just sucking all the energy

from everybody else. Yes, and let's not even get started about the typical

readers. I was thinking about it, and I want to take the next

level extroverts. Man, that's right. We don't want to go there.

They're just flitting around there like butterflies, just flitting around. Yeah, it's

great, Hey, we need them otherwise, right, well, how often

how often do people send us notes? Go I can't believe how friendly everybody

was. Oh my goodness, it's one of the first things people say,

and it's it's because people are using their gifts, how they're wired to make

sure everybody else feels comfortable. So yep, yeah, anyways, here we

are, we are. We've gone through a lot of things. They've been

walking through the desert, they've been struggling through being mad at Moses. About

half the time there was an insurrection. At one point, Cora gonna was

gonna, you know, try to pull off a coup, and the ground

opens up and swallows everybody that's going to try to pull off this coup against

Moses. All these things, but then finally we come to a very pivotal

moment, and in Numbers, chapter twenty, verse one, it says,

in the first month of the year, the whole community is or arrived in

the wilderness of Zin and camped at Kdesh. While they were there, Miriam

died and was where Miriam is Moses' an Aaron's sister. Right, there was

no water for the people to drink at that place, so they rebelled against

Moses and Aaron. The people blamed Moses and said, if only we had

died in the Lord's presence with our brothers, Why have you brought the congregation,

the Lord's people, in this wilderness to die along with all our livestock.

Why did you make us leave Egypt and bring us here to this terrible

place. This land is no grain, no figs, no grapes, no

pomegranates, no water to drink. Moses and Aaron turned away from the people

and went to the entrance of the tabernacle, where they fell down on the

ground. Then the glorious presence the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord

said to Moses, you and Aaron must take the staff and assemble the entire

community as the people watch, Speak to the rock over there, and it

will pour out its water, and you will provide enough water from the rock

to satisfy the whole community and their livestock. So Moses did as he was

told. He took the staff from the place where it was kept before the

Lord, and then he and Aaron summoned the people to come and gather at

the rock. Listen, you, rebels, he shouted, Must we bring

you water from this rock, and then Moses raised his hand and struck the

rock twice with the staff. Water gushed out, so the entire community in

their livestock drank their fill. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people,

you will not lead them into the land I'm giving them. This place was

known as the waters of Maraba, which means arguing, because they're the people

of Israel argued against the Lord, and he demonstrated his holiness among them.

So this is a second story. This similar to a first story earlier that

we didn't read, where the first time God says, go out to the

rock in the wilderness, run and he says strike it. The first time

he tells him strike the rock. When you strike the rock, water will

come out. This time, God says, go out and speak to the

rock. Right, So there's difference too. There's a picture God is building

word. Pictures are really important for God. Visuals are extremely important to God.

And that Moses messes that up winds up costing him. But anyways,

yeah and uh and so yeah, that's right. The first time he does

ask him to strike the rock, this time to speak to it. And

you know, the funny thing about Moses and Aaron is that think about the

intricacies of God's requests. You know, every detail matters to God and he

lays out I mean, think about remember remember back in the podcast when we

were talking about uh building the Tabernacle. Remember remember the detail of building the

Tabernacle. It was so so unbelievably precise, right, and everything mattered to

God. And yet Moses and Aaron did exactly what God said. And so

this entire time Moses, it's not as if Moses simply made a mistake,

because that's what we have a tendency to think. We have a tendency to

think, oh, Moses may have just forgotten because last time he struck the

rock, But that that's not what happened here, because Moses is used to

understanding, you know, do exactly what God says. Because after all,

this has been years, years and years of Moses fulfilling God's requests down to

the nth degree. And so God or Moses knew exactly what he's doing.

And the thing that sort of gives us an indicator that we know that is

because instead of speaking to the rock and letting God be glorified in his holiness.

He says, listen, you rebels, must we bring you water from

this rock? And so he's taking credit and so then he strikes it in

the dramatic fashion as if like I have the power to you know, you

know, bring water back. And by the way, you could argue and

say that Moses was driven at a frustration, wanting to stick it in the

people's faces. Right, I'll show you right, you know, once again

they're grumbling, once again, they're complaining, why couldn't you have left us

back to die with our brothers in the red Sea? And it's like,

cheese, can you complain any longer? And so there's a part of me

that relates to Moses. There's a part of me that understands, but just

because we have weak moments doesn't mean we needed this. Obey God, right,

because when we by God, we have to realize there's consequences for God,

you know, disobeying God well so often. I just had a conversation

with somebody here recently that was talking about do you believe that when God forgives

you that all the consequences are gone? And I said, no, right,

right, forgiveness just means God's not going to send you to hell because

of it. But man alive. If I spent my entire life drinking like

a fish and then I get saved and God forgave my sin, So God,

I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been living that life like that. That

doesn't mean that I instantly have. You know, I can't get mad.

You have a right to get mad at God about sorosis of the liver.

Right, there's still consequences to our sin, and this is the issue.

There is that even though it seems a little harsh that God goes, hey,

you can't go into the promised land now after all this time, there's

consequence to the fact that God had been so incredibly precise, as you pointed

out with Moses, and he messed up this picture. This is a picture

of Jesus, the rock picture of Jesus. Jesus was only struck once,

not twice, right, and so it was supposed to be a law grace

kind of a thing. Here there's so many different pictures, and he ruined

it. He messed it up. He struck the rock the second time,

messed up this whole picture. So there's a consequence. But listen to this.

