The Missing Piece of Moses' Story

Numbers 20: 3-12 (CEB)

Lawsuit over water and Moses’ disobedience

³ Then the people confronted Moses and said to him, “If only we too had died when our brothers perished in the Lord’s presence! ⁴ Why have you brought the Lord’s assembly into this desert to kill us and our animals here? ⁵ Why have you led us up from Egypt to bring us to this evil place without grain, figs, vines, or pomegranates? And there’s no water to drink!” ⁶ Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the meeting tent and they fell on their faces. Then the Lord’s glory appeared to them. ⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses: ⁸ “You and Aaron your brother, take the staff and assemble the community. In their presence, tell the rock to provide water. You will produce water from the rock for them and allow the community and their animals to drink.” ⁹ Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, as the Lord had commanded him.¹⁰ Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. He said to them, “Listen, you rebels! Should we produce water from the rock for you?” ¹¹ Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice. Out flooded water so that the community and their animals could drink. ¹² The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t trust me to show my holiness before the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land that I am giving them.”

I used to like puzzles when I was growing up. Well I should say that I used to like completing puzzles when I was growing up. I hated it when I couldn't complete a puzzle, especially when it was because the puzzle was missing a piece. It's still frustrating when I don't complete any sort of puzzle. And really the only "puzzle" I like doing these days is sermon writing. Putting together a sermon is very similar to building a puzzle for me. Each part of the sermon must be put in a specific place once all the parts are there so that it makes sense for me and hopefully for everyone who hears it. The process includes picking a scripture, determining where that scripture fits in the larger picture (both in a sermon series and in its biblical scope), looking at feasting on the word and commentaries, looking at historical context, and finally fitting the sermon in with the overall bigger picture. And those are just some of the pieces. One thing I have found and surprised me a bit is that I really enjoy the sermon preparation and the struggle that comes with it week-to-week. One struggle I do have with sermon writing is after the sermon is finished and I think of something else entirely that I believe could have made a sermon better. (In fact this introduction is not the introduction I used when I preached a couple weeks ago on Moses) So let me ask you a question to begin with. Does it bother you when something doesn't get completed? Or more specifically when you don't get to see something completed?

Most of us know Moses' story and all the things he did. He was protected as a child, spoke with a burning bush, parted the red sea, led the Israelites out of oppression in Egypt, and was given the ten commandments. But one thing that may get overlooked from his story is that he leads people to the promised land but he DOES NOT actually get there himself. In the above scripture from Numbers we have the Israelites so frustrated from wandering in the desert that they are actually saying it would have been better to die in captivity than struggle and die in the desert. Their frustration is understandable as they have been wandering the desert for nearly forty years and they are venting and questioning Moses. So Moses and Aaron go and speak with God. Moses then strikes a rock and water pours out of the rock for the community to drink. The problem is that Moses takes credit for providing the water from the rock because he struck it with the staff. Bear in mind, the staff was provided by God and Moses did not do as God had instructed. God's response to this "disobedience" is that Moses and Aaron will not bring the Israelites into the land that was promised because they did not trust God to show God's holiness to the Israelites. At first glance this seems like a harsh punishment for Moses and Aaron because they simply took credit for something. Does it really matter who gets the credit? In this case yes-credit should have been given to God. 

It must have been difficult for Moses to not be able to lead his people into the promised land. Moses has led the people out of oppression in Egypt and led them in the desert for years but God's message and fulfillment of them reaching the promised land will be left in the hands of others and not Moses. I believe this is an early example of God's message being carried on from person to person. 

There's a movie called Exodus: Gods and Kings from a few years ago that ends with an older Moses riding in a caravan looking out upon the horizon to what is likely the promised land and at that point he passes. Moses started something by leading his people out of oppression and hopefully he found solace in the fact that his people would get there and they would be able to carry on what he started. He does not get to the promised land but he does get to see it just before he dies...

Deuteronomy 34:4 Common English Bible (CEB)
4 Then the Lord said to Moses: “This is the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I promised: ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have shown it to you with your own eyes; however, you will not cross over into it.”

Moses sees the promised land but doesn't cross over into it. I wonder if this was frustrating to Moses because he was so close that he could see it or if it was uplifting to Moses because he had led his people there and they could continue what God promised. I hope he saw the potential in the people and that they would get there.

As far as completion of God's purposes, I (we) must trust and have faith that what we start God will fulfill to completion. I think that Moses had that type of faith. We don't always see the completion of the fruits of our labors and we must be okay with that, we can be okay with that. I won't get to see everything that youth who I have mentored accomplish. I won't get to see everything that my own children do in the future. I won't get to see the completion of everything they do in their lives. But that's okay. It's okay because I know that God has a bigger plan for each of us. We simply trust in that plan and God will see it through to completion.

Grace & Peace

Kevin