This morning in my time with the Lord I was impressed again about our God – how rich, how fair, how bountiful, how loving, how kind, and how gracious God is! Our God is not angry – He takes care of His people!
In Numbers 20 we see that AGAIN the people of Israel murmured against God and Moses – because they were thirsty. This time though, when Moses went to God for a solution, God told Moses to “speak to the rock before their eyes so that it yields its water…” (Num. 20:8).
It is almost as if there is a rock that follows the people of Israel in their journey through the dessert, and when they are thirsty, once the rock has been smitten once, now all they need to do is to speak to the rock!
Anyways, coming back to Moses – as we know, he was angry with the people of Israel and instead of speaking to the rock, he struck the rock twice. Because he did not sanctify God before His people in this – he mis-represented God, who was NOT angry with His people, in front of Israel – neither Moses nor Aaron were not allowed to enter into the good land with the people.
This is indeed a serious matter. We need to know our God, the God whom we serve, as the One who is fair, bountiful, loving, kind, and gracious. When His people are hungry or thirsty and they complain / murmur about this, God is not angry with them but rather cherishes and nourishes them!
Just like a mother who is not angry with her child because he’s thirsty – but rather she cherishes the child and gives him to drink, so God was not angry with the people of Israel when they were thirsty and they were crying to Him about this – but rather, He assumed the responsibility of supplying them with water.
As we know Him as such a One, cherishing and nourishing towards His people, loving them and taking good care of them, we will learn how to NOT be hasty in speaking things for God, on behalf of God, to His people.
Rather, we are learning to not accuse His people when they are thirsty – and because of being thirsty they may complain or murmur. We always need to learn to regard His holy nature, to sanctify Him, and to represent Him properly before His people.
All that we do and say concerning God’s people must be absolutely according to God’s holy nature. Otherwise, in our words and deeds we will rebel against God and offend Him.
In the church life it happens that we get offended by someone or we offend someone. In these times, when we pray to the Lord, it is a good practice to just open to Him and pray over His piercing Word (Heb. 4:12) that our soul may be divided from our spirit and we would discern properly.
Otherwise, as it happens many times in our experience, we may pray to God “accusing prayers” towards the others, prayers in which we may accuse our fellow believers.
Even if we’re right and they did do something that was not nice towards us, God’s heart is to feed His believers and to cherish & nourish them in a proper way (of course, sometimes the offenses need to be brought to light and fellowshipped about; but in this case, as it pertains to us, we personally need to come to the Lord to be fed, nourished, and cherished…).
We need to be careful when we pray to God concerning His people – God’s people is holy and without blemish before Him, since His people are one with Christ and are Christ! Lord, may we treasure You and Your people, and may we properly represent You and minister You to the other believers! We want to learn to sanctify You in our dealings with all the believers – hold You in regard, and do everything according to Your holy nature!
[sharing inspired by the Crystallization-study of Isaiah(1) and the Life-Study of Numbers msg. 29. Read this portion in Spanish via Dios no se enfada con Su pueblo cuando ellos se quejan por tener sed, sino que los cuida y los alimenta]
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