I think it's interesting. The people are more frustrating to me even than

God's response to Moses. You remember, Moses is on almost one hundred and

twenty years old. Now he's one hundred and seventeen. So he was forty

years old when he killed the Egyptian. He was eighty years old when he

met the burning Bush, and God led him to set the Israelites free.

And now they've wandered for thirty seven years up to this point. So he's

one hundred and seventeen years old. This guy's ready to go to heaven anyways.

This God's not being me to one hundred and seventeen year old saying,

you know what, it's time to come to heaven. Right, So,

but at this point he's he's frustrated because it says here's the notes in Life

Application Study Bible. After thirty seven years in the wilderness, the Israelites forgot

that their wanderings were a result of their parents and their own sin. They

could not accept the fact that they brought their own problems upon themselves, and

so they blamed Moses for their condition. Often our troubles result from our own

disobedience or lack of faith. We cannot blame God or others for our sins.

Until we face this reality, we have little peace and no spiritual growth.

That good. Right, So after thirty seven years of watching their moms

and dads and aunts and uncles die, there's only a few of those people

forty years ago still alive, right, right, So you think about how

many there were old there was a old generation. There would have been the

middle you know, the mid generation. There would have been the young adults.

And for thirty seven years they've wandered, so you know, they're they're

dying off. It's just a small percentage left that were there at that first

point of sin. And even then, these people cannot remember. They cannot

remember that all of this was brought on them by themselves, and you're wandering

and all those things, and that God was going to give them another chance.

They couldn't remember anythings. They could not accept responsibility. And I'm telling

you, the most miserable people I know and the most stumbling through life amazed

how life keeps happening so poorly to them. People are the people who cannot

accept responsibility for their circumstances. Instead, they're blaming everybody else instead of accepting

responsibility. Right, And that's what's happening here, that's what's happening. You

started laughing when I said most miserable people, I know, yeah, you

know, because I when you said the most miserable people, I know,

I thought of complaining Christians. Yeah, and then that's not where you're going

as well. Some of it, yeah, some of it, yeah,

for sure. You know, we talked about yesterday how God struck the immediately

the ten spies who disobeyed down, you know. And then here, you

know, here's God, you know, telling Moses because of your disobedience.

Here, Well, the only reason why Moses, why God doesn't zap us

today because of our sin. We just talked about this between the episodes,

is because of Jesus, right, like you know, so in other words,

God still feels angry about our sin. Right. So God's attitude towards

sin does not change the same. And you know what's so funny is when

you get into some debates with people, they like to say, well,

in the New Testament, it doesn't mention this sin. You know, we're

in the New Testament, doesn't It wasn't Jesus' job to cover the gamut of

sin, but it wasn't his job to like regurgitate the entire law of the

old testibility verbally right, So it's like it's not as if God changes.

In fact, the scripture actually says God is the same yesterday, today,

and forever. So the same God who's zapp to tend spies is the same

God who at our sin. But the only reason why he doesn't zapp us,

the only reason is because of Jesus. So Jesus came as the fulfillment

for all of our sin. He's the only reason why God forgives us of

our sin. And yes, it is true sometimes we have consequences because of

our sin. And God does give us grace, and he gives us mercy,

and he gives us all those things. But it does not mean that

God feels differently about our sin that he used to feel. It's just that

his reactions toward our sin have been satisfied in the sacrifice of Jesus for the

purpose of salvation. For the purpose of salvation, But if we choose to

live in sin, we're still going to suffer the consequences on earth. I

believe of those I believe that sins, right, And so that's the thing

that then we want to blame other people. We want to blame this person

or that person, or we blame the economy, we blame whatever as to

why we had to do the things we do. And you know, until

we can accept responsibility for our own actions, it's very difficult for us to

find a way out of that. We're always going to be miserable, we're

not going to grow spiritually. So anyways, that's really kind of the crux

of this entire passage is that the people just refused. Now the only ones

left are Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb. And by the way,

we did not talk about Aaron's rod here, right, But previously Aaron's

rod had flowered as a proof even though it was a dead rod, right,

it was a walking stick. And God used that walking stick to flower

to as proof that God was still with Moses and Aaron. And so he

says, hey, go get that and remind the people. Go get that,

hold it up over the rock and speak to it. And so he

was trying to use this priestly role and the fact that God's presence had been

with Moses and Aaron all along and he was trying to remind them that God

was with them, and the people were like, no, right, and

they're mad. They're still mad, and it makes Moses mad. And in

this this moment of weakness, Moses strikes this rock and changed everything for him.

So he winds up. He gets to see when you when you read.

Right after this, Aaron dies and then God sends another plague, which

is crazy that the next plague is the is the serpents that come through the

wilderness and bite all the people. Yes, right? And then have you

ever seen our medical symbol that we have for medical symbol is a is a

rod with a snake around it, and it's got the wings right on it.

God had told Moses designed this symbol as a as a symbol of healing.

Right later on, that comes up in John chapter three where Jesus says,

as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the

sun. Are we not going to read that? We're not reading that?

What it doesn't come up? Yeah? Are you kidding me? Yeah?

How could we not read that? Numbers twenty two is where we jump to

next time, which is a good one, A good one. Yeah,

yeah, all right. Well, and so that's why I wanted to just

kind of highlight that or mention it that that that these these passage here,

you're not required to own read what we've read. We're gonna go ahead,

and we should have said this earlier. Give you carte blanche. You're allowed

to read all the rest of the Bible if you want to, even if

that's right, even the parts we didn't read. It's okay for you to

read it. And if you have a good life application study of Bible,

you can track along pretty well, get some good, good training on that.

But that's good. Well, hey, that's just about our time,

and that was a great passage and so hopefully we will see you next time

on the Bible Guests