God is very serious about the pictures He gives us to illustrate spiritual realities in a way we can understand. So when we disrespect His picture, there are consequences to bear.
We've seen that when the Corinthian church disrespected the bread and wine that was to remind them of Jesus' body that was broken in death and His blood that splattered the sides of His Cross, the result was that many of the members were weak and sick, and some had even died.
Today we will look at another picture, one God gave Moses.
Moses had led the people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea on dry ground, and now they were in a desert wilderness with no water in sight.
Then the Lord God said:
"Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel (Exodus 17: 6).So Moses struck the rock that the Lord was standing on, and the people were given the water they needed.
So the Lord Jesus was struck once, in death, fulfilling this picture.
But later when the people again had no water, God told Moses:
"Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink" (Numbers 20: 8).So did Moses believe that just talking to the rock would bring the same result? Let's see what he did:
So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, just as He had commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, "Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank (Numbers 20: 9-11).Oh my, Moses didn't speak to it like he was told, he got mad at the people and lost his temper, and ended up striking the rock instead, twice even. He must have really been upset!
The water was provided anyway, just like before, because God is faithful to take care of His people. But what about Moses and Aaron?
We are told that, all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ (I Corinthians 10: 4).
This rock in the wilderness that has provided for the peoples' needs was a picture of our Redeemer, Christ Jesus, who is the Lord God of the Old Testament. We are told that the Lord was standing on the rock when He told Moses to strike it, and He was only struck once.
When Moses didn't trust God enough to restrain his anger at the people, and struck out instead, he spoiled the picture of Christ the Rock.
It is very important for us to realize how serious God is about His pictures. As far as we can tell, no harm was done, the people still got their water. But Moses and Aaron had to suffer the consequences.
We're told:
But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them." Those were the waters of Meribah [Contention], because the sons of Israel contended with the Lord, and He proved Himself holy among them (Numbers 20: 12-13).And, when the people were ready to finally enter into that Promised Land, and Moses gave them all the warnings to be faithful to the Lord, putting it all into the Song of Moses, that they will be able to remember, then:
The Lord spoke to Moses that very same day, saying, "Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession. Then die on the mountain where you ascend, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, because you broke faith with Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel (Deuteronomy 32: 48-51).Moses and Aaron both died before the Israelites entered the Promised Land. Neither of these brothers will set foot in the land they anticipated for so long.
But God did have something for Moses:
"For you shall see the land at a distance, but you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving the sons of Israel" (Deuteronomy 32: 52).God was gracious to Moses, in allowing him to at least see the land. But neither he nor his brother Aaron could set foot in the land that they worked so long with the people for.
This is how important it is for us to understand God's pictures. When we don't care enough to learn who God is, how He Loves us so much, and how to follow His ways, then we must also suffer the consequences.
God has told us, and warned us, and promised to reward us! The least we can do, for our own sakes, is to find out how to love Him back, and cooperate with how He designed this Earth to operate, in the world we have built on it.
This world is so wrong about so many things! Even completely opposite from what God intended for our good. When we go against His ways, even if we don't realize it because we don't know His ways, then the consequences will still pile on us!
We owe it to ourselves to get to know this Creator who wants to take good care of us. He's done everything possible, and even impossible, to meet our every need, to rescue us when we've gone astray, and to draw us to Himself to save us and re-mold us into the very image of His Son.
But He won't violate the free will He gave to us. He wants us to want Him. Do you?
Every eye will see His coming, and every knee will bow in obeisance to Him, regardless, and every tongue in every place will give Jesus the honor and credit, as our Messiah and Redeemer, as the Lord God Almighty, the sovereign King of all Creation; to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
