"And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he [Moses] said to them, 'Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?' "
Anyone can understand why Moses was so exasperated with the people--still, it was no excuse for him to "blow a fuse" and fail to honor his God. This one critical misstep prevented Moses from enter-
ing the Promised Land. I am sure he replayed what happened many times in his head, and wished he could do it all over again.
Keep this in mind, especially if you are in a significant leadership role: people *will* err, and provoke you to anger; but the mark of greatness is not retaliation, but meekness. Typically, Moses was a giant of humility, but in this case he fell short.
[Puritan quote of the day: "If the church is beautiful beyond all other of the children of men, how beautiful is Jesus Christ, from Whom the church derives all its comeliness?" --Thomas Vincent, in, "The True Christian's Love to the Unseen Christ"]
