Today's encouragement comes from Numbers 20:10, where we read these words:
"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 of Israel—but still, it was no excuse for him to "blow a fuse" and fail to honor his God. This one critical misstep prevented Moses from entering the Promised Land. It is likely that Moses replayed what happened at Meribah many times in his head; and wished he could do it all over again. . . .
Let us Christians keep this thought in mind, especially if we are assigned some significant leadership roles: people in our care *will* err, and provoke us to anger; but the manifestation of greatness is not retaliation, but meekness. Typically, Moses was a giant of humility, but in this case he fell short. Still, his striking The Rock (Christ) [in v. 11] prefigured the elect church’s murder of the Son of God, whose blood atones for all our sins.
[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"]
