Sanctifying God

Numbers 20:7-13 – And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them.

As the children of Israel entered into the desert of Zin, the people chode against Moses and Aaron for the lack of water.¹ The Lord told Moses and Aaron to gather the people and speak to the rock, that it may give water unto the people. When Moses and Aaron gathered the people together however, Moses said, ‘Hear ye, you rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?‘ Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice. Though water came out of the rock, the Lord told Moses and Aaron that they would not bring the people of Israel into the promised land because of their disobedience and failure to keep the Lord sanctified among the people (Numbers 20:16).

1. There are many leadership positions within the church. Whatever our position or call, it’s important that we keep the Lord sanctified before the people. We honor Him by being obedient to His Word and will for our lives and glorifying Him in all we say and do. We must honor the Lord as an example for those He places in our care. As we keep our focus upon Him, we will help others do the same.

2. Maintain your composure and patience. We may find ourselves in a similar situation to Moses, where the people continually cycle in and out of rebellion, complaining, and strife. In those situations, we must be quick to listen, slow to speak, and, and slow to become angry (James 1:19-20). (We should be quick to pray as well.) Speaking or acting out of anger does not produce the righteousness of God, and we saw this through the lives of Moses and Aaron. May we learn from their lives to honor the Lord before the people.

^{1 – Many events of rebellion and sin was found among the children of Israel:}

^{(1) The children of Israel rebelled against going into their promised land, and will spend 40 years in the desert until those 20 years and older have perished (one year for the number of days they were spying in the land – Numbers 14:29-34).}

^{(2) Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and 250 princes among the congregation rose against Moses and Aaron. The result of their sin was the earth opening her mouth and swallowing Korah, Dathan, and Abriam’s houses, their goods and men that pertained to them. Then the Lord consumed the 250 men that offered incense before the Lord (Numbers 16:24-35).}

^{(3) The people rebelled against Moses and Aaron the following day for killing the people of the Lord (Numbers 16:41), the Lord broke out a plague upon the people where Aaron had to make atonement for them, but not before 14,700 died among them (Numbers 16:45-49).}

^{Photo courtesy of CreationSwap/forgiven}