Moses makes a costly mistake of unbelief and, in my
thoughts, presumption. The people resume
their grumbling and complaints against Moses for lack of water and also ask
again why Moses has made them leave Egypt for this wilderness. Wouldn't you think even they would grow weary
of that story? God's claim on them was
that He, not Moses, had brought them out of Egypt, out of slavery, but now they
look back on that time as if it were the halcyon days of nation's
existence. Moses is commanded to take
the staff and speak to the rock. Instead
he takes the staff, speaks to the people, calling them rebels and then saying,
"shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” Who is this "we" of whom he
speaks? Can Moses bring water out of the
rock? Then, instead of speaking to the
rock he strikes the rock. That had always
worked before so let's stick with what works.
The problem is that we too often rely on methodology rather than God's
Spirit. For these sins, Moses is disqualified from leading the people into the Promised
Land. The standard for leaders is higher
than for others. Always has been and
always will be.
These two blind men "see" their opportunity better
than those without sight. They cry out
to the Son of David for mercy and how is that different from the cries that
accompany His entrance into Jerusalem in a short time? The city cries out to the Son of David to
save them, these two men cry for mercy. Possibly
the crowd believes the men are asking for no more than a handout. Jesus asks what they want and it seems easy
to say that surely He could have known what they wanted but they needed to say
it, express their belief that He could do more than give alms. Their simple
request was that their eyes be opened and He opened them by touching them. Allow yourself to be in their place for a
moment, close your eyes and feel His touch on them, giving you sight. What we take for granted, the sight He gave
us at birth, is a gift.
Salvation is a gift. It
is grace or it is nothing. Adam's sin
brought sin into the world, wove it into our DNA completely. It is not for Adam's sin we are separated
from God and in need of salvation, it is for our sins. The only solution to the problem is grace. We are so lost that there is no hope for us
finding our way back, He has to come on a search and rescue mission we don't
deserve. In the mountains where we live
there are occasions when people do stupid things and get lost and yet the Park
Service will go all out to find them and hopefully save them from their own
stupidity. God has done that for
us. He has paid the price on the cross
for our rebellion and has loved us into His family. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul,
my life, my all. Moses led because God
was gracious to him, not because he deserved that role, what was God's to give
was also God's to take, there is only one Messiah, Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment