God's Pictures

Numbers 20: 6-12

Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the Lord appeared to them.

The people had been complaining again, and there was no water there.

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."

All right, this was the Rock that God had told Moses to strike to get water out of in Exodus 17:6. This is interesting: First Corinthians tells us that this Rock was Christ, Who followed the Israelites in that Desert (10:4). So He tells him to just speak to the Rock this time.

So they gathered the people, as instructed, and Moses shows just how angry and upset he was with the people when he said, "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.

Oh-oh, he didn't talk to it, he hit it with his rod, two times! Wow, he was really mad!

Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

God still gave the people the water they needed, but Moses now had a penalty to pay. 

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor Me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the Land I give them.

Since this Rock was Christ, and He was struck only once, it looks like Moses spoiled His picture He wanted to give us. Moses' anger cost him being able to enter into the Promised Land himself, after leading this whole Nation for forty years in the Desert and all the way to the border of this good Land. 

God is very serious about the pictures He gives us of Who He is and what He's doing for us. This Rock represented the Messiah that had been promised to Eve, and what would happen to Him. And He was struck only once.

O my Father, thank You for all the pictures You have given us all through Your Scriptures so we would be able to recognize our Messiah, our Savior, Your Son. 

You are very serious about the pictures You provide us, so we will have an accurate idea of what to expect Him to do. Father, You gave us all the Laws that lay out all the things Jesus would do when He came the first time to be our Savior, and He did fulfill the letter of all those Laws. Just as You had told us long ago, we now have that Law in our hearts: The foundation and basis for all the individual laws that comprise The Law is the principle of Love. 

Thank you so much, Father, for Your love for us. Teach us how to love You back, and to love one another with Your love. Help us always to consider the loving thought, the loving deed, the loving word, before we react; that we would respond instead the way You would have us to.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!